Amber Glenn triumphed over neck discomfort to outperform her U.S. teammate Alysa Liu, securing victory at the figure skating Cup of China for the second consecutive year in Chongqing. The U.S. national champion, Glenn, held her neck post her free skate routine, where she bounced back from a shaky triple toeloop landing early on.
Despite being in third place following Friday’s short program, Glenn had to await Liu and Japan’s Rinka Watanabe’s free skate performances to learn her final standing. Liu slipped to second position with a total of 212.07 points compared to Glenn’s 214.78, after a hesitant triple flip landing. Meanwhile, Watanabe barely managed to hold onto the podium, dropping to third place with the fifth-best score in the free skate.
Expressing her elation, Glenn mentioned feeling “incredible” and expressed excitement for both herself and her teammate for securing the top two spots on the podium. Notably, although a two-time world championship medalist, this marked Liu’s first podium finish in a Grand Prix event.
In the men’s event, Japan’s Shun Sato clinched the Cup of China title for the second year in a row, executing three quadruple jumps flawlessly in his free skate, accumulating a total score of 278.12. He maintained the lead over Italy’s Daniel Grassl, who scored 269.43, and Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov, who finished on 262.67 after a fall on his final jump.
Madison Chock and Evan Bates, reigning world champions in ice dance, secured their first Cup of China victory on their sixth attempt, scoring a total of 208.25 to surpass their U.S. counterparts Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik at 202.27. The third spot went to Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud of France, scoring 196.60.
Georgia’s Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava clinched the pairs gold with a score of 217.24, followed by Italy’s Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii in second place, and China’s Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, the 2022 Olympic champions who recently returned from retirement, in third place.
The Cup of China serves as the second of six regular season Grand Prix events leading up to the final in December, providing a crucial platform for skaters preparing for the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in February. The ISU Grand Prix series will move to Saskatoon for Skate Canada International starting on October 31.