Fernandez, Hongo claim titles in Moscow
Moscow (AFP) - Spain's European champion Javier Fernandez romped to the men's title at the Cup of Russia on Saturday thereby clinching a place in the ISU Figure Skating Grand Prix Final.
The popular 23-year-old thrilled the local crowds with a series of quads in his free routine to "The Barber of Seville" by Gioacchino Rossini.
Fernandez racked up a total of 265.01 points, a clear 13.01 ahead of Russia's Sergei Voronov in second, while the Czech Michal Brezina was third on 241.23 points.
In the women's section, Rika Hongo of Japan, second after the short programme, claimed her first senior title with a delightful free routine set to "Carmen" by Georges Bizet.
"It's amazing. I'm very happy to win," said the 18-year-old Hongo, who is in her maiden season on the senior circuit.
"I'm trying hard to get closer to skaters like Mao Asada," she added.
Hongo scored a personal best free skate mark of 118.15 to take her to a career best sum of 178pts and leapfrog overnight leader Alaine Chartrand.
The Canadian had led after the opening day, but an error-strewn free programme saw her drop down to third.
Local favourite Anna Pogorilaya, who took gold in her first assignment at Skate Canada but was third after the opening day, improved her position with a solid performance of "The Firebird Ballet Suite" by Igor Stravinski to finish as runner-up.
The Russian also booked her place at the Grand Prix finals in Barcelona.
"I was too nervous today," Pogorilaya said. "I was hoping to enjoy my skating in front of the home crowd but it didn't work out that way. It's too hard to skate at home. I could hardly keep myself under control."
Olympic champions Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov missed the pairs event through injury but the hosts swept the podium.
Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov, who won gold at the Sochi Olympics team event produced an almost perfect free routine to "Notre Dame de Paris" by Richard Cocciante.
"It was our best performance ever," Stolbova said. "It was a true pleasure for me to skate today. I was even singing along with our soundtrack at some moments."
Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov came second and Kristina Astakhova and Alexei Rogonov third.
In the ice dancing Skate America winners the American duo Madison Chock and Evan Bates clinched their season's second title.
A tally of 174.28 gave them a 13.85 lead over second-placed Russians Elena Ilinykh and Ruslan Zhiganshin.
British dancers Penny Coomes and Nicholas Buckland were third on 158.02 points.
All skaters must compete in two events with the top six in each of the four disciplines -- men's, women's, pairs and ice dance -- qualifying for the Barcelona finale from December 11-14.
