Malinin Wins Gold, Hawayek and Baker Earn Silver at Grand Prix Espoo

Team USA came away with two medals at the Grand Prix Espoo today, with Ilia Malinin capturing the title in the men's competition and ice dancers Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker winning the silver medal. Both secured a berth in next month's Grand Prix Final slated for Dec. 8-10 in Torino, Italy. Malinin will make his debut in the Final, while Hawayek and Baker earned a Final spot for the second time. The three will be joined in Italy by teammates Isabeau Levito in the women's field, World Champions Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier, along with Emily Chan and Spencer Howe in the pairs division, and Madison Chock and Evan Bates in ice dance.
 
Malinin ran away with his second Grand Prix title of the season and left the rest of the field in the dust after a five-quadruple jump free skate. The gold medalist, who turns 18 next week, began his Euphoria (Labrinth) program with an unsteady landing on his signature quadruple Axel jump, which was called as a quarter under-rotated. Malinin also included a quadruple flip, Salchow, and two toe loops—one in combination, as well as five triple jumps to finish the competition with 278.39 overall points. His total was more than 16 points higher than the silver medalist, Japan's Shun Sato.
 
Sato skated a strong program in his own right, landing three quadruple jumps to move up from third to finish in second place overall with 262.21 points. He will join Malinin in the six-person field at the Final next month. Leading after the short program, Kevin Aymoz slipped to third place with 255.69 points. The five-time French champion, who is recovering from an early-season injury, landed seven triple jumps en route to the bronze medal.
 
Camden Pulkinen moved up to finish in fifth place, improving his season's best by more than 10 points. Skating to "Invierno Porteno" by Astor Piazzolla, the 22-year-old opened with a quadruple toe loop and connected on six triple jumps in his free skate. Pulkinen finished the competition with 229.92 points.
 
En route to the ice dance silver medal, Hawayek and Baker earned another career-best total score of 202.46 points. Skating their neo-classical program set to music by Askjell Solstrand, Hawayek and Baker earned Level 4s on their curve lift combination and twizzles.
 
Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko skated a strong free dance to music from the "Backbone" soundtrack and from "Porgy and Bess". The 2018 U.S. junior champions earned Level 4 on four different elements – their twizzles, dance spins, and on two lifts. Despite a season best total of 188.80 points, Carreira and Ponomarenko were unable to hold off Finland's Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis for the bronze medal. They finished in fourth place overall.
 
Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier danced away with the gold medal, finishing the competition with a world-leading 219.49 points. The champions will join Hawayek and Baker in Turin next month for the Final. Americans Oona Brown and Gage Brown moved up from ninth after the rhythm dance to finish in eighth place overall with 166.70 points.
 
After positioning themselves in second after the pairs short program yesterday, Anastasiia Smirnova and Danil Siianytsia slipped to fourth place overall after their free skate. Skating to Laura Fabian's "Je Suis Malade", the couple put out a performance that left room for improvement in advance of the U.S. Championships in San Jose in January. After a mistake on their opening triple Salchows, Smirnova and Siianytsia executed their signature Level 4 triple twist lift that earned the duo strong grades of execution. They finished with a career-high 165.12 points.
 
Rebecca Ghilardi and Filippo Ambrosini held on to capture the gold medal, the first of any color for the Italians. With the win, the duo earned a berth in next month's Grand Prix Final in their home country. They finished the competition with 186.56 points. Fourth after the short program, Germany's Alisa Efimova and Ruben Blommaert moved up to second place with 170.75 points. Georgia's Anastasiia Metelkina and Daniil Parkman earned bronze with 166.56 points.
 
The American women showed improvement in Espoo, both earning a new season's best total scores. Lindsay Thorngren equaled her standing from Skate Canada International last month and finished in sixth place with 183.23 points. The 17-year-old attempted six triple jumps in her program, earning full credit on two and falling once at the end of her triple Lutz-double toe loop-double loop combination.
 
Bradie Tennell improved her total to 163.98 points as she continued her comeback from an injury-plagued season. The 2018 Olympian struggled with the landings of her jumps today but was rewarded with Level 4s on two spins and her step sequence. She finished in eighth place.
 
Japan's Mai Mihara won her second Grand Prix title of the season, earning 204.14 points in the competition and an invitation to next month's Grand Prix Final. World silver medalist Loena Hendrickx slipped to second place overall but will join Mihara in Turin for the Final. She finished with 203.91 points. Mana Kawabe, the reigning Japanese bronze medalist, finished in third with 197.41 points.

Team USA will head to the 2022 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Torino, Italy, Dec. 8-10 where the top six Grand Prix point-earners in each discipline will compete.