Yuna Aoki takes the lead in France as figure skating Grand Prix season begins

ANGERS, France (AP) — Yuna Aoki raised her game to take a surprise lead before Olympic bronze medalist Ami Nakai made a costly mistake on an eventful first day of competition in the figure skating Grand Prix series on Friday.

Skating to “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” Aoki opened her short program with a shaky triple lutz-triple loop combination but still scored 76.13 points in the Grand Prix de France short program, putting her on track for a first Grand Prix medal in two years in Saturday’s free skate.

That score is nearly five points more than Aoki’s previous personal best short program, though there have been changes to the scoring system for this season.

Former European champion Anastasiia Gubanova of Georgia was second on 72.63.

Nakai turned her opening triple axel into a non-scoring single but recovered, skating the rest of her program clean to place third on 70.66.

Last season’s world championship bronze medalist Nina Pinzarrone was seventh on 63.19. Toronto’s Gabrielle Daleman, the only Canadian skater competing, finished 11th with 55.66.

Olympic ice dance champions Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron took a commanding lead in their first competition of the season, scoring 82.56 as they debuted a Spanish-themed rhythm dance to the music of Rosalia.

It didn’t all go smoothly, with a one-point deduction for a time violation, but the French team still finished nearly five points clear of Georgia’s Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin on 77.90.

The U.S. team of Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko were .07 behind in third ahead of the free dance on Saturday.

The men’s and pairs competitions start Saturday.

___

See full AP coverage of European sports here

The Associated Press