By Matteo Morelli | Photo by Robin Ritoss

The fourth Grand Prix of the season is now in the books. NHK Trophy, one of the oldest events in the Grand Prix circuit, returned to Kyoto, where the athletes were welcomed by a friendly and cheerful crowd in typical Japanese style.

Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson claimed the top step of the podium, securing their place in the Grand Prix Final. They were followed by Charlène Guignard and Marco Fabbri, who took the silver medal, and Caroline Green and Michael Parsons, who completed the podium.

Event Recap

Great Britain’s Fear and Lewis Gibson dominated both segments of the event, winning their second NHK Trophy gold medal (they won their first ever Grand Prix gold at NHK Trophy in 2023). This win, combined with their silver medal from Grand Prix de France, allows the British duo to collect a total of 28 points and secure their ticket to a fourth consecutive Grand Prix final that will take them back to Japan to compete for a spot on the podium with the other qualified teams.

Both of their programmes this season are intentionally patriotic, with the Spice Girls being an obvious choice for the ‘90s theme, and the Scottish traditional dances theme being something they had been thinking about for a while and are finally glad to bring to life. Both Fear and Gibson were very pleased with their performances, sharing that they had put in a lot of work in a short amount of time between France and Japan, and were  happy to see the results showing up in competition.

Italy’s Charlène Guignard and Marco Fabbri redeemed themselves after their result at Grand Prix of de France, were they missed the podium. They shared that following that Grand Prix, they made changes to their programmes, particularly their rhythm dance, working on the feedback that the music wasn’t energetic enough.

The start of this Grand Prix wasn’t easy for them: during practice the day before the rhythm dance, Guignard collided with another skater, resulting in bruises and pain that she had to manage throughout the competition. They ended up withdrawing from the gala to allow her to recover, however this didn’t stop them from earning scores that ultimately placed them second and secured the silver medal. Fabbri shared some disappointment about a mistake on his twizzles in their rhythm dance but also reflected that it is still the beginning of their season, with plenty of room for them to improve.

USA’s Caroline Green and Michael Parsons also redeemed themselves after being forced to withdraw from Cup of China due to a pelvic injury Parsons sustained during their rhythm dance. This time, they showed renewed confidence in their programmes, earning the third Grand Prix bronze medal of their careers.

Both skaters felt that they have learned a lot in these past three weeks, going from making the difficult decision to withdraw from Cup of China to skating as well as they did at NHK Trophy, where they placed third in both segments and secured their podium finish.

Czech Republic’s Natálie Taschlerová and Filip Taschler finished fourth overall, performing their rhythm dance to music by Jennifer Lopez and their free to music from the movie “the Matrix”. They were followed by Katarina Wolfkostin and Dimitry Tsarevski who, at their first senior Grand Prix, achieved an overall fifth place finish with the fourth-best free dance of the event.

All eyes were on Maia and Alex Shibutani, who made their return to competition after seven years. Their season debut saw them place sixth after the rhythm dance and fifth in the free dance, finishing sixth overall. Their free programme revisited their Coldplay’s “Fix You”, which they had previously skated to during the 2015/16 season. Despite of the familiar music, it was clear that they have changed a lot, and this programme carries different meanings than it did ten years ago.

Germany’s Jennifer Janse van Rensburg and Benjamin Steffan finished in seventh place, and can now rest after competing in back-to-back events, travelling directly from Canada to Japan.

In eight place, Finland’s Yuka Orihara and Juho Pirinen had an issue with their twizzles in the rhythm dance, but came back strong in their free dance, entertaining the crowds with their “Mouline Rouge” programme. They were followed by Canada’s Alicia Fabbri and Paul Ayer, who will head straight to Skate America, where they were called to replace Italy’ Noemi Maria Tali and Noah Lafornara.

Closing the rankings were Japan’s Utana Yoshida and Masaya Morita, who received a very warm support from their local audiences.

Qualification Standings

After four of the six  Grand Prix events of this season, the top qualification standings in the run for the Grand Prix Final are, in order:

28 points: Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson (Great Britain)
24 points: Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevičius (Lithuania)
22 points: Charlène Guignard and Marco Fabbri (Italy)
15 points: Laurence Fournier-Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron (France), Madison Chock and Evan Bates (USA), Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier (Canada)
13 points: Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik (USA)
12 points: Hannah Lim and Ye Quan (Korea)
11 points: Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud (France), Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha (Canada), Caroline Green and Michael Parsons (USA)

Next Grand Prix

Skate America will be the fifth Grand Prix of the season. Madison Chock and Evan Bates return after their victory at Cup of China, hoping to claim their fifth gold medal at this event. They will be joined by two other team from the USA: Christina Carreira and Anthony Pnomarenko, and Oona Byron and Gage Brown. From Canada, Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha will aim to secure another podium finish and strengthen their chances to qualify for the Grand Prix Final, while Alicia Fabbri and Paul Ayer will compete immediately after NHK Trophy. The Czech Republic’s Kateřina Mrázková and Daniel Mrázek will make their second Grand Prix appearance this season, while Great Britain’s Phoebe Bekker and James Hernandez will make their Grand Prix debut. France will have three teams at Skate America: Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud, who won a bronze at Cup of China; Loïcia Demougeot and Théo Le Mercier; and Célina Fradji and Jean-Hans Fourneaux.