Savchenko and Massot raise bar at GPF

Germany's Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot raised the bar when the broke the record for the highest free skate score, winning gold at the 2017-18 Grand Prix Final of Figure Skating. Wenjing Sui and Cong Han of China, who previously held that record from 2017 NHK Trophy earned the silver, while Canada's Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford rose from fifth to capture the bronze.

"I saw the score of the Chinese team and I knew the level was very high and the program will be difficult," said Massot, "but we wanted to give the best, and everything went well except for that tiny little mistake (shaky landing on a throw triple Salchow). We felt it was a big practice for the Olympic Games. The top six pairs were here, and the level was so high. Now we have to calm down and to realize that we got the gold. We have to keep practicing this way and be ready for the Olympic Games."

"Throughout the Grand Prix and the Final, we learned a lot and found the room for improvement," said Han. "I felt we need to improve the execution of the on jumps and side-by-side performance once we go back home. After the short program, I was disappointed, but I know where to make changes, so I prepared myself to get ready for free program today. I am satisfied with the performance. Regardless of the points, we wanted to do our best and I knew that we can get our best score when we perform the best. It is fight against ourselves, not against others."

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"I made two major mistakes," acknowledged Stolbova. "Unfortunately, in the short program, I got injured a little and I hoped it will be easier today, but, unfortunately, it wasn't."

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"What happened, happened," said Morozov. "It was bad performance and there is nothing to say. Well, it happens sometimes. We will try not to be upset about it and just should make conclusions and work on it. Maybe we just couldn't cope with our nerves. We didn't think about our victory in the last Grand Prix Final, so it didn't influence our performance at all. There wasn't any pressure because of it."

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What are your thoughts on the Pairs event?

I was most sad for Stolbova and Klimov. I really like them.
Aliona and Bruno's free skate was pretty amazing. This is a race that has no clear front runner, and we won't know who will win till the night of the free skate at the Olympics.

I loved Aliona and Bruno's skate! It's amazing how well she saved that throw 3S. That's experience right there!