CHONGQING, China — Amber Glenn overcame neck pain to beat her world champion U.S. teammate Alysa Liu and win the figure skating Cup of China for the second straight year Saturday.
Glenn, the U.S. national champion, clutched her neck after finishing her free skate, in which she recovered from a shaky landing on a triple toeloop near the start.
She had been in third after Friday’s short program, meaning she had to wait for Liu and Japan’s Rinka Watanabe to perform their free skates before she knew where she placed.
Liu slipped back to second with a total of 212.07 points to Glenn’s 214.78 after a wobbly landing on a triple flip, while Watanabe only just stayed on the podium, dropping to third after delivering the fifth-best free skate score.
Despite being a two-time world championship medalist, it’s the first time Liu has been on the podium in a Grand Prix event.
Glenn said she felt “incredible” and was “really excited for my teammate and I to be first and second on the podium.”
Japan’s Shun Sato won the Cup of China men’s event for the second year running, landing three quadruple jumps in a clean free skate for a total of 278.12, staying ahead of Italy’s Daniel Grassl (269.43). Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov (262.67) finished third after falling on his last jump.
In ice dance, world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates won their first Cup of China in their sixth attempt, scoring a total of 208.25 to beat their U.S. teammates Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik (202.27). Third went to Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud of France (196.60).
Competing for the first time since they won 2022 Winter Olympics gold, China’s Sui Wenjing and Han Cong were third in pairs as Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava took the victory for Georgia. Metelkina and Berulava scored 217.24 for the win despite an error on a lift, while Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii of Italy were second with 209.88. Sui and Han scored 202.92.
The Cup of China is the second of six regular-season Grand Prix events building to a final in December. It’s a key test for skaters eyeing medals at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in February.
