Crystal Skate

The Shibutani siblings are on a roll after the extraordinary season they had in 2015/2016. They're leading the ice dance competition here at Skate America, with co-nationals Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue hot on their heels. On second, Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev, whom I'm happy to see back in competition. It's bound to be tough tonight with this three going head to head, so let's get on with it. Yura Min & Alex Gamelin  start us off. Having seen Cinema Paradiso  recently, I can tell you the love story is not as dramatic as the music might imply, but they present the angst well enough. The twizzles are slightly wobbly, but altogether not bad. The stationary lift is my favourite element from this. Their score: 85.25 . Overall: 141.50 . Kana Muramoto & Chris Reed  skate to music by Vincente Amigo. I really like the flamenco details they added to the spin, and the lifts are all innovative. Again, his twizzles are a bit shaky. They get 91.18  p...

The third final of this season's Skate America is about to start. Is it going to be a reversal of the outcome as seen in the pairs' final or are Shoma Uno, Adam Rippon and Jason Brown going to keep their current standings? Let's start by looking at those most likely to reach the podium. Boyang Jin  has been working over the summer to improve his presentation. Choosing the comedic, but melancholic Avenue  helped a little, but he's still got a long way to go. Love his interactions with the judges though - talk about getting up close and personal. Technically, he steps out of the quad Salchow and falls on the quad Toeloop. There's also a double-footed Axel. His score: 172.15 . Overall: 245.08. Shoma Uno, from Japan, at the end of his short programme in Chicago Photograph: Tasos Katopodis, Getty Images North America The atmosphere stays jazzy thanks to Nam Nguyen 's An American in Paris . He seems very comfortable with this musical style. The only mistake ...

The Grand Prix Series have started! Hooray, woohoo, finally! Taking place in Chicago, Illinois, Skate America has already begun and given us the first potential winner. After an amazing performance at the World Championships, Ashley Wagner secured the best spot for winning the first Grand Prix event of the season. Mai Mihara, of Japan, is on second despite this being her first Senior Grand Prix event ever, ahead of Gracie Gold and Mao Asada. Kanako Murakami 's disappointing performance in the short means she gets to start the final. She skates to E lucevan le stelle , a piece of music that starts softly and ends grandly. She double-foots the landing of the triple Flip and altogether looks a little disheartened. Really feeling for her, so I hope her season goes only up from here. Her score: 97.16 . Overall: 145.03 . We change the musical style with Angelina Kuchvalska 's Carmina Burana . This is more dramatic than Kanako's programme, and I can see the potential of the r...