US skater Glenn and France's Siao lead the way at Finlandia Trophy / Photo: Heikki Saukkomaa - Lehtikuva/AFP
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US skater Glenn and France's Siao lead the way at Finlandia Trophy
Reigning ISU Grand Prix Final champion Amber Glenn of the United States delivered a high-octane performance as she surged to the lead in the short programme at the Finlandia Trophy on Friday.
Earlier France's Adam Siao Him Fa topped the men's short programme in the final stop on the International Skating Union's Grand Prix circuit in Helsinki with skaters jostling to book their berths to next month's final.
Glenn won the Cup of China event last month and despite a chaotic build-up to Helsinki with tooth surgery and a sinus infection she pulled out her season's best performance to Madonna's "Like A Prayer".
The 26-year-old from Texas hit her trademark triple axel, a triple loop and some difficult spins to score 75.72 points and keep ahead of Japan's Mone Chiba (72.89) and Canadian Madeline Schizas (65.16) going into Saturday's free skating final.
"I'm really happy with the mental side. I just hope I can start feeling a little bit better physically tomorrow," said Glenn.
World bronze medallist Chiba lost points for a shaky opening triple flip-triple toeloop combination jump in her skate to Donna Summer's "Last Dance".
The 20-year-old is seeking to follow up her win in Skate Canada and reach the Grand Prix final at home in Japan.
Earlier Siao Him Fa scored 92.50 points for his tribute to Leonardo da Vinci, which he opened with a perfectly executed quadruple lutz.
Despite a mistake on his quadruple toe loop-double toeloop combination, the 24-year-old leads heading into Saturday's free skate final, ahead of Canadian Stephen Gogolev, who unexpectedly placed second with 89.35 points.
Japan's Yuma Kagiyama, the favourite two weeks after his victory at the NHK Trophy, only managed third place with 88.16 points, after a fall on his quadruple salchow and a mistake on his triple axel.
"I'm obviously disappointed with two jumps, but throughout the performance I was able to make eye contact with the audience and enjoy the performance until the end," said 2022 Olympic silver medallist Kagiyama.
Siao Him Fa, a former world bronze medallist, is bidding to qualify for the Grand Prix Final after finishing second in the season-opening Grand Prix de France in Angers.
France's Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry took the ice dancing lead after the rhythm dance, edging ahead of Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier.
Despite appearing to deliver a flawless routine, full of groove and sensuality to Madonna's global hit "Vogue", the French dancers lost points for their final step sequence.
They nevertheless went top with 79.89 points, just ahead of Gilles and Poirier (79.56) and Americans Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik (78.21), going into Saturday's free dance.
"We had a good performance on the ice today. I'm just not satisfied with how the technical panel evaluated our performance, but that's how it is," Cizeron said.
"I don't want to give the score I was expecting, you'd have to do the math, but it was certainly higher than that."
Germany's Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin led the pairs short programme ahead of two US couples -- Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea and Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov.
M.Parisi--GdR
