German pair Hase/Volodin win ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final

Germany's Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin won the pairs title with a total of 206.43 points at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final on Friday, while Japan's Mao Shimada won the junior women's title. 

Hase and Volodin were ranked first from the short program going into Friday's free skate where they finished second, followed by Italian pair Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii who surpassed the highly-anticipated Canadian pair of Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps.

"The competition is a fight for both of us. We are happy that we fought to the end, got as many elements as possible, and were finally rewarded the gold medal," Hase said.

Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps expressed dissatisfaction with their performance after being second in the short program, but they also had errors in the triple salchow during the free skating and settled for a bronze medal.

In the women's short program, Sakamoto, Beijing Winter Olympic bronze medalist and World Championships titlist, scored 77.35 points to lead the women's short program, followed by Belgium's Loena Hendrickx and Nina Pinzarrone.

"After the Beijing Winter Olympics, I tried to find my direction in the next step and felt not that good in last year's events, but I adjusted myself this season and maintained high morale," Sakamoto said. "I just focus on improving my performance, which is the secret for the success."

Meanwhile, American pair Madison Chock and Evan Bates were in the lead in the rhythm ice dance with 89.15 points, followed by Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy and Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Canada. 

In the junior's event, Shimada beat South Korea's Shin Ji-a and fellow Japanese Rena Uezono to defend her title. She finished six points clear of Shin, recovering from a deficit of less than a point after the short program. Though ineligible to compete in the next Winter Games in Milan-Cortina due to the raising of the age benchmark to 17, Shimada has emerged as a hopeful of the figure skating powerhouse as the first Japanese junior to repeat the victory in the Finals, and the third to have won three consecutive juniors titles at Japan's nationals after Olympic champion Arakawa Shizuka and two-time world champion Ando Miki.

(With input from Xinhua)