Mihara and Malinin capitalise to win Espoo gold

Mai Mihara claimed her second Grand Prix win in three weeks as she delivered a strong free skating performance to take gold in the women's event.

Ilia Malinin surged to the top of the podium in the men's event in a similar fashion as France's Kevin Aymoz was left to rue a mistake that saw him slip to third in Finland.

The pairs Grand Prix event was won by Italian duo Rebecca Ghilardi and Filippo Ambrosini as Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis became the only Finnish medalists of the meet in the ice dance.

Mihara of Japan recovered from a poor double flip midway through her routine to finish with a flourish and achieve the highest score of the day of 130.56.

The 23-year-old unseated Loena Hendrickx of Belgium at the top of the rankings as she fell on a triple lutz as she had to settle for silver.

Mihara's teammate Mana Kawabe ended in third place beating out another Japanese skater in Rika Kihira.

The USA's Malinin had trailed Aymoz by 3.39 points after the short program but capitalised on a wrong landing by the Frenchman to take gold, his overall score of 192.82 more than 20 points better than Aymoz.

Shun Sato ensured a second medal for Japan as he too moved past Aymoz, claiming silver with a score of 180.62 in the free skate.

In the pairs event, Ghilardi and Ambrosini were in full command as the Italian duo claimed their first Grand Prix victory with a personal best total of 189.74.

They took a 4.3-point lead into the free skating having produced a personal best short program score.

Their free-skating score was more than 14 points better than Germany's Alisa Efimova and Ruben Blommaert whose fine performance saw them jump from fourth to second as Anastasiia Metelkina and Daniil Parkman of Georgia claimed bronze.

The Italian duo will now compete on home ice at the Grand Prix Finals in Turin in two weeks' time.

Canada's Piper Gilles and Paul Poirer were imperious once again as they won the ice dance competition by 17.03 points from Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker of the USA.

Turkkila and Versluis deliver a polished performance to move from fourth to third and claim the final medal of the meet.

Sportsbeat 2022