NAGOYA, Japan, 8 November 2004 — US national champion Johnny Weir proved his supremacy over fellow American Timothy Goebel to win his first Grand Prix men’s singles title at the NHK Trophy figure skating yesterday.
The 20-year-old from Pennsylvania bewitched a crowd with his error-free performance to the music of “Otonal” by Raul di Blasio for the best marks in the free skating, beating Goebel and Frederic Dambier of France.
The 2001 world junior champion started his program with a combination of triple axel and triple toe-loop and ended with an amazing combination spin to earn 146.20 points for a total of 220.25 points.
“There were little mistakes, I guess, but it’s a very good start to the competitive Grand Prix series and I’m excited now to go to France and try to improve my performance,” said Weir.
“I’m very excited with the way I skated, I’m not really concerned about placement or medals. It doesn’t matter if it’s the gold medal, silver medal or 10th place. I’m just happy about what I did.
“I don’t work very hard every day for medals, I work hard every day to make myself happy to compete well and to be able to put on a good show, so there’s no real title that I’m shooting for this season,” Weir added.
“As far as the Olympics are concerned, I’m hoping to set myself up well so I can be in the US team for the Olympics, and nothing more, nothing less — just a very ordinary goal.”
Weir’s next events will be in Paris and Moscow.
Goebel, the Salt LakeCity Olympic bronze medalist, ended second with a total of 208.28 points. Dambier, the first French skater to land a quadruple in competition, moved up to finish third with 197.37 points.
The 1999-2000 world bronze medalist Michael Weiss of the United States, third in the short program, went down to fourth place with 193.00 points.
Chinese national champion Li Chengjiang landed excellent quadruple jumps to move up to fifth place with 192.04 points from Saturday’s eighth in the short program, while Japan’s Takeshi Honda ended on a disappointing seventh.
On Saturday women’s world champion Shizuka Arakawa won her first Grand Prix. She led a Japanese one-two finish with world junior champion Miki Ando, the first female skater to complete a quadruple in competition two years ago at the age of 14.
The event was the third leg of the six-round Grand Prix qualifying series with the fourth leg moving to Beijing next week, the site of the Grand Prix Final in December.
