LOOK, AN ARTICLE ABOUT COC, DAY 1
BEIJING - American skater Mirai Nagasu won the women's short program Friday at the Cup of China in her return from a fractured foot.
Nagasu started the performance with a solid triple lutz and double toeloop before following with a wobbly triple flip. She quickly recovered with a smoothly executed layback spin and change foot combination spin to earn 58.76 points.
"Today wasn't my best performance, but I feel I good about it, because I did the best I could under the circumstances," said Nagasu, referring to the stress fracture in her foot that kept her off the ice for about a month.
Nagasu said she spent much of her recovery time hanging out with her cousins at the beach.
"I'm not going to lie. I had a really good time off the ice for two months. I got to go to the beach _ even though I live in California, I never get to go _ so I didn't really think about my injury and before I knew it, I had to go back on the ice," the 17-year-old Nagasu said.
Akiko Suzuki of Japan, last year's Cup of China, was second with 57.97 points, while 2007 world champion Miki Ando placed third with 56.11 points.
Takahiko Kozuka of Japan dominated the men's short program with an upbeat performance to "Soul Man Medley," scoring 77.40 points.
One glitch, an off-balance triple axel, was minimized by being sandwiched between a precisely executed triple lutz and a triple toeloop paired with a triple flip.
World bronze medalist Brian Joubert was second with 74.80 points.
"I'm happy about my short program, quad toe, triple toe, it makes me very confident for tomorrow, but I have to fix my triple axel and I have to change my spins," said Joubert, who is favored to win Saturday's free skate in the absence of Evan Lysacek and Evgeni Plushenko.
Tomas Verner of the Czech Republic, who trains in Canada, was third with 70.31 points.
French ice dance pair Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat won the short program, beating favorites Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali of Italy.
The duo, who have yet to win a Grand Prix event, impressed the judges with a waltz to "Lara's Theme" from the film Dr. Zhivago, ending with a powerful rotational lift while gliding past the judges stand. They received 64.12 points.
Faiella and Scali, bronze medalists at the world championships, were a distant second with 57.21 points. Russian pair Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev were third with 55.85 points.
"We changed our dance two weeks ago, so I wasn't so confident," Pechalat said. "I am not very happy, because we can do better, but I am happy because we had good marks."
Faiella and Scali's performance was marred when Scali's boot got caught on Faiella's dress, resulting in a two-point deduction.
"I'm disappointed with the problems we faced, but what happened today will not affect tomorrow's performance," Scali said.
The Cup of China, the third of six Grand Prix events, ends Saturday.
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