Mao Asada out to seal figure skating GP final berth

Japan's former two-time world champion Mao Asada will bid to seal her ISU Grand Prix finals' place at the Cup of Russia - the sixth and the last event of the series, which gets underway at Moscow's Megasport arena on Friday. Asada, sixth at this year's world championships also in Moscow, won the women's free skating event at her home Grand Prix circuit in Sapporo but finished second overall there. She is currently 10th in the rankings and will need to perform well here in a tough competition with two-time European bronze medal winner Kiira Korpi of Finland and Russia's junior world champion Adelina Sotnikova to obtain a place in the GP finals. In the pairs, reigning world champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany, already winners of Skate America this season, will have to battle hard to defeat home favourites Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov who won this month's Cup of China and NHK Trophy. Czech skater Michal Brezina, Skate America winner this season, heads the entry list in the men's section of the event. The 21-year-old Brezina is on a collison course for gold with United States star Jeremy Abbott, who won the Cup of China in Shanghai and will need to perform at his best to earn a place in December's Grand Prix final in Quebec, Canada. Russian world championship bronze medalist Artur Gachinski, who won the short programme in Shanghai but finished fifth overall at the Cup of China, will need to shine to obtain a strong result here to get a pass into the GP final. America's reigning world champions and Vancouver Olympics silver medalists Meryl Davis and Charlie White, this season's Skate America winners, head a strong cast list in ice dances. They lock horns with Russian duo Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev, who won the Cup of China, and Canadian dancing pair Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, who finished third at Skate Canada and second at the NHK Trophy. Russian figure skating federation chief Alexander Gorshkov said the organisers had done their best to prepare for the event, adding he was expecting tough and interesting competition on the ice of Megasport arena. "We have collected serious experience of staging world class competitions here in Moscow," Gershkov said. "This is the fifth stage of Grand Prix series taking place at Megasport arena, which also staged the world championships this year. "Cup of Russia has gathered an impressive set of top-class skaters in Moscow this year and I believe the event will be very interesting both for the participants and the spectators."