Belbin and Agosto ascend to no. 2 in Icenetwork.com world figure skating skater rankings

 

Colorado Springs, Colo. (November 17, 2009) - American ice dancers Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto won their second gold medal in the 2009 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series last week at 2009 Cancer.Net Skate America and, as a result, now occupy the No. 2 spot in the icenetwork.com World Figure Skating Rankings. With Meryl Davis and Charlie White ranked No. 1, the top two ice dancers in the world hail from the United States.

Rachael Flatt won the free skate and the silver medal at Skate America, pushing her up four spots to No. 6, her highest-ever ranking. Korea's Yu-Na Kim won the event easily - setting a new short program record of 76.28 points in the process - to increase her lead over second-ranked Mao Asada of Japan to more than 1,700 points. Bronze medalist Julia Sebestyen of Hungary inched up two places to No. 16.

Men

Evan Lysacek captured his first Skate America title and his first gold medal in the Grand Prix Series since 2006 Cup of China. The victory gave him the No. 2 slot in the rankings - two places higher than where he sat last week. Neither Canadian Shawn Sawyer's silver medal nor American Ryan Bradley's bronze in Lake Placid were enough to put either skater into the top 20. The fourth-place finish of France's Florent Amodio, however, moved him into the rankings at No. 20. Czech Republic's Tomás Verner remained at No. 6 despite missing the podium at a Grand Prix Series event for the first time since 2007 Trophée Eric Bompard; he finished fifth at Skate America.

Pairs

China's Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao have staked their claim as the team to beat this season, posting a score of 201.40 points in Lake Placid en route to winning their second gold medal in this year's Grand Prix Series. They are the only pairs team to break the 200-point barrier this season, a feat they have accomplished twice, as they amassed 200.97 points at the Cup of China. They are ranked No. 9 solely on the strength of two triumphs. Silver medalists Tatiana Volosozhar and Stanislav Morozov of Ukraine and bronze medalists Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang of China maintained their No. 7 and No. 3 rankings, respectively, while fourth-place finishers Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker of the United States ascended one notch to No. 8.

Ice Dancing

Belbin and Agosto's fifth career Skate America title vaulted them four places to No. 2. Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte of Italy claimed their second silver medal of this Grand Prix Series, a placement that raised them two rungs to No. 10. Alexandra Zaretski and Roman Zaretski of Israel earned the bronze at Skate America, their first Grand Prix medal in 10 events. That finish bumped them up one spot to No. 13. Kim Navarro and Brent Bommentre of the United States climbed three places after finishing fifth in Lake Placid, while Russians Kristina Gorshkova and Vitali Butikov entered the rankings at No. 19 after placing seventh.

For more information about the rankings, visit icenetwork.com and click on "Rankings."

Rankings as of Nov. 16, 2009:

Ladies                                                                                   

Rank 11/16	Rank 11/9	Name	Country	Points
1	1	Yu-Na Kim	Korea	5214.50
2	2	Mao Asada	Japan	3473.80
3	3	Joannie Rochette	Canada	2867.50
4	4	Miki Ando	Japan	2780.40
5	5	Carolina Kostner	Italy	2475.20
6	10	Rachael Flatt	USA	1784.50
7	6	Alena Leonova	Russia	1735.22
8	8	Yukari Nakano	Japan	1707.50
9	7	Laura Lepistö	Finland	1676.80
10	9	Akiko Suzuki	Japan	1576.70
11	11	Kiira Korpi	Finland	1371.50
12	13	Fumie Suguri	Japan	1359.00
13	12	Ashley Wagner	USA	1301.90
14	14	Alissa Czisny	USA	1243.20
15	15	Caroline Zhang	USA	1098.80
16	18	Julia Sebestyen	Hungary	1008.90
17	16	Yan Liu	China	899.04
18	17	Kanako Murakami	Japan	860.10
19	19	Cynthia Phaneuf	Canada	795.22
20	NR	Susanna Pöykio	Finland	787.80

MEN

Rank 11/16	Rank 11/9	Name	Country	Points
1	1	Brian Joubert	France	3195.42
2	4	Evan Lysacek	USA	2995.70
3	2	Patrick Chan	Canada	2733.50
4	3	Nobunari Oda	Japan	2726.66
5	5	Takahiko Kozuka	Japan	2427.10
6	6	Tomás Verner	Czech Republic	2341.40
7	7	Jeremy Abbott	USA	2218.34
8	8	Johnny Weir	USA	1647.50
9	9	Adam Rippon	USA	1316.64
10	10	Daisuke Takahashi	Japan	1278.60
11	11	Sergei Voronov	Russia	1240.14
12	13	Yannick Ponsero	France	1238.92
13	12	Samuel Contesti	Italy	1235.20
14	14	Michal Březina	Czech Republic	1135.26
15	15	Alban Préaubert	France	1089.90
16	16	Kevin van der Perren	Belgium	1065.64
17	19	Brandon Mroz	USA	929.94
18	17	Stéphane Lambiel	Switzerland	905.30
19	18	Artem Borodulin	Russia	876.96
20	NR	Florent Amodio	France	823.00

PAIRS

Rank 11/16	Rank 11/9	Name	Country	Points
1	1	Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy	Germany	4634.00
2	2	Qing Pang/Jian Tong	China	4305.00
3	3	Dan Zhang/Hao Zhang	China	3304.10
4	4	Yuko Kavaguti/Alexander Smirnov	Russia	2734.90
5	5	Maria Mukhortova/Maxim Trankov	Russia	2278.10
6	6	Jessica Dubé/Bryce Davison	Canada	1953.20
7	7	Tatiana Volosozhar/Stanislav Morozov	Ukraine	1822.78
8	9	Keauna McLaughlin/Rockne Brubaker	USA	1494.82
9	18	Xue Shen/Hongbo Zhao	China	1400.00
10	8	Lubov Iliushechkina/Nodari Maisuradze	Russia	1360.62
11	10	Rena Inoue/John Baldwin	USA	1171.28
12	11	Huibo Dong/Yiming Wu	China	1042.86
13	12	Meagan Duhamel/Craig Buntin	Canada	1032.26
14	13	Mylène Brodeur/John Mattatall	Canada	925.36
15	15	Yue Zhang/Lei Wang	China	785.00
16	14	Adeline Canac/Maximin Coia	France	774.36
17	19	Stacey Kemp/David King	Great Britain	771.36
18	17	Wenjing Sui/Cong Han	China	739.20
19	16	Ksenia Krasilnikova/Konstantin Bezmaternikh	Russia	709.50
20	20	Narumi Takahashi/Mervin Tran	Japan	641.10

 

ICE DANCING

Rank 11/16	Rank 11/9	Name	Country	Points
1	1	Meryl Davis/Charlie White	USA	3766.70
2	6	Tanith Belbin/Ben Agosto	USA	3026.00
3	3	Jana Khokhlova/Sergei Novitski	Russia	2745.70
4	2	Oksana Domnina/Maxim Shabalin	Russia	2729.00
5	4	Isabelle Delobel/Olivier Schoenfelder	France	2682.30
6	5	Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir	Canada	2504.50
7	7	Federica Faiella/Massimo Scali	Italy	2083.34
8	9	Sinead Kerr/John Kerr	Great Britain	1832.32
9	8	Nathalie Péchalat/Fabian Bourzat	France	1826.04
10	12	Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte	Italy	1585.28
11	10	Emily Samuelson/Evan Bates	USA	1332.60
12	11	Vanessa Crone/Paul Poirier	Canada	1287.80
13	14	Alexandra Zaretski/Roman Zaretski	Israel	1279.20
14	13	Madison Chock/Greg Zuerlein	USA	1273.70
15	18	Kim Navarro/Brent Bommentre	USA	991.40
16	15	Ekaterina Rubleva/Ivan Shefer	Russia	954.36
17	17	Maia Shibutani/Alex Shibutani	USA	925.30
18	16	Anna Zadorozhniuk/Sergei Verbillo	Ukraine	910.60
19	NR	Kristina Gorshkova/Vitali Butikov	Russia	849.46
20	19	Xintong Huang/Xun Zheng	China	767.16

 

- U.S. Figure Skating -

U.S. Figure Skating is the national governing body for the sport of figure skating in the United States as recognized by the United States Olympic Committee and the International Skating Union. U.S. Figure Skating is comprised of more than 700 member clubs, collegiate clubs, and school-affiliated clubs and over 900 registered Basic Skills skating schools representing approximately 170,000 members. U.S. Figure Skating is charged with the development of the sport on all levels within the United States  including athletes, officials, sanctioning of events and exhibitions, and establishing the rules and guidelines by which the sport is governed.

Tags: Ben Agosto, Tanith Belbin, U.S. Figure Skating, Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games