LYSACEK RISES TO NO. 3 IN ICENETWORK.COM WORLD FIGURE SKATER RANKINGS

Colorado Springs, Colo. (November 3, 2009) - American Evan Lysacek moved up one spot to No. 3 in the icenetwork.com World Figure Skater Rankings after winning the silver medal last week at the Cup of China, while U.S. ice dancers Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto's gold medal in Beijing boosted them two places to No. 6.

Ladies

Japan's Akiko Suzuki captured her first gold medal in the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series at the Cup of China and, as a result, saw her ranking improve the most of any skater last week, moving up nine spots to No. 7. Also making a big jump was Kiira Korpi of Finland, whose silver medal in Beijing - her first of any kind in the Grand Prix Series - vaulted her four places to No. 10. Holding at No. 3 was bronze medalist Joannie Rochette of Canada, while fourth-place finisher Rachael Flatt of the United States inched up two places to No. 9.  Japan's Kanako Murakami continued her impressive start to the season by winning the gold at Ice Challenge, a victory that edged her up two notches to No. 16.

Men

Nobunari Oda won his second gold medal in this Grand Prix Series and rose to No. 2 in the rankings, sitting a little more than 200 points behind Canada's Patrick Chan. Lysacek medaled at a Grand Prix event for the ninth consecutive time and returned to No. 3, the position at which he started the season. Russia's Sergei Voronov took the bronze in Beijing and rose one spot to No. 9, while the fourth-place finish of Italy's Samuel Contesti propelled him to No. 10, six places higher than he was last week. Remaining at No. 5 was Tomás Verner of Czech Republic, who took the top prize at Ice Challenge with an underwhelming score of 201.80.

Pairs

Two-time Olympic bronze medalists Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao returned to competition for the first time in more than 2^1/2 years and didn't miss a beat, winning the gold on their home turf by almost 15 points. They debut in the rankings at No. 17. Silver medalists Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang of China stayed at No. 3, while bronze medalists Tatiana Volosozhar and Stanislav Morozov of Ukraine crept up one place to No. 7.

Ice Dancing

Belbin and Agosto easily won the gold at the Cup of China in their season debut, downing silver medalists Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski of Russia by nearly 14 points. The Russians moved up one spot to No. 4, while bronze medalists Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali of Italy dropped from No. 6 to No. 7. Fourth-place finishers Anna Zadorozhniuk and Sergei Verbillo of Ukraine re-entered the rankings at No. 17.

Correction: It was stated in last week's release that "(Meryl) Davis and (Charlie) White become the first U.S. skaters in any discipline to climb to No. 1 since the rankings were started in 2007." They are actually the second U.S. skaters to be ranked No. 1 overall. Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto were ranked No. 1 for all but one week in the 2007-08 season.

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

 

Rankings as of Nov. 2, 2009:

 

Ladies                                                                                   

Rank 11/2	Rank 10/26	Name	Country	Points
1	1	Yu-Na Kim	Korea	4840.50
2	2	Mao Asada	Japan	3616.30
3	3	Joannie Rochette	Canada	2923.90
4	4	Carolina Kostner	Italy	2475.20
5	5	Miki Ando	Japan	2060.40
6	6	Laura Lepistö	Finland	1619.60
7	16	Akiko Suzuki	Japan	1606.70
8	7	Yukari Nakano	Japan	1505.90
9	11	Rachael Flatt	USA	1359.50
10	14	Kiira Korpi	Finland	1352.00
11	9	Alena Leonova	Russia	1253.22
12	12	Fumie Suguri	Japan	1247.16
13	8	Alissa Czisny	USA	1243.20
14	10	Caroline Zhang	USA	1098.80
15	13	Ashley Wagner	USA	1050.90
16	18	Kanako Murakami	Japan	860.10
17	15	Julia Sebestyen	Hungary	816.42
18	17	Sarah Meier	Switzerland	795.90
19	NR	Yan Liu	China	775.20
20	19	Susanna Pöykiö	Finland	715.80

 

MEN

Rank 11/2	Rank 10/26	Name	Country	Points
1	1	Patrick Chan	Canada	2933.00
2	7	Nobunari Oda	Japan	2726.66
3	4	Evan Lysacek	USA	2415.70
4	2	Brian Joubert	France	2375.42
5	5	Tomás Verner	Czech Republic	2341.40
6	3	Takahiko Kozuka	Japan	2315.50
7	6	Jeremy Abbott	USA	2031.14
8	8	Johnny Weir	USA	1415.00
9	10	Sergei Voronov	Russia	1278.14
10	16	Samuel Contesti	Italy	1235.20
11	13	Yannick Ponsero	France	1212.12
12	9	Adam Rippon	USA	1143.84
13	15	Alban Préaubert	France	1112.40
14	12	Kevin van der Perren	Belgium	1092.04
15	14	Daisuke Takahashi	Japan	1077.00
16	11	Stéphane Lambiel	Switzerland	1023.80
17	17	Michal Březina	Czech Republic	859.26
18	18	Brandon Mroz	USA	833.94
19	NR	Stephen Carriere	USA	805.04
20	19	Artem Borodulin	Russia	732.96

 

PAIRS

Rank 11/2	Rank 10/26	Name	Country	Points
1	1	Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy	Germany	4467.00
2	2	Qing Pang/Jian Tong	China	3700.00
3	3	Dan Zhang/Hao Zhang	China	3207.60
4	4	Yuko Kavaguti/Alexander Smirnov	Russia	2422.40
5	5	Maria Mukhortova/Maxim Trankov	Russia	2312.50
6	6	Jessica Dubé/Bryce Davison	Canada	1953.20
7	8	Tatiana Volosozhar/Stanislav Morozov	Ukraine	1518.94
8	9	Lubov Iliushechkina/Nodari Maisuradze	Russia	1360.62
9	7	Keauna McLaughlin/Rockne Brubaker	USA	1326.82
10	11	Huibo Dong/Yiming Wu	China	1042.86
11	12	Meagan Duhamel/Craig Buntin	Canada	1032.26
12	10	Rena Inoue/John Baldwin	USA	931.28
13	13	Yue Zhang/Lei Wang	China	785.00
14	14	Adeline Canac/Maximin Coia	France	771.08
15	15	Mylène Brodeur/John Mattatall	Canada	769.36
16	16	Wenjing Sui/Cong Han	China	739.20
17	NR	Xue Shen/Hongbo Zhao	China	700.00
18	17	Stacey Kemp/David King	Great Britain	682.56
19	18	Maria Sergejeva/Ilja Glebov	Estonia	632.24
20	NR	Vanessa James/Yannick Bonheur	France	616.92

 

ICE DANCING

Rank 11/2	Rank 10/26	Name	Country	Points
1	1	Meryl Davis/Charlie White	USA	3234.70
2	2	Oksana Domnina/Maxim Shabalin	Russia	2903.00
3	3	Isabelle Delobel/Olivier Schoenfelder	France	2877.30
4	5	Jana Khokhlova/Sergei Novitski	Russia	2532.70
5	4	Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir	Canada	2504.50
6	8	Tanith Belbin/Ben Agosto	USA	2206.00
7	6	Federica Faiella/Massimo Scali	Italy	2083.34
8	7	Nathalie Péchalat/Fabian Bourzat	France	1912.44
9	9	Sinead Kerr/John Kerr	Great Britain	1572.32
10	10	Emily Samuelson/Evan Bates	USA	1332.60
11	11	Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte	Italy	1203.68
12	14	Madison Chock/Greg Zuerlein	USA	1100.90
13	15	Alexandra Zaretski/Roman Zaretski	Israel	1071.84
14	12	Vanessa Crone/Paul Poirier	Canada	1047.80
15	13	Ekaterina Rubleva/Ivan Shefer	Russia	986.04
16	16	Maia Shibutani/Alex Shibutani	USA	925.30
17	NR	Anna Zadorozhniuk/Sergei Verbillo	Ukraine	824.20
18	17	Kim Navarro/Brent Bommentre	USA	804.20
19	18	Madison Hubbell/Keiffer Hubbell	USA	756.30
20	19	Kristina Gorshkova/Vitali Butikov	Russia	730.26

 

- 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.