Takahiko Kozuka took the lead at the Trophée Bompard after the men's short program on Friday, maintaining his good form since winning the Cup of China three weeks ago.
The Japanese skater's energetic performance gave him 77.64 points heading into Saturday's free skate. Florent Amodio of France is second on 75.62, with Brandon Mroz of the United States in third place on 72.46 points. Kevin Reynolds of Coquitlam, B.C., stands seventh. He landed the first attempt at a quad in combination with a triple toe but fell on his second, losing points on both for under rotation.
"I'm a little disappointed," said Reynolds, 20, fourth at Skate Canada last month when he became the first skater to land two quads in a short program. "The highlights for me were my solid triple Axel and executing the triple toe right after landing the quad which is very hard to do. For the long program, I'm going in there with nothing to lose."
Kiira Korpi's slick performance gave the Finnish skater the lead in the women's short program with 61.39 points. Korpi nailed her opening triple toe loop-triple toe loop jump and then her triple loop. Only a slight blemish on her flying sit spin negated an otherwise graceful effort. American skater Mirai Nagasu was second with 58.72, and Haruka Imai of Japan third on 58.38. Cynthia Phaneuf of Contrecoeur, Que., is sixth
"I felt great on the ice," Phaneuf, 22, said. "I really attacked my jumps and I was pleased with how I fought through my Lutz after starting the jump crooked. Unfortunately I made a technical error at the end of my program which really cost me."
World champion Mao Asada continued her slump by finishing seventh after an erratic performance. She grounded her knee on her opening triple Axel, and fell backward onto the ice on her fourth jump.
In the pairs, Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany lead, Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov of Russia are next, followed by Maylin Hausch and Daniel Wende of Germany. Mylène Brodeur of Stanbridge-Station, Que., and John Mattatall of Wallace, N.S., are fourth, but they were hoping to fare better.
"It was pretty shaky," Mattatall, 27, said. "When you have a performance like that there isn't much too say except that we are going to try and come back stronger in the long program. We just made obvious mistakes."
Nathalie Péchalat and Fabian Bourzat of France lead the ice dance competition with Ekaterina Riazanova and Ilia Tkachenko of Russia second and Madison Chock and Greg Zuerlein of the U.S., third. First-year seniors Kharis Ralph and Asher Hill, both of Toronto, posted a personal best score with 50.50 points to place sixth, about two points better than at their last competition in China.
"The performance quality of the program was whole lot better than in China,'' said Hill, 19, who won four medals with Ralph on the junior Grand Prix circuit the previous two seasons. "We just focused on being ourselves.''
All four free skates are on Saturday.
The Trophée Bompard is the sixth and last event in the ISU Grand Prix series. Next month is the Grand Prix Final in Beijing, which features the top six figure skaters in each discipline.
The Globe and Mail
With a report from The Associated Press