Gold for Japan's Hanyu, Asada in Moscow

Japanese teenager Yuzuru Hanyu put the trauma of the earthquake which destroyed his hometown this year behind him to snatch his first senior figure skating gold at the Cup of Russia here on Saturday after former two-time world champion Mao Asada won the women's title. The 16-year-old Hanyu, whose home and ice rink in Sendai were damaged during the earthquake and tsunami catastrophe last March, snatched gold from Spaniard Javier Fernandez by just 0.03 after the free skating final in the last of the six-leg ISU Grand Prix series. Hanyu, who was second just 0.76 behind Jeremy Abbott after the short programme, profited from a disastrous free skate which left the American trailing in fifth after the second of the two-day competition. The Japanese skater scored 158.88 points in his free skate to the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack to take the title with an overall 241.66 points. Fernandez, 20, took his second silver after Skate Canada with 241.63, after scoring highest for his free skate to Verdi with 163.13 to move up from fourth after the short programme to seal his berth in the ISU Grand Prix final next month. Cup of China winner Abbott took bronze with 229.03 after scoring 145.54 in the free skate, and is also through to the Quebec City final. Earlier Asada, this year's NHK Trophy silver medallist, held her lead from the short programme despite errors in her free skate to Liebestraum by Franz Liszt. She scored 183.25 points overall to put the 21-year-old Vancouver Olympics silver medallist into the Grand Prix final. "I'm really happy to get a place in the GP finals after two consecutive disastrous seasons," Asada said. "I decided to avoid the risks and concentrated on the quality of my free routine presentation and it worked as all of my rivals failed to avoid mistakes." Russia's Alena Leonova took the last remaining spot in the Quebec City's GP finals by winning silver with a solid presentation of her free programme Adagio for Strings and Requiem for a Tower for a 180.45 overall mark. Another Russian skater, junior world champion Adelina Sotnikova, took bronze with 169.75 points. Three-time world pairs champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy held their lead from the short programme to take their second gold this season after Skate America with 208.69 points. "We finished the last season pretty late and started our preparations for this season late also," Germany's Savchenko said. "So we're improving our form from one start to another. Our performance here is a really good practive ahead of the main events of the season." Russia's former European champions Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov presented well their free programme - Claire de Lune by Claude Debussy - receiving 197.84 points - with Italy's duo Stefania Berton and Ondrej Hotarek taking bronze. In dances the reigning world champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the United States won their season's second gold here after winning the Skate America. The US duo confirmed their leading position after the short dance with an irreproachable free dance - Die Fledermaus Overture by Johann Strauss - to grab gold with their season's best sum of 179.06 points. Canadian dancers Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, who already qualified for the finals, won their third silver medal from the circuit finishing 17.88 behind the Americans after they got their season's best 96.71 mark for free dance. The European silver medallists Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev of Russia, Cup of China winners this season, also assured their spot in the GP final finishing third with 156.83 points.