Tuktamysheva leads Russian 1-2 at GP final

 Elizaveta Tuktamysheva led a Russian 1-2 ahead of Elena Radionova at the ISU Grand Prix of figure skating Final on Saturday.
Ashley Wagner prevented an unprecedented Russian podium sweep of the women's event when the American moved up from last after the short programme to grab bronze after the free skating final.
The 23-year-old was followed by Anna Pogorilaya and Julia Lipnitskaya, who were fourth and fifth, with Japan's Rika Hongo finishing last in the six-woman field.
Tuktamysheva, 17, led all the way, scoring highest in Thursday's short programme and gave a strong free skate to 'Batwannis Beek' and 'Sandstorm' which gave her a new personal best 136.06 points and overall total of 204.58.
"I'm a little bit surprised that I was able to skate completely clean for the first time this season," said Tuktamysheva.
She landed seven triple jumps including three in combination with other jumps, also scoring high for skating skills, footwork and choreography.
"Now I'm going back to St Petersburg to recover completely and hopefully I'll skate well at the Russian nationals which will be even more interesting, harder and exciting than the European Championships."
Radionova, 15, scored 198.74 for her skate to Rachmaninov Selections to move up from third as Lipnitskaya dropped from second after errors in her performance to Romeo and Juliet.
"I was able to fix mistakes I did in the short programme," said Radionova, who was the only woman to win gold in both her Grand Prix assignments -- Skate America and the Trophee Bompard.
She was also wary of the competition awaiting at Russian nationals from December 24-28.
"I'm not so young any more. I'll soon be 16 and there are younger girls coming, doing triple-triples," said the two-time world junior champion.
"I'm a great grandma when you say that," quipped Wagner, who scored 189.50 overall after her performance to the Moulin Rouge soundtrack for her third consecutive Grand Prix final medal.
"Today was huge for me," said Wagner. "That I came from last place and got on the podium is a huge accomplishment against the best girls in the world.
"I'm improving little by little as the season goes on. I just have to put out two solid programmes because although the free skate was good this competition has been kind of wonky."
Russia also went 1-2 in the women's junior competition in Barcelona with Evgenia Medvedeva taking gold ahead of Serafima Sakhanovich.
Source: AFP