Chan, Tuktamisheva win Trophee Bompard titles

PARIS (AP) ― World champion Patrick Chan overcame a slew of errors to win the Trophee Bompard for the third time Saturday, and 14-year-old Elizaveta Tuktamisheva captured the women’s title with a clean, composed program that had the crowd on its feet.

Tuktamisheva, the world junior runner-up from Russia, nailed all her jumps with barely a wobble. She delivered another stellar performance after the one at Skate Canada in which she was the youngest winner in 30 years.

Tuktamisheva, who along with Chan sealed spots in next month’s season-ending Grand Prix Final, was making only her second senior Grand Prix appearance.

“I didn’t skate badly but there were still a few minor mistakes I could improve on,” she said. “Next year I’ll be able to go to the European and world championships, but not as a junior.”

Chan started strongly by nailing a quad toe loop-triple toe loop combination. But the Canadian lost his balance during the circular step sequence and landed awkwardly on two jumps.

“The warmup felt really good, the program didn’t,” he said. “I felt shaky on the quads all week. Sometimes you make mistakes, but overall I’m very pleased.”

In pairs, Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov of Russia defended their overnight lead to win the title. The ice dance was still to be settled.

Chan dominated Friday’s short program and had enough overall points (240.60) to comfortably beat Song Nan of China (224.10) and Michal Brezina of the Czech Republic (218.60).

Chan said he was not concentrating properly when he made a basic error during the step sequence.

“I’m not thinking enough about keeping my center strong,” he said. “I get too carried away.”

Song glided effortlessly across the ice to Franz Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2,” drawing loud applause from the crowd at the Bercy arena.