Chan, Kostner golden at Grand Prix Final

Canada’s reigning world champion Patrick Chan stumbled twice and fell once, but held on for his second consecutive win at the ISU Figure Skating Grand Prix Final. Italy's Carolina Kostner claimed the women's title, the three-time European champion's first in the Grand Prix series finale. Her performance also had some rough edges that will require attention heading into the 2012 championship events. In contrast, the pairs medallists delivered sparkling performances. Three-time world champions from Germany, Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy, overtook first round leaders Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov of Russia to claim gold by the slimmest of margins -- 212.26 to 212.08. Both couples earned standing ovations for captivating performances which featured superb lifts, spins, throws and individual triple jumps performed at lightning speed. A second Russian duo, Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov, earned bronze with an impressive free skate for a total of 187.77 points. The Germans' programme, set to music from the movie Pina -- a documentary about modern dance pioneer Pina Bausch -- featured enchantingly quirky choreography. Their angular positions and movements gave the veteran couple a fresh, modern look. Volosozhar and Trankov struck an emotional chord with their dramatic interpretation set to the Black Swan soundtrack. The two couples will continue their rivalry in January at the European championships in Britain, and at the worlds in France in March. Chan, leader after the short programme, struggled to control the landings on his two quadruple toe-loop jumps. He stayed upright, but later fell on a simpler triple lutz. Still, he notched enough total points -- 260.30 -- to hold off Japan's Daisuke Takahashi. "My quads were really good this week in practice, so it’s funny that I kinda missed on both of them, but I did some quick thinking and put a triple toe at the end of the triple flip and that helped me today," Chan said. Takahashi rebounded after a disappointing short programme to climb from fifth to second overall with 249.12. The 2010 world champion delivered the most solid jumping performance of the day. His only error came in touching one hand down to steady himself after two-footing the landing of his quadruple toe-loop. Javier Fernandez, the first Spaniard to qualify for the Final, goes home with bronze. He sailed through two of the best quadruple jumps -- a toe-loop and salchow -- ever executed by anyone anywhere, but the landings of three other jumps were shaky as he finished with a total of 247.55 points. Takahashi said that having to come from behind took the pressure off. "I didn’t have a lot to lose today," Takahashi said. "Mentally, it was relaxing. I was able to focus and concentrate." Like Chan, Kostner was competent if not stellar. Sporting a shimmering silver-grey bodysuit, she showed six triple jumps but three of her landings were shaky. She won with a total of 187.48 points, significantly outdistancing Japan's Akiko Suzuki, who took silver with 179.76. Russian Alena Leonova claimed bronze with 176.42. "I was really nervous going into this performance having to defend my lead, so I am happy I didn’t have any major mistakes, but I have the feeling I could have done better," said the 24-year-old 2011 world bronze medallist. Suzuki, 26, delivered more difficult triples than Kostner, including two lutzes, but also had miscues on three jump landings. "This is the best placing for me in the Grand Prix Final and I’m very happy about that, but I did not skate my best and I’m not very happy about that," she said. The competition concludes on Sunday with the ice dance free dance.