BEIJING (Kyodo) Shizuka Arakawa put on a graceful display to place second in the women's short program at the figure skating Grand Prix final Friday.
Arakawa earned a total of 64.10 points, finishing behind Salt Lake City Olympic silver medalist Irina Slutskaya of Russia, who marked 65.46 to take the lead before the free skate at Capital Gymnasium in Beijing.
"I didn't think that I would be able to come this far," Arakawa said. "I'm glad I just forgot about everything and did a good job. I wasn't able to land jumps in practice but everything I've worked on paid off for me," she said.
Yoshie Onda, who came fifth at the last Grand prix final, scored 52.18 points for fourth while Miki Ando, making her first appearance at the meet, came fifth with 51.06 after failing to land a clean jump in her program.