First stage of Figure Skating Grand Prix started in the capital of Japan, Tokyo. This tournament is known as NHK. 12 participants are competing in the tournament. Georgian girl Elene Gedevanishvili is among them.
On the first day of the tournament, sportswomen danced in short program. A 20-year-old Gedevanishvili danced on the soundtrack of movie "Chicago" and took the 9th place.
Elene got quite good result (25.86) in program components and took the 5th place. She got very low points (18.65) for technical components and she was ahead of only outsider Canadian Dian Shmit (14.04). Overall, Elene got 47.95 points and was 10 points behind leader of the short program Italian Carolina Kostner (57.27).
World youth champion Japanese Kanako Muramaki (56.10) was a little bit behind European champion. Current world champion Japanese Mao fell down several times and took the 8th place with 47.95 points.
Long program among women will be held tomorrow, on October 23. Georgian girl whose coach and choreographer is American Robin Wagner, will dance on the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber from the movie "The phantom of the opera".
The best result of Gedevanishvili is 165.54 which she showed at last European Championship and she brought bronze medal for Georgia. Elene got 61.92 points in short program. She would have been leader at Tokyo tournament with these points.
Prize money of NHK Trophy is 180 000 USD. Winner will get 18 000 USD. The champion will also gain 15 rating points. First 8 sportswomen will gain rating points (15, 13, 11, 9, 7, 5, 4 and 3 points). Gedevanishvili has 1906 points now and is in the 12th place in world ranking.
After the end of all stages of Grand Prix (each sportswomen can participate in two tournaments), 6 best girls will compete in the final round which will be held on December 9-12 in the capital of China, Beijing. Prize money of the final round is 272 000 USD.

NHK Trophy, Grand Prix 2010-2011 of International Skating Union (ISU), Tokyo (Japan)
Women, short program
1. Carolina Kostner (Italy) 57.27 points (27.52+29.75)
2. Kanako Murakami(Japan) 56.10 (29.81+26.29)
3. Rachael Flatt (USA) 53.69 (28.29+25.40)
4. Ashley Wagner (USA) 52.93 (27.34+25.59)
5. Kiira Korpi (Finland) 52.60 (23.89+28.71)
6. Caroline Zhang (USA) 50.71 (25.93+24.78)
7. Jenna McCorkell (Great Britain) 49.07 (26.36+22.71)
8. Mao Asada (Japan) 47.95 (20.00+28.95)
9. Elene Gedevanishvili (Georgia) 44.51 (18.65+25.86)
10. Viktoria Helgesson (Sweden) 43.66 (21.49+23.17)
11. Léna Marrocco (France) 41.67 (22.99+19.68)
12. Dian Shmit (Canada) 31.90 (14.04+18.86)