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2007 Trophée Eric Bompard - Figure Skating HighlightsCompulsory Dance, Men's Short, Ladies' Short, Pairs' Short, and Original Dance
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The fourth stage of the 2007-08 ISU Grand Prix Series began today in Paris, France at the Palais Omnisport de Paris Bercy.
Approximately 59 skaters from 17 different countries are competing for points and global prize monies totaling $180,000 in U.S. dollars. The points will go toward qualification for the Grand Prix Final in which the top six competitors from each discipline will be invited to compete for a total purse of $272,000 U.S. dollars.
The Grand Prix Final will be held Dec. 13-16, 2007, in Torino, Italy.
Trophée Eric Bompard kicked off on Nov. 16 with the Compulsory Dance, Men's Short Program, Ladies' Short Program, and the Original Dance.
The Compulsory Dance (CD) of the event was the Austrian Waltz, which consists of two sequences and was created by the Austrian brother-and-sister team of Susi and Peter Handschmann. It was first performed in 1979.
As usual for the French Grand Prix event, the compulsory dance competition was closed to the general public due to security reasons and cost. This resulted in an extremely eerie experience of watching the world leading skaters perform in front of the empty and mostly silent stands.
Nonetheless, France's Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder put a comfortable distance between themselves and the rest of the competitors by winning the "Austrian Waltz" by nearly a five point margin.
The European champions were clearly the most proficient dance team, performing the waltz on the largest pattern with the required deep lobes and excellent unison. Their only weakness was the relative lack of the lilting waltz character, but their superior technique allowed them to score 39.51 (20.26/19.25) points - exactly one point short of their personal best.
Russia's Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski made a very strong debut to their competitive season by finishing second with a personal best of 34.98 (17.66/17.23) points. While the Russian silver medalists expressed the waltz character perfectly however, they couldn't match the excellent flow demonstrated by the French team.
Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte of Italy placed third with 31.86 (16.34/15.52) points. Though the Italians excelled in presentation, they were unable to fully match the level of perfection in technique compared to that of the other stronger teams.
Coming off a disappointing fourth place finish at Skate America, USA's Meryl Davis and Charlie White placed a close fourth with 31.74 (16.40/15.34) points. Their soft and smooth skating earned them more points than the Italians in technique, but the relative lack of character hurt them in the program components.
Pernelle Carron and Mathieu Jost of France were fifth, followed by Armenia's Anastasia Grebenkina and Vazgen Azrojan.
Alban Preaubert of France lead the men's field after his Short Program to music from the Addams Family soundtrack. |
To the delight of the home crowd, Alban Preaubert of France won the Men's Short Program event, setting a new personal best of 72.70 (38.70/34.00) points.
The Frenchman performed his entertaining program to music from the Addams Family soundtrack with a lot of style and character, landing a triple flip-triple toeloop combination, a triple Axel, a triple loop, and gaining a level three on most of his spins.
"I did a good short program at Skate America three weeks ago," said Preaubert, "[but] it wasn't as good as here. I have worked hard on my component scores - on my spins and on my steps. I wanted to skate cleaner than at Skate America."
When asked about feeling any pressure due to the withdrawal of his teammate Brian Joubert, the 22-year-old responded: "I was very sad that Brian didn't come, because he is my friend. We finished first and second here last year and we wanted to repeat this result. But his withdrawal didn't change anything for me. I just planned to come into Trophée Bompard relaxed. I wanted to have fun and I am glad that I was confident on the ice. For sure, with Brian not being here, the French people expect more from me, but I tried not to think about it."
Patrick Chan of Canada is currently second with a new personal best of 70.89 (37.74/33.15) points.
Chan's only mistake came when he singled a triple Lutz, but the 2007 Skate America silver medalist otherwise landed a beautiful triple axel and triple flip-triple toeloop combination. The Canadian was also awarded high levels on his spins and footwork, but what really set him apart from all other competitors, was his intricate choreography and how he incorporated all the moves in the program into one seamless pattern.
"Today's performance was pretty good," said Chan. "I really liked the marks, of course. I realize now that the components are getting better in my skating. [As for] the technical part of the program, I wish it was a bit better. I did what I did. I did the flip-toe (triple-triple), which I doubled the toe at Skate America, but I popped the Lutz here."
Belgium's Kevin van der Perren is currently third after doubling an intended triple Axel. The 2007 Skate Canada silver medalist otherwise gained a level four on all of his spins and received the second highest technical score of the night. Despite earning a new personal best of 70.60 (38.10/32.50) points, the 2007 Skate Canada silver medalist was visibly disappointed by his performance.
"It was not my best technically," admitted van der Perren. "I am really happy though that I got the high levels in my spins."
Russia's Sergei Voronov, who was forced to withdraw from Skate Canada due to injury, skated a clean but conservative program. The current Junior World bronze medalist opted to do only a triple toeloop-triple toeloop as a combination jump, but combined with an excellent triple Axel and somewhat tightly landed triple loop, his performance to Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2 earned him 68.70 (37.10/31.60) points.
Japan's Kensuke Nakaniwa faltered on the landing of all of his jumps in his Sarabande routine, but he gained level four on two of his spins and is currently in the fifth place with 62.70 (35.30/27.40) points.
Christopher Mabee of Canada delivered a powerful performance to Khachaturian's Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia, but he received a negative grade of execution on both of his triple Axels and solo triple Loop. The Canadian silver medalist is currently in sixth place with 61.68 (31.78/29.90) points.
Only two skaters (both from the U.S.) attempted a quad jump in their short program, however, neither of them were successful.
The technical panel ratified Ryan Bradley's attempt, but he received a -3 Grade of Execution (GoE) across the board because he turned his planned combination jump (quadruple toeloop-triple toeloop) into a solo quadruple toeloop.
Scott Smith underrotated and fell on his opening quad salchow attempt.
The American skaters placed seventh and ninth, respectively.
Tomas Verner of the Czech Republic was considered to be one of the favorites, but he underrotated his second jump in a triple flip-triple toeloop combination, singled a triple loop, and only received a level one on two of his spins. As a result he is currently in eighth place with 57.23 (25.28/32.95) points.
Japan's Mao Asada placed first in the Ladies Short Program with her routine to Fantasia for Violin and Orchestra. |
Japan's Mao Asada won the Ladies Short Program event by a small margin over USA's Kimmie Meissner and Estonia's Elena Glebova, who placed second and third respectively.
Asada captivated the audience with her ethereal routine to Fantasia for Violin and Orchestra by Jean-Claude Petit, but failed to win over the more discriminating technical panel. Her triple Lutz was penalized for using the wrong take-off edge which cost the 2007 World silver medalist one point from the total elements score.
The Japanese champion also singled a triple loop and her spiral sequence was awarded only a level one. Asada only received 27.50 points for technical elements, but combined with her program component score of 29.40 points, earned a total of 56.90 points.
"I made a mistake on a jump in the short program," acknowledged the 17-year-old, who as visibly upset after her program. "Now I hope to do better tomorrow."
Meissner made the same mistake on her combination jump, receiving a deduction for using the wrong take-off edge on her solo triple flip, but the U.S. champion managed to outscore the Japanese slightly on the technical score (27.94 points) due to the better levels on her spins and one of her spirals. Combined with a program component score of 28.04 points, she is currently in second place with 55.98 points.
"I think it was pretty good," said Meissner. "[In] the past years, I've always made a mistake on my Lutz, so I was pretty excited about that. Now I need to get the next jump (flip)."
"A lot of my levels were what I wanted," continued the the 17-year-old. "My layback spin got a three! That was huge. I am not a fan of the layback. In between Skate America and Paris, I changed it and it actually got a level three because I don't do the Biellmann (spin). It's hard."
Glebova, who earned the highest technical score (32.40 points) of the evening, landed a triple loop, a triple toeloop-triple toeloop combination, and a double Axel. The student of Anna Kondrashova-Levandi is currently in third place with a total score of 55.24 points for her performance to Concerto de Aranjuez. It is by far her best achievement internationally.
"I didn't expect that I would be in third place after the short," conceded Glebova, "but I just did my best. Now I will keep trying to do my best again tomorrow."
Switzerland's Sarah Meier is currently in the fourth place with 53.98 (27.14/26.84) points. The current European silver medalist presented a lovely and enchanting program to music from the Patch Adams soundtrack, but her flying sit spin received no grade (presumably because she wasn't sitting low enough), and her triple flip was executed from the wrong take-off edge. The Swiss champion also experienced problems on her final combination spin which was graded a level one.
USA's Ashley Wagner attacked her Henry VIII routine with lots of energy, but the 2007 Junior World bronze medalist was penalized for using the wrong take-off edge on a triple Lutz (in combination with a double loop), and her spiral and footwork sequence received only a level one. She is currently fourth with 50.48 points.
Hungary's Viktoria Pavuk landed a triple Lutz-double toeloop combination, a triple flip, and a double Axel, however the execution of the Lutz was flawed and the landings of all jumps were rather tight. She placed sixth with 44.56 points.
Mira Leung of Canada is currently seventh, followed by Italy's Valentina Marchei.
Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang of China comfortably lead the field in the Pairs Short Program after their "Piano Fantasy" routine. |
Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang of China comfortably lead the field in the Pairs event with 71.60 (42.64/28.96) points after delivering a nearly flawless routine.
Skating to "Piano Fantasy", the 2006 Olympic silver medalist opened with an awesome triple twist which earned them 7.26 right from the beginning. The team proceeded to land an equally impressive throw triple loop and side-by-side triple salchows. They received high levels on their non-jumping elements and the judges were unanimous in their decision to reward the skaters with the positive grades of executions.
"We performed quite well," said Dan Zhang, "although there are still areas we could improve. For example our spins and the jumps."
Teammates Qing Pang and Jian Tong are currently in the second place. The 2007 World silver medalists had a poor start to the season after they placed a distant second to Canada's Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison at Skate America, but today they demonstrated the qualities which allowed them to become World Champions in 2006.
The Chinese champions were not flawless, however. They received slightly negative GOEs on their side-by-side triple toeloops, throw triple loop, and their pair combination spin. However, their performance was a major improvement over the one at Skate America and the overall complexity of their routine to O Doux Printemps d' Autrefois allowed them to earn 64.32 (35.92/28.40) points.
"This is our third competition after Skate America and the Cup of China," explained Tong, "so we feel a bit tired. Last year we did only one Grand Prix due to health problems, and this year we did three. But it is a good practice for us."
Russia's Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov are in a close third with a new personal best of 61.76 (35.84/25.92) points after their routine to Otonal by Raul di Blasio.
Coming off an extremely difficult season filled with coach changes and injuries, the Russian champions showed marked improvement under the guidance of Oleg Vasiliev, a former coach of Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin. The couple expanded their technical repertoire by including a triple twist, but the execution of this element wasn't perfect as Trankov failed to catch Mukhortova by her waist prior to putting her on the ice. All other elements were executed smoothly, including their side-by-side triple toeloops, a level four lift, and a throw triple Salchow which they placed at the very end of their program.
"This was not bad," said Trankov, "but it can be better. Tomorrow there will be a big fight in the free skating as the couples ranked third, fourth and fifth all have a good chance to make the podium."
USA's Tiffany Vise and David Trent are currently in the fourth place with a new personal best of 56.06 (32.94/23.12) points. They executed a strong throw triple loop, but made a slight mistake on the landing of their side-by-side triple toeloops.
Tatiana Volosozhar and Stanislav Morozov of the Ukraine, who showed great results at the European and World Championships last year, are currently in a disappointing fifth place (54.18 points). Morozov fell on his jump in the side-by-side triple toeloops, Volosozhar touched the ice with her hand on a throw triple loop, and the pair botched their final combination spin.
 France's Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder strengthen their lead after placing first in the Original Dance. |
In the final event of the day, the ice dancers took to the ice for the second time for the Original Dance (OD).
Delobel and Schoenfelder strengthened their lead (99.61 points) as they won the OD with 60.10 (30.40/29.70) points. The French couple, mostly known for their intricate free dances, opted to do a more sophisticated folk dance compared to their competitors, who chose outgoing and upbeat pieces. While the Breton fold dance performed by Delobel and Schoenfelder is substantially more exuberant than the programs they usually perform, it seemed tamed in comparison to the other dances performed tonight.
"It has been a long day," said Schoenfelder. "We skated a great Compulsory Dance and felt good on the ice - even though the ice quality wasn't so good. Especially for the last couples."
The main attraction of the dance were the intricate changes of holds and positions which were very efficiently used to express the character of the dance. The French champions, however, only received a level three on their dance spin and circular step sequence.
"It was not the best performance that we can do on this OD," admitted Schoenfelder, "but we completed all our elements without any big mistakes."
Khokhlova and Novitski remained in second place overall (93.04 points) after earning another personal best of 58.15 (30.60/27.55) points for the debut of their gypsy dance to the Two Guitars. The Russians performed the dance with their usual abandon and excellent expression, but the program fell a bit flat on the audience and it failed to gained momentum as the dance progressed. However, the team improved the attention to the technical elements since last season, and the only element in their dance which received level three was an opening combination spin.
"We are happy with everything even with the fact that we skated both Compulsory and Original Dances in one day," said Novitski. "It didn't bother us as the competition schedule was convenient for us."
Davis and White rose from fourth to third overall (86.99 points) after placing third in the OD with 55.25 (30.70/24.55) points. The U.S. bronze medalists received a level four on all their elements and earned the highest technical score of the night. Their Russian folk dance to Kalinka impressed the French audience with its upbeat character and nicely stylized moves.
"Today was a long day," said White, "but it felt good. It (the schedule) is kind of an interesting way to do it, but I think for us anyway it went really well. We didn't feel [any] effects from competing twice in a day. Coming in, we trained really hard and I think that paid off. We had energy for both programs and it felt like we pushed them out."
Performing to their native Armenian folk music, Grebenkina and Azrojan displayed nice flow and character, and stayed within their comfort zone without forcing elements beyond their level. The team was awarded a level four for their lifts, dance spin, and twizzles. Despite a deduction for an extended lift, the 2007 Ondrej Nepela Memorial bronze medalists placed fourth with a new personal best of 49.86 points, and are currently fifth overall (77.80 points).
Cappellini and Lanotte slipped from the third to the fourth place overall (80.97 points) after placing fifth 49.11 (26.28/23.83) points in the OD. Cappellini's blade slipped off her partner boot during the straightline lift, which was given a level one and and negative GOEs. Though the momentum building up to that point was lost, the Italians continued to express the character of their Serbian dance perfectly.
Carron and Jost dropped from fifth to sixth place overall (77.55 points) after making numerous mistakes in their Quebec folk dance. The 2007 Skate Canada bronze medalists had problems during their twizzles, stumbled during the circular step sequence, and came dangerously close to loosing their grip during the final rotation lift. The program was otherwise entertaining and warmly received by the French audience.
The event concludes tomorrow with the Free Dance, Men's Long Program, Ladies' Long Program, and the Pairs' Long Program.
