|
|
|
Join and Follow Us!  
|
2008 World Figure Skating Championships - HighlightsLadies Short and Pairs Long Programs
|
||||||||
|
|||
 |
|||
The 2008 ISU World Figure Skating Championships continued with the Ladies Short and Pairs Long Programs.
Italy's Carolina Kostner drew the lucky straw and currently leads the field of ladies with 64.28
(36.34/27.94) points. The 2008 European champion opened her program with an excellent triple flip-triple toeloop combination, but later stepped out of triple Lutz. She was otherwise clean and confident, maintaining excellent flow throughout her routine and execution intricate connecting steps without any glitches.
Kostner gained a level 4 on her spiral sequence, a level 2 on her layback spin, and a level 3 on other non-jumping elements to post the highest technical score of the night and receive a new seasons best - an achievement she admits to being very proud of.
"I have been trying to improve my season's best during the entire year," said Kostner at a post-event press conference. "I worked very hard towards this goal and it was my last chance to do it, so I'm very happy."
It is the first victory in the short program at a major championship for Kostner.
"I'm honored to be here at this position," said the 21-year-old, referring to a small gold medal she has received before the draw for the long program. "But I'll try to stay calm and skate well tomorrow."
Italy's Carolina Kostner, 21, performs to an instrumental version of Riders on the Storm at the 2008 World Figure Skating Championships. |
The former Italian champion, who missed this year's nationals due to the flu, took time off after winning at Europeans to spend with her family. She then went to Canada to work her choreography and before returning to Oberstdorf to train every day.
"I felt really good here," said Kostner. "The audience supported me throughout. I have very good memories of my Europeans debut here in Sweden, in Malmö. It all came back to me when I took the ice and I thought 'It's the place where I did so well'. I'm happy to skate for the Swedish people again."
Japan's Mao Asada is virtually tied for first place after posting a season's best of 64.10 (35.22/28.88) points. The 2008 Four Continents champion floated through her routine to Jean-Claude Petit's Fantasia for Violin and Orchestra, delivering a strong triple flip-triple loop combination, but her other elements weren't as well received by the technical panel.
The Japanese champion received a deduction for using the wrong take-off edge on a triple Lutz, and failed to achieve a level 4 on any of her non-jumping elements. While her flying sit spin and step sequence were awarded a level 3, she only earned a level 1 on her spiral sequence and a level 2 on two spins.
"I haven't watched the tape yet," said Asada at the press-conference, "but I'll analyze it later and I will improve on that tomorrow."
Otherwise, the current World silver medalist was satisfied with her performance. "I felt really concentrated when I skated, but I felt that the performance was really good. I'm very glad about the scores and that I did a season's best in this program. Now I just need to focus on the free program tomorrow."
Asada, who was coached by Rafael Arutunian for the past few years, parted ways with him after Japanese Nationals. However, the 17-year-old is unruffled by the change. "I didn't feel any impact being here without my coach because coaches from the Federation checked on my levels."
Teammate Yukari Nakano is currently third with a new personal best of 61.10 (34.83/26.27) points. The 2008 Japanese bronze medalist didn't receive any deductions, but the basic value of her program was lower as she only did a triple flip-double toe loop combination. The highlights of her program to Fantasie Impomptu were strong spins and spirals, but her awkward free leg position during the jumps prevented her from gaining bonus points for the quality of execution. Overall, the 22-year-old's performance was soft and lyrical and she displayed a nice understated confidence throughout her routine.
"I did everything I can do," said Nakano. "This is the best I can give. But the most important is still to come, the free skate tomorrow."
The student from Tokyo had a long break after her last competition - Japanese Nationals in late December. "I didn't have any competition for three months. I used this time to review every element and to work hard on my program. That gave me a good result today."
As Nakano was the first to skate in the two strongest groups, she was unsure which place she would achieve, but at the post event press conference she said that she felt very honored to be in her current position. "I am very surprised about it as well."
Finland's Kiira Korpi is currently fourth with a new personal best of 60.58 (34.22/26.36) points. She landed a triple Lutz-double toe combination, a triple loop out of steps and a double Axel, but made up for the relative lack of hard jumps by gaining high levels on her non-jumping elements. Her spiral sequence and flying sit spin were awarded a level 4 while all other elements were given a level 3. Her tango routine to Piazzolla's Triunfal was highlighted by intricate connecting steps which fit nicely into the character of her music.
"I'm very satisfied with my performance," said the 19-year-old. "It is not easy to do a clean program at Worlds because there is a lot of pressure on me. The crowd was amazing. I heard my name everywhere, but when I started to warm-up, I tried to shut out everything and only to focus on myself and my performance. Throughout the whole program, I had to fight, but I'm very satisfied."
South Korea's Yu-Na Kim, one of favorites of the competition, had to settle for fifth place after she fell on a triple Lutz attempt. The 2008 Grand Prix Final champion opened her program with an effortless triple flip-triple toeloop combination and later executed a double Axel out of an Ina Bauer, but her spiral sequence only received a level 1.
Kim's interpretation of Strauss' waltz to Die Fledermaus was perfect, and the straightline step sequence in particular looked more like a choreographic highlight rather than a required element. The 17-year-old earned the second highest presentation score of the evening (28.14), however, the low technical score (32.71) and one point deduction for fall prevented her from reaching the 60-point mark in total. Quite a disappointment for the skater who holds the world record for a Ladies Short program with 71.95 points. With 59.85 points, the current Worlds bronze medalist is nearly five points behind the leaders, but is still within striking distance of the podium.
"I felt pain from my earlier injury (hip/back) when I did the triple-triple combination and then tried to do the Lutz," explained Kim. "That is why I fell. But I have fallen in previous competitions so I do not think it was hard to recover, and I was not so nervous. I am not so happy about the scores and I am unsatisfied because of the fall."
Joannie Rochette of Canada rounds up the top six. The 2008 Four Continents silver medalist opened her program with a strong double Axel, but then doubled a toeloop in a planned triple flip-triple toeloop combination. The 22-year-old also stepped out of a triple Lutz, but her strong non-jumping elements (which were all rated level 3 and 4) allowed her to get into the final flight for the long program. Although she presented one of the most intricate programs of the evening, her presentation score was one of the lowest among the leaders, and she earned 59.53 (32.99/26.54) points.
"I am satisfied," said the 2008 Canadian champion. "Although I planned to do the triple flip-triple toeloop combination. I was not that good in the warm-up and the flip was not that solid either, so it was the better strategy today. I wanted to get closer to the top five, which I missed last time at Worlds."
Switzerland's Sarah Meier skated skated a clean but conservative program, opting to do only a triple Salchow as a jump out of steps, and is currently seventh with 59.59 (32.17/27.32) points.
Miki Ando from Japan is eighth after a rather lifeless performance to Scheherezade. The defending World Champion played it safe with a triple Lutz-double loop combination jump and currently has 59.21 (31.93/27.28) points.
Kimmie Meissner is currently ninth (57.25 points), followed by teammates Beatrisa Liang (52.81 points) and Ashley Wagner (51.49 points).
 Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy became the first German pair team to win a World title since 1997. |
Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy from Germany, who stood in second after the short program, won their first World title in the dramatic Pair Skating final. Skating after their main rivals, Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang of China, the Germans opened with a huge through triple flip, followed by a triple toeloop-triple toeloop sequence in which Szolkowy stepped out of the second jump. The team performed a strong level 2 triple twist, but both skaters made mistakes on their side-by-side triple Salchows: Szolkowy fell and Savchenko lost her balance and put both hands on the ice.
Nonetheless, their excellent non-jumping elements (all level 4 except for a level 3 step sequence) and intricate choreography allowed them to make up the ground they lost in the short program and win the event with an impressive five-point margin. The two-time and current European champions scored 130.86 (68.77/63.09) points for their Cirque du Soleil routine, and rose to first overall with a total score of 202.86 points.
The title meant a great deal for the team, their hometown, country, and Germany's figure skating as a whole. Their coach, Ingo Steuer, along with his former partner Mandy Woetzel, were the last Germans to win a World title in 1997.
When asked about what went through their heads then they made a mistake on triple Salchow, Szolkowy was quite frank: "Yeah, Salchow... I was some 30% surprised that I fell on it, it felt so good in the air. At the first two-three seconds after the mistake, I thought 'Shit, here goes our chance', but then I recalled the things we worked on in practices, that you could always catch up after small mistakes... well, it was pretty major one, but still..."
His partner agreed. "Anyway, we had to go on till the end. I knew it wasn't over. I was determined to fight till the very end."
When asked about her move from Ukraine to Germany, Savchenko replied: "It was my dream to come to Germany, and it is always great when your dreams come true. Today was just perfect. I'm sure lots of Ukrainians still root for me. I received a lot of message and phone calls, but unfortunately I had no time to reply to them so far."
Canadians Jessica Dubé and Bryce Davison won their first World medal with after a mesmerizing performance to an instrumental version of Blower's Daughter. Though the team only did a double twist as opposed to a triple, their solid side-by-side jumps (double Axel-double Axel sequence and triple Salchows) and good throws, combined with strong lifts and excellent side-by-side spins, resulted in the second highest technical score of the night.
The only flaw in the 2008 Canadian silver medalist's routine was a touchdown with hand by Dubé on a throw triple Lutz in the second half of the program. They improved their personal best score for the free program by almost nine points, placing second with 124.12 (66.92/57.20) points, and finishing third overall with 192.78 points to win the bronze.
"We knew we could do it (win a medal)," said Davison, "but actually... All I can say is 'wow'."
"The practice in the morning went well," added Dube. "We were relaxed and focused. I think we knew then that it could be good."
During the press conference Davison explained that they planned to add a triple twist to their repertoire next season. "We will certainly work on it. I think we are ready to add another rotation. Jess is one of fastest rotators around, so just adding a rotation is not a problem. But we want to make sure we have a proper technique on the element. Not just the rotations, but good levels and good GOE: good catch, split, steps coming into it... we want a level 3 triple twist. Another goal for next season is adding another side-by-side triple."
Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang of China held onto second place overall (197.82points), winning their second World Championships silver medal despite finishing third in the long with 123.4 (64.15/59.31) points. The team ran into problems right at the beginning when Dan singled a planned double Axel in side-by-side double Axel - triple toeloop combination. She later she put hand down on the landing of a throw triple salchow.
While the 2008 Four Continents silver medalists earned respectable levels on their non-jumping elements, they were not good enough to make up for the mistakes on the jumps, and their technical score was only the third highest of the night. However, the command of all their moves, developed over years of competing on the highest level, allowed them to gain the second best presentation score.
"We made mistakes on two of our jumps," noted Dan. "We really regret that we were not able to skate our best tonight. My partner is with the doctor now."
Russia's Yuko Kawaguchi and Alexander Smirnov, who were third coming into long program, narrowly missed the podium as they are scored 191.33 (119.91 (61.40/58.51) points for their long program to Love Story. It was however, a personal best for them.
The 2008 Russian champions opened with a slightly flawed attempt on a throw quad Salchow, but then Smirnov stepped out of his opening jump on a planned triple toeloop-triple toeloop sequence. Last year, the incorrect execution of this move them cost them a lot as they dropped from fourth to 10th place in the standings, but the rules were modified this year allowing athletes a better benefit of the doubt.
Still, the students of Tamara Moskvina appeared unprepared for problems as Kawaguchi hesitantly tackled a double toeloop at the end of the sequence, while always looking over her shoulder on her partner. Later in the program, Smirnov turned out of his double Axel landing. The 2008 European bronze medalists were otherwise clean and they gained a level 4 on most of their non-jumping elements except for a level 1 step sequence and level 3 death spiral, but the lack of a combination jump hurt their technical score.
"We just missed the podium narrowly," noted Smirnov. "We did the quad throw. Overall we skated quite well. We learned a lot of lessons here: to be in the top three after the short program, to skate in the last warm-up, to skater after new World champions, and to have the whole day to spend before the competition. These are all lessons for us and we need to learn them."
Qing Pang and Jian Tong from China remained in the fifth place overall (186.78 points) after placing fifth in the long with 118.91 (58.79/60.12) points. Pang underrotated her jump in the side-by-side triple toeloops, and then popped her first jump and underrotated the second in a planned double Axel-double Axel sequence. The 2007 World silver medalists performed their trademark lateral triple twist and huge triple throws, which were moved into the second half of the program to maximize the points, but without any clean side-by-side jumps, they were unable to move forward.
"It wasn't very good," Pang admitted afterwards. "Two of the jumps were downgraded. It is very hard to get into the top three today. We did our best during the competition."
"The technical pane didn't give credit to our triple jumps," added Tong. "We did make triple jumps. They (tech panel) thought they were not good enough and only gave us points for two doubles. We did two jumps with high degrees of difficulty, but the points we got were for the lowest levels. In addition, we lost some more points. We will probably have some conversation with the judges afterwards and practice more when we get home to solve this problem. These two jumps made a difference of 10 points together. Anyway, we did as well as we could tonight."
Meagan Duhamel and Craig Buntin of Canada moved up to sixth place overall (169.61 points) after placing sixth in the long with a new personal best of 109.60 (58.86/50.74) points. Skating to Tosca, they opened their performance with a strong side-by-side triple toe-double toe combination and triple Salchows. Their only mistake was a step out of a throw triple Lutz, but overall, they lived up to the powerful music of Puccini's music.
"I'm speechless," said Duhamel afterwards. "That's more than I expected coming here, so it's a bonus."
"We are such a new team," added Buntin. "I had a major injury over the past few months, and these past months have really been the most difficult time of both of our lives. So to come out here tonight...we are just so proud of what we did. I have surgery next week, but as soon as we come back from that, we will take a big step on just becoming a team over spring and summer and really showing what we can do next year."
Teammates Anabelle Langlois and Cody Hay, who stood in ninth after the short program, nailed their opening throw triple Salchow, but then Langlois doubled her opening jump on the side-by-side triple toeloop-double toeloops, and didn't complete the second jump. She later overrotated a triple twist in which Hay failed to catch her as she slipped through his arms.
The newly-crowned Canadian champions otherwise performed perform solid and difficult lifts and gained high levels for other non-jumping elements. Their lyrical program to music from the Dr. Zhivago soundtrack and left a strong overall impression, and they earned a new personal best of 105.24 (57.46/47.78) points. They rose to eighth overall with a total score of 164.67 points.
"It wasn't the best," admitted Langlois, "but it was pretty good. One mistake in the beginning, but then we recovered and I think we improved a lot of the presentation so that was important to us."
Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov of Russia, who were sixth coming into the long program, finished ninth in the free program and dropped to seventh place overall (166.64 points) after a heart-breaking performance.
Both skaters made mistakes on the opening side-by-side jumps, which isn't that uncommon, but immediately afterward they were unable to execute a twist lift, which clearly showed that something was quite wrong. The 2008 Russian silver medalists seemed on their way to recover as they landed both throws, but then Trankov interrupted the performance and skated to the referee while massaging his right arm - his face twisted in pain.
"Maxim told me already before the program that his arm was hurting a lot and he warned me that he might have to stop during the performance," said Mukhortova. "So it didn't come unexpected for me. After the pair spin, he told me that he had to stop."
After team doctor cut Trankov's costume cuff to improve blood circulation, they picked up their program from the point of interruption and skated well enough, executing two overhead lifts, but they lost too many points on the first minute of the program and only scored 102.55 (50.99/51.56) points.
"Two months ago during Europeans he had an inflammation of the lymph system in his right arm," explained coach Oleg Vasiliev. "We have solved this program after Europeans, but today the condition started to worsen. He just did not know how to skate with that."
Vasiliev went on to say that the doctor wasn't able to do much other than cut open the costume to allow for better circulation in his hand. "When the blood circulation resumed, he continued to skate it to finish the program. It really was the same problem just that at Europeans it happened after his program and not in the middle of it."
Ukrainians Tatiana Volosozhar and Stanislav Morozov slipped from eighth to ninth overall (159.95 points) after placing 10th in the long (100.42 points). Morozov stepped out his jump on the side-by-side triple Salchows, while Volosozhar fell on a throw triple Salchow.
USA's Rena Inoue and John Baldwin finished eighth in the long (103.37 points) and 10th overall (157.20 points). Inoue put her hand down on a throw triple loop and fell later on a throw triple Axel. The team also received a deduction for a time violation.
The event continues with the Original Dance and the Ladies Long Program.
