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2009 World Figure Skating ChampionshipsMen's Short and Pairs' Long Programs
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The 2009 World Figure Skating Championships continued with the Men's Short Program and the Pairs' Long Program.
There is something in the air in Los Angeles. Or maybe it's in the water. Either way, figure skating has never looked so good. After great competitions yesterday, the men took to the ice at the Staples Center, and followed up those performances with some great ones of their own. A little more than four points separates the top four competitors which sets the stage for a dramatic freeskate that could be one of the most talked about events in recent years.
Leading the pack is Brian Joubert of France, the 2007 World Champion, who skated an audience-pleasing program to Rise by Safri Duo. Joubert opened with a hand down on his quadruple toe loop attempt, but was able to tack on a triple toe loop on the end, albeit with a step out.
"I didn't have enough speed (to do the quad)," Joubert explained. "After this, I just kept going and tried to give 100% on every element and the components."
The reigning European Champion was exact on all of his other elements, earning high levels and grades of execution (GOE) to propel him into the lead. His total score of 84.40 points gave him a 1.70 points lead heading into the freeskate.
"I'm very happy with my short program today because I got a good score," said the 24-year-old. The rest of the program was very clean - especially the spins and the footwork."
Sitting in second place is USA's Evan Lysacek, skating in his adopted hometown and in front of a huge crowd of supporters.
"Obviously I am very excited to be in my hometown," Lysacek gushed. "I love this building and this city. I want to not only represent my country well, but I want to represent my city well, too. A lot of my friends and family are here, and some of my friends have never seen me skate live. I felt a lot of good energy."
Brian Joubert of France leads the Men's Short Program at the 2009 World Figure Skating Championships after his skate to Rise by Safri Duo. |
Lysacek showed a much more relaxed, yet somehow more intense program, to Ravel's Bolero, and got through each technical element without error. Along with his triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination, Lysacek's triple Axel was rewarded with a positive GOE, for which the Four Continents silver medalist was excited.
"Once the hard elements were out of the way, I started celebrating as the rest of the program went on," the 23-year-old said. "I tried to work the choreography a little bit more in the second half and show a lot of character."
The U.S. bronze medalist earned a total of 82.70 points in the short program, and leads Canadian Patrick Chan by 0.15 points heading into the freeskate.
"I haven't decided if I am doing the quad yet," said the two-time U.S. champ. "I'm going to see how it goes tomorrow."
Skating to Vanessa Mae's rendition of Tango de los Exilados, Chan also performed each of his elements cleanly, but was unable to perform with his usual flair. Chan's triple Axel, however, was scored as the best in the competition.
"I think I came in a little bit more nervous than usual," admitted the 18-year-old. "I was hoping to skate better than I did last year at Worlds. I really enjoyed my performance, and gave it all my best."
The Canadian Champion has become embroiled in a war of words of late with the leader over the importance of a quadruple jump in a program. However, in this competition, Chan was more concerned about the component scores than the quadruple jump.
"I'm really disappointed with (the fact that Joubert bested him on the component marks), and I think that a lot of people are going to be talking about that," Chan shared. "It's pretty obvious that there is a big difference between me and Evan against Joubert. It's really frustrating for me… he's got much more experience than I do at this level, so I think that has something to do with it."
Chan sits in third place with a total of 82.55 points, and is close enough to Joubert to make it a really interesting event tomorrow in the free skate.
In fourth place is the Czech Republic's Tomas Verner, the 2008 European Champion. After opening with a gorgeous quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop, Verner messed up the landing on his triple Axel, which cost him the lead.
"I'm really upset with my triple Axel," admitted the 22-year-old. "The quad-triple and the Lutz were good, and all of the spins except for one were a level four. It was okay for the beginning. I wasn't nervous, but my legs were a bit shaky."
Verner was in fourth place after last year's short program as well, but he had a disastrous performance in the freeskate and plummeted to 15th place overall. This season has been one of ups and downs for Verner, who finally qualified this season for his first Grand Prix Final where he placed fourth. Here in Los Angeles, Verner has a renewed focus, but has been trying to overcome his mental block with the rink itself.
"For me, not the width, but the length of the rink is a problem," Verner admitted. "Especially for my set up of the triple Axel. But I just have to shut that out of my mind and do the triple Axel as I can do it easily."
Verner earned 80.36 points for his efforts, just a hair more than Takahiko Kozuka of Japan's 79.35 points.
Kozuka is making a case for himself to be considered among the few elite at the top of men's skating. Skating to a sleek and sassy program to Dave Brubeck's Take Five, the Grand Prix Final silver medalist skated perhaps the most sedate performance of the competition. Everything seemed so polished and easy for the athlete.
"After the first jump, I felt very confident," the Japanese silver medalist shared. "It gave me the energy and the excitement to stay concentrated until the end - even though I felt so nervous after the last jump that I couldn't tell if I was breathing or not."
Kozuka was competitive with the top men from a technical standpoint, but received lower program component scores that kept him out of the top three. Should the top men falter, the 20-year-old could play the role of spoiler and skate away with a medal.
In sixth place is Italy's Samuel Contesti. After a four-year absence from international championships, the recently crowned European silver medalist is making quite the splash.
"There are many very good competitors here so nobody can predict what will happen," said the 26-year-old. "I just try to do my job and see how it goes."
Contesti did just that in his routine to J'envoie valser and Valse des monsters, commanding the ice with interesting choreography and competent technical elements including a gorgeous triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination.
Due to Contesti's lack of international experience, however, the Italian champ was seeded far lower than his skating would indicate, and his new personal best score of 78.50 points held up some 22 skaters later in the evening.
Finishing in seventh place is Japan's Nobunari Oda, who is making his celebrated return to the World Championships after a missing last season due to personal reasons. The 22-year-old opened his program with a nice triple Axel, but ran out of room on his triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination and landed into the boards.
"I think that I had too much speed," the Japanese Champion admitted, "but I fall in practice all the time, so it is no big deal."
Skating to Khatchaturian's Masquerade Waltz, Oda performed the rest of his program with poise and flair, and earned 76.49 points for his efforts.
Just behind Oda is U.S. silver medalist Brandon Mroz, who skated to Richard Strauss' Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks. The 18-year-old is making his World Championships debut, and did himself proud with a solid and clean performance.
"Today I did what I do in practice, and I tried to deliver my best," said the high school student. "I felt great energy from this crowd, and I have a great support system here supporting me."
Mroz showed that his nationals performance was not a fluke - , earning a career best of 76.49 points with a performance marred only by a minor issue with his solo triple flip jump. However, his triple Axel and triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination were exquisite, and his total element score was actually higher than Oda's.
In ninth place is Russia's Sergei Voronov, who opened with a slight miscue on the back half of his quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop combination. The Russian champ was clean on his other two jumps, but he could earn only a level two for both of his step sequences. Still, his score of 72.15 is a new personal best, and he hopes for some Hollywood magic heading into the freeskate.
"So far everything has been very positive," said the 21-year-old with a smile. "I am here for the first time in California, and I hope this competition will have a Hollywood "happy end" for me. Almost everything worked out for me today."
Finishing in a disappointing 10th place is U.S. Champion Jeremy Abbott, who perpetuated his reputation as a head case by missing two key elements in his short program.
"I have to remember that I cannot recreate moments that I have already lived," Abbott said of his wins at the Grand Prix Final and the U.S. Championships. "I think that I tried to relive those moments here, and that is where I went wrong. I need to focus on creating a new moment each time I skate, and then I will get over this hump of not skating up to my abilities."
Fortunately, Abbott has a lot of experience to draw from in coming from behind, but his short program score of 72.15 points will make it difficult for the 23-year-old to move into medal position.
Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany won their second consecutive title at the 2009 World Figure Skating Championships after placing first in both the Short and Long Program. |
After a night of great skating in the pairs short program, the pairs freeskate was a huge let down of sorts, as there were only two performances that were worth phoning home about.
Perhaps it was because of the late hours that the competitors were forced to keep last night (the draw ended sometime after 11:30 PM PDT), or maybe it was because the pressure wore the skaters down as they attempted to qualify their nation for entries into the Olympic Games. Whatever the reason, the skating was just not as good as in the short program.
One of the highlights of the night was the commanding win by the reigning champions, Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany who decimated the competition by outscoring the silver medalists by more than 16 points.
"It means a lot to us," Szolkowy explained. "We knew it would be different when you have to defend a title. One year has passed, and all others have been working hard as well. We skated both programs really well. It was a good competition for us."
Skating to a medley of music from Schindler's List and Albinoni's Adagio, the two-time champions performed the most technically demanding program of the evening. After opening with a triple toe loop-triple toe loop sequence, the team executed a gorgeous throw triple flip. Next, Savchenko and Szolkowy nailed another solo triple jump- a Salchow, which pretty much put the nail in the coffin of anybody else's chance to challenge for the title.
Though the program was head and shoulders better than any other team's efforts, it was not without error. In the middle of the circular step sequence, Szolkowy inexplicably tumbled to the ice, reducing the element to a level two with a negative GOE.
"It was one of those mistakes that you can laugh at," said Szolkowy with a grin. "That just never happens. Not even in practice. I think that maybe my weight just got off center or something."
The champions still crushed the competition with a freeskate total of 131.18 points and 203.48.
"We will go shopping," Szolkowy said, now that the competition is over for them. "We will play the role of tourist. We will go to the beach, and just take in the flavor of being in Hollywood."
Moving up from third place after the short program to place second by the narrowest of margins is the now three-time World silver medalist tandem of Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang.
"Since we have won the silver so many times, it means that there are still some things that we need to improve upon," Hao Zhang said philosophically. "We will continue to work hard on all of those points. We are still happy that we won the silver medal, but we know that there is much to work on. It's almost the Olympics, and we need to fix this!"
The Chinese team opened with a mistake in their routine to Hao Weiya's Yangtze River Piano Concerto as Dan Zhang stepped out of the back half of their double Axel-triple toe loop combination. However, the Four Continents bronze medalists regrouped and seemed to build a quiet strength as the program wore on. However, a late program attempt at a triple Salchow proved to be too much for Dan Zhang, as she could only manage a double.
"Tonight was ok, but we are not satisfied," Dan Zhang admitted. "There were details that we missed, and the solo jumps we didn't do as well as we can."
Zhang and Zhang earned 119.10 points for their freeskate, and scored a competition total of 186.52 points - a mere 0.13 points more than the Russian duo of Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov.
Kavaguti and Smirnov, who stood in second after the short, gave a gutsy but flawed performance to Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci that will be remembered for a hard fall by Kavaguti on an attempt at the throw quadruple Salchow.
"Nothing is broken," lamented the recently naturalized Russian Kavaguti. "So I am ok. I hit my cheek, so I think that tomorrow I will probably have a bruise."
The European silver medalists also made a mistake on their opening move, a triple toe loop-double toe loop sequence, for which they earned -.80 GOE. However, their other throw and jump attempts were flawless, and their spins were scored quite well.
"I think overall it was an okay performance because we have improved since last year," Smirnov said. "Unfortunately our free program was not perfect today, and maybe we are not strong enough yet because we are lacking experience. It is a shame about the quad throw because in all practices Yuko did it clean and on one foot and showed it to the judges. But we will get it next time."
Kavaguti and Smirnov earned 117.45 points and a competition total of 186.39 points to earn their first spot on the podium as a team in their third appearance at this event.
China's Qing Pang and Jian Tong moved up to fourth place with a passionate performance to a medley of tango music.
"We have learned how to perform better by being part of the Champions on Ice Tour," Pang said. "We have learned how to entertain the audience, and this is something that we work very hard on in our programs."
The former World Champions struggled on their first two elements that killed any hope that they had to stand on the podium again this season. Pang and Tong opened with a planned double Axel-double Axel sequence that turned into a double-single sequence, and then received a downgrade on the next element - a triple toe loop.
"Maybe the jumps were not perfect tonight," Tong admitted, "but the overall performance was good, so we are very happy."
Pang and Tong scored 115.90 points in the freeskate and 181.08 points overall.
Finishing in fifth place overall was the Russian duo of Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov, who skated an entertaining program to The Lady and the Hooligan. However, holding true to form, the duo could not pull together a solid technical performance in the freeskate as they finished in seventh place in this phase of the competition.
"Again, we could not skate our best in the freeskate," said a disappointed Trankov. "I don't know why this keeps happening. We train very well, and this never happens in practice. In competition, something always does not work, and I don't understand. I was fine through the first half of the program, but then my legs started feeling shaky towards the end. I wish I knew why."
Mukhortova and Trankov opened well with a nice triple twist lift and a triple toe loop-double toe loop combination, but later made mistakes on a planned triple Salchow attempt and on the throw triple Salchow. The European bronze medalists scored 111.01 points in the freeskate and 177.89 points overall.
The Ukrainian team of Tatiana Volosozhar and Stanislav Morozov held their sixth place position after the short program, and like most of the other teams, struggled from the start of their program.
"The jumps were not so good today," admitted Morozov, "but everything else was pretty good for us."
After making a mistake by Morozov on their opening triple toe loop-triple toe loop sequence, Volosozhar could not complete their follow up triple Salchows, and stepped out of a double instead. The rest of their elements were clean and steady, though, and the crowd appreciated the performance aspect of their "Pearl Harbor" program.
Volosozhar and Morozov earned 111.51 points in the freeskate, good enough for fifth place, but their total of 175.61 was just short of allowing them to move up overall.
Finishing in a disappointing seventh place is last year's bronze medalists Jessica Dubé and Bryce Davison from Canada. This performance was marred by Dubé's inability to convert their planned jumps into completed elements. Dubé stepped out of the first double Axel in a planned double-double sequence, and did not even attempt the second Axel, costing the team 3.8 points in base value. Later, Dubé put her hand down on a triple Salchow, giving up another point in the GOE mark.
"We both just weren't very solid over our skates today," Davison explained. "It can happen, but it was a combination of a whole bunch of things today. We felt really good on warm up, and even the start of the program was okay. From that point everything got a little bit rushed, I think."
The Canadian champs equaled the gold medalists in terms of receiving level fours on their elements, earning six in total, but the errors on the jumps was just too much to overcome. Their total of 111.02 points in the freeskate was sixth best, but their competition total of 172.82 points kept them in seventh place overall.
Teammates Meagan Duhamel and Craig Buntin had a disastrous performance, making mistakes on all of their high value elements.
"This for us is about as bad as it gets," Duhamel said disappointedly. "Everything just seemed to go wrong. We never skate like that."
Buntin made mistakes on all three of the solo jumps, while Duhamel lost her axis in the air on both of the throw jumps, causing her to eke out the landings of what are usually reliable elements for the team. With a total of 104.13 points in the freeskate and 165.41 points overall, Duhamel and Buntin moved down two places from last year's championships, and Canada will only be allowed to send two pairs teams to the Olympics next year in their home country.
Finishing in ninth place with an electrifying performance is the new team of Caydee Denney and Jeremy Barrett of the United States. The American silver medalists are becoming known as a technically consistent team, and tonight they hit every element from start to finish.
"The crowd was amazing," Denney gushed. "They pushed us through every element in that program, and it was a great feeling to perform just like we do at home in practice every day."
What holds Denney and Barrett back is their lack of polish, but it is something that they are planning to address in the off-season.
"We will finally have some time to work on our skating in the off-season," Barrett commented. "We have a lot of work to do, and we are looking forward to making improvements in every area of our skating."
The Americans received the biggest ovation of the evening, bringing the entire arena to their feet in appreciation of the duo's performance. Denney and Barrett earned 104.10 points for their freeskate, and 156.84 points overall.
Canada's Mylène Brodeur and John Mattatall finished in 10th place, while U.S. Champions Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker had a disappointing skate and finished in 11th overall.
The event continues with the Original Dance and the Men's Long Program.
