ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2007 Day One
The 2007 World Figure Skating Championships opened Tuesday
in Tokyo, Japan, with the Compulsory Dance and the Pairs Short
Program. The World Figure Skating Championships are held in
Japan for the fifth time in history.
Ice Dancing, Compulsory Dance
The Championships kicked off with the Compulsory Dance. The
Compulsory Dance drawn for the 2007 World Championships was
the Rhumba. The competition turned out to be very exciting
with close results. Marie-France Dubreuil/Patrice Lauzon of
Canada grabbed the lead with Bulgaria’s Albena Denkova/Maxim
Staviski and Oksana Domnina/Maxim Shabalin (RUS) following
in second and third. The top five couples are separated by
less than two points.
Dubreuil/Lauzon took the lead with a characteristic and expressive
Rhumba, scoring 38.96 points (19.77 element score/19.19 program
component score). “The real quality is the roundness
of the body and the edges. The Rhumba has a different feeling
to it than the others. We are the World Champions of the Rhumba!
Every little victory is important; every point counts”,
Dubreuil told the press. “It’s great to be on
this ice; we love compulsories and this dance is one of our
strongest. Because it is not as demanding as other dances,
this is a nice dance to perform. You can see the quality of
the knees and the steps”, her partner commented.
Denkova/Staviski, who skated first out of the top contenders,
put out a very precise compulsory dance, showing off their
deep edges. The reigning World Champions earned 37.42 points
(18.76/18.66). ) “We were relaxed, we were in a good
mood. Even if it hadn’t been the last compulsory dance
of the career, it would have been the last compulsory of the
season and already that makes us happy”, Denkova explained.
“Ice dancing has long ago ceased to be a sport where
you will stay in first when you were first one time and if
you skate clean. The results are changing. We came here to
compete for the title not as World Champions but like all
the other couples”, she continued.
Domnina/Shabalin’s Rhumba was strong as well. The European
silver medalists picked up 37.29 points (18.66/18.63). “The
less you think about it the better it is, and so we don’t
try to think about it at all. Our goal is and always has been
to skate our very best. Everything else is not in our hands”,
Domnina answered when asked about feeling pressure. Shabalin
told the press about a practice accident just before Worlds
when the couple knocked foreheads while training off ice:
“We hit each other so hard that I almost passed out.
I was dizzy for a few minutes.”
Reigning European Champions Isabelle Delobel/Olivier Schoenfelder
(FRA) are currently standing in fourth place at 32.70 points.
Reigning World bronze medalists Tanith Belbin/Benjamin Agosto
(USA) came in fifth (37.17 points).
Pairs, Short Program
The event continued with the Pairs Short Program. It was an
exciting event at high level with several new personal best
performances. Xue Shen/Hongbo Zhao (CHN) skated to the lead
followed by Germany’s Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy.
Qing Pang/Jian Tong (CHN) came in third.
Shen/Zhao, who skated next to last out of the 22 couples,
produced a very polished performance to “Romanza”
that included a side by side triple toeloop, a gorgeous throw
triple loop and a big triple twist. Their spiral sequence,
death spiral, pair combination spin, side by side spin and
the lift were all graded a level four by the Technical Panel.
The two-time World Champions earned a new personal best of
71.07 points (39.50/31.57). “It is still hard to do
jumps because of my Achilles injury, but I am very happy to
achieve our personal best today. The audience was cheering
us up and I felt so good. I hope we will earn another personal
best score tomorrow to win these Worlds before we retire”,
Zhao said.
Performing to “Once upon a Time in Mexico”, Savchenko/Szolkowy
hit a throw triple flip, a well synchronized triple toeloop
and earned a level four for their one-armed lift, the spins
and the spiral sequence. The only glitch was the late catch
of the triple twist. The European Champions were awarded 67.65
points (37.70/29.95), surpassing their previous personal best
of 65.38 points. “Our short program performance tonight
was quite good. It was the second best short program of the
season for us. Only the triple twist was a bit shaky, and
overall it felt somewhat difficult to skate. As for the Free
Skating, we intend as always to do our very best and to show
what we do in practice each day”, Szolkowy told the
press.
Pang/Tong completed a side by side triple toeloop, a high
triple twist, a throw triple loop and solid spins in their
routine to “O Doux Printemps d’Autrefois”
by Jules Massenet to collect 66.75 points (37.30/29.45). “I
was sick and had injuries, but I started to practice regularly
since two weeks ago and feel OK”, Pang explained. “I
am proud of my partner because she did so well today despite
what she went through. I love the audience here since they
are so polite and supportive, and I feel really good performing
here in Japan. We hope to defend our title and do our best
to win again”, Tong added.
Newcomers Yuko Kawaguchi/Alexander Smirnov (RUS) finished
fourth with a strong performance that featured a side by side
triple toeloop, a triple twist and throw triple loop. They
received a new personal best score of 62.07 points. Canada’s
Valerie Marcoux/Craig Buntin were fifth at 60.73 points with
another clean performance. Rena Inoue/John Baldwin (USA) are
currently ranked sixth. She fell on the throw triple Axel
(59.50 points). Reigning World silver medallists Dan Zhang/Hao
Zhang (CHN) finished a distant 10th. A mistake on the lift
cost them dearly. He did too many rotations and subsequently
the lift received no level and was called an illegal element.
Reigning World bronze medallists Maria Petrova/Alexei Tikhonov
(RUS) came in 11th at 56.36 points after making small but
costly errors on the side by side triple toeloop, the throw
triple loop and the lift.
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