ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2007
Day Three
The 2007 World Figure Skating Championships went on in Tokyo,
Japan, with the Original Dance and the Men’s Free Skating.
The Toyko Metropolitan Gymnasium was sold out with over 6,500
spectators.
Ice Dancing, Original Dance
Today’s competition opened with the Original Dance.
In was a competition at high level that allowed no margin
for error. Albena Denkova/Maxim Staviski of Bulgaria edged
out Canada’s Marie-France Dubrueil/Patrice Lauzon to
take the lead. Tanith Belbin/Benjamin Agosto (USA) moved up
from fifth to third place before the final Free Dance tomorrow
(Friday). The top three couples are separated by just half
a point.
Denkova/Staviski really attacked their “Libertango”,
skating with confidence. The defending World Champions produced
a straight line lift with both in a low position, difficult
yet fluid footwork, and both their side by side midline and
the diagonal step sequence were graded a level four by the
Technical Panel. The European bronze medalists earned 62.10
points (32.03 element score/30.07 program component score)
and overtook Dubreuil/Lauzon with a total of 99.52 points.
But their competitors are only 0.02 points behind.
Performing to “Paya d’Ora”, Dubreuil/Lauzon
completed a rotational lift with changes of position for her,
a dance spin and intricate footwork, and they were just slightly
out of sync on the twizzles in the side by side steps. However,
all their five elements were awarded a level four. Dubreuil/Lauzon
picked up 60.54 points (31.02/29.52) and were ranked third
in the OD. Overall they now stand in second place at 99.50
points.
“The audience responded really well to us on the ice.
We tried not to think of the elements and the placement, but
of the emotions of the Argentine Tango”, Denkova told
the press. “People always say “Skate like it’s
your last competition.” For us it is actually our last
competition, so we don’t need to pretend. We’re
just skating for ourselves and the public. We just want to
dance!” Staviski explained.
“We wanted to concentrate on the passion performance
side of the Tango. The only mistake we had was the synchronization
in the twizzles, but it was not a big mistake”, Dubreuil
commented. “The only pressure we had was that we never
practiced the Original Dance on that (competition) ice, because
our skates had not arrived at the time when the only Original
Dance Practice was on that ice. On top of that we were first
in our group so we only skated like two and a half minutes
in the warm up. We just tried to stay in the moment and stay
focused.”
Belbin/Agosto overcame a shaky moment right at the beginning
of their characteristic Original Dance set to “Concierto
para Quinteto” and “Oblivion Tango” when
she touched the boards, but then went on like nothing had
happened. Their dance included a straight line lift with him
in a spread eagle position, fast footwork and a rotational
lift. The Olympic silver medalists as well got level four
for all their elements and scored 61.85 points (32.45/29.40),
which added up to 97.63 points. “Despite the bobble
that I had at the beginning the program was quite solid, and
we’re very pleased with our overall performance of this
program. I don’t know if you noticed, but I don’t
actually have a new choreography to hit the boards!”
Belbin laughed. “I think you can see by the score that
everybody is very close and that there is no room for error.
So we wanted to do all our elements correctly”, Agosto
added.
Oksana Domnina/Maxim Shabalin (RUS) slipped from third to
fourth place at 97.63 points. They put out a strong Tango
as well, earning a new personal best score, but their spin
and diagonal footwork was graded only a level three.
European Champions Isabelle Delobel/Olivier Schoenfelder
(FRA) came in fifth. Their “Tango Volver” was
technically demanding but seemed to lack flow (96.02 points).
Jana Khokhlova/Sergei Novitski (RUS) round up the top six
(89.20 points).
Men, Free Skating
The Men’s event concluded with an exciting Free Skating
with many strong performances. In the end, Brian Joubert skated
off with the gold, winning the first Men’s title for
France in 42 years. Daiskue Takahashi claimed the first World
silver medal for a Japanese man in history and defending World
Champion Stéphane Lambiel of Switzerland took the bronze
this time.
Lambiel had drawn to skate third in the final flight. The
21-year-old opened his intense Flamenco program with a triple
Axel, the jump that had eluded him in the Short Program. This
seemed to be the key for the Swiss, he went on to hit a quadruple-double-double
toeloop combination, a triple loop, double Axel, triple Lutz-triple
toe and a triple Salchow as well as his trademark fast spins
and footwork. He only stumbled out of his second quad toeloop
and doubled and two-footed a flip (in combination with triple
toe). Lambiel collected 160.65 points (82.49 element score/78.16
program component score) and moved up three spots with a total
of 233.35 points.
Just like in the Short Program yesterday, Joubert skated
right after Lambiel and he knew that his competitor had done
much better this time. Skating to “Nothing Else Matters”
and “The Unforgiven”, the Frenchman nailed his
opening quadruple toeloop, followed by a triple flip and a
triple Axel. Then he decided not to risk the second quad but
went for a triple toe-triple toe combination instead and produced
three more triples as well as two level-three step sequences.
However, his flying sit spin and his sit spin were only graded
a level one. Joubert scored 157.21 points (80.57/76.64) and
was ranked behind Lambiel in the Free Skating but remained
in first place at 240.85 points.
Then it was Takahashi’s turn. The 21-year-old seemed
nervous and he put down his hand on the opening quadruple
toeloop, but this initial error seemed to have taken off the
pressure, and the Japanese Champion reeled off two high triple
Axels (one in combination with double toeloop), a triple flip-triple
toeloop combination, a triple Lutz-double toe-double loop
and three more triples in his dramatic program to “Phantom
of the Opera” by Andrew Lloyd Webber. He tired towards
the end but when he entered the straight line footwork, the
audience roared and gave him new energy. Takahashi scored
163.44 points (86.52/76.92) and won the Free Skating. Overall
he accumulated 237.95 points to take the silver.
“I am very proud. It was difficult tonight. I didn’t
sleep well last night, so I was tired today. I had a bad practice
this morning. I didn’t want to win the Free Skating,
I wanted just to do a good program to win the title”,
Joubert said. “Alain Calmat brings me luck. He was here
when I won the first European title for France since Alain
Calmat and now the first Worlds since him. Before me, Alain
Calmat won the World Title in 1965. 42 years is too long”,
he continued.
“Obviously there were no big mistakes on my jumps but
I do not think my spins and footwork were at a 100 percent.
I was very happy to skate in Japan as the host country, and
it means a lot to me to be the first Japanese silver medalist
at the World Championships”, Takashi commented. “To
be honest, I was so nervous before I skated that I was about
to cry. But I believed in myself and my practice and went
out and did it”, he admitted.
“I think the most important thing for me tonight was
the performance, and you could see that the fight was hard.
But it was really nice to fight here. Maybe nobody thought
after the short program that Lambiel comes back, but I was
ready, I was there, and I was really happy to be here participating
in this World Championships, and I did my best. I think today
I made a difference compared to the short program where I
couldn’t do the triple Axel and the quad toe, and today
the triple Axel and the quad toe were wonderful”, Lambiel
said.
Tomas Verner (CZE) soared from ninth to fourth with a personal-best
Free Skating that included two quadruple toeloops and a triple
Axel (226.25 points). Evan Lysacek (USA) came in fifth. He
did a three-turn out of his quadruple toeloop, but landed
six triples (222.18 points). Jeffrey Buttle (CAN), who stood
in second place after the Short Program, dropped to sixth
when he fell on his quadruple toeloop attempt and the first
triple Axel (214.96 points)
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