ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: HomeSense Skate Canada
International Day Three
HomeSense Skate Canada International concluded Sunday in
Quebec City, Quebec with the Free Dance, the Men’s Free
Skating and the Exhibition Gala. HomeSense Skate Canada International
was the second of six event of the 2007/2008 ISU Grand Prix
of Figure Skating. The athletes compete for a global prize
money of US $ 180, 000 per individual event of the ISU Grand
Prix of Figure Skating and receive points according to their
placements. The top six skaters/couples then qualify for the
ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Torino, Italy in
December.
Ice Dancing, Free Dance
Canada’s Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir danced to victory in
front of an enthusiastic home crowd in the Colisee Pepsi.
Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte of Italy earned the silver medal
and Pernelle Carron/Mathieu Jost from France took the bronze.
For both the Italian and the French couple it was their first
medal on the Grand Prix series (senior level).
Virtue/Moir delivered a romantic Free Dance set to “The
Umbrellas of Cherbourg” that featured difficult but
smooth footwork, a curve-rotational lift with changes of position,
a straight line lift with him sliding on one knee and a serpentine
lift. The 2006 World Junior Champions were awarded a level
four for all eight elements and scored a new personal best
of 99.62 (53.30 element score/46.32 program component score).
Their previous personal best score from the 2007 World Championships
was 95.38 points. Overall, the Canadians racked up 197.07
points to win their first Grand Prix gold medal. “We
felt the performance went really well for us. We felt comfortable
out there on the ice. We tried to take it one element at a
time. That was our game plan. We’re looking to build
for Japan, our next competition”, Moir said. “Our
program is obviously based right on the movie “Les Parapluies
de Cherbourg” and we are the characters in the movie.
We’re trying to tell the story. It’s very young
love and he has to leave for the military”, he continued,
referring to the theme of their dance.
Cappellini/Lanotte performed to “La Traviata”
by Guiseppe Verdi. The Italians completed difficult steps,
earning a level four for their circular step sequence and
a level three for their side by side footwork as well as a
level four for their twizzles. However, they struggled with
their serpentine lift when he couldn’t hold her long
enough, and the element was graded only a level two. Cappellini/Lanotte
picked up 85.44 points (44.70/40.74), setting a new personal
best for themselves, and were ranked third in the Free Dance
but remained in second overall at 171.57 points.
Skating to “Nocturne” by Frederic Chopin, Carron/Jost
showed interesting lifts including a straight line-rotational
lift with changes of position for both partners, a curve lift
and a rotational lift and received a level four for their
circular step sequence and a level three for the midline step
sequence and their spin. The French earned 87.13 points (47.90/39.23),
significantly improving their previous personal best of 79.30
points. They were ranked second in the Free Dance and third
overall with a total score of 167.83 points.
Melissa Gregory/Denis Petukhov (USA), who stood in fourth
place following the Original Dance, had to withdraw due to
injury after suffering a fall on a rotational lift in the
warm up. Gregory fell hard on her chest and was hospitalized
but according to the medical bulletin didn’t suffer
a severe injury and was supposed to be released later tonight.
Men, Free Skating
World Champion Brian Joubert of France won the Mens’
gold medal while Kevin van der Perren (BEL) soared from first
to second to capture the silver medal. Canada’s Jeffrey
Buttle clinched the bronze.
Joubert nailed six triple jumps in his program to a Metallica
medley, but he fell on the opening quadruple toeloop. The
Frenchman was awarded a level three for both step sequences
and also for three of his four spins to earn 135.57 points
(64.47 element score/72.10 program component score) which
added up to a total of 213.62 points. “I am very disappointed
with my free program. I was surprised that I fell on the quad.
I was very nervous and thought about which jumps I have to
do.” He explained that he suddenly realized during his
sit spin that the blade of his right skate had come loose
and was cautious after that. “I don’t know when
it became loose, maybe before or after the fall, but obviously
it was distracting, because you don’t know if it’s
going to hold up or not, but I didn’t want to interrupt
the program.”
Van der Perren, who stood in fifth place after the Short Program,
put out a strong performance to “Lawrence of Arabia”,
hitting a quad toeloop, triple Axel, a triple Salchow-triple
toeloop combination as well as four more triple jumps. The
Technical Panel graded his flying sit spin, sit spin and his
combination spin a level four. The reigning European bronze
medalist scored 136.44 points (74.54/61.90), won the Free
Skating portion and moved up to second at 202.55 points total.
Buttle opened his routine to “Ararat” with a triple
Axel-triple toeloop combination but then struggled with some
jumps, doubling a Salchow and a Flip and falling on a triple
Lutz at the end. He had three more clean triples and got a
level four for three of his spins. The 2006 Olympic bronze
medalist collected 131.92 points and remained in third place
with 198.77 points.
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