ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2008
Day Two
The ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2008 continued
Wednesday in Sofia, Bulgaria with the Mens’ Short Program
and the Pairs Free Skating.
Men, Short Program
The Men’s event kicked off with the Short Program. The
prescribed elements in the Junior Men’s Short Program
in the 2007/2008 season are the double Axel, the triple loop,
the flying sit and the change foot camel spin.
In what was a high level competition with many strong performances,
Adam Rippon (USA) skated to the lead with Russia’s Artem
Borodulin and Brandon Mroz (USA) following in second and third.
Performing to a modern arrangement of “Toccata and
Fugue”, Rippon produced a triple Lutz-triple toeloop
combination, a triple loop, double Axel and received a level
four for his combination and the flying sit spin. Both step
sequences were graded a level three. The Junior Grand Prix
Final Champion earned a new personal best score of 69.35 points
(37.85 element score/31.50 program component score). “The
competition here was very strong. And just to be part of such
of such a great and big competition was an honour in itself”,
Rippon stated. “I am very aware that Brandon (Mroz)
does the triple Axel very well and then there are many other
skaters in the group who also do the triple Axel. My goal
coming into this competition was just to skate two clean programs
as best as I could. Today in the short program I feel that
I did that and I hope that tomorrow in the long program I
can skate just as well as I did today even without the triple
Axel”, he said.
Borodulin’s lively program to the Russian Sailor dance
by Reinold Gliere featured a triple Lutz-triple toeloop combination,
a triple loop, a solid double Axel as well as two level four
spins. The Russian also earned a level three for the circular
and the straight line step sequence to score a new personal
best of 66.16 points (36.20/29.96).
Mroz hit a triple Axel-triple toeloop combination, a triple
loop, the double Axel and was awarded a level four for two
spins and a level three for the change camel spin for his
routine to “Night on Bald Mountain” by Modest
Mussorgski. The 16-year-old picked up 63.36 points (35.43/27.93),
which was a new personal best for him.
Pairs, Free Skating
Ksenia Krasilnikova/Ksenia Bezmaternykh of Russia took the
gold medal ahead of their teammates Liubov Iliushechkina/Nodari
Maisuradze. China’s Huibo Don/Yiming Wu earned the bronze
medal.
Skating to “Spartacus”, Krasilnikova/Bezmaternykh
landed a high throw triple flip, a throw triple loop, a double
twist, a side by side double Axel sequence (she two-footed
the first jump) as well as a double toeloop and produced difficult
lifts with many variations of positions. The couple from Perm
was awarded 91.82 points (46.73 element score/45.09 program
component score). They were ranked second in the Free Skating
but overall defended their overnight lead with a total of
148.12 points. Krasilnikova/Bezmaternykh won the gold after
being bronze medalists in 2006 and 2007. “We haven’t
realized yet that we won, I think we’ll realize only
tomorrow”, Bezmaternykh told the press. “We are
not so happy with our performance tonight, I made two errors,
on the jump and on the twist, but we’re pleased that
we finished first”, Krasilnikova added.
Iliushechkina/Maisuradze’s routine to an Abba Medley
featured an excellent throw triple flip, a triple twist, a
throw triple loop, an Axel Lasso lift and a hand-to hip lift
that both were graded a level four. They also went for a side
by side triple toe-double toeloop combination, but Ilushechkina
touched down with her hand on the first jump. The only major
error came when she fell on the double Axel. The Muscovites
scored 92.81 points (48.33/46.48) and won the Free Skating
portion. Overall they remained in second place with a total
of 144.86 points and claimed the silver medal in what was
their first international competition.
Dong/Wu put out a dynamic performance to “Exodus”
by Maksim Mrvica, completing a triple toe-double toeloop combination,
a double twist, double Axel, throw triple toeloop and level-four
pair combination spin. Dong only stepped out of the throw
triple Salchow. The Chinese couple earned 90.17 points (49.33/40.84)
and racked up 141.33 points overall to move up from fifth
to third to take the bronze medal in their debut at Junior
Worlds as a team.
The ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2008 continue
Thursday with the Original Dance and the Mens’ Free
Skating.
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