ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2008
Day Three
The ISU World Figure Skating Championships continued Thursday
with the Original Dance and the Ladies Free Skating. 9431
Spectators in the Scandinavium Arena in Gothenburg followed
a high level competition.
Ice Dancing, Original Dance
The Original Dance of the 2007/08 season is the Folk/Country
Dance. The 30 couples in the event presented a wide variety
of dances such as Aboriginal, African, French, Polish, Russian,
South American, Scottish and Ukrainian.
Isabelle Delobel/Olivier Schoenfelder of France strengthened
their lead after the Compulsory Dance. Russia’s Jana
Khokhlova/Sergei Novitski egded out Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir
(CAN) by just 0.42 points to move into second place.
Delobel/Schoenfelder interpreted a charming Gavotte, a French
dance from the Bretagne. They completed a circular step sequence,
a spin and a straight line lift in which he used a scarf to
hold her. All six elements in the dance were graded a level
four by the Technical Panel. The European silver medalists
earned a new personal best of 67.25 points (35.30 element
score/31.95 program component score) and now have accumulated
107.98 points so far. “I think we skated well with much
pleasure and tried to be very energetic in our skating. Of
course we are very pleased with our marks”, Schoenfelder
commented. “We try not to think about that (lead of
about four points) now, but of course we want to win the free
dance tomorrow so that there are no questions”, he added.
Khokhlova/Novitski had chosen a Russian Gypsy Dance “Two
Guitars”. Their characteristic dance included a straight
line lift and a rotational lift that showed off Khohklova’s
flexibility, as well as smooth yet difficult footwork. The
European bronze medalists received a level four for all elements
as well and scored 65.99 points (35.67/30.32), improving their
previous personal best by 5.93 points. They moved up one spot
with now 103.97 points.
Virtue/Moir are not far behind at 103.52 points overall.
Skating to “Dark Eyes”, the Four Continents Champions
produced a dance spin, a curve and a one-armed rotational
lift, but Virtue did one rotation less on a twizzle in the
side by side step sequence. The twizzles were graded a level
three, but the other elements were awarded a level four. The
Canadians picked up 64.81 points and slipped from second to
third.
Ladies, Free Skating
The Ladies event concluded with an exciting Free Skating.
Mao Asada of Japan claimed her first World title while Italy’s
Carolina Kostner took the silver. Yu-Na Kim of Korea earned
her second consecutive bronze medal.
Asada had drawn to skate next to last. The 17-year-old had
to overcome an unexpected and shocking fall in the first seconds
of her routine to “Fantaisie Impromptu” by Frederic
Chopin when she slipped on the take-off of her planned triple
Axel and fell hard. The 2007 World silver medallist recovered
instantly to reel off a triple flip-triple toeloop combination,
a triple Lutz, triple loop, double Axel-double loop-double
loop combination and another double Axel. She also went for
the triple flip-triple loop combo, but the second jump was
cheated and downgraded. The Japanese completed also strong
spins, earning a level four for two combination spins and
a level three for the other two spins. Asada received 121.46
points for this performance (61.89 element score/60.57 program
component score). When the marks came up and she realized
that she was in first place, a big smile lit up her face.
The Four Continents Champion was ranked second in the Free
Skating but moved up to first overall at 185.56 points to
take her first gold medal at Worlds after she had the silver
last year. “When I fell I couldn’t think of anything,
but the next triple flip-triple toe loop went well”,
Asada told the press. “Last year at Worlds I made a
big mistake in the short program, so I learned how important
the short program is. This year I missed my triple Axel but
I learned that I still can make up for the mistake if the
other elements are good. Never give up. That’s what
I learned this year”, the skater explained.
Overnight leader Kostner opened her dynamic program to “Dumsky
Trio” by Antonin Dvorak with her trademark triple flip-triple
toe-double loop combination, but then touched down with her
hand on her triple Lutz. The Italian landed a triple loop
and earned a level four for her spiral sequence and two spins,
but the landings of her triple flip, the double Axel-triple
toeloop combination and a triple Salchow-double toeloop were
not clean. The European Champion picked up 120.40 points (61.88/58.52),
which was a new personal best for her and collected 184.68
points overall to win the first World silver medal for an
Italian Lady and the third World medal for an Italian Lady
overall.
Kim stood in fifth place after a fall on the triple Lutz in
the Short Program, but came back strong today. The Korean
hit a triple flip-triple toeloop combination, a triple Lutz-double
toe-double-double loop, a double Axel-triple toeloop as well
as a triple Salchow and two double Axels. The only mistake
came when she popped the second Lutz. The 2006 World Junior
Champion also produced beautiful spins and was awarded a level
four for the flying sit spin and two combination spins. Kim
scored 123.38 points (64.82/58.56) and accumulated 183.23
points overall to make it to the podium.
2007 World Champion Miki Ando (JPN) withdrew after skating
one minute and ten seconds of her program citing injury. According
to the medical bulletin, she is suffering from muscle strain
and partial rupture in her left leg. She injured herself while
warming up for the morning practice.
The ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2008 continue
tomorrow (Friday) with the Men’s Short Program and the
Free Dance.
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