by Alexandra Stevenson
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Ice is Indeed Slippery The mantra at the Nice Palais des Expositions on Wednesday appeared to be “All Fall Down”. Not everybody actually sat on the ice but the entire “cast” made significant errors. In the end, the German defending champions are in the lead, in part due to her brave, unique attempt at a throw triple Axel, which she landed on both feet. It is a difficulty only they currently attempt, and an injury to her hip falling in practice doing this element forced them to withdraw from defending their European title in January. Last year’s runners-up in Worlds to Savchenko & Szolkowy, Tatiana Volosozhar & Maxim Trankov, Russians who second to the Germans in last December’s Grand Prix Final and are the current European champions, were devastated after he sat down in the middle of the sixth of their seven elements, the forward inside death spiral. They were changing hand holds to get a higher Level with him in a deep pivot and her stretched out in a low horizontal position. When he fell she was also pulled down, so they lost two points and were awarded only 0.8. They conceivably could have earned a similar score to the top Chinese couple, who lie second, of 4.5. It was really was quite funny to watch, like those Charlie Chaplin collapses, and they would have laughed it off had this not been such an important event. But, for the very ambitious couple, who only got together after the Vancouver Olympics, it was a major setback. After a year’s preparation for this event, they now lie eighth, an inconceivable loss of status which was reflected in the agony showing on his face. They lie eight points behind the leaders. Also having a terrible performance were the 2010 Russian champions, Yuko Kavaguti & Alexander Smirnov who lie 11th. He slipped during their lift and brought her down on top of him, and, in the death spiral, he lost strength momentarily and, because his arm wasn’t as tense, her shoulder touched the ice which is not allowed.
1. Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy 68.63 (35.74+32.89) Skating 19th of the 20 pairs allowed into this section, the Germans, who have won gold in this event three times but had to be content with silver in 2010, took the ice knowing that many had made mistakes. Nevertheless, they choose to try the move on which she was injured so badly, she had to stop skating for a time and withdrew from the European championship, a title they have won four times in the past six years. Performing to Hans Zimmer’s Angels and Demons, she in a white dress trimmed in blue, he in black, Szolkowy, 32, threw his 28-year-old blonde haired partner a huge height up and away from him. She landed safely yards away from him on two feet. The base value of this move, which was first executed in international competition by US champions Rena Inoue and John Baldwin in the 2006 Olympics, is 7.50 points, but they lost -0.86 because of the flawed landing which had to be on one foot to get full value. In contrast, the throw move of their Chinese rivals who are lying second, a throw loop, has a base value of 5 points. Savchenko said, “We are happy to be here after the long break from competing. We are pleased about the throw (on which she has fallen heavily in events including the Skate America Grand Prix), but it was not perfect yet. It is a good feeling to land standing up. But like with all the throws, you have to learn how to do them. It is a challenge to learn when exactly to open the jump, how exactly to land it. For today we are content with landing the jump. It's a first step, but I am not satisfied. We are just so happy to be back on the ice after my injury. It's been quite some time. The program was ok. It wasn't perfect, but it was good for our first competition since the Grand Prix Final (in Ottawa in early December). He said, “Our performance today was not perfect, but good. We are very happy about the throw triple Axel. It was our best effort with this move in competition so far. But we need to improve it. We need to do it cleanly in the future.” But it wasn’t Savchenko’s mistake. Szolkowy stepped out of their side-by-side triple toe jumps. He said, “That was annoying but sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I was actually feeling good and confident today. We have another chance to show it in the Free (on Friday). When we go to a competition, we don't watch all the other competitors and then decide to go over our elements and count the points. There is only 100% or nothing. Of course today we decided to do 100%. For us, the ice is better in the practice rink (on the fourth floor of a building across the road) than at the temporary rink in the competition site.” 2. Qing Pang and Jian Tong 67.10 (33.94+33.94) The Chinese former twice world champions (2006 & 2010), who are both 32, and made their world championship debut in 2000 when this event was also in Nice, skated last, immediately after the Germans, and received the highest component score. They presented an ethereal number set to Chopin’s Nocturne in C sharp minor. However, on their first element, he under-rotated his triple toe loop and stepped out of the landing losing 1.60 marks from the base value of 2.90. But all other six elements were good, and they lie only 1.53 behind the leaders going into the Free. He said, “It was good, but my solo jump was not clean. We have not competed all season. We took a long time to rest because we had many injuries to heal. We decided to compete here at Worlds after Chinese nationals. We just love figure skating so much, and we are not coming here as past World Champions but just as figure skaters. We know there are no other pair skaters in this competition who are returning to Nice, so we are very old. (There is one man also coming back, Kevin van der Perren.) In 2000 we were very young, but now we are very mature.” They were asked what advice they would give the fledgling Pang and Tong if they could time travel back to 2000. He smiled and said, “We were very young and we were often fighting with each other. So my advice would be to concentrate on the training and simply enjoy practicing.” She added that the performance on Wednesday was “quite okay. After not competing internationally all year we were quite nervous. But I think it will get better and better. The couples from Germany and Russia are very strong and we have to show our very best in the free skating.” 3. Narumi Takahashi and Mervin Tran 65.37 (34.94+30.43) The Japanese champions skated early in the event, 11th of the 20 pairs allowed into the SP. She is a 20-year-old from Japan but he is a 21-year-old Canadian, and they train in Canada with Richard Gautier. They made their debut in this event last year, placing ninth so were very pleased with their current standing although her landing on their throw triple Salchow wasn’t perfect. After skating to John Lennen’s Imagine ,Takahashi said, “We scored our season's best today by more than four points so we're happy - VERY happy. Of course, I wasn't relaxed about this competition. I was very nervous and very excited.” Asked why they had improved so much, Tran said, “We changed our warm-up a little bit and I think that has helped us. We tried not to lose too much power in the six minute warm-up. We decided to take it easy, because it's not about winning the warm-up. That's not what is judged. When you do an edge and feel how deep you but can do it, it's a great feeling, I can't really describe it. It's like my feet talking to my brain. That’s a very important aspect of skating.”
Takahashi added, “We challenged everything that we were supposed to do. We gave a clean performance at the most important time. Usually we have big mistakes, especially in the side by side jumps, but we did well today. After the Four Continents championships (where they finished fifth), we had a little down time and we reviewed some stuff and we relaxed. So our preparation went really well. I felt so good here, the atmosphere in arena is wonderful.” 4. Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov 65.02 (35.33+29.69) Bazarov, 19, and Larionov, 25, are the current Russian champions, winning the title in the absence of the other two Russian couples competing here in Nice. They were 8th and 5th in their previous two world championships. Skating to the dramatic music from the operatic tragedy Tosca, they both had a problem with their first element, the side-by-side triple toe loops, but the rest of the elements were good. After they had finished but were still in their closing pose, his feet went up from under him and he pulled her down on top of him. But the officials did not penalize them for the falls because they happened a split second after their full time allowance. 5. Meaghan Duhamel and Eric Radford 63.69 (35.00+29.69 -1) The current Canadian title holders, who were seventh in Worlds last year, skated to Rodriquez’s Concerto de Aranjuez, beganing with a spectacular triple twist which had an unusual approach which earned them Level 3. Bazarova and Yuri also got Level 3 but the top three pairs were only awarded Level 2 for this element. However, he fell on their side-by-side triple Lutzes. They lie only 0.33 behind the Russians.
Duhamel, who is 26, admitted, “A fall can affect performance, if you let it, as well as the technical score, so we are happy that we still got high components (29.69 which tied them in this category with the Russians). The Lutz is a big risk but it also is a big reward when you land it. We made a decision a few weeks ago, that we wanted to push the development of figure skating, so we are happy we had the Lutz in the program. Radford, 27, admitted, “I'm disappointed about the fall. This was the first Lutz I missed since I came to Nice. We've been working very hard and it's so good to see our work rewarded by the placements we got this season.” 6. Wenjing Sui and Cong Han 63.27 (34.90+29.37 -1) These Chinese youngsters, she 16 and he 19, are riding high after winning their first senior international championship, the Four Continents Championship in Colorado Springs and their third successive World Junior Championships. They have two slightly different versions of their routines to comply with the differing Junior and Senior requirements. They have now performed this SP routine, set to Josh Turner’s Country music, innumerable times, and apart from her fall on the triple toe loop, it was presented impeccably, with lots of verve and a fun attitude which the crowd appreciated. They dress in blue denim and there are dance touches including miming using a lasso. Despite earning Level 3 on the twist and Level 4 for all the other elements which are given a level by the Technical Panel, he said, “This is our first world (senior) championship and I think maybe we lost our poise somewhat, but tomorrow will be better.” She said, “My jump was a little lacking today but I think France is very warm and welcoming.” 7. Caydee Denney and John Coughlin 62.48 (34.36+28.12) The US champions were thrilled at their performance to East of Eden. They were riding a high from their nationals’ showing in San Jose and subsequent Colorado Springs’ appearance where they earned the Four Continents’ silver. They have only been skating together for less than a year after his previous partnership with Caitlin Yankowskas was dissolved immediately after they competed in Worlds in Moscow. Coughlin, who is now 26, and Yankowskas were the 2011 US champion and sixth in last year’s Worlds. Denney was the 2010 US champion with Jeremy Abbott and they placed 13th in the Olympics and were 7th in Worlds. Denney, who is 18, said, “I think it was the best short we've done all year. We put out what we've been training and it felt really awesome. We want to enjoy the long program like we did the short today.” Coughlin added, “We almost felt more at home than at Four Continents in Colorado Springs where we had the pressure of skating for friends and family in our hometown. It was more relaxing here and comfortable. We're also cheering for our teammates (Marley and Brubaker) because we're in it together for U.S. pairs and it's nice to have friends we're doing it with here. We’re cheering for them because, as they go so goes American pairs. We’re a group. We want three spots in next year’s worlds and we need two strong teams to get those three spots. Even if it doesn’t happen this year, we’re going to push close to it at least and we’re moving in the right direction. We need them to skate as well as they can and they need us to skate as well as we can. We are in this together and it’s nice to have friends we’re doing it with.” 8. Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov 60.48 (31.62+30.86 -2) Sitting in the Kiss ’n Cry area, Trankov’s face was a picture of agony. After their win in Sheffield, he had said they didn’t really feel like European champions because their main rivals had to pull out. The Russians had been second in last year’s worlds in their debut together behind the Germans and felt they had made progress since then. Previously, with his former partner, Trankov, who is 28, had been fourth at Worlds, while Volozhar had been also fourth in Worlds representing Ukraine with her former partner back in 2007. Trankov had said, “To be a real champion, you must beat all your rivals.” They had been looking forward to this event, planning to show their superiority. On Twitter and on Facebook they had been lauding the charms of being in this famed city. They were delighted to be in Nice. They were enjoying the beautiful sunny weather and the reception they were getting. They were behaving like skating’s royalty. But fate has a habit of you at the most inopportune times. They had never made this mistake in practice, which made the collapse on the death spiral even more upsetting. And that wasn’t their only mistake. Earlier in the routine Volosozhar, who is 25, had a poor throw triple flip, two-footing the landing. They performed 16th of the 20 pairs, dressed in black, with her in a unique outfit, backless but with black “side flaps” and black tights. It was a routine aimed at the Hip Hop generation and set to Evanescence’s Bring Me Back to Life. 9. Stefania Berton and Ondrej Hotarek 60.39 (32.39+28.00) The Italians had a graceful showing to Harlem Nocturne and Demasiado. They received positive Grades of Execution for all their elements except the triple twist which had -0.90 removed from its base value. 10. Mary Beth Marley and Rockne Brubaker 59.62 (33.08+26.54) The silver medalists in this year’s US championship and bronze medalists in the recent Four Continents Championships, skated a joyful routine to Singing in the Rain. This was the 16-year-old Marley’s first worlds and she was over the moon to be here. She said, “We sold the program and I thought it was pretty good for my Worlds debut and for us skating together for only a year and a half. It was exciting competing against a lot of experienced and really amazing teams. We were able to be part of it and showcase what we work really hard on. It was fun.” Her 25-year-old, very experienced partner added, “For me, Worlds is the easiest competition of the season from a nerves standpoint. You’re trained. Maybe you’re a little banged up but you’ve already done the program many times and competed it. There’s no pressure as far as trying to qualify for anything. This is it. You can go out and let loose and leave it all out there. If you look at the past, however many Worlds, most of the skates are perfect and great performances, even the ones that aItre medal-worthy. That’s how I approach it - go out there and go all out. We weren’t perfect by any means. Things could have been better from a GOE standpoint, but we skated it. The overall appearance of the program was fun and easy and aggressive. Tomorrow, the program is more serious then light then serious again. We’ll be giving it our best.”
11. Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov 59.59 (31.20+30.39 -2) What a fall from grace! Twenty pairs were allowed into the Short Program.
12. Jessica Dube and Sebastien Wolfe, Canada, 55.83 (30.37+25.46), had errors on their triple twist and throw triple Lutz. She said, “It was not bad. We did some things that were really good and we’re really proud of, but the program in general wasn’t as good as we did at past competitions.” 13. Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres, France, 50.51 (27.36+23.15) 14. Nicole Della Monica and Matteo Guarise, Italy, 49.07 (27.88+21.19) 15. Maylin Hausch and Daniel Wende, Germany, 48.48 (25.44+24.04 -1.0) 16. Mari Vartmann and Aaron van Cleave, Germany, 47.91 (25.66+22.25) Eliminated after the Short Program:
17. Danielle Montalban and Evgeni Krasnopolski, Israel 18. Anais Morand and Timothy LeeMann, Switzerland 19. Stacey Kemp and David King, GB 20. Ji Hyang Ri and Won Hyok Thae, North Korea |