2004

Skate Canada

Ladies Event

By Maggie Doyle

Photos Copyright 2004 by George  S. Rossano

Canada’s Cynthia Phaneuf leads the twelve ladies field after the short program on Friday, October 29 at Halifax’s Metro Centre.   She earned 57.76 points from this competition stage, 30.40 for technical elements and 27.36 for program components.  This gave her a 4.04 edge over her nearest opponent, Fumie Suguri of Japan.   Phaneuf skated a clean program after struggling with jumps on the warm-up session.  She landed a triple Lutz – double toe loop combination, followed by a triple flip and later included a double Axel in her “Songs My Mother Taught Me” short program.  It took three tries to land a triple Lutz on the warm up but she did land her last one and did it when it counted during her program.  After the warm-up she told her coach Annie Barabe, “It’s okay; I feel better than I did for Skate America.”  She went on then to give a lovely, delicate performance that earned her a standing ovation. Barabe said, “It is always a little more stressful when it is your home crowd. I wanted her to please the people and herself, too.”  Phaneuf hails from Sorel, Quebec and is just sixteen.

 Suguri skated with speed, style and grace to Henry Mancini’s “The Pink Panther” that was choreographed by Lori Nichol.   She completed her triple Lutz – double toe loop combination but ran out of room to complete her triple Flip but rallied to include her double Axel.   Her coach Oleg Vasillev said, “She was skating with such speed that she ran out of room on the triple flip and that is why she fell.”   Fumie now trains in the Chicago suburbs and is worried about Chicago winters but is very happy with her new coaching situation.  “There is a problem in Japan with rinks closing and my rink became very crowded in Japan,” she explained.  “It was a good thing that I was skating with good speed but it was a bad thing I didn’t have enough room to jump for the flip; I will have to fix that for the free skate.”

Her compatriot Yoshie Onda has moved to the United States to train as well.  She trains in Fairfax, Virginia with Audrey Weisinger.  She skated a clean short program to “Freedom”, landing a triple Lutz – double toe loop combination, triple flip and a double Axel.   She was strong on technical elements but her program composition score was lower than the other top 6 competitors, so she currently sits in third place with 52.16 total points (TE 28.48 and 23.68 PC).  Onda said, "I am very happy with my program today and happy to be training in the United States.”  Weisinger does not speak Japanese and Onda is just learning English. “Her coach said,” When we started working together, I would write her notes in English and she would type them into a translator to figure out what I was saying to her.”

Carolina Kostner of Italy doubled her loop jump but completed her other jumps successfully for fourth position at this competitive stage for her short program to music selections from Michael Hoppe.  “I have been having problems with my back but I really wanted to come and compete here,” she said.

Julia Sebestyen of Hungary wore a busy costume of bows and a fabric bustle that over powered her.  She landed a triple flip but two-footed the triple Lutz in her combination but rallied to land the double toe loop. She also included a double Axel.  “I really like this costume.  I think it fits the music well and I wanted something different.”

It was unusual to have three Japanese entries but not any Americans.  Michelle Kwan was originally scheduled to compete here but pulled out.  According to Yukari Nakono and her coach, she only had a week’s notice that she would compete here but she was thrilled with the assignment.   She was going for the triple Axel in combination but had to settle for a two-footed double axel followed by double toe loop, which plummeted her in the standings.

Susana Poykio

She qualified for the Grand Prix final in Beijing, China after adding this to her silver medal at Skate America.  "My goal  (here) was to make five triples in my long program and I did my job. Perfect," she said.  She said she did not go into this competition thinking of a title.  She fell twice and was annoyed at herself over the triple Salchow fall. “That was stupid because it's an easy jump and I can do it when I wake up in the morning."  She also fell on a triple Lutz just prior to the Salchow problem, midway through her program but rallied back to finish on a high note.  She earned a total of 159.66 points with her margin of victory 8.12 points overall.  She beat her Japanese competitor in the free skate by 2.52 points.

Japan’s Yoshie Onda skated to “White Landscapes” by Yoshimatsu and opened with a triple Lutz – double toe loop combination closely followed by double Axel – triple toe loop.  She then put her hand down on her triple flip and doubled her triple Salchow and added a combination to her second flip.  She executed a big triple Loop and a second triple Lutz.  Onda only beat her Finnish competitor by 2.60 points overall and only by .42 points in the free skate.   “I am very happy and I had a good feeling from the audience,” she said.

Susana Poykio of Finland just eked into the bronze medal on the strength of her elegant free skate to “Romeo and Juliet” soundtrack, racking up 98.96 points for a total score of 148.94.  “I knew I had a chance to medal but I wasn’t sure since it wasn’t a perfect performance. I really like this program and think it is the best one I have had so far,” she said.   This is her second grand prix series medal, as she won the silver medal at the 2003 Bofrost Cup in Germany last season.   She popped her triple loop and lost some points on her triple Salchow.

Japan’s Fumie Suguri just missed a medal by .62 total points after struggling with several jumps in her free skate to “Tango Para Percussion” and selections from the French opera “Carmen”.  She began strong with a triple Lutz – double toe combination but did a single flip that was two-footed and doubled her Salchow and triple loop.  She rallied back with second triple Lutz and a triple flip in combination but fell short of medal points.

“Her problems on the flip were not caused by thinking about yesterday’s flip. We are still in the process of getting her ready on all her jumps and will be working on that prior to her next competition,” said her coach Oleg Vasiliev.

The judges still like Carolyn Kostner of Italy who ended her program with multiple double Axels after scaling down her other jumps to doubles.  She did get credit for a triple Salchow.  She finished fourth ahead of Julia Sebastian of Hungary.   It seems her coach has studied COP well to maximize her scoring since her back injury limited her training time on her triple jumps.

2004 Skate Canada Ladies Medalists