Ladies

Starting Order - Short Program

Short Program

Notes:

Ladies short program was a bit of a surprise with some unexpected stand-out performances and some heavy-hitters coming up short.

Elena Liashenko led off the event with a strong clean skate and good expression.  She landed triple Lutz - double toe loop, making her one of the few ladies to land the combination (seven of eleven missed it), and triple flip.  She earned lead off marks of 5.0-5.5 in the first mark and 5.4-5.6 in the second marks which were good enough to hold first place until Fumie Suguri skated in the second warmup.

Suguri has come a long way this past year with more consistent jumps and improved expression.  At 18 she has potential if she keeps up her good progress this year.  She landed triple Lutz - double toe loop and triple flip with decent expression to classical pieces by Liszt.  Her expression was a bit mechanical in places and need more emotion, but has potential.

Irina Slutskaya got off to a rough start badly two-footing her opening triple Lutz in her combination and then falling on triple loop.  For the remainder of the program, however, she skated well, with a difficult entry on her flying camel spin, a strong double Axel, a strong layback spin and outstanding combination spin and closing footwork sequence.  Thanks to a high base mark and good second marks she placed third leaving her a chance for the gold.  But she will have to work for it.  In practice Suguri has been skating well with a program including seven triples.

Latetia Huber started strong with a triple toe loop - triple toe loop combination but then went on to miss triple flip and two footing double Axel.  In addition, her program is just too bizarre with ugly positions and weird choreography.   She was edged out by Diana Poth who skated a simple but clean program with double toe loop - triple toe lop and double Salchow.  It was a pleasant program with which she was pleased, but she is likely to drop in the long as she does not have competitive jumps.

Amber Corwin almost landed her opening triple toe loop - triple toe loop combination but after landing the second jump lost her edge and went down.  She landed triple loop and double Axel despite her awful wrap, but her presentation was lackluster and flat.

The only Canadian entry, Keyla Ohs, gave a mechanical and passionless presentation her program with a  middle eastern theme.  She missed both her combination and solo jump.  Canadian Champion, Angela Derochie, did not compete due to an illness several weeks ago.

Starting Order - Free Skating

Final Results

Notes:

Well, the ladies event didn't turn out the way anyone would have expected several days.   The favorite coming into Skate Canada, Irina Slutskaya again struggled with her jumps, especially the triple Lutz, and could only manage a third place here.  Elena Liashenko, who was expected to do fairly well was the surprise winner, while Fumie Suguri shocked everyone with two strong performances to win the short program and take the silver medal.

Liashenko skated with personality and good expression, landing five triples with her only error two footing a triple loop.  Skating to "Case to Imagination" by Yanni, she opened with triple Lutz - double toe loop.  She then doubled the triple loop after which she landed four other triples and a double Axel - double toe loop combination.

Fumie Suguri skated to a musical tour of the seventeenth century, incorporating four baroque pieces into her music.  She opened with triple Lutz - double toe loop and then landed triple flip and four other triples, but also popped an Axel and singled a triple loop.  Despite the two errors the program was well done.  Her expression in the long program was better than it was in the short program, and her result here could prove to be a breakthrough for her.  Choreographer Lori Nichol has come up with two fine programs for her this year.

Irina Slutskaya debuted a new long program which was skated slowly and cautiously with several errors in her jumps.  She again badly two-footed the triple Lutz and also doubled a triple toe loop, singled a double Axel, and then stepped out of an improvised second attempt.  Her main strength remained her spins and footwork.  She was successful on four triple jumps, including toe loop, two Salchows, and loop.

Another bizarre performance was turned in by Laetitia Hubert.  She managed only two triples and managed to skate into the wall on her opening footwork.  Her expression, however, perfectly matched her music.  It was ugly music skated with ugly choreography with ugly hair and ugly makeup in an ugly costume.  Her routine is about a drug addicted prostitute who dies.

Amber Corwin also managed to move up, thanks primarily to everyone else either wiping up the ice or skating junior level programs or worse.  She managed three triples, a triple toe loop - triple toe loop combination (although the first jump was actually a toe Axel), and triple Lutz - double toe loop combination.  Her presentation was respectable, but not at all competitive with the top three skaters.

Return to title page