2003 Skate America Dance Medalists
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2003Skate AmericaDance Eventby Maggie Doyle |
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A brief scoring explanation occurred prior to the competition but the reading of their statistics after each team, really lengthened the event. The first team to compete in this year's Grand Prix Series under the ISU's Code of Points judging system was Xiaoyang Yu and Chen Wang of China. The leaders at this competition stage, Elena Grushina and Ruslan Goncharov from the Ukraine recycled their last season's white costumes, hers resembling a Las Vegas showgirl bride but he sported a new look of a tan and new hairstyle, reminiscent of Evgeni Platov in color and style. It works for him. 'It was my coach's idea and today I like it,' said Goncharov. They will skate first in the second group (sixth to skate) for the Original Dance and they now are coached by Nickolai Morozov who is assisted by Shae Lynn Bourne. This duo skated a strong waltz that flowed, earning them a total segment score of 40.53, finishing just ahead of USA's Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto who had a total segment score of 40.02. "It is hard to understand the scoring just yet," said Grushina. Her partner added, "I am glad with today's results. All the technical information makes it more interesting. I think I will understand it better after I check the (ISU results) papers after the competition." These two teams were close in the scoring for total
element scores with Grushina and Goncharov earning 24.30 and Belbin and
Agosto receiving 24.22. "I think the results turned out pretty
fair and where people should be from how they skated," said Belbin. Belbin and Agosto skated smoothly as they captured the mood of the Austrian Waltz and were a crowd favorite. They were the final competitors of this event but drew second to skate in the Original Dance. "This is way higher than a 6.0 so we must be getting better," joked Belbin. Agosto added, "Talking to another team who skated under this scoring system for the Nebelhorn competition was helpful to us during training.' The Ukranian team got a score boost in timing (8.00) over the Americans (7.75) on a ten-point scale. The Ukranians also finished ahead in Performance (8.25) and Interpretation (8.20) over the Americans (8.10) and (8.00). Since the scoring is now cumulative, the Ukranians have a cushion of 0.51 heading into the Original Dance competition on Friday. France's Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder currently sit in third place with 37.15 points over Italy's Faiella and Massimo Scali, who skate with a lot of speed and finished this stage with 34.38 in points. Delobel made an unusual costume choice, reminiscent of Heidi of the Swiss Alps. The USA's Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov placed fifth with 32.99 points just ahead of the third American team of Christie Moxley and Alexander Kirsanov who were given 31.12 points. She wore an orange sherbet dress with a hint of grape, while her partner wore a white ruffled shirt instead of the black tux that seemed the uniform of the day for the most of the male dancers. For both of these American teams, the male has stronger dancing skills and hopefully we will see deeper knees from both these ladies as the competition progresses. Gregory and Petukhov also now train with Nikolai Morozov this season. |
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Isabelle Delobel & Olivier Schoenfelder of France won the original dance portion with their Boogie Woogie, Blues ("Cry Me a River"), and Boogie Woogie program. They finished ahead of the overall winners at this stage, Tanith Belbin & Ben Agosto by .5 of a point. Delobel & Schoenfelder's total element score was 21.10 while the Americans scored 20.30. Belbin & Agosto did have a slight bobble on their final lift. "We had been focusing on that lift a lot beforehand and when we got to that we were thinking about it too much instead of just doing it so our timing together got off, " explained Belbin. The French skated with energy but seemed a bit slow on their diagonal step sequence that should improve as the season goes on. She is a lovely girl but I would suggest she is a candidate for that Ambush Makeover TV show for just her skating costumes. Neither dress she chose for competition so far here seems to flatter her or fit the musical choices. "We really like the Swing rhythm. We like it so much, maybe that is why we did so well today," she said. Belbin's breathtaking costume was again designed by her mother and the Americans original dance was simply magnificent. They opened with a Jitterbug to music by Louie Primo then changed to Blues and finished with a Swing rhythm. The first lift, both footwork sections, and the spin all worked well for this program and this program should prove to be a winner as the season goes on. This American team finished ahead of the French on the Total Program Composite Score with a 40.97 compared to the French's score of 40.57. The American were higher in transitions, performance and execution, and interpretation. The French finished ahead in choreography and they were tied on skating skills. I would have given the edge to the Americans on skating skills. When the points were combined for the compulsory and original dance rounds, the Americans have 101.29 over the French with 98.82 points, for a lead of 2.47. The Americans lost the original dance portion by just .4 of a point with 61.67 for the French and 61.27 for the Americans. The Russian team of Elena Grushina & Ruslan Goncharov who led after the compulsory dance, slipped to third in the original dance and now have 97.10 points, just 1.72 points behind the French and 4.19 behind the Americans. Grushina nearly fell during their midline step sequence, catching herself by putting both hands down. "I don't know what happened," she said later at the press conference. Their original dance total points were 56.57 so they finished 4.71 behind the leaders for the original dance portion. They chose Swing ("Anything Goes") and Blues ("Summertime") for their rhythms. "The three of us are very much intertwined at this point," said Belbin, "Concentrating on a placement at this stage of the competition has not served us well in the past. We want to focus on the program itself and skating the best we can." The last American dance team to win Skate America was in 1997 and this team could do it here as could the Russians. The French are still in the running, too which should make for an exciting freedance competition. Fourth place went to the Italian team of Federica Faiella & Massimo Scali with 86.74 total points and 51.96 total points in the original dance. Just behind them, is the American team of Melissa Gregory & Denis Petukhov who skated a nice program that was particularly strong in lifts. They were behind the Italian team by just .21 of a point with a total segment score of 51.75. The Italians were also ahead in the compulsory dance so they currently lead with 86.34 total score over the Americans who have a total score of 84.74 at this stage. Look for a strong freedance from Gregory and Petukhov and the Italians' greatest strength is their speed so this match up may be close there, too. The Americans went for classic 50's rock music, choosing "Rock Around the Clock" and "Great Balls of Fire" combined with Blues. American teammates Christie Moxley & Alexander Kirsanov are currently holding onto a slim lead with 74.07 over the Israeli team of Natalia Gudina & Alexei Beletski who earned a total score of 73.34 from the combined rounds. The Israeli team finished ahead in the original dance with 43.66 points over the Americans with 42.95. The Americans finished ahead with their total element score of 14.10 but finished behind in the total program component score with a 28.85. The Italians scored 13.80 in elements but 29.86 in program components, beating the Americans in all five aspects (skating skills, transitions, performance & execution, choreography and interpretation.) |
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2003 Skate America Dance Medalists
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