2003

Skate America

Ladies Event

by Maggie Doyle

  
Standings
Place Skater Country SP FS
1 Sasha Cohen USA 1 1
2 Jennifer Kirk USA 3 2
3 Shizuka Arakawa JPN 2 3
4 Amber Corwin USA 4 4
5 Susanna Poykio FIN 8 5
6 Viktoria Volchkova RUS 6 8
7 Annie Bellemare CAN 9 6
8 Yukari Nakano JPN 10 7
9 Carolina Kostner ITA 7 10
10 Galina Maniachenko UKR 5 12
11 Julia Lautowa AUT 12 9
12 Michelle Currie CAN 11 11

 

Short Program

 
Starting Order - Short Program
  1. Yukari Nakano
  2. Michelle Currie
  3. Carolina Kostner
  4. Julia Lautowa
  5. Annie Bellemare
  6. Viktoria Volchkova
  7. Shizuka Arakawa
  8. Susanna Poykio
  9. Galina Maniachenko
  10. Jennifer Kirk
  11. Amber Corwin
  12. Sasha Cohen

 

Short Program Placements
Place Skater Country
1 Sasha Cohen USA
2 Shizuka Arakawa JPN
3 Jennifer Kirk USA
4 Amber Corwin USA
5 Galina Maniachenko UKR
6 Viktoria Volchkova RUS
7 Carolina Kostner ITA
8 Susanna Poykio FIN
9 Annie Bellemare CAN
10 Yukari Nakano JPN
11 Michelle Currie CAN
12 Julia Lautowa AUT


Sasha Cohen skated as the last competitor with her reprised "Malaguena" program and her planned to skate point value was only 26.00, lower than many other competitors. However in her performance she upgraded many of her spins from level 1 to level 2 difficulty and racked up a 32.50 total element score. She was docked 1.60 for putting her foot down on her double toe loop in her opening triple Lutz combination. Cohen's spiral was easily the best of the 
competition, and she received 33.96 in program component points. Based upon a ten-point scale she won all five aspects of components with scores ranging from 7.95 to 8.85. Her program also included a triple flip, double Axel and strong spins along with the Charlotte. The crowd reception was strong with a standing ovation. 

"People were applauding loudly, so I thought they must be good scores,'' Cohen said. She added, "It's really a new experience for me and I'm learning a lot about it this week. I have no clue what (the judges) are doing. I only can tell the place I am in and the points between me and the other competitors."

Second and third place are very close and both skaters train with the same coach, Richard Callaghan. Japan's Shizuka Arakawa skated with a strong performance to "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" by Legrand. She downgraded her 
combination to a triple Lutz - double toe loop and stepped out of her triple flip. She edged out American Jenny Kirk on the total element score with a 28.90 over Kirk's 27.64 but Kirk won the total component score with a 31.04 over Arakawa's 30.12. Their total segment scores vary by just.34 with the Japanese skater earning 59.02 and the American 58.68. This gives Cohen a 7.44 lead going into the freeskate over Arakawa and a 7.78 lead over Kirk. Arakawa had three level 2 elements (spiral, combination spin and layback spin) that also gave her an edge over Kirk. " I am a little bit confused. I still can't figure out if I did good or bad yet (under the new judging system," said Arakawa. 


Kirk skated a clean program to music from the musical, "Chicago", landing a triple Lutz double toe loop combination instead of the planned triple-triple. "I was so happy the crowd was behind me," said Kirk who also received a standing ovation for her performance. 

She included a triple flip and double Axel. Her Combination Spin and Spiral were also level 2 elements. "It's a little confusing with the different (scoring) system but it is something to get used to. I just want to skate well and get used to the system," said Kirk.

The third American on the team, Amber Corwin sits a respectable fourth with 54.66 points. She executed a nice triple toe- triple toe combination in her "Moon River" short program but suffered a fall on her triple Lutz and had a slight deduction on her double Axel as she struggled to hold its landing. 

The ladies event opened with Japan's Yukari Nakano going for her triple Axel in combination but she only got credit for a double Axel - double toe combination and she followed that with a double flip for 10th place in a twelve- 
ladies field.

 

Free Skating

 
Starting Order - Free Skating
  1. Julia Lautowa
  2. Carolina Kostner
  3. Yukari Nakano
  4. Susanna Poykio
  5. Annie Bellemare
  6. Michelle Currie
  7. Viktoria Volchkova
  8. Galina Maniachenko
  9. Sasha Cohen
  10. Jennifer Kirk
  11. Amber Corwin
  12. Shizuka Arakawa

 

Free Skating Placements
Place Skater Country
1 Sasha Cohen USA
2 Jennifer Kirk USA
3 Shizuka Arakawa JPN
4 Amber Corwin USA
5 Susanna Poykio FIN
6 Annie Bellemare CAN
7 Yukari Nakano JPN
8 Viktoria Volchkova RUS
9 Julia Lautowa AUT
10 Carolina Kostner ITA
11 Michelle Currie CAN
12 Galina Maniachenko UKR

The ladies event created the most buzz and excitement at this year's 2003 Skate America.Sasha Cohen added to her already substantial point total with a very strong performance to "Swan Lake" for her first Skate America title. "It's really great winning two titles this fall (her other title was the USFSA's Figure Skating International Challenge, a made for TV event) but I am more proud of going out there and enjoying the actual performance. I did that for myself this summer and I want to give the audience the best performance I can," said Cohen. 

Her only errors were a two-footed triple flip and a hand down on her sit spin portion of her combination spin. Her program included an opening triple Lutz - double toe loop combination followed by triple flip - double toe loop combination. She held on to her triple loop landing and executed level two spins and footwork. Cohen received 62.01 for total element score and 68.88 for program components, with five clean triples. 

Cohen won both the short and the freeskate programs, with a combined total of 197.35 points. Her margin of victory over American teammate Jenny Kirk was 18.58 and her performance was rewarded with a standing ovation. "I want to go out there and love every second," said Cohen. She worked on her quadruple Salchow this past summer and is determined to work on it again/ "I don't want to give that up. I will work on it again when I have a large block of time for that, either this summer or right after Nationals (prior to the World championships.) It doesn't matter which of the nine judges were chosen to be the five that counted, as Cohen would have won with any judging combination despite landing two less clean triples than Kirk. Under the code of points, other skating elements have a greater value than they did under the old scoring system. 

Kirk was dazzling tonight for her "Die Fledermaus" by J. Strauss freeskating program, landing seven triples, including a triple Lutz - triple toe combination and a standing ovation with the crowd leaping to their feet with the most enthusiastic response of the night. "This was my best freeskating performance since Junior Worlds. I am so happy I put it all together and showed I can still do seven triples in a program," she said. 

Her total element score was 59.21 which was 2.80 less than Cohen's score and her program components score was 60.88, which was 8.00 less than Cohen's marks. Kirk followed Cohen in tonight's skating order. "You can build from the audience's energy and I was in the zone with my own performance so following Sasha didn't bother me," said Kirk.   It seems Kirk will need to increase her transitions and increase her spin difficulty under the new judging system to beat Cohen. 

Shizuka Arakawa of Japan gave a graceful performance to "Violin Fantasy" with four clean triples for the bronze medal. She also stepped out of her triple loop and her triple Lutz. Her total combined score for both programs was 113.37 with a freeskating total score of 52.25. Her total element score was 52.25 and her program component score equaled 61.12, which was 0.24 higher than Kirk's. She bested Kirk on skating skills, transitions, and choreography while Kirk had the edge for performance/execution and interpretation. "I couldn't do the triple toe after the triple Lutz because I didn't get enough height on the Lutz," said Arakawa. 

American Amber Corwin finished just out of the medals in fourth place with a total combined program point total of 102.29, which was 11.08 points behind Arakawa. She had a total element score of 48.65 and a program component score of 54.64, finishing behind Arakawa in all five aspects. Corwin who is coached by Charlene Wong performed to "Book of Secrets" by L. McKennitt. She opened with a triple toe loop - triple toe loop combination but then fell on her triple flip. She included a total of five clean triples and doubled her second Lutz.

 

 

2003 Skate America Ladies Medalists

 

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