2010 Skate America

Ladies Event

Kostner leads short, while Japanese sizzles and Americans fizzle

The quality of the Ladies event was a bit disappointing after the Men's Short Program that produced several elite scores in their Short Program  (better than 70).  Only one lady, Carolina Kostner, barely broke 60 points in the short, with the rest of the pack well below the pace of elite performances.

Despite a foot injury that currently forces her to avoid the flip and Lutz jumps, Carolina Kostner gave a respectable performance which was skated more securely and confidently than was often the case last season.  Due to the injury, she limited her jumps to triple toe loop - double toe loop, double Axel and triple loop.  A triple- triple was listed on her planned content, but triple-double was executed instead.  The judges marked her jumps mostly clean, with three judges going to -1 on the triple loop.

Kostner's only other negative GoE was a lone judge who went to -2 on a flying camel spin, while the other judges were mostly at +1 and +2.  Her spins and step sequences were at level 3 or better, and were well skated with GoEs of mostly 1s and 2s and even a +3 on her circular step sequence.  That judge also gave her the highest component scores, and being a bit cynical I will guess that was the Italian judge.

Skating to "Galicia Flamenco" in a dark blue dress with black lace with choreography by Lori Nichol, her routine was well presented.  She skated with good speed and control, and reasonable expression of the music, though her mental focus, however, seemed to be on the elements.  Her component scores averaged near 7.5, with her transitions mark a bit lower, one judge going to 6.75 for that component.

Kanako Murakami (no relation to Daisuke) of Japan, though second in the short, was a breath of fresh air.  She landed an opening triple toe loop - triple toe loop combination to good effect with GoEs of 1s and 2s.  Her subsequent triple flip attempt was called under-rotated, and was landed at just past 1/4 short.  She also singled her Axel, resulting in required -3s for GoEs.  Her three spins where all well done and all called at level 4, and her straight line step sequence at level 3 was also well executed, with GoEs of 1s and 2s.

Wearing a black dress with pink polka dots and skating to music titled "Jumping Jack," Murakami's program was fast, lively and energetic.  She was with the music the entire program and just radiated personality.  Her program components averaged near 7.00, with marks as low as 6.25 and as high as 7.75.

Joshi Helgesson of Sweden was an unexpected addition to the three top placed ladies in the Short Program.  Joshi (she's the pretty sister) has progressed nicely since first competing at the Senior level last season, where she was 11th at Skate Canada, and second at Sweden's nationals.  Her jumps were fairly clean, landing triple Lutz - double toe loop, triple toe loop (with three of nine judges going negative on GoEs) and double Axel.  Her spins and step sequence were at level 3, except for flying camel spin at level 4.  The flying spin had a kind of odd pumping motion to it, but the judges didn't seem to mind, with one judge going to -1 and few going to +1.

Skating to Handel's "Sarabande" the program started off with little musical expression but improved once the jumps were out of the way.  The circular step sequence went well with the music, and earned GoEs that were mostly 1s and 2s.  Overall, power and expression were better than average and her components averaged near 6, with her transitions near 5.50.

Joshi's older sister Viktoria (she's the pretty sister)  is also competing here and placed 12th in the Short Program, the result mainly due to major errors in two jump elements, the jump combination and the triple jump out of footwork.  All three jumps in these two elements were either under-rotated or downgraded.

Among the Americans, Rachael Flatt, battling a leg injury, had the best result and placed fourth, but remains in contention for a medal since second through sixth place are all within 4.2 points of each other.  Her planned content listed triple Lutz - double toe loop for the opening combination, but what was executed was double Lutz - triple toe loop with the toe loop downgraded.  The remainder of the program was cleanly skated, with triple flip receive only  three -1 GoEs, but also a +1 and +2.  Double Axel also received one +1 and one +2.  Her layback spin, received a surprising level 3 (traditionally not her strongest element), and the flying spin and combination spin were at level 4, but seemed stiffly executed.  Her straight line step sequence was at level 2.

Flatt's program to a medley of "Summertime" and other songs, had some cute moments and sections of pleasant expression, but for the most part the routine was mindlessly directionless.  Her components averaged near 6.75 with Transitions and Choreography the lowest two of the five.

Caroline Zhang placed fifth in the short, with a program that was so devoid of speed and artistic spark, one is inclined to wonder why.  The answer, is mostly clean elements.  Zhang's TES was 1.52 points ahead of Flatt despite an under-rotation on triple loop and three nit-picking -1s on double Axel.  Her spins were all called level 4, and were well scored, though her flexibility has declined as she has grown up and out in the last two years.  With a cleaned up triple loop she would easily have been second best in TES, but her real challenge is speed and presentation.

Zhang's components ranged from 5.50 to 6.75, averaging around 6.25, with the biggest hits in Transitions, Skating Skills, and Performance/Execution.  Expression of the music was mostly in the second half of the program after completing the three jump elements, but it is hard to really express a tango well when skating in slow motion with little sense of power.

The third American lady, Alexe Gilles gave an artistically flawed performance and placed ninth.  She landed a clean triple toe loop - triple toe loop combination, but then fell on triple Lutz, which was downgraded, for a significant loss of element points. Her double Axel was well executed with seven on the judges going to +1 or 2 for it's GoE.  Her TES was seventh best, but her components crushed her like the Titanic going up against an iceberg.  Her skating was sloppy, with weak expression of the music that failed to capture its energy.  Though she got some marks in the 6s, other judges went as low as 4.25 and her average component score only reached around 5.25.

Flatt moves up as Kostner falters, while Murakami charms again

After getting off to a bit of a troubled start at the start of her Free Skate, Rachael Flatt settled into a good performance that put her first in the Free Skate and moved her up to second overall after placing fourth in the Short. Program.

It was a little bit of a rocky start with the triple toe loop called under-rotated on her opening double Axel - Triple toe loop combination.  On a subsequent triple Lutz - double toe loop attempt, the Lutz was also called under-rotated.  These two errors, the only significant technical issues in the performance, made the difference between silver and gold, and a clean triple Lutz, even with the problem with the triple toe loop, would alone have been enough to win the event.

Following the first two jump elements, Flatt went on to cleanly land 5 other triple jumps, with four of her seven jump elements in the second half.  A change foot camel spin was called level 4 (back entry and difficult variation on first foot and difficult variation and change of edge on the second foot).  A flying combination spin with camel and sit positions, however, only reached level 2, and her closing change combination spin was called level three.  Her straight line step sequence was well done, called at level three and received GoE of 0 through +2.  Her choreographic spiral sequence also received GoEs of 0 through 2.

Skating to "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" her performance was again dominated by emphasis on the technical.  Her skating was of middling speed with Transitions a bit thin, the lowest of her component scores by about 0.50 points.  There was minimal expression the first 2/3 of the program, and then a significant improvement with a bigger finish in the last third.  To move out of the sizes in components, this routine needs the first two-thirds to live up to last third.  Her component scores averaged 6.75 with marks as low as 6.00 and as high as 7.50 

Kanako Murakami charmed again, even with several problems with her jump elements.  Her opening triple toe loop - triple toe loop combination was superb with all nine judges scoring it +2.  A triple flip - double toe loop and a double axel were also clean, but on trple Lutz she had an edge call, a flip was singled (planed to be a triple flip to double Axel sequence), a triple loop was under-rotated and a triple Salchow combination had two double loops under-rotated.  Two of her spins were called level four while layback spin was level 3 (side to back, haircutter, Biellmann).  All three spins were scored with 1s and 2s by the judges.  Her straight line step sequence was well done with all nine judges going to +2, while her choreographic spiral sequence received primarily +1s.

Other than the inconsistent jumps, her program was well skated, performed to "The Mask of Zorro" soundtrack.  She skated with good speed and reasonable expression.  The Japanese Junior National Champion and 2009 Junior Grand Prix Champions is off to a good start in her first season in the Senior rank.

With the most consistent results among the two event segments, Murakami won the event with a second place finish in both the short and the long, compared to a fourth and first place finish from Flatt, and a first and sixth place finish form Kostner.

The most dramatic move of the competition came from Viktoria Helgesson.  Having placed last in the Short Program, she was first to skate in the long, the start order being reverse order of finish in the Short Program.

Helgesson landed six triple jumps and two double Axels, though with some minor errors among the seven jump elements.  All three spins were called level 4 and were well executed.  The jump on her closing flying sit spin was high and controlled, though the rotations themselves were a bit slow as she eked out 8 rotations for the fourth feature in the spin.  Skating to "The Drummer," "Sad Romance," and "August Rhaposdy" from the movie August Rush, her components averaged 5.75, with Transitions a bit thin at near 5.5.  Skating Skills was her greatest strength at near 6.0.

Amelie Lacoste who had placed sixth in the short was fourth in the Free Skate and moved up to fifth overall.  Lacoste gave up points on two jump elements with a pop on triple Lutz to a single, with an edge call and a fall on triple toe loop.  Three other triples and two double Axels were also landed, more or less cleanly, the double Axel being fairly well done.  Two spins were called level 4 and one level 3.  The first two of these fairly well done, but the third suffering from a brief loss of control on the first foot of a change foot combination spin.

Despite the several execution glitches, the program was still well presented, with her components averaging a bit above 6.25.  Skating to "Sheherazade"  she displayed nice skating skills and better than typical expression.  Her PCS exceeded TES by more than four points and she ended up trailing fourth place byu only 0.22 points.

Joshi Helgesson, who had placed third in the short, struggled with her jumps in the long and dropped to fifth in the long, and fourth overall just edging out Lacoste.  She opened with successful solo triple Lutz and solo triple loop, but after that her jumps were problematic.  Double toe on triple toe loop - double toe loop was under-rotated, another double toe was downgraded in combination with triple Lutz, a solo triple toe loop was under-rotated as was a double toe loop in combination with double Axel.  Still, she had four triple jumps to her credit and two double Axels, the main problem being cleanly completing the combinations.  Two spins were called level 4 and one level three, with the judges scoring them mainly at 0.  Her straight line step sequence and choreographic spiral sequence were nicely done, in time to the music.

Helgesson's performance was skated with decent speed and good expression on the music, "Palladio" and "Feeling Good."  Her average component score was near 6.0 with Transitions down just 1/4 points as the judges are usually want to do for most skaters.

Carolina Kostner held onto a place on the podium mainly the result of her score in the Short Program.  Her element score was well below her component score with a TES of 37.14 and PCS of 58.45.  In PCS she was scored highest of the group, but with flip and Lutz out of her arsenal her jump points suffered dramatically.

Kostner completed an opening triple toe loop and double Axel, but a second double Axel was thrown as a single.  She landed triple Salchow, but fell on triple loop which was downgraded.  Her sixth jump element was double loop, and the seventh an attempt at a triple Salchow combination that had a poor landing on the Salchow which prevented completing the rest of of the combination.  A flying change foot combination spin was only level 1, though several features were attempted.  A flying camel spin was called level 4 and a change foot combination spin level 3.  These later two spins were scored positive, but not significantly so.  Her choreographic spiral sequence and straight line step sequence were executed back to back and received fairly high GoEs of 0 through +1.

Despite the limitations in her jumps gave a fairly expressive performance to "l Apres-Midi d un Faun" and did not let the technical problems throw off her presentation.  Her component scores averaged just above 7.25, with one judge going to 8 for Interpretation.

Caroline Zhang was again slow and expressionless in her performance to the Dvorak Cello concerto.  She landed triple flip and two double Axels cleanly, though a few judges went to negative GoE for the Axels.  The remaining jumps were all problematic including a fall on a downgraded double Lutz with an edge call, with the only successful combination her opening triple Flip - double toe loop.  Her best elements where the Choreographic spiral sequence and her closing level 4 layback spin, both of which received several marks of +2. 

Zhang's component marks averaged a bit above 5.75, with Transitions at 5.39.  With problems both technically and artistically, Zhang appears to be in a world of hurt with two months to go before Nationals.  With fifth and tenth place segment results she ended up ninth overall.

Alexe Gilles also appears to be in a world of hurt, with final preparations for Nationals staring her in the face.  Every jump element was scored negative, and four had under-rotation calls.  A double Axel was popped to a waltz jump and she fell twice -- the only saving grace, her spins and step sequence were called level 3 or better, and received a few GoEs of +1.

On the presentation side, Gilles was also slow, with Transitions thin.  Skating to The Queen Symphony (mainly "Bohemian Rhapsody") she showed limited expression and her component scores averaged a little above 5.25.  She did not have the lowest TES and PCS marks of the group, but ended up twelfth in the free skate nonetheless, and dropped to last place overall.

2010 Skate America Ladies Medalists