Ladies

Starting Order - Short Program

Short Program

Notes:

Maria Butyrskaya led off the event with a fall on the triple Lutz of her her triple Lutz - double toe loop combination, making her the first of eight ladies who missed the combination tonight.  She held her composure however, and followed up with a successful triple loop.  She skated a bluesy number to good effect but was lethargic throughout the programs and she finished after her music by several seconds.   The double Axel was clean but of mediocre quality, while her spins were well done.   Her technical errors cost her 0.4-0.5 in the first mark, but she received 9 marks of 5.7 for the presentation mark.  At the time she skated it was not clear it would be good enough to hold first if other strong skaters did their programs cleanly, but it turned out there were few clean program tonight and so despite the rough edges she came out of the short program the clear winner.

Angela Nikodinov introduced a new short program, "The Lark Ascending", by Vaughn Williams.  The program suites her well and she skated it beautifully.  She was one of only two ladies to land the combination, a triple Lutz - double toe loop, but she double a triple flip shortly thereafter.  Afterwards she said she had a minor miss-step in her footwork which threw off her timing on the jump.

Elena Sokolova was the other lady to land the combination, also a triple Lutz - double toe loop.  Following the combination she landed triple loop, but then put a hand down on the subsequent double Axel.  She skated better than she did at the Goodwill Games, but was still a little sluggish and later, in the press conference, she seemed very tired.

With major errors made by many of the top contenders here, Nicole Bobek had her chance, but she too fell on her combination.  She skated the rest of the program cleanly landing triple toe loop and the best double Axel of the evening.   Introducing a new program to music from the movie "Zorro" she earned the second highest presentation marks of the night, but her technical marks were weaker, in the 4.7-5.2 range.  It was a decent start for her first major event with a "new" coach and new program and the fact that she now keeps her composure and fights back after an error is an encouraging sign.

Brittany McConn gave a reasonable interpretation of "Caravan", but was sluggish in many places and also missed her combination.  Both her triple loop and double Axel were clean.

Canadian Jennifer Robinson skated better than she has in several years.   She skated an attractive program with good expression and her basic skating and presence on the ice is much improved.  The jumps, however, still seem to be a bit of a problem - at least they were tonight.  She missed the opening triple toe loop in her combination, but landed triple Salchow and the double Axel.

Starting Order - Free Skating

Final Results

Notes:

With all of the spills in the long program, any of the top four ladies had a shot here, but it was Butyrskaya who was least error prone and captured the day.  Oddly, she landed all the hard tricks only to fall on triple Salchow and triple toe loop.   Afterwards she said that after landing the triple Lutz and the triple flip she may have gotten overconfident and lost her concentration.  She skated last year's program, but is planning a new long to "Swan Lake" to be unveiled later in the Grand Prix.

Elena Sokolova moved up a spot to take the silver with a very inconsistent performance.   She started off with errors in her opening combination and a subsequent doubled triple flip, and her technical errors interrupted the expression of the music, but in the second half of the program she pulled it together managing to land three triples .   She has been having problems thus far this season two-footing some of the triples, but if she can work these problems out and get more into the mood of the music this is a program with a lot of potential.

Angela Nikodinov used her "Cinderella" program yet again, and it was a blah as ever.  Add to that doubling several jumps and landing only three triples she had nowhere to go but down.  Mercifully, this program will be retired soon.

Nicole Bobek held fourth place with her new "Evita" program.  She landed only one of four triples attempted and has her work cut out for her, as she herself admits.  Still, she fought through  the program and a lot can change between now and Nationals.  In addition to working on the jumps, the program itself needs work.   There is too much end-to-end skating in the program and the ending is too too bland.

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