1999 World Championships

Pairs

Notes on the Long Program

Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze won their second consecutive World Championship in a controversial decision that included accusations of collusion between the Ukrainian and Russian judges leveled by CTV.  These two judges are accused of communicating with each other during the skating of the long program.  After viewing the tape of the event Technical Committee chairman Sally-Anne Stapleford said, "We had a look at the video.  It doesn't look particularly good.  There appears to have been some kind of communication.  We will study the [referee] report and make recommendations of sanction if we fell sanction is required."

Berezhnaya skated a strong, but not flawless, performance.  The catch on their triple twist was bit late and Berezhnaya fell on a double Axel.  Their other lifts were strong and they landed throw triple Salchow and throw triple loop.  Their greatest strength in the long program, however, was in the second mark with a very expressive and emotional program.  The performance was warmly received but did not completely capture the audience who were perhaps put off by the music which can be loosely described as four and one-half minutes of a shrieking soprano.  They were followed in the skating of the event by the Chinese team of Shen & Zhao.

Skating to "Mulan", Shen & Zhao gave an energetic performance with four strong lifts, including a good triple twist and side-by-side triple toe loops and two double Axels.  Eight of the nine judges placed then higher than the Russian team on the first mark, but eight of the nine also placed them lower in the second mark, while the ninth had them even in the second mark.  Overall they received seven second place marks and two first place marks.  Note that even if the accused judges had colluded in some way, it still would not have changed the final result.  For the audience, however, the sentiment was clearly in favor of Shen & Zhao who received a rousing standing ovation.  Their second place finish was the first Worlds pair medal for a Chinese team.

In a 6-3 decision, Zagorska & Siudek held third place to win the first World pair medal for Poland.  Skating last, they gave a capable performance with two errors.   On throw triple Salchow Zagorska put two hands down to keep from falling and on a back outside death spiral she fell off the edge.  They completed five lifts, throw double Axel, and side-by-side triple toe loops, double Axels, and two double toe loops.

Two of the three U.S. teams managed to move up in the long program, but Handy & Binebose had to withdraw due to Binebose being stricken with the flu.  He had been sick at the time of the Four Continents Championships and could not compete there, and has suffered a reoccurrence this week.  They appeared briefly during the warm-up, acknowledged the crowd and then left the ice.

Ina & Zimmerman moved up to ninth place on a program marred by three errors - Zimmerman stepping out of double Axel, Ina falling on throw triple Salchow, and a collapse on their final lasso lift.  Hartsell & Hartsell moved up to tenth place in a performance with only two minor errors. On triple twist Danielle hit Steve's shoulder during the catch and during footwork she had a minor stumble but did not fall.  They completed three other lifts and throw triple Salchow and throw triple loop.  They also landed side-by-side triple toe loops, double Axels and two double toe loops.

Notes on the Short Program

After losing to the Chinese team Shen & Zhao at the Grand Prix Final three weeks ago, Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze were back in form to win the short program with unanimous first place marks.  They landed side-by-side triple toe loops and throw triple Salchow.  Said Berezhnaya of the short program, "Yes, I felt pressured after I didn't skate well in St. Petersburg.  However, I learned a lot from the competition in St. Petersburg.  I think our marks (here) are ok because there was a very little mistake in our performance, and the judges saw it.  But I won't tell which mistake it was!"

Shen & Zhao placed second with six second place marks.  They also landed side-by-side triple toe loops, but on throw triple loop Shen put two hands down to keep from falling.  "We were a bit too slow on the throw triple loop", said Zhao.  "Usually we don't have problems with this element.  We were a bit tired today.

Third place was taken by the Polish team of Zagorska & Siudek.  This team has improve consistently over the past 2 years, but were not expected to be medal contenders coming into Worlds.  They skated a clean program landing  side-by-side triple toe loops and throw triple Salchow.  For the lift they used the Axel lasso takeoff and ended with a Watson & Oppegard type swoop.  Said Siudek, "We are happy to have skated a clean short program and to be in the top three.  We hoped to be in the top four to skate in the last flight."

Sargeant & Wirtz had a clean skate in the short program to place fourth.   There performance was well done with side-by-side triple toe loops, good unison in the combination spin and a fine death spiral.  It was their career best result thus far at a World Championships.

The reigning bronze medalists, Schwarz & Mueller, had a mediocre skate with a so-so throw triple Salchow and Schwarz doubling triple toe loop.  They ended up placed ninth and are out of medal contention here.

Ina & Zimmerman looked better than they did at U.S. Nationals, but still are not quite there yet as a team.  Ina fell on throw triple Salchow and the team ended up in eighth for the short.  Hartsell & Hartsell placed 13th after both fell on triple toe loops.  They were followed by Handy & Binebose who did a decent job in their first Worlds despite Binebose fighting off a recurrence of the flu.  On throw triple Salchow Handy put her hand down for their only deduction.

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