2005 World Championships

Ladies' Qualifying

Based on the list of competitors it appeared before the qualifying events that this would be the better of the two groups.  Turns out it was and it wasn't.  More of the top ladies in this group have a chance to medal than the leaders in Group B, but of the two groups, this was the greater slop-fest.  None of the ladies skated clean, or executed their program as planned.  Only Irina Slutskaya skated with energy, and performed like someone who was here to win and was confident she could.

Slutsyaya skated first in the second warmup with some sloppiness on a triple loop with a step out and a double Axel with a of oor quality.  Otherwise it was a confident and energetic program.  Her score of 119.08 was a little below expectations for a gold medal performance, but she was the point leader for the day, and it got the job done.

Trailing Slutskaya by 10 points is Fumie Suguri.  She skated with decent spped and fair expression but for two of her triples she was credited with doubles, a solo Saclhow and a solo Lutz.  Hers was the fourth highest score of the day.  Like most of the leaders, Suguri was not happy with her performance, particularly with Salchow and also the connecting moves between the elements.

Carolina Kostner landed a triple flip - triple toe loop - double loop combination in her performance, though it received a slightly negative GoE from the panel.  She skated with mediocre expression, with the main strength of her program being the jumps, despite a fall on the entry to a solo triple toe loop.  All but one of her spins was level  1, as was one of her sequences.

Another expected contender who had a difficult skate was Shizuka Arakawa, who ended up forth in the group.  Her opening three jump combination (with two triples) was performed as a triple Lutz - double toe.  Her second planed triple - triple (Salchow to toe was successful, though of negative quality.  A solo triple loop also was also poorly done and on a triple Lutz she had to put a hand down to save herself.  She also stepped out of a double Axel near the end of the program.  She skated with little energy.

Fifth in this group was a chastened Michelle Kwan.  She looked nervous at the start, not like her usual caged tiger, but more like a terrified tiger.  She started cautious and oly in the later part of the program seem to settle down.  She doubled a triple flip and Salchow, and two-footed a triple toe loop.  She also recieved a negative GoE on a triple Lutz.

At U.S. Nationals, those familiar with the new system felt Kwan would have trouble with her Transitions mark and her spin levels, and that has proven to be the case.  Two of her spins were called at level 1 as was her spiral sequence.  Her mark for Skating skills was a respectable 7.35, but the other program components were marked substantially lower.  This is not a good sign.  Today, where most of the leaders were a bit off, she escaped complete disaster, but when everyone is on she need big scores in the program components to make up for limitations in her element scores.  At this point it looks like those big marks may be hard to come by.  After taking into account the weighting factor for the qualifying round she is down five points; an unenviable position, but not entirely out of the running.

Jennifer Kirk was not happy with her performance, and rightly so.  She receive negative GoEs on three jump elements, falling twice.  She stepped out of her opening triple Lutz, which was supposed to be in combination, but wasn't.  She fell on a cheated triple loop (scored a double), nearly two footed a triple flip, and fell on triple Salchow.  overall the rpogram can only be described as a mess.  With a score of 85.08 points she is well back in the pack and will have to work hard for even a top ten finish.

Miko Ando, however, does not trail that far behind, having earned the third highest score of the day.  She skated clean, but did not try a planned quad Salchow.  She trailed Cohen in both element scores and program components.  With 6 triples landed she tied Cohen and Irina Slutskaya in that count.  At this point our favorites for the podium are Slutskaya, Cohen and Ando.

Third place in this group went to Elena Sokolova.  She skated a complex and interesting program, and her presentation scores saved her from total disaster.  She landed only four triple, and for one of those she had negative GoEs.

Susanna Poykio also struggled, landing five triples, but three of those had negative GoEs, as did her closing flying sit spin (though that is more due to an unfortunate random selection of judges, than anything else).

Joannie Rochette landed four triples and fell on a fifth.  Her routine, one of many Firebirds this year, was boring and skated with inadequate speed.  her program component marks dragged her down even farther, dipping down as low as the mid-5s.

Rounding out the last member of the only-the-slimmest-hope-remains club is Julia Sebestyen.  She was first to skate in the group and it was a mess.  She landed only three triples and fell on a fourth (triple Lutz).  Her program component marks averaged out to about 6 each, which is well below what is needed to contend for a medal.