The ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2006 went on Thursday in Ljubljana, Slovenia, with the Original Dance and the Ladies Free Skating.
Ice Dancing, Original Dance
The competition kicked off with the Original Dance today. Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir (CAN) defended their lead after the Compulsory Dance ahead of Natalia Mikhailova/Arkadi Sergeev (RUS), but the top two couples are separated by only 0.35 points before the decisive Free Dance. Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte of Italy pulled up from fourth to third place.
Virtue/Moir put out a strong Original Dance to Rhumba and Mambo that included a fluid diagonal step sequence, a difficult dance spin with changes of position and a well synchronized side by side step sequence, but their rotational lift received only a level two. The reigning World Junior silver medallists received 55.13 points (28.30 element score/26.83 program component score) and have 90.01 points so far. “Scott and I were very pleased with our performance today. We were very relaxed going in the warm up. We just wanted to have fun with it, and we really enjoyed the program. The audience was really supportive today, and we were trying to feed off their energy”, Virtue said.
Performing to Cha Cha, Rhumba and Samba, Mikhailova/Sergeev completed an intricate side by side footwork line, but their twizzles at the end were slightly out of sync. The Russian Junior Champions also showed a curve lift with him in a low position and a straight line lift with him travelling backwards on one foot. The couple earned a new personal best score of 55.01 points (28.99/26.12) which added up to a total score of 89.66 points so far. “We’re extremly happy to be in second place right now. Last year, we didn’t even make the top three. Tomorrow in the Free Dance we want to give a hundred percent”, Mikhailova commented. “Our practices have been going well, we relaxed a bit during the first warm up groups, and then we skated with confidence”, her partner told the press.
Cappellini/Lanotte skated next to last out of the 26 couples. The Italians had chosen a Rhumba and Samba, and their characteristic performance included a difficult side by side footwork sequence, a dance combination spin and a rotational lift. The Junior Grand Prix Final bronze medallists picked up 54.68 points (29.19/25.49) and moved up one spot with a total of 86.92 points. “We really love the Latin rhythms, and we studied them a lot on the floor. We skated with almost no mistakes, we just had a little wobble at the beginning of the diagonal step sequence, but the rest was just great”, Cappellini said. “It feels just great. I missed that chance last year, and I was very close to that”, she answered when asked how it feels to be in a podium position. “With Luca, it’s like I can start a new career. We’re in our first season, so this the best you could imagine”, she went on referring to the fact that she teamed up with Lanotte only this season after her previous partner Matteo Zanni retired from competition.
Meryl Davis/Charlie White (USA) who stood in third place following the Compulsory Dance delivered a nice Original Dance to Mambo, Rhumba and Mambo as well but nevertheless slipped to fourth with a score of 52.74 points. However, at 86.05 points overall they are fewer than one point away from the podium. Anastasia Platonova/Andrei Maximishin (RUS) moved up from sixth to fifth with a solid routine (80.24 points). 2005 World Junior bronze medallists Anastasia Gorshkova/ Ilia Tkachenko (RUS) dropped from fifth to seventh after both fell on linking footwork and needed a few seconds to recover.
Ladies, Free Skating
The Ladies event concluded with the Free Skating. Korea’s Yu-Na Kim pulled off another upset to dethrone reigning champion Mao Asada of Japan. Christine Zukowski (USA) captured the bronze medal.
Last year’s World junior silver medallist Kim skated next to last, just before her main rival Asada. Performing to the “Papa Can You Hear Me” soundtrack, the 15-year-old laid down a triple flip-triple toe combination, followed by a double Axel, a flying sit spin, a triple Lutz, double Axel-triple toeloop, another double Axel and triple Salchow. The only glitch was a step out on the last jump of her triple Lutz-double toe-double loop combination. All of her three spins were graded a level four by the Technical Panel. Kim earned 116.68 points (64.85 element score/51.83 program component score), slightly improving her previous personal best and racked up a total score of 177.54 points.
Then Asada took on to the ice and knew that she had to risk everything. The Grand Prix Champion went for her best weapon, the triple Axel, but popped it into a single. She recovered instantly to reel off a triple loop, a beautiful camel spin, a double Axel, triple flip, triple loop-double loop-double loop and a triple flip-single loop before her second costly mistake came: she popped the last Lutz. When Asada sat in the Kiss & Cry waiting for her score, she knew that she had lost this time. The Japanese scored 97.25 points (48.45/48.80) and accumulated a total score of 153.35 points. So Kim became the first Korean figure skater in history to win an ISU Championship.
Christine Zukowski landed a triple flip, triple Salchow, triple toeloo-double toeloop and a triple Salchow-double toe-double toe combination, but she doubled the loop and touched down with her free blade on the triple Lutz and the double Axel (in combination with double toe). The 16-year-oldi received 83.77 points (44.51/39.26) for her routine to “The Mission” and got a total of 135.14 points.
“I missed a little jump, but my score was very high and I was very happy”, Kim told the post-event press conference. “I hardly can believe it (to have won). Next season, I want to compete in the senior Grand Prix and try to give my best. I had an ankle injury before I came here and boot problems, but it got a lot better when I was here.” Asked about why she took out the triple loop, she answered: “I missed the loop in the warm up, so I hesitated and we decided to replace it by a double Axel.”
Asada was a little disappointed with her performance. “This was the worst program of the whole season. I wasn’t able to skate clean”, she said. “I didn’t pay attention to the (Yu-Na Kim’s) score, so I didn’t get nervous. I don’t know what happened to me.”
Zukowski commented: “I think my performance overall was really good, but it could have been better if I had rotated my triple loop, but I’m happy that I got third place. Coming in I just wanted to be top ten, and after I was third in the Short Program, I didn’t really believe it, and so I tried to go into the long program just thinking that I really didn’t have a chance to medal so it would kind of take the pressure off me and it worked”, she added.
Nana Takeda of Japan made a huge leap from 16th to fourth with a solid Free Skating that contained four triple jumps and nice spins. She ranked third in the Free Skating at 90.15 points and had 129.09 points overall. Aki Sawada completed a strong showing of the Japanese Ladies by finishing fifth at 126.15 points. Alissa Czisny (USA) fell on her Lutz and popped a few jumps to drop from fourth to sixth (124.18 points).
The ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2006 continue Friday with the Men’s Short Program and the Free Dance.
Results
