The competition at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships concluded Thursday in Calgary, Canada, with the Ladies Free Skating.  

Ladies, Free Skating
The last to find out who their new champions are were the Ladies. Kimmie Meissner (USA) skated to victory in what was her first World Championship. Japan’s Fumie Suguri captured the silver medal while Sasha Cohen (USA) settled for the bronze.

Meissner, who stood in third place following the Short Program, put out the skate of her life. The 16-year-old nailed a triple flip-triple toeloop combination, a double Axel, a triple Lutz-triple toeloop, a triple loop, Lutz, Salchow and a double Axel-double toeloop-double loop combination in her program to “Belkis, Queen of Sheba”. She hadn’t finished yet her final element, a flying sit spin, when the crowd rose to their feet to give her a standing ovation. Meissner also was awarded all level threes for her spins, spirals and steps and a level four for her combination spin. The 2004 World Junior silver medallist picked up 129.70 points (69.47 element score/60.23 program score), clearly surpassing her previous personal best of 113. 84 points and accumulating a total competition score of 218.33 points.
Suguri’s lyrical program set to Sergei Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto featured a triple Lutz-double toeloop combination, a triple flip, another triple Lutz, a triple toeloop, a double Axel-double toeloop as well as beautiful spins. Her only mistakes came when she doubled the Salchow and stepped out of the second jump in her triple flip-double toeloop combination. The 25-year-old Japanese scored 119.15 points (58.86/60.29) and remained in second place at 209.74 points.

Overnight leader Sasha Cohen had drawn to skate first in the final group. The Olympic silver medallist started strongly into her romantic “Romeo and Juliet” program, hitting a triple Lutz-double toeloop, a triple flip and a triple loop, but then she seemed to loose focus, stumbling out of her second triple flip and two-footing the triple toeloop and double Axel. When she fell on her last jump, a triple Salchow, she knew that the gold had eluded her one more time. Cohen produced excellent spins and spirals, earning a level four for each of them and received 114.67 points (54.32/61.35). She dropped from first to third with a total of 208.88 points.

“I feel really good about my performance. It’s definitely the best I’ve had ever. It’s so exciting. It’s so funny, because last year I was just watching it (the World Championships) and now I’m standing on the podium. Last year I was not old enough to come to Worlds”, Meissner told the press. “The only time I let myself thinking that (her performance was strong) was after I did my double Axel-double toeloop-double loop at the end. At Nationals, I thought I was doing pretty good and then I fell on the double Axel. I tried not to think that it is good before my program was actually over. I have heard that it’s harder to stay on top, but I haven’t really thought too much about being the defending World Champion, because I just became the World Champion today! I’m just going to try to work really hard for the upcoming season”, she added.
Suguri came back on to the World podium after winning a bronze medal in 2002 and 2003. “It was very hard after the Olympic Games, especially with my body condition (to get in shape) for this competition. I skated better than I thought. It was getting better each day. Somebody said this was my eighth time at Worlds, and she (Meissner) is 16, and I’m almost 26, it’s ten years and I feel really old! I’m happy to be back on the podium. I was off the podium many times. I had a hard year and finally I get on the podium”, the Japanese commented.
“Tonight was difficult for me. I really fought through the whole thing but I struggled on a lot of my elements. It’s tough to get back up after the Olympics, but I am glad I came here and gave it my best shot”, Cohen said. “I have the Champions on Ice tour which will be a lot of fun. After that I’ll probably take some time off and think about what I want to do. It’s hard to decide all that right now, five minutes after the season ended. Of course, I know I won’t be remembered for winning a lot of championships but hopefully more than that, for the skating.”

Elena Sokolova of Russia finished fourth with 202.27 points. The Muscovite’s dynamic “Romeo and Juliet” program included five clean triple jumps and good spins, she only doubled her flip. After being ranked third in the Short Program, Sokolova was third again in the Free Skating with 116.87 points, which was just short of her personal best. She pulled up from a sixth place after the combined result of the Qualifying Round and the Short Program. Yukari Nakano (JPN) came in fifth in what was her first World Championships. She didn’t try the triple Axel but landed four good triples (195.65 points). Switzerland’s Sarah Meier placed sixth with a solid program that contained five triple jumps (195.11 points).

The ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2006 conclude Sunday with the Exhibition Gala.