The Trophee Eric Bompard in Paris, France opened Friday with the Compulsory and Original Dances, the Ladies, Men’s and Pairs Short Programs.
Compulsory & Original Dance
The ice dancers started today’s competition with the Compulsory Dance and came back for the Original Dance later tonight. Albena Denkova/Maxim Staviski (BUL) are in the lead with Isabelle Delobel/Olivier Schoenfelder of France following in second and Federica Faiella/Massimo Scali in third place.
The Compulsory Dance was the Westminster Waltz. Denkova/Staviski, who skated first out of the 12 couples, danced to the lead with an excellent performance of the Waltz. The reigning World Champions showed great unison and strong edges to score 38.32 points (19.48 element score/18.84 program component score). Delobel/Schoenfelder skated right after Denkova/Staviski. The 2005 European bronze medalists put out a very confident Waltz as well, technically solid and precise. The French earned 37.65 points (19.00/18.65).
Faiella/Scali came in third with a solid and expressive Westminster Waltz. The Italian Champions picked up 33.63 points (17.22/16.41). Nathalie Pechalat/Fabian Bourzat (FRA) were fourth at 31.53 points, and World Junior Champions Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir of Canada came in fifth (31.29 points). Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte (ITA), who debute on the senior Grand Prix, were less than one point behind at 31.18 and placed sixth.
In the Tango Original Dance, Denkova/Staviski put out an expressive and technically demanding performance to “Libertango”, earning a level four for their midline step sequence, the two lifts and the spin and a level three for their diagonal step sequence. The World Champions got 61.15 points (31.00/30.15) and now have a total of 99.47 points. Delobel/Schoenfelder produced a strong performance to “Tango Volver” by Maxime Rodriguez that contained intricate footwork and interesting lifts. The French picked up 59.25 points for this performance (30.00/29.25) and accumulated 96.90 points so far. Faiella/Scali danced a characteristic Tango with a level three diagonal footwork and two-level four lifts, but their combination spin received only a level two. The Italians were awarded 54.76 points (27.60/27.16) for their Tango and defended their third place with a total of 88.39 so far.
Their young teammates Cappellini/Lanotte moved up from sixth to fourth place with a very precise Tango at now 80.76 points. Pechalat/Bourzat (FRA) slipped from fourth to fifth. They had a unison problem with their twizzles in the side by side step sequence (80.76 points). Virtue/Moir dropped from fifth to seventh after he fell in the diagonal step sequence (76.37 points).
“It has been a long day. We practiced and slept, ate and slept, competed…. It felt like somebody woke me up in the middle of the night and I had to skate”, Denkova said, smiling.
Schoenfelder agreed. “The day was long. But we’re very pleased with our performance of the Tango. We prepared well for this event.”
Scali commented: “We’re happy, because our Original Dance wasn’t so good at Skate Canada” (Faiella fell).
Men, Short Program
To the delight of the home crowd, France’s Brian Joubert and Alban Preaubert went one-two in the Men’s Short Program. Ilia Klimkin of Russia came in third.
Joubert had drawn to skate last. He excited the crowd with a dynamic performance to the James Bond soundtrack of “Die Another Day”, hitting a quadruple-triple toeloop combination, a triple Axel and a triple flip as well as fast spins. The World silver medalist was awarded 77.35 points (41.60 element score/35.75 program component score). “My goal was not to make any mistakes. I always have problems with the pressure here in France, although I’m confident in practice. I fought for the quad today, I was off balance, but I had a good reaction and I could do the triple toe (for the combination)”, Joubert told the press.
Preaubert put out an entertaining program to “Night on the Bald Mountain” and “Buzzy Bee” that featured a triple Axle, triple flip-triple toe combination, a triple Lutz and three level-four spins. The Frenchman got 71.38 points (39.28/32.10). “It is nice to skate at home (in France),but it’s also more difficult than at Skate America, because there is a lot of attention and expectations are high. I was a little stiff on my jumps, but I pulled them off. I’m proud to have done a program without mistakes and I hope I can skate as well tomorrow for the French audience”, the 21-year-old commented.
Klimkin opened his routine to a medley of music by Vanessa Mae with a triple Axel out of nowhere, but he went down on his quadruple toeloop. The Muscovite recovered to land a triple loop and showed strong spins to receive 64.80 points (33.30/32.50). “It was ok. After my injury problems I started to practice fully only about a month ago”, Klimkin revealed. “The triple Axel went well, but I tried too much to control the quad. I’m actually in a good shape now, but the competition comes a little too early for me. I think I’ll be in top shape by the time of Russian Nationals.”
Sergei Dobrin (RUS) finished fourth. He produced a nice triple Axel, but he stepped out of his quadruple Salchow and had no combination (62.85 points). Jamal Othman (SUI) is currently ranked fifth at 59.18 points, which was a new personal best for him. He delivered a solid program that contained a triple Lutz-triple toeloop combination.
Ladies, Short Program
Yu-Na Kim of Korea captured the Ladies Short Program, just edging out Miki Ando (JPN) by 0.20 points. Joannie Rochette came in third in what was an exciting event.
South Korea's Yu-Na Kim performs during the Ladie's short program of the ISU Grand Pirx of Figure Skating - Trophée Bompard, 17 November 2006 at the Palais-Omnisports-Paris-Bercy in Paris, France. (Photo: Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images)
Skating to the “Tango de Roxane” from “Moulin Rouge”, Kim delivered an excellent program that included a triple flip-triple toe combination, a triple Lutz, a double Axel as well as beautiful spins and a level-four spiral. The reigning World Junior Champion was awarded 65.22 points (37.70 element score/27.52 program component score), and improved her previous personal best of 62.68 points. “I was nervous, and my warm up wasn’t so good, but while I was waiting I decided to give my best”, the 16-year-old said. “I don’t see a big difference between (her performances at) Skate Canada and here. The technical score was almost the same, but the program component score here was higher.”
Ando turned in an excellent program to “Sheherazade” by Nikolai Rimski-Korsakov as well. The Japanese produced a triple Lutz-triple loop combination, a triple flip, double Axel, and her spiral sequence, flying sit spin and combination spin were graded a level four by the Technical Panel. The 2004 World Junior Champion scored 65.02 points (36.70/28.32). “I felt so nervous, but I made no mistake, and I’m very happy about that”, Ando commented. “After Skate America, I was one week in Canada (at Skate Canada) and I came to Paris one week before the event, so I have no jetlag.”
Rochette, who skated first of the 11 Ladies, landed a triple flip-double toeloop, a triple Lutz, a double Axel and difficult spins to earn a new personal best score of 58.92 points (32.88/27.04). She had a one-point deduction for a timing violation. “I’m proud of this performance. It was better than at Skate Canada. There is still lot of room for improvement, technically. I got a deduction at the end. I held the positions in the last spin to get the level. I have to fix that when I get home”, the Canadian Champion explained.
Reigning World Champion Kimmie Meissner (USA) is standing in fourth place. She fell on her triple Lutz (52.56 points). Anne-Sophie Calvez (FRA) finished fifth. She nailed a triple toe-triple toe combination (50.96 points).
Pairs, Short Program
In the Pairs event, Russia’s Maria Petrova/Alexei Tikhonov took the lead with Rena Inoue/John Baldwin (USA) and Julia Obertas/Sergei Slavnov (RUS) finishing second and third.
Petrova/Tikhonov opened their lyrical performance to “Sarabande” with a triple twist, but then Petrova two-footed the side by side triple toeloop. The rest of the performance was smooth and featured a throw triple loop and a difficult one-armed lift with changes of position as wel as level-four death spiral and side by side spin. The reigning World bronze medalists received 61.64 points (32.88 element score/28.76 program component score). “It wasn’t so bad for the first competition of the season. We made a mistake on the triple jump, it was on two feet. We also made a mistake in the spiral sequence, Maria thought we were doing the spiral of the free skating. We were a bit nervous”, Tikhonov explained. “We kept the old music from last season, but we did a new program to it.”
Inoue/Baldwin completed a side by side double Axel, a level-four spiral sequence and a level-three side by side combination spin in their program to “Soul of Spain”, but she fell on the throw triple Axel. The Four Continents Champions scored 57.44 points for this performance (33.12/25.32).
“Considering the circumstances and what I’ve been going through it’s pretty good that we showed up and got through it”, Baldwin told the post-event news conference. “The doctor came at two in the morning and diagnosed me with shingles. I had heavy fever coming into this and walking into the arena. The doctor said you’re not skating, and I said, I came this far and I’m going to do it, because we’re a pair team, and I owe it to Rena.”
Performing to “Libertango” by Astor Piazzolla, Obertas/Slavnov hit their opening triple toeloop, but then she crashed on the throw triple loop. The couple rallied back to produce a difficult lift, a high double twist and pair combination spin that was graded a level four. The 2005 European silver medalists earned 55.30 points (29.34/26.96) and had one deduction for the fall. “This is our first competition of the season, and I think it was very good for that. We did have that unfortunate mistake, but it was still good”, Slavnov said. When asked about training with Petrova/Tikhonov in the same group, Obertas answered: “We have a very friendly relationship. They help us and we even can ask them for advice.”
Elizabeth Putnam/Sean Wirtz (CAN) are ranked fourth. Their triple twist was flawed, but they hit a side by side triple Salchow (53.48 points). Jiaqi Li/Jiankun Xu (CHN) finished fifth. The impressed with a high triple twist and throw triple loop and scored a new personal best of 51.02 points.
The Trophee Bompard continues Saturday with the Men’s Free Skating, Free Dance, Ladies and Pairs Free Skating.
