The Cup of Russia Bosco Sport continued Saturday in Moscow (RUS) with the Ladies Free Skating, the Original Dance, the Pairs and Men’s Free Skating. The Cup of Russia Bosco Sport is the fifth of six qualifying events of the 2006/2007 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating.
Ladies, Free Skating
Sarah Meier of Switzerland skated off with the gold in the Ladies event, winning the first Grand Prix medal of her career. Julia Sebestyen (HUN) took the silver and Japan’s Yoshie Onda captured the bronze medal.
Skating to “Pride and Prejudice”, Meier produced a triple Lutz-double toe-double loop combination, a triple flip-double toe, another triple flip and triple Salchow-double toe, and she only doubled her second Lutz. The Swiss Champion’s four spins were all graded a level four by the Technical Panel. Meier earned 108.25 points (56.73 element score/51.52 program component score) and accumulated a total score of 159.17 points to move up from third to first. “I wanted to give everything today and I didn’t want to repeat yesterday’s mistake”, the 22-year-old told the press. “This competition was different for me, because I came here as one of the favorites. I felt more pressure than before. People were paying more attention to me, but I still was able to skate well. I think this was a good practice for me for Europeans.”
Sebestyen’s routine to “Otonal” included a triple loop, triple toeloop-double toeloop combination as well as three level-three spins and a level-four combination spin, but the 2004 European Champion doubled some jumps and slipped to second at 146.75 points. The Hungarian was ranked fifth in the Free Skating with 92.39 points (42.15/50.24). “Somebody told me after last season that I would be first and second in my Grand Prix events, and I didn’t believe it”, Sebestyen commented. “I’m not really happy about my performance, I didn’t do everything I wanted to do. I did a good short program, but the free skating was better in China (at the Cup of China). Now I just hope to skate well in both short and free program the next time.”
Onda, who stood in sixth place following the Short Program, landed a triple Lutz-double toe, triple flip-double toe, triple Salchow, triple toe-double toe combination and another triple flip in her program set to “The Red Violin”, but she stumbled badly on her triple loop. The 2005 Four Continents silver medalist received 98.04 points (52.40/46.64) and moved up three spots with a total score of 143.60 points. “It wasn’t a hundred percent obviously, and I hope to skate much better at Japanese Nationals, but it was a stepping stone”, the Japanese commented.
Elena Sokolova (RUS) hit only two clean triples and doubled other jumps to slip from second to fourth at 143.11 points, just missing the bronze medal by 0.49 points. Aki Sawada (JPN) was ranked third in the Free Skating and moved up from seventh to fifth at 142.04 points. She executed five triple jumps.
Meier pocketed 15 points and now has 26 from her two events. She is most likely qualified for the Grand Prix Final. Sebestyen got 13 points in Moscow and is qualified for the Grand Prix Final with 28 points overall. Yoshie Onda earned 11 points and has 15 overall.
Ice Dancing, Original Dance
Tanith Belbin/Benjamin Agosto (USA) grabbed the lead in the Original Dance, edging France’s Isabelle Delobel/Olivier Schoenfelder by 0.25 points while overnight leaders Oksana Domnina/Maxim Shabalin (RUS) slipped to third place.
Belbin/Agosto put out a confident performance of their Tango “Concierto para Quinteto” that included a rotational lift and a straight line lift as well as an intricate side by side step sequence, earning them a level four for the twizzles and a level three for the steps. The 2006 Four Continents Champions picked up 58.02 points (28.30 element score/29.72 program component score) and moved up from second to first with now 94.58 points. “I think that one of the most exciting things about this new generation of ice dancers is that we never know how the results will be throughout the competition. They change so much and in my mind the three of us are in a three-way tie right now and anything can happen tomorrow. So we try to stay calm and to focus on what we need to do. Today is already forgotten. We can move forward and hopefully give a good performance tomorrow as well”, Belbin said.
Delobel/Schoenfelder produced a very characteristic “Tango Volver”, completing an interesting curve lift with changes of position for her and a difficult but very smooth diagonal step sequence that was graded a level three by the Technical Panel. However, their dance spin traveled. The French Champions were awarded 57.83 points (28.30/29.53) and accumulated a total score of 94.33 points so far. “For today we’re happy to have shown a good performance of our Tango. But as Tanith said, this is forgotten already and there’ll be another competition tomorrow, and we’re very close and have to do well tomorrow to hopefully please the Russian audience.”
Domnina/Shabalin opened their Tango with the side by side footwork and Shabalin suddenly tripped and fell on the first twizzle while she continued. The Russians recovered from this mistake to show an innovative straight line lift with both in a low position and a level-three diagonal step sequence, but she didn’t hold the position in the dance spin long enough and so it received only a level two. Domnina/Shabalin scored 52.36 points (24.08/29.28) and now have a total of 90.35 points. “I fell, everybody saw it”, Shabalin sighed. “It’s a mystery to me as well, it never happened before and I hope it will never happen again. Obviously it’s not easy to pull yourself together after such a fall, knowing that it costs dearly. But this is a situation that happens in practice. If we make a mistake in the beginning, we always skate our program to the end.” His partner added: “It was an accidental mistake, and tomorrow we want to skate well for ourselves in the first place. We’ll try to do all the elements and to perform our dance and we’ll focus on that.”
Sinead Kerr/John Kerr (GBR) delivered a strong performance to “Tango Verano Porteno” and “Libertango” to come in fourth at now 84.13 points. They achieved a new personal best in the Original Dance with 51.88 points. Nora Hoffmann/Attila Elek (HUN) finished fifth overall (79.14 points).
Pairs, Free Skating
Germany’s Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy skated to the gold medal in the Pairs event. Russia’s Maria Petrova/Alexei Tikhonov earned the silver medal and Yuko Kawaguchi/Alexander Smirnov took the bronze in what was the very first Grand Prix event of their career.
Petrova/Tikhonov had drawn to skate first in the second warm up group. They both put down a hand on the side by side triple toeloop, but their romantic program to “Moonlight Sonata” included a double Axel-double Axel sequence, a triple twist, a solid throw triple loop and Salchow as well as difficult lifts with variations of position. The current World bronze medalists received 115.75 points (58.47 element score/57.28 program component score) and accumulated a total of 178.03 points. The couple from St. Petersburg edged out the Germans in the Free Skating, but stayed in second place.
Overnight leaders Savchenko/Szolkowy opened their performance to “The Mission” with a high throw triple flip, but she slightly touched down. The couple produced a triple twist, a toe Lasso lift with changes of position as well as an excellent throw triple Salchow. However, Savchenko then doubled the first jump in the side by side triple-double toeloop sequence and later singled the Axel. On the other hand, the Germans earned a level four for their pair combination spin, spiral sequence, lifts and side by side combination spin. They received 115.49 points (57.65/57.84) and were ranked second in the Free Skating, but held on to first place with 149.45 points.
Kawaguchi/Smirnov turned in a solid routine to a Piano Concerto by Camille Saint-Saens, landing a side by side triple toe-triple toe sequence, a triple twist, double Axel and throw triple Salchow. Kawaguchi just had to fight for the landing of the throw triple loop, touching down with her hand, and Smirnov struggled a bit during the side by side spin. The Japanese-Russian team scored 109.04 points (56.96/52.08) and racked up a total of 168.50 points.
Dorota Siudek/Mariusz Siudek came in fourth. They completed impressive lifts and difficult spins and spirals, but she missed the double Axel and both did only a double toeloop (163.13 points).
“This is not the way we wanted to win, we can skate totally differently”, Savchenko said. “We’re doing the elements in practice, but that’s sport, and we have to move on and to continue to work on these elements. We were too nervous and then we didn’t have enough strength and it was hard to skate for us”, she went on.
“There was not much time after Paris (Trophee Bompard last week), and so we weren’t able to polish our program. But we’ll have some time now before the Grand Prix Final and everything will be fine by then”, Petrova promised.
“We did have a few minor mistakes, and our coach (Tamara Moskvina) already told us that we have a lot of work still ahead of us before the next competition”, Smirnov commented. “But we’re very happy with the decision of the judges today.”
Petrova/Tikhonov collected 13 points and advance to the Grand Prix Final with 28 points. Savchenko/Szolkowy got 15 points in Moscow and are also qualified with 26 points. Kawaguchi/Smirnov have 11 points but don’t have a second Grand Prix event.
Men, Free Skating
The last to compete today were the Men. Brian Joubert of France skated to the gold with a great performance, celebrating his second victory in as many weeks. Johnny Weir (USA) claimed the silver medal and Russia’s Ilia Klimkin captured the bronze.
Joubert had drawn to skate last out of the twelve competitors, and he gave an inspiring performance to “The Unforgiven” and “Nothing Else Matters” from “Apocalyptica plays Metallica”. The 22-year-old nailed a quadruple-double toeloop right out of the gate, followed by a beautiful quadruple Salchow and a triple Axel. His footwork was fast and intricate, and then he took a deep breath before attacking his third quad, another quadruple toeloop. A huge smile lit up his face when he landed it, but the two-time World silver medalist didn’t loose focus and went on to reel off a triple loop-double toe, a triple flip, triple Lutz, triple Salchow and good spins. The crowd cheered the Frenchman on and gave him a standing ovation while he pumped his fist, jumped up and down in joy and then kissed the ice. Joubert earned 160.13 points (82.73 element score/77.40 program component score), surpassing his previous personal best of 156.47 points. He accumulated a total score of 237.83 points to win by a wide margin. “I have worked a lot, and I had done three quads in practice in one program. It was my dream to perform three quads in competition (in one program), and I did that, especially in Moscow. I didn’t have good memories of Moscow, but now I have only good ones. If you do three quads the difficult thing is to stay focused for the rest of the program”, Joubert explained. “In 2005 (at the World Championships in Moscow), I couldn’t do three quads in one program and I was much weaker mentally. Now I’m very strong technically and especially mentally.”
Weir opened his program to “Child of Nazareth” with a triple Axel followed by a triple toeloop and a triple Lutz, but then he run into trouble, doubled a loop, singled the next two Axels before coming back with a shaky triple flip and a triple Salchow-double toeloop. His spins weren’t as strong as usual, and he had only a level two for his combination spins but a level four for his flying sit spin. The U.S. Champion received 121.18 points (49.48/71.70) and was ranked fifth in the Free Skating. He remained in second place at 196.28 points. “The thing I’m happy with today it that I made the mistakes and then came back. In Canada everything just kept unraveling and kept getting worse and worse, but today, towards the end I found some energy, some power and I could finish without falling down and without dying or killing myself. That was a plus. The performance was better than at Skate Canada, and that’s what I wanted to do here. Having the support of the audience here helped me get through that last two minutes of the program”, the American told the press.
Klimkin’s entertaining “The Mask” program featured a strong triple Axel-triple toeloop combination and four more triples, but his quadruple toeloop was underrotated and downgraded. The Muscovite also fell on the entry of his loop, on a triple Lutz and during his circular footwork. He scored 120.00 points (55.50/67.50) and moved up from fourth to third with a total of 187.45 points. “I put a lot of energy in the first jumps, then I felt tired, that was the reason for my falls”, Klimkin said. “I still tried not to lose the character of the program. I will work on my free program to be able to skate through it well until the end. I was set back by injury problems earlier this season. I injured my right Achilles tendon during a summer training camp in Switzerland and I had to deal with it until November.”
Tomas Verner (CZE) was came in fourth. He landed seven clean triples, but the last triple flip-double toeloop combination didn’t count as he already had done a flip and repeated two other triples, the toeloop and the Lutz (186.50). Sergei Dobrin (RUS) was ranked second in the Free Skating. He hit a clean quadruple Salchow. Overall he remained in 8th place at 182.39 points. Emanuel Sandhu (CAN), who stood in third place following the Short Program, dropped to fifth after popping some jumps and falling on his triple Axel (185.45 points).
Joubert took 15 points and proceeds to the Final with the maximum of 30 points. Weir collected 13 points in Moscow and now has 24 overall. Klimkin received 11 points and got 20 from his two events.
The Cup of Russia Bosco Sport concludes Sunday with the Free Dance and the Exhibition Gala.
