Hamilton / Canada

The ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships 2015 concluded in Hamilton, Canada, Saturday with the Free Skating.

Nexxice (CAN) strikes gold

Nexxice (Team Canada 1) struck gold on home ice, edging out Finland’s Marigold Ice Unity by less than one point in an exciting Final. Paradise (Team Russia 1) earned the bronze, the first medal for Russia at the ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships.

Performing to “Rhapsody in Blue”, Nexxice completed difficult moves, earning a level four for the rotating circle, the group lift element, travelling wheel, pair element, pivoting block and no hold element with step sequence feature. The 2014 World silver medallists scored 143.67 points for the Free Skating and were ranked second in this segment, but overall held on to first place with 214.73 points to win the second Synchronized Skating World title for Canada since 2009.

Marigold Ice Unity (Finland 1) put out a strong performance to “Images of War” as well, that included five level-four elements. Highlights of their performance were the rotating circle, travelling wheel and the group lift element. The defending champions collected 143.67 points, like the Canadians, but won the Free Skating thanks to the slightly higher component score. The Finns totaled 214.06 points and settled for the silver this time.

Coming from fifth place in the Short Program, Russia’s Paradise picked up a level four for five elements in their routine set to “Polovetsian Dances” by Alexander Borodin. The team from St. Petersburg scored 137.23 points and moved up to take the bronze with 203.48 points overall.

The 2014 World bronze medalists Team Finland 2 (The Rockettes) remained in fourth place (202.44 points). Team Surprise (Sweden 1) slipped from third to fifth after three falls (201.97 points) and Les Suprêmes (Team Canada 2) moved up from seventh to sixth (199.77 points).

The Free Skating  Program contains seven required elements (group lift, two different intersection elements, moves, no hold element, pivoting element Block and travelling element wheel) plus three elements that can be chosen from three different groups.

Finland, Sweden, Canada and the USA are the leading ISU members in Synchronized Skating. Finland has now claimed a total of 20 medals in the ISU World Synchronized Skating Championship so far, including eight gold medals. Sweden ranks second with 11 medals (six gold) while Canada has 11 medals as well (two gold) and the USA collected five medals since the inaugural World Synchronized Championships in 2000.

25 teams from 20 ISU members competed at the ISU World Synchronized Championship 2015. A team consists of 16 skaters (plus up to four alternates).