 |
|
| The Official Home Of |
Speed Skating * Figure Skating * Synchronized Skating* Short Track Speed Skating |
Skate America 2000 - First Event of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating |
The Grand Prix of Figure Skating series launches this weekend with Skate America International in Colorado Springs, Colorado on October 26 - 29. A full entry list attached and Final standings of the competition will be published after each event.
Skate America is the first of six qualifying events of the Grand Prix of Figure Skating series. The top Skaters are awarded prize money and points for each event. The top six Skaters, placed in each of the four categories at the previously held 2000 World Figure Skating Championships, have been seeded into three of the six events (two events are named to count as points-scoring events, and participation in a third non-scoring event is optional). Each Organizer of the six events of the Grand Prix of Figure Skating may invite a number of additional Skaters/Couples at their discretion. The maximum number of entries is set at not more than 12 but no less than 10 for Men, Ladies and Dance Couples and for Pairs, not more than 10 but not less than 8 entries. After the sixth event of the series, the top six ranking Men, Ladies, Pairs, and Dance will proceed to the Grand Prix Final in Tokyo, Japan, on February 15-18, 2000. The format of the Final will involve "Head to Head" competitions between Skaters including a Super Final. For more details on the Grand Prix of Figure Skating go to the ISU Web Site: ww2.isu.org
Ice Dance
2000 World silver medalists and defending Skate America Champions Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio (ITA) continued their streak of impressive performances by capturing the early lead in the Compulsory Dance at Skate America in Colorado Springs, CO. "It was great," said Fusar-Poli. "The people are wonderful here. We have such a great fan club. This is a good start to our season."
Canadians Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz started down the comeback trail by finishing second in the Compulsory Dance. Bourne and Kraatz missed Canadian Nationals and the World Championships last year due to her knee injury, and the couple used the time off to re-evaluate their skating and their goals. "We had to really rethink what is it exactly we want to do in skating, where do we want to go and where do we want to be by the time we get to Salt Lake City - Salt Lake City always being that big goal for us," said Kraatz. "We had to sit back and reflect on some of the changes we could do - was it really possible to regain some of the ground we had lost after last season."
Americans Naomi Lang and Peter Tchernyshev, eighth at the 2000 World Championships, were surprise third-place finishers in the Compulsory Dance, finishing ahead of both 2000 World bronze medalists Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas (LTU) and World fifth-place finishers Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovskiy (ISR). The Lithuanians stand in fourth, and the Israelis are in fifth.
Pairs
China's Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao skated one of the few clean programs of the night as the Chinese pair grabbed the early lead in the Pairs Short Program. Shen and Zhao arrived in Colorado Springs (altitude, 2100 meters) eight days before the competition, but said the altitude still affected their breathing. However, they were very happy with their clean program, which included a magnificently high throw triple loop.
Defending Skate America champions Jamie Sale and David Pelletier (CAN) skated a sultry number to jazz music to finish in second. The pair scored high for presentation, but Sale turned out of the side by side triple toe loops. Sale said she and Pelletier don't feel any different this year at Skate America, despite the higher expectations. "We don't really feel any different," she said. "Every year we try to act as if it's our first year out and we have to prove something. I think the only thing that helped this year for us was the fact that the people here kind of know us more…It was kind of cool to have the reaction that we did. It was almost like being at home."
Russia's Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin skated to third place after the Short. Marinin cited the fact that he and his partner came out 10 days early to adjust to the altitude as a reason for their good performance. Tiffany Scott and Philip Dulebohn (USA) also skated a clean program to finish in fourth.
Ladies
World Champion and defending Skate America champion Michelle Kwan (USA) easily won the Ladies Short Program with a smooth and confident Free skate. Skating to guitar-laced rock music from the motion picture "Rush," Kwan aggressively attacked her program, nailing a triple Lutz-double toe combination and a triple flip. Her technical merit marks ranged from 5.6-5.8 and 5.8-5.9 for presentation.
"I was very pleased," said Kwan. "It's hard when you first do a new program. Mentally you think you will forget something, even though you've done it a thousand times in practice. It's different in front of a crowd."
World fifth-place finisher Sarah Hughes (USA) stands in second place after a solid program set to "Vocalese." Hughes stepped out of her triple flip and just held on to the landing of the double toe on her triple Lutz combination. Russia's Elena Sokolova, stayed in the medal hunt in third place after a beautifully presented program. She stepped out of her double Axel and was a little shaky on her triple Lutz, but landed a nice triple loop. This is Sokolova's first full season with Alexei Mishin as her coach, who she teamed up with last May. "Sometimes you need to change some things in your life to be better," said Sokolova, referring to new coach Mishin. "I hope I'll be better." Viktoria Volchkova (RUS), the 2000 European and Russian bronze medalist, is in fourth.
The event continues tomorrow with the Original Dance, Men's Short Program, and Pairs Free Skating.
List of Competitors Ladies 1. Michelle Currie CAN 2. Siyin Su CHN 3. Caroline Gülke GER 4. Chrisato Shiina JPN 5. Alisa Yamasaki JPN 6. Sabina Wojtala POL 7. Elena Sokolova RUS 8. Viktoria Volchkova*(A) RUS 9. Sarah Hughes*(A) USA 10. Michelle Kwan* USA 11. Angela Nikodinov USA Men 1. Emanule Sandhu CAN 2. Vincent Restencourt FRA 3. André Kaden GER 4. Yamato Tamura JPN 5. Roman Serov RUS 6. Alexander Abt* RUS 7. Alexei Yagudin*(A) RUS 8. Todd Eldredge USA 9. Timothy Goebel USA 10. Trifun Zivanovic USA Pairs 1. Jacinthe Lariviere/ Lenny Faustino CAN 2. Mariana Kautz/ Norman Jeschke GER 3. Jamie Sale/ David Pelletier* CAN 4. Xue Shen/ Hongbo Zhao* CHN 5. Tatiana Totmianina/ Maxim Marinin* RUS 6. Kyoko Ina/ John Zimmerman USA 7. Jessica Miller/Jeffrey Weiss USA 8. Tiffany Scott/ Philip Dulebohn USA Ice Dance 1. Shae-Lynn Bourne/ Victor Kraatz CAN 2. Véronique Delobel/ Olivier Chapuis FRA 3. Alia Ouabdelsselam/ Benjamin Delmas FRA 4. Galit Chait/ Sergei Sakhnovskiy*(A) ISR 5. Barbara Fusar-Poli/ Maurizio Margaglio* ITA 6. Nakako Tsuzuki/ Rinat Farkhoutdinov JPN 7. Margarita Drobiazko/ Povilas Vanagas*(A) LTU 8. Nina Ulanova/ Alexander Pavlov RUS 9. Anast Grebenkina/ Vitaly Novikov RUS 10. Beata Handra/ Charles Sinek USA 11. Naomi Lang/ Peter Tchernyshev USA (A) Non-Scoring Event * Seeded Skater For further information please contact: Grand Prix of Figure Skating & Final Skate America International Aline Bussat, ISU Media Coordinator Bob Dunlop, USFSA Director of Media Relations Tel: +41 21 612 66 66 +1 719 635 5200 Fax: +41 21 612 66 62 +1 719 635 9548 E-mai: bussat@isu.ch bobdunlop@aol.com