The 2002 ISU World Figure Skating Championships opened Monday in Nagano with the Men's Qualifying Rounds and the Pairs Short Program. 175 skaters from 41 ISU Member countries have been entered in this event.

Men, Qualifying Rounds

The Men started their competition with the Qualifying Round that counts 20 percent (factor 0.4) towards the skater's final score. The top 15 skaters from each group advance to the Short Program on Tuesday, March 19.

Olympic Champion Alexei Yagudin of Russia clearly won Group A ahead of teammate Alexander Abt and Japan's Takeshi Honda.

Yagudin decided to skate to last season's "Gladiator" program for the Qualifying Round and delivered a strong performance. He landed a quadruple-triple toeloop combination, a triple Axel and five more triples to pick up marks up to 5.9 for both technical merit and presentation. By taking all first place ordinals, Yagudin gave himself a little present for his 22nd birthday that he celebrated today. "I'm very glad that I found the strength within myself to come here, unlike the other winners of the Olympic Games", Yagudin told the press. "It was hard to force myself to go back on to ice and to train. My body felt that the season was over! But I really wanted to come here and to get my title back. It really means a lot to me." Yagudin is a three-time World Champion but finished second to fellow Russian Evgeni Plushenko last year.

Abt challenged his teammate Yagudin with a solid program that featured also a quadruple-triple toeloop, but he popped his first Axel. The 25-year-old repeated the Axel as a triple late on in the routine to Sergei Rachmaninov's 3rd Piano Concerto. His program contained four more triples and good spins. Abt earned marks ranging from 5.6 to 5.7 for technical merit and from 5.7 to 5.8 for presentation. "It was good, but I'm tired. We had almost no time in between the practice and the competition today. Usually you go back to the hotel and rest before the competition." Abt added that he did not have enough power to land the first Axel.

Honda fell hard on his first attempt at a quadruple toeloop but he then recovered to execute four triple jumps and a quadruple toeloop in his artistic interpretation of "Concerto de Aranjuez". Honda also produced good footwork, but he stepped out of his triple loop. "I'm tired, I want to sleep now", Honda said. "The first quad was not good, but I felt good about all the other elements in my program."

In Group B, Timothy Goebel of the USA took the lead ahead of teammate Michael Weiss and Chengjiang Li (CHN).

Skating first, Goebel pulled off a clean performance, hitting a quadruple Salchow-triple toeloop, a quadruple toeloop and six triples including two triple Axels. The Olympic bronze medallist scored marks up to 5.8 for technical merit and presentation. He was excited about what he did: "I feel I skated very well technically. I was glad to skate as well because I haven't had good practices here. I just have a very good year. Hopefully, I skate as well here as I did there (in Salt Lake City), and I want to win a medal here, too"

Weiss went for a quadruple Lutz right at the beginning of his routine set to a medley of popular pieces from Puccini operas. The quadruple Lutz never has been landed in competition. The two-time World bronze medallist completed the rotations of the jump, but wasn't able to hold his landing and fell. Unfazed by the error, he hit a quadruple toeloop-triple toeloop combination (but he two-footed the landing of the second jump) and completed five more triples. "Before and after the Olympic Games, I started trying the quad Lutz again", Weiss explained. "I just landed a very clean one earlier this week, so I just tried it. I landed with one foot, but I caught an edge." The American's ordinals ranged from first to third place.

Despite a few mistakes, Li made the cut for the final warm up group for tomorrow's Short Program. The 2001 Four Continents Champion opened his "Star Wars" routine with a quadruple toeloop, but his following quadruple Salchow was not clean. The Chinese continued with a triple Axel-double toeloop combination and a triple Lutz. He tired towards the end of the performance, doubling the flip, the loop and stepping out of his second Axel. "I was tired, especially at the end", Li admitted. "This whole season, haven't really been able to get into my skating. I feel heavy, I can't jump so easily and lightly anymore." Four Continents Champion, Jeffrey Buttle of Canada, finished fourth in this group.

Pairs, Short Program

The Pairs continued today's competition with their Short Program. It was a tough battle between the top couples as they all put in strong performances.

Skating first of the top contenders, Tatiana Totmianina/Maxim Marinin of Russia set the standard with a clean program that featured a throw triple loop, excellent side by side triple toeloops and a double twist. The European Champions scored marks up to 5.7 for required elements and up to 5.8 for presentation and needed to wait and see where this would get them. Kyoko Ina/John Zimmerman (USA) skated in the same warm up group. The US Champions landed a high triple twist, a triple throw loop and showed a difficult lift in their expressive program to "Shine on you crazy diamond" by Pink Floyd. However, the landing of their side by side triple toeloop was a little scratchy. The Americans were placed second to the Russian team at this point of the competition. China's Xue Shen/Hongbo Zhao followed in the next flight. The Olympic bronze medallists turned in a very dynamic program to "Kismet" by Bond that contained an enormous triple throw loop, side by side triple toeloops and a double twist. The Judges awarded the reigning World bronze medallists marks ranging from 5.7 to 5.9 for required elements and from 5.6 to 5.9 for presentation. The Chinese team took the lead with Totmianina/Marinin coming in second. Ina/Zimmerman are standing in third place before the decisive Free Skating on Wednesday. While Shen/Zhao collected all first place ordinals, the Judges were divided on the couples who followed. Totmianina/Marinin stayed ahead of Ina/Zimmerman on a split of five to four Judges. The Americans on the other hand won over Russia's Maria Petrova/Alexei Tikhonov in a close five-to-four decision. The 2000 World Champions had also skated a flawless program and finished fourth.

"No matter who is competing, we are always trying our best", Zhao said referring to the absence of the Olympic Champions Elena Berezhnaya/Anton Sikharulidze (RUS) and Jamie Sale/David Pelletier (CAN). "We are competing against ourselves, not against others." The team has not yet decided if they will try the quadruple throw Salchow (that never has been landed in competition) in the Free Skating. "It depends on how it is going in practice", Shen stated.

"We skated our short program clean throughout the whole season. Today it wasn't an ideal performance maybe, but it was one of the best", Marinin told the press.

Ina/Zimmerman were thrilled about their program and their placement. "We had a great year and to be able to continue that at the world championships gave us a lot of satisfaction", Ina said. "Hopefully we will stay in the top three."

Results Men FPl. Name Nat. Points QA QB SP FS 1 Timothy GOEBEL USA 0.4 1 1 Alexei YAGUDIN RUS 0.4 1 3 Alexander ABT RUS 0.8 2 3 Michael WEISS USA 0.8 2 5 Takeshi HONDA JPN 1.2 3 5 Chengjiang LI CHN 1.2 3 7 Jeffrey BUTTLE CAN 1.6 4 7 Min ZHANG CHN 1.6 4 9 Frederic DAMBIER FRA 2.0 5 9 Brian JOUBERT FRA 2.0 5 11 Stephane LAMBIEL SUI 2.4 6 11 Matthew SAVOIE USA 2.4 6 13 Anthony LIU AUS 2.8 7 13 Kevin VAN DER PERREN BEL 2.8 7 15 Sergei RYLOV AZE 3.2 8 15 Roman SKORNIAKOV UZB 3.2 8 17 Song GAO CHN 3.6 9 17 Vakhtang MURVANIDZE GEO 3.6 9 19 Ivan DINEV BUL 4.0 10 19 Ben FERREIRA CAN 4.0 10 21 Juraj SVIATKO SVK 4.4 11 21 Andrejs VLASCENKO GER 4.4 11 23 Sergei DAVYDOV BLR 4.8 12 23 Dmitri DMITRENKO UKR 4.8 12 25 Kristoffer BERNTSSON SWE 5.2 13 25 Markus LEMINEN FIN 5.2 13 27 Yosuke TAKEUCHI JPN 5.6 14 27 Gregor URBAS SLO 5.6 14 29 Sergei KOTOV ISR 6.0 15 29 Tomas VERNER CZE 6.0 15 31 Yon GARCIA ESP 16 31 Zoltan TOTH HUN 16 33 Clemens JONAS AUT 17 33 Aidas REKLYS LTU 17 35 James BLACK GBR 18 35 Milos MILANOVIC YUG 18 37 Panagiotis MARKOUIZOS GRE 19 37 Dino QUATTROCECERE RSA 19 R Margus HERNITS EST Pairs FPl. Name Nat. Points SP FS 1 Xue SHEN / Hongbo ZHAO CHN 0.5 1 2 Tatiana TOTMIANINA / Maxim MARININ RUS 1.0 2 3 Kyoko INA / John ZIMMERMAN USA 1.5 3 4 Maria PETROVA / Alexei TIKHONOV RUS 2.0 4 5 Qing PANG / Jian TONG CHN 2.5 5 6 Dorota ZAGORSKA / Mariusz SIUDEK POL 3.0 6 7 Tiffany SCOTT / Philip DULEBOHN USA 3.5 7 8 Jacinthe LARIVIÈRE / Lenny FAUSTINO CAN 4.0 8 9 Katerina BERANKOVA / Otto DLABOLA CZE 4.5 9 10 Dan ZHANG / Hao ZHANG CHN 5.0 10 11 Annabelle LANGLOIS / Patrice ARCHETTO CAN 5.5 11 12 Valerie MARCOUX / Bruno MARCOTTE CAN 6.0 12 13 Yuko KAWAGUCHI / Alexander MARKUNTSOV JPN 6.5 13 14 Mariana KAUTZ / Norman JESCHKE GER 7.0 14 15 Tatiana CHUVAEVA / Dmitri PALAMARCHUK UKR 7.5 15 16 Viktoria BORZENKOVA / Andrei CHUVILYAEV RUS 8.0 16 17 Viktoria SHKLOVER / Valdis MINTALS EST 8.5 17 18 Jelena SIROKHVATOVA / Jurijs SALMANOVS LAT 9.0 18 19 Maria KRASILTSEVA / Artem ZNACHKOV ARM 9.5 19 20 Marina AGANINA / Artem KNYAZEV UZB 10.0 20 For further information please contact: 2002 World Figure Skating Championships Aline Bussat Ingweresen, Hiroshi Kobayashi, ISU Media Coordinator Press Officer Tel: + 81 (0) 90 55 78 76 56 Tel: +81 (0) 90 52 18 20 64 E-mail: bussat@isu.ch E-mail: 2002worlds_press@rio.odn.ne.jp

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