| 2002 World Figure Skating Championships: Day 2 |
The 2002 World Figure Skating Championships continued today in Nagano with the Compulsory Dances and the Men's Short Program.
Ice Dancing, Compulsory Dances The Ice Dancing event started with the Compulsory Dances. The dances chosen for the World Championships were the Golden Waltz and the Quickstep. Each dance counts ten percent of the skaters' final score.
Russia's Irina Lobacheva/Ilia Averbukh danced their way to the lead by winning both dances. Shae-Lynn Bourne/Victor Kraatz of Canada came in second, while the Lithuanian team of Margarita Drobiazko/Povilas Vanagas was ranked third.
Lobacheva/Averbukh performed a flowing Golden Waltz and a crisp Quickstep to fend off their competitors. The Olympic silver medallists scored marks up to 5.8 for technique (in the Quickstep) and up to 5.8 for timing and expression for both dances.
They collected all but one first place ordinal in the dances. "For the first time in our career, we are World Champions - in the compulsory dances!" Averbukh joked. "We are not used to the role of the leaders yet. We never even won a Grand Prix event, we always were second or so."
Bourne/Kraatz turned in a solid Golden Waltz and a lively Quickstep. The Canadians skated with confidence and ease. In the Golden Waltz, however, they stayed ahead of the Lithuanians by a split of four to three Judges. "Both dances, the Waltz and the Quickstep, felt like practice, which is what we wanted to do - just skate them clean. It was a good start to the Worlds and we are anxious to show the OD and the Free Dance", Bourne told the press. "One good thing about the compulsories is that you can really distinguish teams", she added.
Drobiazko/Vanagas had a good Waltz too, although they seemed to hold back a little. Their Quickstep, on the other hand, was confident and fast paced. "We probably performed the compulsory dances for the very last time in competition (as they plan to retire)", Drobiazko said. "The Quickstep was probably a bit better. I don't really like the Waltz as a compulsory, it's not my style. I prefer the Tango, that is much more interesting."
Men, Short Program
The top contenders dazzled the crowd tonight with spectacular performances. Skating first in the final warm up group, Japan's Takeshi Honda nailed a quadruple-triple toeloop combination, a triple Axel, a triple Lutz and also produced strong footwork in his classical "Don Quixote" program. "I believed in myself that I could skate the short program without mistakes", Honda said. "I didn't land any quadruple-triple toeloop combination in practice, but I did it in the program. That makes me very happy."
Next up was Alexander Abt of Russia. He responded to Honda's challenge with an effortless looking quadruple-triple toeloop combination, a huge triple Axel, a triple Lutz and an impressive circular step sequence. Abt beat Honda by five to four Judges. "Like in Lausanne (at the European Championships) I had to go out and skate right after the National hero. It doesn't bother me. I heard his (Honda's) marks and knew he skated well, but it didn't matter to me. I think this was my best short program this season", Abt explained.
Timothy Goebel (USA) put in a quadruple Salchow-triple toeloop combination, a triple Axel and a triple flip in his program to "Danse Macabre". However, Goebel seemed a little less energetic in his footwork, compared to his competitors and he placed behind Honda. "I was a little shaky during my program", the Olympic bronze medallist admitted. "Hopefully I will skate better in the free program, like I did in the qualifying round."
China's Chengjiang Li keyed up the crowd with his program inspired by martial arts, which featured a quadruple toeloop and a triple Axel-triple toeloop combination.
Michael Weiss (USA) slightly two-footed his quadruple toeloop, but the rest of his program was clean.
Last to skate was Alexei Yagudin of Russia. The Olympic Champion looked calm and confident when he stepped on to the ice. He opened with a quadruple-triple toeloop combination followed by an enormous triple Axel. Yagudin also completed dazzling footwork and fast spins in his "Winter" program. The crowd rose to their feet to give him a standing ovation. The Judges agreed and awarded the 22-year-old one 6.0 for required elements and five 6.0s for presentation. Thus, Yagudin became the first male single skater ever to score a 6.0 for required elements in the Short Program at World Championships. The only other single skater to have accomplished the feat was 1989 Lady World Champion Midori Ito (JPN), who received two 6.0s in her first mark.
Yagudin is also the first single skater to earn five 6.0s for presentation in the Short Program. "It felt great", Yagudin described his feelings when he saw his marks. "It was pretty hard to skate last in the warm up group, but I handled it pretty well. I got the marks I deserved for this short program."
Altogether, eight skaters landed clean quadruple jumps in the Short Program.
Yagudin now leads the standings before the final Free Skating on Thursday ahead of his teammate Abt. Goebel was ranked fourth in the Short Program but is in third place overall as he had won his Qualifying Round. Honda follows in fourth place. He came in third in the Short Program. However, not to be counted out of medal contentions are Weiss (fifth overall) and Li (sixth overall).
Day Two Ice Dancing FPl. Name Nat. Points C1 C2 OD FD 1 Irina LOBACHEVA / Ilia AVERBUKH RUS 0.4 1 1 2 Shae-Lynn BOURNE / Victor KRAATZ CAN 0.8 2 2 3 Margarita DROBIAZKO / Povilas VANAGAS LTU 1.2 3 3 4 Galit CHAIT / Sergei SAKHNOVSKI ISR 1.6 4 4 5 Albena DENKOVA / Maxim STAVIYSKI BUL 2.0 5 5 6 Elena GRUSHINA / Ruslan GONCHAROV UKR 2.4 6 6 7 Kati WINKLER / Rene LOHSE GER 2.8 7 7 8 Tatiana NAVKA / Roman KOSTOMAROV RUS 3.2 8 8 9 Naomi LANG / Peter TCHERNYSHEV USA 3.6 9 9 10 Marie-France DUBREUIL / Patrice LAUZON CAN 4.2 11 10 11 Sylwia NOWAK / Sebastian KOLASINSKI POL 4.4 10 12 12 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA 5.2 13 13 12 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA 5.2 15 11 12 Marika HUMPHREYS / Vitali BARANOV GBR 5.2 12 14 15 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 6.0 14 16 16 Kristin FRASER / Igor LUKANIN AZE 6.2 16 15 17 Alia OUABDELSSELAM / Benjamin DELMAS FRA 6.8 17 17 18 Veronika MORAVKOVA / Jiri PROCHAZKA CZE 7.4 19 18 18 Stephanie RAUER / Thomas RAUER GER 7.4 18 19 20 Weina ZHANG / Xianming CAO CHN 8.0 20 20 21 Zita GEBORA / Andras VISONTAI HUN 8.6 21 22 22 Valentina ANSELMI / Fabrizio PEDRAZZINI ITA 8.8 23 21 23 Tae-Hwa YANG / Chuen-Gun LEE KOR 9.2 23 23 24 Alla BEKNAZAROVA / Yuri KOCHERZHENKO UKR 9.4 22 25 25 Rie ARIKAWA / Kenji MIYAMOTO JPN 10.0 26 24 26 Jessica HUOT / Juha VALKAMA FIN 10.2 25 26 27 Anna MOSENKOVA / Sergei SYCHYOV EST 10.8 27 27 28 Natalie BUCK / Trent NELSON-BOND AUS 11.2 28 28 Men FPl. Name Nat. Points QA QB SP FS 1 Alexei YAGUDIN RUS 1.0 1 1 2 Alexander ABT RUS 2.0 2 2 3 Timothy GOEBEL USA 2.8 1 4 4 Takeshi HONDA JPN 3.0 3 3 5 Michael WEISS USA 3.8 2 5 6 Chengjiang LI CHN 4.8 3 6 7 Jeffrey BUTTLE CAN 5.8 4 7 8 Brian JOUBERT FRA 6.8 5 8 9 Kevin VAN DER PERREN BEL 8.8 7 10 10 Frederic DAMBIER FRA 9.2 5 12 11 Anthony LIU AUS 9.4 7 11 12 Andrejs VLASCENKO GER 9.8 11 9 13 Min ZHANG CHN 10.6 4 15 14 Matthew SAVOIE USA 10.8 6 14 15 Ivan DINEV BUL 11.8 10 13 16 Song GAO CHN 13.2 9 16 17 Stephane LAMBIEL SUI 13.2 6 18 18 Ben FERREIRA CAN 14.2 10 17 19 Vakhtang MURVANIDZE GEO 15.0 9 19 20 Roman SKORNIAKOV UZB 15.8 8 21 21 Markus LEMINEN FIN 17.2 13 20 22 Sergei RYLOV AZE 17.6 8 24 23 Sergei DAVYDOV BLR 18.0 12 22 24 Dmitri DMITRENKO UKR 18.6 12 23 25 Juraj SVIATKO SVK 11 25 26 Tomas VERNER CZE 15 26 27 Yosuke TAKEUCHI JPN 14 27 28 Gregor URBAS SLO 14 28 29 Kristoffer BERNTSSON SWE 13 29 30 Sergei KOTOV ISR 15 30 31 Zoltan TOTH HUN 16 31 Yon GARCIA ESP 16 33 Clemens JONAS AUT 17 33 Aidas REKLYS LTU 17 35 James BLACK GBR 18 35 Milos MILANOVIC YUG 18 37 Dino QUATTROCECERE RSA 19 37 Panagiotis MARKOUIZOS GRE 19 R Margus HERNITS EST 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