| 2002 World Figure Skating Championships: Day 4 |
The 2002 World Figure Skating Championships with the Original Dance and the Men's final Free Program.
Ice Dance, Original Dance
The Ice Dancing event continued with the Original Dance that counts for 30 percent of the skaters' final score. The Original Dance for this season is the "Spanish Medley".
Irina Lobacheva/Ilia Averbukh of Russia strengthened their lead after the Compulsory Dances with a clear victory in the Original Dance. Canada's Shae-Lynn Bourne/Victor Kraatz remained in second place, while Margarita Drobiazko/Povilas Vanagas of Lithuania defended their third place position before the final Free Dance.
Lobacheva/Averbukh put in a strong Tango and Flamenco that featured intricate, fast footwork and impressive lifts. The performance earned them marks ranging from 5.7 to 5.9 for composition and from 5.8 to 5.9 for presentation. "We felt pressure because we are in the lead after the Compulsories and it was very difficult. But we did try to do well", Averbukh said.
Bourne/Kraatz entertained the full capacity crowd with their ironic Flamenco and Tango routine, which displayed difficult footwork to earn marks up to 5.7 for composition and up to 5.8 for presentation. "Victor and I had a very good skate today. It felt very comfortable on the ice and we skated the performance the way we wanted to", Bourne told the press.
Drobiazko/Vanagas skated their Paso Doble and Flamenco program with a lot of emotion, producing an excellent spin and strong footwork, but at the end of their side by side footwork line, Drobiazko stumbled briefly on a twizzle. The Lithuanian husband-and-wife still managed to hold off Galit Chait/Sergei Sakhnovski of Israel, who finished fourth. "I was little bit nervous today, I don't know why. It happens sometimes. That's why I made a little mistake on the twizzle", Drobiazko explained.
Men, Free Program
In what was an exiting high-level competition, Alexei Yagudin of Russia skated to his fourth World title while Timothy Goebel (USA) captured the silver medal and Japan's Takeshi Honda took the bronze.
Honda had to skate first in the final flight. The 20-year-old opened his program to "Concerto de Aranjuez" with a triple flip, followed by a quadruple-double toeloop combination, a triple Salchow and a triple Axel-triple toeloop. Honda also produced strong step sequences, but he fell on his second quadruple toeloop and stepped out of the triple Lutz. Honda sat with a disappointed look on his face in the Kiss and Cry area, thinking that the medal had just slipped through his fingers.
Yagudin proved that he is in a class of his own at this competition. The Olympic Champion nailed a quadruple-triple toeloop-double loop combination, another quadruple toeloop, a high triple Axel and four more triples, out of which only the flip was a bit shaky on the landing. The 22-year-old Russian amazed the crowd with his footwork and spins. When he finished his routine, Yagudin stood for a moment motionless on the ice until he raised his arms to acknowledge the applause. The judges awarded him marks up to 5.9 for technical merit and all 5.9s plus two perfect 6.0s for presentation. "It took me about a minute to realize what I have done", Yagudin explained.
Goebel had to skate last and he too gave a strong performance. The Olympic bronze medallist landed three quadruple jumps (one toeloop and two Salchows), and his only mistake came when he stepped out of his first triple Axel. "I sort of jerked in the spread eagle, and I'm just glad I could pull myself back together and skate so well", he said. "I had to fight all the way through and ending up with a medal with the way I kept fighting through the program means more than when you have one of these perfect skates when everything goes well."
Honda was glad to win his first World medal in front of a home crowd. "My parents watched my performance. They did not do so for a long time", he said. "I was first to skate and had to wait until the last one skated. It was a long wait. It was an honor to receive the medal." It was only the second medal for Japan in Men's singles. Minoru Sano had won also a bronze in 1977 in Tokyo.
Yagudin took an unprecedented quadruple crown by winning all four major titles of the season: Grand Prix Final, European Championships, Olympic Games and World Championships. "It's great to have my title back", he said. "It was hard to get all four big titles, and it will be hard to repeat, but I'm not going to retire", the skater announced.
Alexander Abt of Russia, who was in second place after the Short Program slipped to fourth after stepping out of the quadruple toeloop. Chengjiang Li (CHN) landed two quadruple jumps, a toeloop and a Salchow, to move up one spot and to finish fifth. Michael Weiss (USA) missed his quadruple Lutz and came in sixth.
Day Four Ice Dancing FPl. Name Nat. Points C1 C2 OD FD 1 Irina LOBACHEVA / Ilia AVERBUKH RUS 1.0 1 1 1 2 Shae-Lynn BOURNE / Victor KRAATZ CAN 2.0 2 2 2 3 Margarita DROBIAZKO / Povilas VANAGAS LTU 3.0 3 3 3 4 Galit CHAIT / Sergei SAKHNOVSKI ISR 4.0 4 4 4 5 Albena DENKOVA / Maxim STAVIYSKI BUL 5.0 5 5 5 6 Elena GRUSHINA / Ruslan GONCHAROV UKR 6.0 6 6 6 7 Kati WINKLER / Rene LOHSE GER 7.0 7 7 7 8 Tatiana NAVKA / Roman KOSTOMAROV RUS 8.0 8 8 8 9 Naomi LANG / Peter TCHERNYSHEV USA 9.0 9 9 9 10 Marie-France DUBREUIL / Patrice LAUZON CAN 10.2 11 10 10 11 Sylwia NOWAK / Sebastian KOLASINSKI POL 11.0 10 12 11 12 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA 12.4 15 11 12 13 Marika HUMPHREYS / Vitali BARANOV GBR 13.0 12 14 13 14 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA 13.6 13 13 14 15 Kristin FRASER / Igor LUKANIN AZE 15.2 16 15 15 16 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 15.6 14 16 16 17 Alia OUABDELSSELAM / Benjamin DELMAS FRA 17.0 17 17 17 18 Veronika MORAVKOVA / Jiri PROCHAZKA CZE 18.2 19 18 18 19 Stephanie RAUER / Thomas RAUER GER 18.8 18 19 19 20 Weina ZHANG / Xianming CAO CHN 20.0 20 20 20 21 Zita GEBORA / Andras VISONTAI HUN 21.2 21 22 21 22 Valentina ANSELMI / Fabrizio PEDRAZZINI ITA 22.0 23 21 22 23 Tae-Hwa YANG / Chuen-Gun LEE KOR 23.6 23 23 24 24 Rie ARIKAWA / Kenji MIYAMOTO JPN 23.8 26 24 23 25 Alla BEKNAZAROVA / Yuri KOCHERZHENKO UKR 22 25 25 26 Jessica HUOT / Juha VALKAMA FIN 25 26 26 27 Anna MOSENKOVA / Sergei SYCHYOV EST 27 27 27 28 Natalie BUCK / Trent NELSON-BOND AUS 28 28 28 Men FPl. Name Nat. Points QA QB SP FS 1 Alexei YAGUDIN RUS 2.0 1 1 1 2 Timothy GOEBEL USA 4.8 1 4 2 3 Takeshi HONDA JPN 6.0 3 3 3 4 Alexander ABT RUS 6.0 2 2 4 5 Chengjiang LI CHN 9.8 3 6 5 6 Michael WEISS USA 9.8 2 5 6 7 Anthony LIU AUS 16.4 7 11 7 8 Jeffrey BUTTLE CAN 17.8 4 7 12 9 Min ZHANG CHN 18.6 4 15 8 10 Andrejs VLASCENKO GER 18.8 11 9 9 11 Frederic DAMBIER FRA 19.2 5 12 10 12 Matthew SAVOIE USA 21.8 6 14 11 13 Brian JOUBERT FRA 21.8 5 8 15 14 Kevin VAN DER PERREN BEL 22.8 7 10 14 15 Ben FERREIRA CAN 27.2 10 17 13 16 Song GAO CHN 29.2 9 16 16 17 Ivan DINEV BUL 29.8 10 13 18 18 Stephane LAMBIEL SUI 30.2 6 18 17 19 Roman SKORNIAKOV UZB 34.8 8 21 19 20 Vakhtang MURVANIDZE GEO 35.0 9 19 20 21 Markus LEMINEN FIN 39.2 13 20 22 22 Dmitri DMITRENKO UKR 39.6 12 23 21 23 Sergei RYLOV AZE 40.6 8 24 23 24 Sergei DAVYDOV BLR 42.0 12 22 24 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 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 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