| MasterCard Skate Canada International, Day Three |
MasterCard Skate Canada International continued Saturday with the Ladies and Men's Free Programs.
Ladies, Free Program
The Ladies finished their competition with the Free Program. The competition saw a rematch between the three top skaters from the 2001 World Championships, which were also held in Canada. Only this time, first and third place switched and Sarah Hughes (USA) won her first Grand Prix gold medal of her career. Russia's Irina Slutskaya took the silver (like in Vancouver) with Michelle Kwan (USA) finishing third. Skating to "Daphne and Chloe" and Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto, overnight leader Hughes opened her program with a double Axel, triple Salchow-triple loop combination, followed by a triple Lutz-double toeloop. The lyrical and flowing program also featured a triple flip, another triple Lutz and a nice spiral. The only glitch was a popped and two-footed toeloop. Hughes received marks from 5.6 to 5.7 for technical merit and from 5.7 to 5.8 for presentation. "I felt strong and solid", said Hughes. "Now I go home and work on the triple toe-triple loop (combination), because I really want to do it. I never thought that I would win this competition!"
Slutskaya, who stood in fourth after the Short Program, was up next and turned in an inspired performance to excerpts from the opera "Tosca". A true competitor, the three-time World silver medallist risked a triple Salchow-triple loop-half loop-double Salchow combination, but made a slight mistake on the loop. The Muscovite also completed two triple Lutzes (one in combination with a double toeloop), a triple loop, an excellent triple flip, a double Axel and strong spins. She stepped out of a popped double toeloop towards the end of the program but repeated it immediately afterwards as a triple. Slutskaya received marks from 5.6 to 5.8 for technical merit and from 5.8 to 5.9 for presentation. She picked up six first place ordinals to win the free skating and moved up two spots. Slutskaya was pleased with her performance. "I felt better today, more confident", she explained. "Actually I was prepared to skate much better here, but our trip to Canada was very long and tiring. Now I hope to do better and better in the next competitions."
Four-time and reigning World Champion Michelle Kwan had to overcome a shaky start into her "Sheherazade" program, falling on her triple toe - planned as a triple toe-triple toe combination - and then on the loop in her attempted triple Lutz-triple loop combination. The 21-year-old recovered to land a double Axel and four more triples, but she slipped from second to third in the final ranking. "I felt ready, but I made two mistakes", Kwan commented. "I was glad that I pulled in the triple Lutz-triple loop. It was the first time I tried two triple-triple combinations. I'm glad that I fought through my program." Fumie Suguri of Japan, ranked third after the Short Program, went for a triple Lutz-triple toeloop combination but wasn't able to complete the rotations on the latter jump. She made some other errors, ending up in fourth place.
Kwan is currently heading the Grand Prix standings for the Ladies. She collected 7 points at Skate Canada and now has 19 points overall. Slutskaya picked up 9 points and her next competition will be the Cup of Russia later this month. Skate Canada was a non-scoring event for Hughes, who will enter the Trophée Lalique in two weeks. Suguri has five points and will compete again at the NHK Trophy in her home country.
Men, Free Program
In an exciting Men's event, Alexei Yagudin of Russia captured his third consecutive gold medal at Skate Canada with Elvis Stojko (CAN) winning the silver medal and Todd Eldregde (USA) taking the bronze. Yagudin opened his emotional program to "Man in the Iron Mask" with a quadruple toeloop-triple toeloop, followed by a spectacular quadruple toeloop-half loop-triple Salchow combination. The three-time World Champion then suddenly fell on his triple Axel but pulled himself together and produced four more triples, including an Axel. His program also featured fast and difficult footwork. "I'm happy to have done two quads in combination for the first time since the World Championships in Nice", said Yagudin. "I was shocked when I fell on the triple Axel, because it was straight in the air. Maybe I was too relaxed after I did the quads. I feel a lot better than last year, and I think I passed the most difficult time in my skating career." With marks up to 5.9 for both presentation and technical merit, the Russian earned first place ordinals across the board.
Stojko, third after the Short Program, had a very focused and determined look on his face when he stepped onto the ice. The 29-year-old veteran nailed a quadruple toeloop-double toeloop combination right out of the gate, followed by a triple Axel-double toe and a triple Lutz. He then seemed to loose some of his energy and fell on the second triple Axel but rallied back to land three more triples. He finished his routine, set to a selection from the soundtrack of the Bruce Lee Story, with a fast and well-centered spin, and the crowd was on their feet before the last rotation was done. Stojko's marks ranged from 5.6 to 5.8 for technical merit and from 5.6 to 5.7 for presentation. "I felt free, relaxed", he commented. "I felt like the Elvis in 1994. Since 1998, I didn't feel alive on the ice in competition, I felt dead. Today, I felt alive again. I've picked up the pieces. Finally I'm myself again, a little wiser and stronger."
Then, it was Eldredge's turn. The 30-year-old doubled his planned quadruple toeloop at the beginning of his program to "Conquest of Paradise", but he completed a triple loop, two triple Axels (one of them in combination with a triple toeloop). Eldredge struggled at some points in the program, doubling the flip and the Salchow and loosing speed. Nonetheless, he was ranked third in the Free Program and moved up one spot. "Obviously, this wasn't the skate I was looking forward to", said a disappointed Eldredge. "Things didn't go the way I wanted."
It came worse for Emanuel Sandhu of Canada, who sat in second after the Short Program. The Canadian Champion wasn't able to pull himself together, made several errors and dropped to fifth place overall. Skate Canada was the first scoring event for all three medallists. Yagudin (12 points) will compete again for points at the Trophée Lalique, as will Eldredge (7 points), while Stojko (9 points) heads to the Sparkassen Cup in Germany next week.
MasterCard Skate Canada International is the second of six events of the Grand Prix of Figure Skating. Full results are attached and also directly available on the ISU Internet site on ww2.isu.org .
MasterCard Skate Canada concludes on Sunday with the Free Dance and the Exhibition Gala.
Results Ladies FPl. Name Nat. Points SP FS 1 Sarah HUGHES USA 2.5 1 2 2 Irina SLUTSKAYA RUS 3.0 4 1 3 Michelle KWAN USA 4.0 2 3 4 Fumie SUGURI JPN 5.5 3 4 5 Sarah MEIER SUI 9.0 6 6 6 Galina MANIACHENKO UKR 9.5 5 7 7 Annie BELLEMARE CAN 10.5 11 5 8 Laetitia HUBERT FRA 11.5 7 8 9 Nicole WATT CAN 14.0 10 9 10 Marianne DUBUC CAN 14.0 8 10 11 Kristina OBLASOVA RUS 15.5 9 11 12 Tamara DOROFEJEV HUN 18.0 12 12 Men FPl. Name Nat. Points SP FS 1 Alexei YAGUDIN RUS 1.5 1 1 2 Elvis STOJKO CAN 3.5 3 2 3 Todd ELDREDGE USA 5.0 4 3 4 Anthony LIU AUS 6.5 5 4 5 Emanuel SANDHU CAN 7.0 2 6 6 Andrejs VLASCENKO GER 8.0 6 5 7 Johnny WEIR USA 11.0 8 7 8 Yosuke TAKEUCHI JPN 12.5 9 8 9 Ben FERREIRA CAN 12.5 7 9 10 Roman SEROV RUS 15.0 10 10 11 Stanick JEANNETTE FRA 16.5 11 11 For further information please contact: Aline Bussat Ingwersen, ISU Media Coordinator Tel: +41 21 612 66 66 Fax: +41 21 612 66 77 E-mail: bussat@isu.ch or MasterCard Skate Canada International Patrick Kenny, Press Officer Tel: +1 306 657 45 05 (press room)