| MasterCard Skate Canada International, Day Four |
MasterCard Skate Canada International concluded Sunday with the Free Dance and the Exhibition Gala.
Ice Dancing, Free Dance
The ice dancers concluded the competition at Skate Canada with their Free Dance. To the delight of their home crowd, Shae-Lynn Bourne/Victor Kraatz of Canada took the gold. Galit Chait/Sergei Sakhnovski (ISR) claimed the silver, and the bronze medal went to the French team, Isabelle Delobel/Olivier Schoenfelder.
Cheered on by the audience, Bourne/Kraatz delivered a groovy dance set to a mix of Michael Jackson songs. The routine featured intricate footwork, original moves and lifts. The team really got into it and skated with more confidence than last week at Skate America. The Judges awarded the four-time World Bronze medallists marks ranging from 5.5 to 5.8 for technical merit and from 5.8 to 5.9 for presentation which meant first place ordinals across the board. "We really wanted to do our free dance better here", Bourne said, referring to Skate America. "We felt much better today." Kraatz added: "We skated incredibly well from the first day - the compulsory, the OD and the free dance. We were ready from the first day to compete."
Chait/Sakhnovski delivered a fast paced, passionate routine to Jewish Folk music such as "Hava Nagila" that included difficult rotational lifts. They received marks up to 5.7 for technical merit and up to 5.8 for presentation. "We now have (required) elements like the single skaters, for example twizzles. That's very good", Chait commented. "We've been working a lot on technique, form and line. Our (new) coach Natalia (Dubova) has helped us a lot in technique."
Delobel/Schoenfelder had to restart their program due to a music problem. "At practice, the CD had skipped, so we gave them an MD", Delobel told the press. "But then the first beats of music were suddenly missing. We just kept focused" The French nevertheless performed very well to "Songs from the Victorious City", showing strong lifts and well-synchronized twizzles in their Egyptian theme program. "We wanted to do something fast, that suits our skating style", Delobel said about their choice of music. The program has won them their second bronze medal at Skate Canada since 1999.
The young Russian duo Svetlana Kulikova/Arseni Markov finished fourth. They entertained the crowd with a humorous and upbeat Rock'n'Roll program set to the soundtrack of "Grease".
Bourne/Kraatz are leading the Grand Prix standings after their two wins at Skate America and Skate Canada. They have scored the maximum of 24 points in both events and are already qualified for the Grand Prix Final in Kitchener (CAN) this December. The Canadians will compete in two weeks at the Trophée Lalique in Paris, their third and non-scoring event. Chait/Sakhnovski took 9 points and will skate to score again at the Cup of Russia later this month. Delobel/Schoenfelder have 7 points and hope to pick more up at the Trophée Lalique.
The ISU Grand Prix Series moves on to Germany next weekend with the Sparkassen Cup on Ice.
Results Ice Dance FPl. Name Nat. Points CD OD FD 1 Shae-Lynn BOURNE / Victor KRAATZ CAN 2.0 1 1 1 2 Galit CHAIT / Sergei SAKHNOVSKI ISR 4.0 2 2 2 3 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA 6.0 3 3 3 4 Svetlana KULIKOVA / Arseyi MARKOV RUS 8.4 5 4 4 5 Eliane HUGENTOBLER / Daniel HUGENTOBLER SUI 9.6 4 5 5 6 Megan WING / Aaron LOWE CAN 12.0 6 6 6 7 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 14.0 7 7 7 8 Katerina KOVALOVA / David SZURMAN CZE 16.0 8 8 8 9 Josee PICHE / Pascal DENIS CAN 18.4 10 9 9 10 Nakako TSUZUKI / Rinat FARKHOUTDINOV JPN 20.4 11 10 10 11 Alla BEKNAZAROVA / Yury KOCHERZHENKO UKR 21.2 9 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)