| 2002 World Junior Figure Skating Championships: Day 2 |
The 2002 World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Hamar, Norway, continued with the Compulsory Dances and the Men's Short Program.
Ice Dancing, Compulsory Dance
The Compulsory Dances at the World Junior Championships are the Viennese Waltz and the Quickstep. Each dance counts 10 percent of the skaters' final score.
Last year's silver medallists, Tanith Belbin/Benjamin Agosto of the USA danced their way into an early lead, while two Russian teams, Elena Khaliavina/Maxim Shabalin and Elena Romanovskaya/Alexander Grachev came in second and third respectively.
Belbin/Agosto, who have skated senior competitions all season, dominated the field with two confident Compulsories. Their Waltz was soft and flowing, their Quickstep crisp and fast. The team showed off deep edges to score marks up to 5.5 for technical merit (in the Waltz) and up to 5.8 for timing in expression (in the Quickstep). The Americans picked up all first place ordinals in both dances. "We felt very good about them (the compulsories)", Belbin said. "We've been senior all year, so didn't have that much time to prepare. We didn't know what the dances were going to be. But the Viennese and the Quickstep are also senior dances that we'll be doing at (senior) Worlds. So it's a good warm up." Both skaters enjoyed coming back to the World Junior Championships. "It's a very friendly feeling. We feel really home here, so it's nice to be back", Agosto commented.
Khaliavina/Shabalin were a strong second with solid performances in both dances. The team that dominated the junior circuit this season especially excelled in the Waltz although their Quickstep was also convincing. The winners of the Junior Grand Prix Final skated with unison and right on the beat. The Judges awarded them marks ranging up to 5.3 for technical merit and up to 5.4 for timing and expression in the Waltz. Their Quickstep earned marks up to 5.4 for technical merit and up to 5.6 for timing and expression. "We did really well today", Khaliavina said. "Our Waltz was excellent, and our coach told us that that it was the best we've skated the Quickstep all season. I'm a bit upset, because I felt we had at least the best Waltz today. But we don't give up yet and will fight in the remaining parts of the competition. Our Original Dance is very technical."
Romanovskaya/Grachev produced a flowing Waltz and a lively Quickstep, but they seemed to lack unison at times. "The Quickstep was more fun, but we don't really prefer one dance over the other", Romanovskaya explained. "We are looking forward to the Original and Free Dance", her partner added. "We have great dances this year, we really like the music. We picked the music together with our coaches."
The Junior Grand Prix Final bronze medallists Miriam Steinel/Vladimir Tsvetkov of Germany are currently standing in fourth place. The couple from Oberstdorf turned in two fine Compulsory Dances, with the Quickstep being the stronger one. They lost to Romanovskaya/Grachev in the Quickstep by a three to four split on the panel of Judges.
The ice dancing competition will resume on Thursday with the Original Dance.
Men, Short Program
Daisuke Takahashi of Japan retained his lead after the Qualifying Round by winning the Short Program. Belgium's Kevin van der Perren placed third in the Short Program but stayed in second overall. Xiadong Ma (CHN), the winner of Qualifying Round A, was ranked fourth but held on to third place. Russia's Stanislav Timchenko is still in contention for a medal, as he finished second in the Short Program and is currently standing in fourth place.
Skating last, Takahashi produced a good program to "West Side Story" that featured a triple Axel-triple toeloop combination and good spins, but he stumbled on the landing of his triple loop out of steps. As his competitors also struggled, Takahashi managed to fend them off. "My triple loop wasn't perfect, but I'm very glad to be in first right now", Takahashi commented. "I had trouble with the loop in practice, and I had this on my mind going into the competition. I'm not thinking about being first, I don't feel any pressure heading into the free skating."
Van der Perren stumbled on his opening triple Axel (in combination with triple toeloop), but he completed a solid triple loop, a high double Axel and fast paced footwork to stay in the top three. "At home, I'm hitting nine out of ten triple Axels, but here only one out of twenty!" Van der Perren joked. "I think I'm just a bit tired, I had a lot of competitions. Right after the Olympics, I competed in the Flemish Championships. I was the only competitor, and I landed everything." The Belgian added that he is planning to attempt a triple-triple-triple combination in the Free Skating.
Ma nailed a triple Axel-triple toeloop combination, but his camel spin and his flying sit spin were both wobbly. "I'm not so pleased, because I had problems with my spins. On the first one, something went wrong on the entry, and the second one was sloppy", Ma noticed. "I really want to perform all elements clean in the long program, like I can do them in practice. I will go for the quad toe." Timchenko landed a triple Axel-triple toeloop combination, a double Axel and showed decent spins, but he stepped out of the required triple loop.
The junior Men's Short Program differs from the seniors. The junior Men have to perform a triple loop out of steps, a flying sit spin and a change foot camel spin.
The 2002 World Junior Figure Skating Championships continue on Wednesday with the Ladies' Qualifying round and the Pairs' Free Program.
Men FPl. Name Nat. Points QB QA SP FS 1 Daisuke TAKAHASHI JPN 1.0 1 1 2 Kevin VAN DER PERREN BEL 2.6 2 3 3 Xiadong MA CHN 2.8 1 4 4 Stanislav TIMCHENKO RUS 3.2 5 2 5 Damien DJORDIEVIC FRA 4.2 3 5 6 Nicholas LAROCHE USA 5.6 5 6 7 Gregor URBAS SLO 6.4 4 8 8 Yannick PONSERO FRA 7.2 3 10 9 Andrei GRIAZEV RUS 7.8 9 7 10 Nicholas YOUNG CAN 7.8 6 9 11 Yingdi MA CHN 9.6 6 12 12 Ari-Pekka NURMENKARI FIN 10.6 10 11 13 Ryan BRADLEY USA 10.6 4 15 14 Jamal OTHMAN SUI 11.4 9 13 15 Anton KOVALEVSKI UKR 12.4 7 16 16 Jean-Michel DEBAY FRA 12.8 2 20 17 Shawn SAWYER CAN 13.2 12 14 18 Shaun ROGERS USA 14.6 8 19 19 Paolo BACCHINI ITA 14.8 10 18 20 Andrei DOBROKHODOV AZE 15.4 7 21 21 Martin LIEBERS GER 15.8 14 17 22 Tristan COUSINS GBR 17.0 8 23 23 Maciej KUS POL 19.2 15 22 24 Matthew WILKINSON GBR 19.4 11 25 25 Sergei KOTOV ISR 13 24 26 Bertalan ZAKANY HUN 11 26 27 Niklas HOGNER SWE 13 28 28 Ivan KINCIK SVK 15 27 29 Dong-Whun LEE KOR 12 30 30 Michal MATLOCH CZE 14 29 31 Daniel HARRIES AUS 16 31 Dmitri MALOCHNIKOV BLR 16 33 Adrian MATEI ROM 17 33 Vladimir BELOMOIN UZB 17 35 Benedict WU TPE 18 35 Alper UCAR TUR 18 37 Marc GIRONELLA ESP 19 37 Manuel SEGURA MEX 19 39 Marc CASAL AND 20 39 Gegham VARDANYAN ARM 20 Ice Dance FPl. Name Nat. Points C1 C2 OD FD 1 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA 0.4 1 1 2 Elena KHALIAVINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS 0.8 2 2 3 Elena ROMANOVSKAYA / Alexander GRACHEV RUS 1.2 3 3 4 Miriam STEINEL / Vladimir TSVETKOV GER 1.6 4 4 5 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim BOLOTIN RUS 2.2 5 6 5 Nora HOFFMANN / Attila ELEK HUN 2.2 6 5 7 Natalie PECHALAT / Fabien BOURZAT FRA 2.8 7 7 8 Mariana KOZLOVA / Sergei BARANOV UKR 3.2 8 8 9 Anna ZADOROZHNIUK / Sergei VERBILO UKR 3.6 9 9 10 Christina BEIER / William BEIER GER 4.0 10 10 11 Alessia AURELI / Andrea VATURI ITA 4.6 12 11 12 Loren GALLER-RABINOWITZ / David MITCHELL USA 5.0 13 12 12 Myriam TRIVIDIC / Yann ABBACK FRA 5.0 11 14 14 Mylene GIRARD / Brian INNES CAN 5.4 14 13 15 Agata ROSLONSKA / Michal TOMASZEWSKI POL 6.0 15 15 16 Lucie KADLCAKOVA / Hynek BILEK CZE 6.4 16 16 17 Julia GRIGORENKO / Alexander SHAKALOV UKR 7.0 17 18 18 Lauren FLYNN / Leif GISLASON CAN 7.4 20 17 18 Tatiana SINIAVER / Tornike TUKVADZE GEO 7.4 18 19 20 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI ISR 7.8 19 20 21 Petra PACHLOVA / Petr KNOTH CZE 8.4 21 21 22 Marina TIMOFEIEVA / Evgeni STRIGANOV EST 8.8 22 22 23 Daniela KELLER / Fabian KELLER SUI 9.6 24 24 23 Petra NEMETHI / Daniel GAL HUN 9.6 23 25 23 Candice TOWLER-GREEN / James PHILLIPSON GBR 9.6 25 23 26 Julia KLOCHKO / Ramil SARKULOV UZB 10.4 26 26 27 Hye Min KIM / Min Woo KIM KOR 10.8 27 27 For further information please contact: Aline Bussat Ingwersen, or John Inge Vikan, Press Officer ISU Media Coordinator Tel: +47 625 501 25 Tel: +41 21 612 66 66 Cell phone: +47 900 997 08 E-mail: bussat@isu.ch