| 2002 World Junior Figure Skating Championships: Day 4 |
The 2002 World Junior Championships went on in Hamar, Norway, with the Original Dance and the Men's Free Program.
Ice Dancing, Original Dance
The ice dancing competition continued with the Original Dance. The Original Dance for the juniors is the "Spanish Medley", which the same as for seniors. Skaters select two or three out of the following rhythms: Tango, Paso Doble, Flamenco and/ or Spanish Waltz.
Tanith Belbin/Benjamin Agosto (USA) strengthened their lead by winning the OD ahead of Elena Khaliavina/Maxim Shabalin and Elena Romanovskaya/Alexander Grachev (both teams are from Russia). Belbin/Agosto delivered a confidant and graceful Tango combined with a passionate Flamenco. The Americans showed off deep edges and their side by side footwork line contained excellent twizzles. The Judges awarded them marks from 5.4 to 5.6 to for composition and from 5.5 to 5.8 for presentation which meant first place ordinals across the board.
"We hadn't performed this dance yet to it's full potential this year. We gave it a shot and we are very happy with the outcome. It was definitely the best (in this season) for us", Belbin said. "The atmosphere (of the competition) was relaxing. We really took the comfortability of the competition to bring out the very best."
Khaliavina/Shabalin were a strong second with their Paso Doble and Flamenco program. The Russians displayed excellent unison in their footwork, but their spin was somewhat slow. The couple received marks up to 5.4 for composition and up to 5.6 for presentation. "I think we skated this dance better at our national championships. Today, we were holding back a bit", Khaliavina commented. "Yesterday I cut my right leg in a fall in practice. The leg hurt a lot yesterday and this morning in practice." The injury required two stitches.
Romanovskaya/Grachev dazzled with their good presentation skills in their Flamenco and Tango. Their performance was fast and solid, but the Russians just managed to fend off a challenge by the fourth-placed German team of Miriam Steinel/Vladimir Tsvetkov. Romanovskaya/Grachev stayed ahead of the Germans on a five to four split. "I think we did quite well, but we could have been more confident", Grachev pointed out. "We don't feel any pressure heading into the free dance. We just want to skate well. The judges will decide."
Meanwhile, Steinel/Tsvetkov have stayed in contention for a medal with their creative OD to a Tango and Flamenco. France's Nathalie Pechalat/Fabien Bourzat moved up from seventh to fifth place after performing an expressive program.
Men, Free Program
The Men's event on Thursday night produced two historical results. Daisuke Takahashi is the first Japanese man to win the gold medal and Kevin van der Perren is the first Belgian skater ever to take a medal (silver) at an ISU World Junior Championships. The bronze medal went to Russia's Stanislav Timchenko.
Van der Perren skated first in the final flight and knew that he had to set the standard. That was exactly what he did. The 19-year-old hit two excellent combinations: a triple Axel-triple toeloop and a triple Lutz-triple toeloop, followed by four more triple jumps in his routine set to a piece called "Trouble Man". There was certainly no trouble for van der Perren tonight, and he jumped up and down in joy as soon as he finished his program. He scored the highest marks of the evening, ranging from 5.4 to 5.5 for technical merit and 5.4 to 5.6 for presentation.
Timchenko stood in fourth place following the Qualifying Round and the Short Program. He still had a good shot at a medal and he fought for it. Skating to "Jesus Christ Superstar" the 19-year-old Muscovite opened with a triple Axel followed by a triple Lutz. Timchenko produced three more clean triples and good spins, but he touched down with his hand on the triple Salchow. His marks went up to 5.4 for technical merit and up to 5.5 for presentation. He knew he had a medal, but had to wait and see which one it would be.
Overnight leader Takahashi was up next. The 16-year-old had to overcome a shaky start when he stumbled on his first triple Axel. But the Japanese rallied back to complete a triple Lutz-triple toeloop combination, a triple loop, a triple Axel, three more triples and strong spins. Takahashi's classical interpretation of Max Bruch's Violinconcerto scored up to 5.5 for presentation.
Although Takahashi finished second to van der Perren in the Free Program, his lead after the Qualifying and the Short Program assured the Japanese skater the victory. Van der Perren's silver medal is the first one ever for a man from Belgium in an ISU Championship. The last (and so far only) medal for a Belgian singles skater dates back to 1947, when Fernand Leemans took the bronze at the European Championships.
"I'm so glad to have won the title tonight", Takahashi said. "I was first in the qualifying and in the short program, but I wasn't first in the free skating. Next year I want to come back and be first in each phase of the competition."
Van der Perren was pleased with his performance. "It was a good program tonight, similar to what I did in Salt Lake City (at the Olympic Winter Games), which was the best performance of my life. It doesn't matter how many people are there to watch; you always have to give a 100 percent. I hope that my success will make it easier for other skaters in Belgium who come after me."
"The whole season went quite well for me, it was pretty even", Timchenko commented. "This is not a bad result for me. I did everything that I can do at this point."
As of next season, van der Perren and Timchenko will both compete at the senior level, since they have reached the age limit for juniors.
The 2002 World Junior Figure Skating Championships continue Friday with the Ladies' Short Program and the Free Dance.
Day Four Men FPl. Name Nat. Points QB QA SP FS 1 Daisuke TAKAHASHI JPN 3.0 1 1 2 2 Kevin VAN DER PERREN BEL 3.6 2 3 1 3 Stanislav TIMCHENKO RUS 6.2 5 2 3 4 Xiadong MA CHN 7.8 1 4 5 5 Damien DJORDIEVIC FRA 8.2 3 5 4 6 Gregor URBAS SLO 13.4 4 8 7 7 Nicholas YOUNG CAN 13.8 6 9 6 8 Yannick PONSERO FRA 15.2 3 10 8 9 Yingdi MA CHN 19.6 6 12 10 10 Nicholas LAROCHE USA 19.6 5 6 14 11 Shawn SAWYER CAN 22.2 12 14 9 12 Ari-Pekka NURMENKARI FIN 22.6 10 11 12 13 Anton KOVALEVSKI UKR 23.4 7 16 11 14 Andrei GRIAZEV RUS 24.8 9 7 17 15 Ryan BRADLEY USA 25.6 4 15 15 16 Shaun ROGERS USA 27.6 8 19 13 17 Jean-Michel DEBAY FRA 28.8 2 20 16 18 Jamal OTHMAN SUI 31.4 9 13 20 19 Andrei DOBROKHODOV AZE 33.4 7 21 18 20 Martin LIEBERS GER 34.8 14 17 19 21 Paolo BACCHINI ITA 38.8 10 18 24 22 Tristan COUSINS GBR 40.0 8 23 23 23 Maciej KUS POL 40.2 15 22 21 24 Matthew WILKINSON GBR 41.4 11 25 22 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 Vladimir BELOMOIN UZB 17 33 Adrian MATEI ROM 17 35 Alper UCAR TUR 18 35 Benedict WU TPE 18 37 Marc GIRONELLA ESP 19 37 Manuel SEGURA MEX 19 39 Marc CASAL AND 20 39 Gegham VARDANYAN ARM 20 Ice Dancing FPl. Name Nat. Points C1 C2 OD FD 1 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA 1.0 1 1 1 2 Elena KHALIAVINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS 2.0 2 2 2 3 Elena ROMANOVSKAYA / Alexander GRACHEV RUS 3.0 3 3 3 4 Miriam STEINEL / Vladimir TSVETKOV GER 4.0 4 4 4 5 Natalie PECHALAT / Fabien BOURZAT FRA 5.8 7 7 5 6 Nora HOFFMANN / Attila ELEK HUN 5.8 6 5 6 7 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim BOLOTIN RUS 6.4 5 6 7 8 Anna ZADOROZHNIUK / Sergei VERBILO UKR 8.4 9 9 8 9 Mariana KOZLOVA / Sergei BARANOV UKR 8.6 8 8 9 10 Christina BEIER / William BEIER GER 10.0 10 10 10 11 Alessia AURELI / Andrea VATURI ITA 11.2 12 11 11 12 Loren GALLER-RABINOWITZ / David MITCHELL USA 12.2 13 12 12 13 Mylene GIRARD / Brian INNES CAN 13.2 14 13 13 14 Myriam TRIVIDIC / Yann ABBACK FRA 13.4 11 14 14 15 Agata ROSLONSKA / Michal TOMASZEWSKI POL 15.0 15 15 15 16 Lauren FLYNN / Leif GISLASON CAN 17.0 20 17 16 17 Julia GRIGORENKO / Alexander SHAKALOV UKR 17.8 17 18 18 18 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI ISR 18.0 19 20 17 19 Lucie KADLCAKOVA / Hynek BILEK CZE 18.4 16 16 20 20 Tatiana SINIAVER / Tornike TUKVADZE GEO 18.8 18 19 19 21 Marina TIMOFEIEVA / Evgeni STRIGANOV EST 21.4 22 22 21 22 Petra PACHLOVA / Petr KNOTH CZE 21.6 21 21 22 23 Candice TOWLER-GREEN / James PHILLIPSON GBR 23.4 25 23 23 24 Daniela KELLER / Fabian KELLER SUI 24.0 24 24 24 25 Petra NEMETHI / Daniel GAL HUN 23 25 26 26 Julia KLOCHKO / Ramil SARKULOV UZB 26 26 25 27 Hye Min KIM / Min Woo KIM KOR 27 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