2012 World Championships, Nice, France
Schedule
Planned Program Content
Championships Preview
Miki
Ando, One Year Later -
Reflections on Worlds a year later
Nice Revisited
Day 6, Saturday, 31 March 2012
Chan Successfully Defends Men's Title, Audience does not Agree
Chan Wins Despite Mistakes.
Audience loudly boos results after his skate, and again during
awards ceremony. Japanese fans go wild for two Japanese men making the World podium for first time.
Americans Jeremy Abbott and Adam Rippon place 8th, and 13th,
qualify the US for two spots at Worlds in London, Ontario next
year. Newcomer Yuzuru Hunyu steals the show with dramatic
Romeo & Juliet program.
|
 Could
bronze medallist Yuzuru Hunyu be any more adorable?
We think not.
17-year old skater placed third in first
Worlds appearance.
|
 Hunyu
and coach react to his marks after his free skate performance.
Temporarily in first place, Hunyu
ultimately placed second in the Free Skate and third overall.
|
Tenth Time's a Charm as Kostner Wins Ladies Title
Carolina Kostner made history by winning the first Ladies
world title for Italy. Alena Leonova of Russia earned the
silver medal and Japan's Akiko Suzuki took the bronze. It was
the first World medal for Leonova and Suzuki.
Kostner turned in a extraordinary performance to Mozart's
Concerto No. 23 for Piano and Orchestra that featured a triple
loop, triple flip, double Axel-triple toe loop as well as two
triple Salchows and three level-four spins. The four-time
European Champion scored a new seasons best of 128.94 points
to move up from third in the Short Program to first overall at
189.94 points overall. “I am very, very happy. I was quite
nervous going out on the ice. I knew I had skated some really
good programs in practice, but it was so overwhelming to go
out there and have so many people cheering for you, it was
hard for me to stay focused. It reminded me so much of Torino
(2006), but I thought this time I can change it and have a
different experience. I just wanted to skate my best, straight
from my heart, now I can sit back and enjoy”, Kostner said.
Short program leader Leonova skated first in the final group
and put out a solid program to “Adagio for Strings” and
“Requiem for a Dream”, completing a triple toe loop-triple toe
loop combination and four triples, but stepped out of a triple
Lutz. The Russian picked up 119.67 points and was ranked
fourth in the Free Skating. Overall she accumulated 184.28
points. “I am very happy. I did my best the day before
yesterday and today. There was one small mistake on my Lutz,
but I am glad, I could pull myself together. I had really bad
warm up, made single jumps, so about three minutes before my
skating I started to think about the performance so I could
concentrate on it. During the warm up I was nervous, but then,
before the music played I was absolutely calm. Now I am
relieved”, the 21-year-old commented.
Suzuki's routine to “Die Fledermaus” (The Bat) was highlighted
by a triple Lutz, double Axel-triple toe, four more triples
and a level-four step sequence. However, she singled her
second Lutz. She earned 121.30 points and totalled 180.68 to
win her first medal at the World Championships, three days
after her 27th birthday. “I am very, very happy to
have won a medal. But I wanted to give a clean performance and
get a medal with it. So I have a few regrets about that”,
Suzuki explained. “I think I missing last year's World team
gave a lot of motivation to train harder. This is my first
World medal and I am 27 years old. Others win their first
medal at 17 years old, like Yuzuru (Hanyu)”, she continued.
Ashley Wagner (USA) came fourth with a strong performance that
featured six triples (176.77 points). She was ranked third in
the Free Skating. Kanako Murakami (JPN) slipped from second to
fifth at 175.41 points and Mao Asada (JPN) came sixth at
164.52 points.
“The free skate was
incredible, said Wagner. "I’m so happy with it. The
crowd was on its feet clapping as loud as it could while I was
in my spin. It took all of my effort not to come out of my
spin and hit my final pose because I was so excited. Today
couldn’t have been any better for me.” She added,
“I’m through the roof right now. I was so nervous going into
it. I think I managed my nerves very well. I approached
everything one step at a time. I cut out a few pieces of
choreography because I was focusing on the technical elements.
I did what I needed to do and it’s huge for me.”
Alissa Czisny, the second American lady competing here crashed
and burned with five falls. "I’m
not sure what happened today or this week," she said. "I
came here not feeling as prepared as I wanted to be. But I
knew I could do everything in the program. I couldn’t find my
feet this week. ... Part of it was being injured at the
end of the Grand Prix season. At nationals, I wasn’t as
prepared as I wanted to be but I did what I had to do to make
it to Worlds. I’m feeling healthy and good. I’m confused as to
what has happened here.”
Estimated attendance for Men's' Free Skate: 5500 building to 6400.
Estimated Attendance for Ladies Free Skate: 4400 building to 7100.
CZISNY SWEEPS THE ICE
by
Alexandra Stevenson
On Sunday, American fans were still
reeling from the shock the day before of witnessing the very
graceful 2009 and 2011 US champion Alissa Czisy’s meltdown in
the Free Skate in Nice. In this glamorous Mediterranean sunny
city, she sprawled embarrassingly on the ice on five jumps
(triple Lutz, triple loop, triple flip, second triple Lutz and
second triple loop) in her four minute performance. She also
doubled a planned triple toe loop. The situation was made more
devastating because her spins are well recognized as the
world’s best.
It was reminiscent of Laetitia Hubert’s
disaster in her first of four Olympic appearances, in 1992 in
her home country. Lying fifth in Albertville, where she is now
a coach, she drew to skate last in the top group of
competitors. While Kristi Yamaguchi shone and Midori Ito took
second, Hubert swept the ice and dropped to 12th
overall. (Hubert had nearly taken Ito out of action in the
1991 world championship when the two had an extremely rough
collision in the warm-up for the Short Program.)
Czisny, 24, should take some consolation
in the fact that the French woman went on to do well in her
subsequent appearances, even beating Tara Lipinski in one
event. Hubert recovered and is now able to smile
self-depreciatingly when that awful showing is mentioned. She
went on to a long competitive career. Last year she appeared
in Atlantic City in the Caesar’s Tribute show.
World Team Standings and Qualification for the
ISU World Team Trophy 2012 in Tokyo, Japan, April 18
to 22, 2012.
The Teams ranked 1 to 6 are qualified for the ISU World Team
Trophy 2012 in Tokyo, Japan, April 18 to 22, 2012.
|
Rank |
Nation
|
Points
|
|
1
|
Japan
|
7891
|
|
2
|
Canada
|
6943
|
|
3
|
Russia
|
6807
|
|
4
|
United States of America
|
6399
|
|
5
|
Italy
|
5412
|
|
6
|
France
|
5214
|
Day 5, Friday, 30 March 2012
Chan Takes Men's Short Program
Patrick Chan took the lead in the Short
Program, despite small errors in his quad toe loop landing and in
the straight line step sequence. Michal Brezina skated clean with
the highest element scores, but was only fifth in component marks.
Third place is held by Daisuke Takahashi who had a downgraded
triple toe loop which cost him at least one place, if not the
lead. Brian Joubert had one of his best skates in recent
memory and lies in fourth place. He is a serious contender
for a medal it would seem.
Jeremy Abbott lies in 9th place, falling on a
triple toe loop and doubling his Lutz. His component scores,
however, were third best of the group. “I’ve never
been more prepared for a competition," he said. "I was mentally,
physically, emotionally ready to go out there and bring it and
win. I’ll have to go back and talk with my coaches. I know I’ve
had performances like this before but I’ve never been more
prepared for a competition. I really believed in my heart of
hearts that this was my moment.” On his combination he
said, "I felt great when I went out there. I was shaky going
into the flip but I pulled in. It was off but I tried to get the
combo in anyway. I never miss that combo, I haven’t missed it this
season. It was not my day, I guess.”
Adam Rippon trails his teammate in tenth place. He was
marked down on the landings of his triple Axel and triple Lutz.
“I have been having a little bit of problem with the Axel this
week, he said" "I know I’ve trained it really hard and I’ve
trained well getting ready for this competition. The thing I can
take away from this program is that I feel it’s the best I’ve
performed it all season. Of course I made some silly mistakes
stepping out of the Axel and the Lutz, but I have to be happy that
I did the spins. I’m upset about the jumps but it is what it is.”
|
 Chan
holds on for dear life in his Short Program step sequence.
He recovered by putting his foot down and lost one level (the
one-foot-sequence feature) as a consequence. But at least he
didn't fall.
|
 Brian
Joubert, places fourth with a nearly clean skate,
landing quad toe loop - triple toe loop. And he's still so damn cute. |
And speaking of hanging on ...
German Team Hangs on to Gold Medal as Russians Triumph in
Pairs Free Skate
Tatiana Volosozhar & Maxim Trankov battled back in the Pairs
Free Skate, winning the segment to place second overall.
Their clean commanding performance left the German couple eight
points behind in the long. Aliona Savchenko & Robin Szolkowy
were outperformed in both total element score and program
components. Their lead from the Short Program, however, was
enough to win the gold medal by a 0.11 margin. Given all the
uncertainties in the scoring method, 0.11 points is nothing!
Narumi Takahashi & Mervin Tran placed third in the Free Skate to
win the first senior pairs medal for Japan at a World
Championships. Tran will have to decide in the near future
whether to give up his Canadian citizenship in order to skate for
Japan in the Olympics. He said an announcement on his plans
will be made at the end of this season (which still has a month or
two to go).
Qing Pang & Jian Tong dropped from second in the short to sixth in
the long to finish in fourth place. A broken lift which
received no points was the deciding factor here in depriving them
a place on the podium. Tong also struggled with his jumps in
both the short an the long.
Caydee Denney & John Coughlin placed eighth in the long and eighth
overall while their fellow U.S. team members Mary Beth Marley & Rockne Brubaker
placed tenth in the long and tenth overall.
Following thier free skate, Coughlin said,
“This is by far the best field we have ever been in. We were in a
warm-up with people that, on any given day, could be World
medallists. The people skating after us are World silver
medallists, the people before us, Sui and Han, are three-time
World Junior champions and Four Continents champions. We just
overtook them which is huge for us. We answered the bell when they
had brought the crowd to its feet right before us. The program
felt easy, our training at home was awesome. What a great first
Worlds together. I’m so excited.” Added Denney, "Denney
– “I always have a great time when I perform in front of a big
crowd. With me and John, we learn from each competition we go to
and try to build on that especially looking forward to the future.
I had one mistake on the Axel but overall, it was fun.”
This is the first Worlds for Denney &
Coughlin, who said, "You only get one first Worlds and we’re going
to leave this one with a good feeling. It’s something big to build
on and give us that recharge we need to tackle new and harder
choreography and grander tricks.” And in facing the
future he added,
“We are looking forward to having more time together. We haven’t
quite hit the one-year mark of being a team. This season, we had
to put together programs that were achievable in such a short
amount of time. For the next season, we are going to push
ourselves.”
This is also the first Worlds for Marley &
Brubaker, though Brubaker has been to Worlds before with his
former partner. “It went pretty good," he said. I
think everything was OK. From where we’ve come and what we did
this year, it’s been a big year all around and I think it’s a
solid way to end.”
“I know I messed up on the double Axel," said
Marley, "but overall to come out and do a well done skate and keep
the excitement and nerves under control, is something I’m proud
of.” On her Worlds experience she added,
“It was amazing. We did a well-skated program. To think, when
you’re in your opening spot, that you’re where you’ve been
dreaming of and training for your entire life, then to keep
focused and do what you train to do every day is amazing.”
For next season the team's focus, said
Brubaker, was on quality, "We’re doing some pretty hard
stuff," he explained. "Making sure, not just at
competitions, we’re increasing our quality on a day-to-day basis.
We were prepared for Worlds but you can always go back and do
more. There are always things to work on.”
Fashionably Late
Continuing the trend of the local audience being fashionably late,
attendance started off low at the beginning of today's' events and
grew during the events. People continued to filter in up
though the second warm-up groups, and in the pairs final, there
were still stragglers coming in for only the last warm-up group.
(The way the arena is configured a full house is 8200.)
Estimated attendance for the Men's Short Program: 2400 building to
3800.
Estimated attendance for Pairs Free Skate: 5800 building to 7200.
Day 4
-- Alena Leonova takes lead in Ladies Short Program. Tessa
Virtue & Scot Moir reclaim World Dance title.
Day 1 - 3
-- World Championships begin with qualifying rounds.
Aliona Savchenko & Robin Szolkowy win Pairs Short Program.
Tessa Virtue & Scot Moir take Short Dance.
|
|
