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2006 World Championships BlogWednesday, March 22General disclaimer: I am not in Calgary. The following thoughts are coming to you direct from Lansing, Michigan, also known as the Mitten. Much to my dismay, the rest of the world does not stop for Worlds, so alas, I am here. Still waiting for offers to send me to Calgary. It's not too late! Just let me know. Technically, I'm writing this when Thursday is already over, so I'm a day late, but forgive me. It's funny, but the rest of the world doesn't stop for Worlds. I don't really understand it; how can I be expected to stay focused at work when the pairs free is happening? So unfortunately, because of my Intro Linguistics class and my first shift at the scrapbook store, I was unable to watch results come in for any of Wednesday's events, and I haven't had time to watch all of the top programs yet. As a result, this entry will probably be a little shorter than yesterday's. Go ahead and take a few moments to cheer. Day Three begins bright and early, with Elena "Cupcake" Sokolova kicking off the ladies' qualifying round, group B. People wonder why Group B skated first, and I think the answer is because they assign Groups A and B first, and then there is a draw to decide which group actually skates first. Her score is decent, and my guess is that she was stronger than she was at the Olympics, but not as stunning as at Euros. I predict that she'll end up between 4th and 6th, securing her a spot in the penultimate group. Turns out that I'm right, yay! Shortly after she skates, I have to leave for class, so I don't find out what happened in this group until I call a friend as soon as I run out the doors of the class building. I'm kind of in shock for a few seconds when she tells me that Joannie Rochette won Group B by a respectable margin. Joannie?! Jo?! I mean, I've been believing in her ever since I met her, three years ago, but international judges don't always agree with me, and it's not like she's as consistent as Old Faithful yet, either. I'm so ecstatic for her, and so proud. To perform at the level where she is so capable, at Worlds, in Canada...wow. What a moment that must have been. Why didn't I go to Calgary, again? Oh, right...I have to pay the rent. Details, details. Jo is carrying 29.28 points into the short, and her closest competitor is Yukari Nakano, who is less than two points back, with 27.79. I like Yukari. She's really grown on me, and I'll always remember how cute she was when I approached her and Yukina Ota at 2004 Four Continents and asked them for a photo. Yukari backed away politely, and I said that no, I wanted one with both of them, and her face just lit up. It was so cute. They both had Burberry accessories, and I was wearing, I don't know, something Roots, probably. I called it my Yuks-Squared photo, and then I lost it in the great computer crash of 04. But back to the competition...Yukari's marks are solid, and it looks like she skated well. The leg wrap bugs me, but I can get past it, and I'm excited that we'll probably get to see her short program on ESPN in the States. I love her short. Proving that all of the experience she's been collecting this season has not been for naught, Emily Hughes is in third place! I didn't really expect that, and I'm happy to see her there. I feel bad that she's always known as Sarah's sister, but she seems to take it so well. I definitely see her as her own skater, though, and I think that as she continues to develop her style, she'll definitely be a lady to watch. Carolina Kostner is in fourth, and she doesn't have deductions, but from her TES, I'm guessing that there were some doubled jumps in there. I'm really hoping to see her skate well this week. The Olympics must have been the absolute worst pressure for her, and I really felt for her when she didn't skate her best as the home crowd favourite. This could be a great week for her to regain some confidence and some lost ground in the eyes of the judges. Probably the biggest surprise of the group, Kiira Korpi of Finland is in fifth place! Those fans that pay attention to juniors know that she's had a bit of a buzz about her, but to most casual fans, it's probably a case of "Kiira who? And why does she have a double "i" in her name?" I'd love to see her have a solid competition, and I think that she has the potential to be a threat in the coming four years. In spots seven through nine, and skating in the middle group on Friday, are Idora Hegel of Croatia who has really had some great moments this season, Yan Liu of China, and Georgian junior star Elene Gedevanishvili. Like the men's qualifying rounds, the ladies' groups do not skate back to back. Instead, the pairs free skate breaks up the action, and I am still wondering why a final was scheduled for 1:54 in the afternoon, but ooookay. Less than six points ended up separating the top five in the free skate, and they all had great qualities to their skating. Whenever that happens, there is going to be debate among skating fans and journalists and whatnot as to what the proper order should have been. The new World Champions are Qing Pang & Jian Tong of China, and I have to admit that I'm scratching my head over that decision. True, the Code of Points is not about what you miss; it's about what you complete and how well you execute it, and since I haven't seen the protocols, I'm not whining about technical marks yet. However, a 7.57 for choreography and a 7.61 for interpretation? Please. My six and eight year old cousins could put together a more convincing interpretation of Phantom of the Opera. Silver went to Dan Zhang & Hao Zhang, teammates and training mates of Pang & Tong. I'm sorry, but I was thoroughly unimpressed with them tonight. Really, they've been growing on me, and I was looking forward to seeing a great performance from them, but I was disappointed. I thought that they were detached from each other and the program, and that they did not skate with the same fire that I've seen from them during the season. I suppose the stress of the Olympics, and the injury, has taken its toll, so I can cut them some slack, but I think that their third place components marks, ranging from 6.93-7.43, were kind of ridiculous. The bronze medal was awarded to Maria Petrova & Alexei Tikhonov, in their final competitive appearance. I was so happy to see them win a medal, and even happier to see them skate at their best. Consistency in the free has been such a battle for them in the past, and it's always hard to watch them deliver incredible shorts, time and time again, but perform below their level in the free. This afternoon, there wasn't any disappointment from them, only in their placement. Fourth place, or if you're American, the "pewter" medal, fell to Rena Inoue & John Baldwin, Jr., who actually finished third in the free with an inspiring program. I don't often get wrapped up in the nationalism thing when it comes to figure skating (at least, not for my own country, haha!), but I felt really proud to boast such great pairs champions today. I wish it had been enough for them to win a medal, because that would have just been icing on the cake. But medal or no medal (and I certainly wasn't expecting them to medal this week), they capped off a great season with an exclamation point, two throw triple axels in this competition, and a promise to be back next year for more. I wish them the best! Finishing fifth in both the free and the final standings were Canadian champions Valérie Marcoux & Craig Buntin. It's a shame that such a great effort actually dropped them a spot in the standings, but again, the top five were all close. A quick touch of the hand on the triple toe-double toe combination from Craig, and a singled axel that was just barely landed from Val left small dents in a great program, but I still maintain that their free is the best pairs free of the season. I think that having music composed for them was an excellent strategy, as is their gutsy throw triple salchow at the end. What a way to finish, especially in your home country. They have a lot of reasons to be proud. Savchenko & Szolkowy kind of fizzled out after such a strong season, but I don't think we've seen the last of them, and Canadian challengers Dubé & Davison are only just getting started. I think we'll be seeing a lot of them in the future. Obertas & Slavnov have a lot to work on during the off-season, if in fact they stay together, and I think they could really improve if they address some of the issues that came up this season. I think they could also benefit from working with another choreographer, but I don't see that happening. Polish veterans Zagorska & Siudek ended in a disappointing ninth, but they'll be back for one more season, hoping to finish their careers with a great performance at the European championships in Warsaw next year. Volosozhar & Morozov finished off the top ten, maintaining their position from last year. And because I know you're just dying to know, I would have ranked the pairs as follows: 1. Petrova & Tikhonov, 2. Inoue & Baldwin, 3. Marcoux & Buntin, 4. Pang & Tong, 5. Zhang & Zhang. But unfortunately, no one asked me. Ladies' Qualifying Group A finished out the day in the Saddledome, and Fumie Suguri pulled an upset to lead the group, which made me ecstatic. I really love her skating, and although her free program doesn't wow me like some of her past frees have, I just love her delicate style and overall elegancy on the ice. Trailing her by only .01 going into the short program is American youngster Kimmie Meissner. I have mixed feelings about Kimmie, and I haven't seen her qualifying skate, so I'll try to resist judgment of that. I used to really, really like her, but I think that she was hyped too much, too quickly. There's no denying that she's technically a very good skater, but I think that all of her success has halted her artistic development, and I would really like to see her grow into a style. Right now, it just seems like she's performing rehearsed movements because she was told to do them, not because she's really expressing herself, and I believe that's the most important part of skating. I do admire her attack and attitude towards skating. I would just appreciate a halt to the shoving of Kimmie down my throat by the American collective skating media. And the surprise of the night was Sasha Cohen's defeat! I don't think anyone was expecting that, and especially not by Meissner! Still, she is less than a point behind Suguri, and it's no secret that a clean short from her will be generously rewarded, so I don't think she has anything to worry about if she can keep her head on her shoulders. Of course, that's always the question with her, isn't it? I guess we'll see. In news that deserves exclamation points, I am thrilled to see Mira Leung in fourth place in her group! What a great effort! Her consistency has been impressing me for a couple of years, but it was the way that she completely changed her free and her approach to skating it between the Grand Prix and Nationals that really floored me. She also has an incredible work ethic, so that, combined with the fact that she really improved her weakest areas in order to achieve her goal of going to Torino, turned me into a fan. It's great to see her being rewarded for that. She still has a lot of work to do, but I don't think a top ten finish here is out of the question. Sarah Meier and Yoshie Onda round out the rest of the penultimate group in the short. I had really hoped for Yoshie to skate better, and I hope she improves throughout the weekend. I still disagree with the Japanese Skating Federation's decision to leave her off the Olympic team, even though she was the third best age-eligible lady at Nationals. It would be awesome if she just stuck it to them this week. Today's Rockstar Award took a lot of thought. I wanted to give it to Val & Craig for such a great free after their disappointment last month, but I already gave them one for their short - which gets better every time I rewatch it, by the way. I thought about giving it to Joannie, but I'm sort of hoping that I'll have a reason to give it to her on Friday or Saturday (!!!). Then I thought about the pairs again, and I finally narrowed it down. Maria Petrova & Alexei Tikhonov retired from eligible skating tonight, after an impressive career that brought them two European titles, as well as a World medal of each colour, earning a second bronze tonight. Besides being successful on the ice, and contributing to the great Russian pairs tradition, they are known as two of the nicest people in skating. Always with something nice to say about their competitors, they treat everyone with respect, and they approach their skating with dedication and integrity. Besides that, they love each other, and cute always gets bonus points in my book. Tonight, they ended their amateur careers with one of their best performances, delivering a clean long program and delighting the audience. After the medals were awarded, Alexei even plucked Xue Shen from the audience and carried her around the ice for a victory lap. They're classy, classy people, and that's even more important than being great athletes, so when classy people skate their best, well, it makes me cry. And it makes me think they're rockstars. Tomorrow, we wrap up the men's competition and spice up the Saddledome (that sounds like an oxymoron, or something) with the Latin combination original dances. Archives -- Contact -- Features -- Guestbook -- Links -- Webmistress (c)2004-6 Melanie L. Hoyt All rights reserved. |