Skating Diva Report:  Pairs Final Results

Pairs just finished up a short while ago according to IceCalc, the official scoring system. And while this is fine to know where the placements are-- it does little to tell you exactly HOW people skated. So I waited a bit for Judy Blumberg's report on iSkater. Below's the final placements and links to the gory details--  are here, and here . 

1 Xue SHEN/Hongbo ZHAO CHN (left)
2 Tatiana TOTMIANINA/Maxim MARININ RUS
3 Kyoko INA/John ZIMMERMAN USA (right) 

 AP did a nice story on Kyoko Ina here

For complete results click here. (To Skating Diva Section)

5:24:35 PM    

Skating Diva Reports: Notes on Wrap up on Women Freestyle Qualifying Rounds  A & B

The Women's Event today was a marathon. 37 Ladies had to take the ice today to qualify for ranking. What the Japanese hosts in Nagano and the ISU did not realize or plan-- is that many of the ladies would have to ready to leave their dormitory housing and board the buses to the M-Wave Arena BEFORE 5 AM for a 9 AM start time.

What on earth were they thinking? This is the World Championships, right?

Add to this traffic jam around the arena that left no special transportation for the coaches, and it's no wonder that Russia's Marina Butyrskaya coaches Elena Tchaikovskaya and Vladimir Kotin were unable to get to the rink on time to see Marina skate first in Round A. Skaters at the Championships said that Marina did not skate as well. It appeared that Marina became so upset because her coaches were not there to attend to her, she failed to warm up properly. Marina, age 29, has been skating for years and should be able to get herself ready to skate. Also Marina was so upset with her performance that she refused to sit the Kiss n Cry area for her scores and left the arena.

The rest of top skaters in Round A all had mistakes, and it was evident that keeping up the energy and training schedules around the Olympics in a major problem. Why the ISU plans the World Championships so close to the Olympics is still a mystery to me.

My inside sources did note that Michelle Kwan appears to have gone home after SLC and buckled down on working SPEED and height back into her jumps. "IF only has she skated this well in SLC, she'd have the silver at least." Michelle is in 1st place of the A Group.

Fumie Suguri the home town girl from Japan received a warm welcome on her first performance since SLC. Her short program to "Moonlight Sonata" was nearly flawless, except for a small slip on her triple Lutz. While Fumie placed 2nd in Group A, one judge placed her 5th. This placement caused a serious buzz in the M-Wave as to why Fumie was placed so low. It turns out the Judge who scored her so low, was none other than Alfred Korytek, of Israel, and used to judge for Ukraine. In 1999 Korytek and Sviatoslav Babenkowere of Russia were suspended for "collusion" after the Helsinki World Championships.

It was also noted that the top flight skaters in Round A were well polished and presented well, despite some errors. This included Julia Sebestyen of Hungary who's jumps are outstanding, Jennifer Kirk of the US (last minute alternate for Sarah Hughes,) presented herself very well for her first World's and despite changing coaches from the Ivy's to Detroit's Richard Callahagan. And Jennifer Robinson of Canada also skating her in first World's did not skate as nicely or as assertively as she presented herself in SLC. It is reported Jennifer bobbled her first triple Lutz and never got her momentum back.

After Group A finished, a dinner break was called for a short time. Then the warm ups for Group B started about one hour later.

Irina Slutskaya, Olympic silver medallist lead Round B in first place. Irina started hot, with her triple-triple toe combination. However it appears Irina has problems with maintaining her power levels during the program. People have noted that she is continuing to take extended set ups for her elements which got her into doubled one of her triples.

In second place was Sasha Cohen, who was the last skater of the event. The rumormill reports Sasha's presentation was "right on" tonight. Her spiral sequences were inline and artistic pleasing. However the only faux pas was when she singled her triple Lutz.

In third place for the B Group was Japan's Yoshie Onda, who attempted a Triple Axel, but quarter marked it and this caused timing problems with her next triple Lutz. The rest of her program was left unscathed and artistically well executed.

The remainder of top skaters in the B Group included nice performances from: Elena Liashenko from the Ukraine in fourth, Tatiana Malinina of Uzbekistan in fifth, Susanna Poykio of Finland in sixth and Julia Soldatova of Bulgaria and Laetitia Hubert of France placing eighth despite another intimate encounter with the boards.

All in all it's reported the skaters did well skating the bugs out of their legs from the long trip to Nagano. Hopefully the Hosts and the ISU will get the bugs out of the transportation system as well in order to insure the skaters are treated with the respect and courtesy that should be afforded them as World Championship participants.

Ladies Short Program will be Friday, the long on Saturday.

2:11:38 AM