by Alexandra Stevenson
1. Overall 182.63; FD 110.34
(52.78+57.56); SD 1; The Olympic gold medalists and 2010 world
champions, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, whose home town, London,
Ontario will host Worlds next year, repeated their recent Four
Continents win over their training mates Meryl Davis and Charlie
White. The Canadians won by significant 4.03 points, building on
their Short Dance lead of 1.33 to trounce their training mates, the
first ever American holders of this title.
However, it was
far from Virtue and Moir’s best performance of their Free Dance.
Skating 20th and last, the frothy exhuberant lightness, which was
such a joy to watch earlier in the season, seemed to be toned down.
They use the music from the Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn movie,
Funny Face. Moir, 24, glossed over that situation but Virtue, 22,
readily admitted, they were not completely at ease. “To be honest,
it wasn't the best we've skated this program this season. But that's
why we train and that we got all the mileage on the program so we
can rely on our skating even when we don’t feel necessarily a 100
percent. It's great to get the victory. We're thrilled with our
season.”
Moir said,
“It feels amazing. It was a perfect ending of the season for us. It
wasn't a magical skate. We kind of had to fight through the
elements, and really rely on our training. The sweetest part of the
season was the ability to train to all of our potential. That was
our big reward this year, enjoying the training and we did. I think
Tessa shows a little about what kind of perfectionist she is, when
she is not happy with a skate like that. It was still great, just
little bobbles that only we can feel.
“I thought we had a good skate tonight. We
tried to perform like we do at home and to connect with each other.
It’s always fun to skate in France with such an enthusiastic crowd,
and we tried to focus on unison and got stronger the further we went
into the performance.”
All but the circular steps, which were deemed
Level 3, received the maximum 4. Levels are decided by the Technical
Panel, which comprised the Specialist Marie Bowness and her
Assistant, Andrzej Dostatni. They were supervised by the Controller
Christine Hurth. From the nine member judging panel, they received a
shower of the maximum +3 Grades of Execution for all but two of
their elements, the steps and the combination spin. But although
they received six out of a possible nine +3s for their spectacular
long lift at the end of their routine, the +3s were not unanimous as
they had been at the 4Cs Championship.
Both were wearing attire copied from that worn
by the stars of the movie, with Virtue in a rich red sleeveless
dress which had a slit on the side to accommodate the restrictions
of the length which was to just above the knees.
It is most unusual for intense rivals to train
in the same rink with the same coaches but it appears this policy
works for them. Moir agrees, “It is a unique situation, training
with Charlie and Meryl, but we’re really just thinking about our own
performances and it’s nothing new to be competing against Meryl and
Charlie and training alongside them. We’re very fortunate to have
them and the Shibutanis at our rink and we’re able to push each
other every day. I do believe we really wouldn’t be where we are
today without them and I hope they feel the same way. It’s no
different with Pechalat and Bourzat and Kaitlin (Weaver) and Andrew
(Poje) (who train together at the Detroit Skating Club, although
that started only recently).”
Virtue was looking forward to reviewing the
tape. “It will be interesting to see it. The performance didn't come
as naturally as I think it has in the past, and it didn’t feel as
easy as it felt in training. Maybe those were just little bobbles
that I felt or that maybe we felt between the two of us and people
didn't notice.
“Overall, like Scott said, this is why we train
and it's nice to have that to rely on so that we're not worrying
about executing elements and can concentrate on getting into
character and making the program build to its climax. We did fight a
little bit for it. We are always in the position where we compete
against Charlie and Meryl, and we see them every day, so we know all
about their skills. They are so consistent. I think our approach to
this week was staying focused on doing our job, whenever we come,
first or second or tenth.”
Moir also said that part of the reason they
moved to train in Canton, Michigan, was to take advantage of the
international experience and background of the former Russians,
Marina Zueva and Igor Shpilband. “They are Canadian and American
now, but they are from Russia when it was dominating the sport. We
decided that was our next step, to go to them, seven or eight years
ago.”
Both
Shpilband and Zueva represented the Soviet Union. Zueva and her
partner got as far as fifth in the world championship. (Shpilband
actually defected. Zueva came to Canada a short time later, just
after the Soviet Union collapsed.) Moir added, “The technical aspect
of the Russian coaching helps a lot, but it is more about vision. I
think we are excited about the vision that Marina and Igor have for
us for the next couple of years. We're lucky to have them. We feel
good. It was a pretty good skating tonight. We had very strong
elements. We definitely need to fight more for the program. I think
this season we really appreciate that we could perform like that.
Overall we are happy. We did a great competition.”
Earlier, after their lively Short Program,
Virtue said, “We were concerned about the levels, but now we are
just happy about our performance. We feel very strong and much more
confident now for the free dance.”
2. Overall 178.62; 2 FD 107.64
(50.93+56.71); 2. SD; Meryl Davis, 25, and Charlie White, 24,
skating first of the top five couples, sailed through their
enjoyable, flamboyant Die Fledermaus, which, like their main rivals,
also was rewarded with a spew of +3s. However, both step sequences
were “only” Level 3. Davis said, “Charlie and I felt really good
with what we are able to spill out these two days and this week.
“Obviously, we were a little disappointed coming in second, but
what's more important, I think, is that we feel really good about
both of our performances. I think we went through a lot this year
and this competition. We are really pleased with ourselves and we'd
like to thank French audience for being absolutely amazing.”
Moir has
made no secret of the fact that he isn’t in favor of the Yankee
Polka being a part of the Short Dance next season. Davis counters
that opinion. “I’m on the other end of the spectrum to Scott and
Tessa about next season’s Polka Short Dance. I'm really getting
excited to start Polka-ing this summer.
“At the end of the season if
you have programs that you really love and feel could grow, it is
kind of sad to see them go. We've had programs like that before. But
throughout our career we've learned how great an experience it is to
create new things and set out in new directions, seeing where you
can improve. I think we're very excited to see what we'll come up
with next year.
“Marina often talks about her education in
Russia as a choreographer and education in classical dance. It's
really interesting for us to see how she works toward her concept of
a routine and comes up with how to attain that goal in the best
possible way, the most crowd pleasing and audience friendly
routines.”
White was asked to comment on the difference
between their routine and Virtue and Moir’s and what caused the gap
between the points, especially since Davis and White’s twizzles were
faster than those of the Canadians. He answered, “We want to keep
these twizzles fast. We don't know where the discrepancy was and
what the judges’ eyes see. Of course we want to get feedback on the
results of this competition. Like Meryl said, we were aiming for
first. But we are proud of the way we skated. Despite the
discrepancy in points we are going home really pleased. We look
forward to finding out what the judges want us to improve. Our next
step is to win the World title back.
“Last year we put more
pressure on ourselves. We felt sort of like all the U.S. were behind
us to try and really get that first World Championship. Having
gotten that out of the way, we just had the confidence to believe in
ourselves and our training. It was definitely a little easier this
year, a little less stressful.”
After the Short Dance, Davis
said, “The scores weren't what we were looking for but we can't
control that and we're satisfied with what we did. I think when we
finish a performance and are pleased with the way with everything
went, that’s a wonderful kind of feeling. That’s what we were aiming
for. It was the best we’ve done the program all year. We were just
focusing on each part of the program individually and the portraying
the excitement.
“As far as the scores go… over the years we’ve
learned that scores are not totally within our control.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get the levels we were looking for here. I
think it varies from competition to competition according to what
that technical panel is looking for. But I don’t think we have any
regrets with how it went tonight. We're a little disappointed
because we felt we skated our season’s best performance and we
wanted our season’s best scores at worlds. But we skated our hearts
out and left it all on the ice today.”
3. Overall 173.18; 3 FS 104.05 (49.50+54.55); 3
SD; Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat, the twice European
champions, who missed the bronze in this event last April, when he
accidently pulled them both down onto the ice in their Charlie
Chaplin routine, were pleased with their Egyptian mummy Free this
year. Pechalat, 28, said, “We were really stressed tonight. But our
performance was good. Sometimes it was hard to hear the music,
because the audience was so loud, but they gave us energy. It was a
good experience, and it was a very good way to win our first world
medal.
“Two
weeks ago, while we were doing twizzles in practice, Fabian’s hand
hit my nose hard and broke the bone badly. Now we going to see the
doctors and see what they think, whether it is necessary for me to
have surgery. But these two weeks of practice were quite hard. We
changed some elements because of the danger to the nose. There were
some things we couldn't do in practice, like spins, like lifts or
the acrobatics. But I wanted to be sure, that I could compete on the
championships. We just slowed down a little bit. But we had some
rough moments. It was more difficult for (Fabian), because I knew
what I can do. And he skated two days keeping his hands close to
himself.
Bourzat, 28,
explained, “We have only once had to withdraw from a major event
because of the injury. It was from the 2007 European Championships,
when Nathalie broke her hand and we couldn't grab each other. As
long as it is just a pain, I know Natalie, I know she is quite
strong. She would not withdraw unless it was absolutely NOT possible
to skate.
“I
can’t say I care about Polka having the Polka next season. We always
want to find a way to entertain ourselves first, and then the
audience. I would prefer another program like the samba. That is
real dance for us. Now we have to come up with the new idea for Free
program. As you know we moved to Russia three years ago to learn
their way to skate, because we had to develop. Now we have moved to
Anjelika (Krylova) and Pasquale (Camerlengo in Detroit). They are
crazy workers. They ask you to skate. And you do something, and they
make you do it so many times, you think you can’t possibly do it
another time.”
That was how the French came to have Level 4 for both their
sequences of rhumba whereas the top US and Canadian ice dancers had
only Level 3. Camerlengo explained, “I think that reflects that
Nathalie and Fabian step immediately on the outside (back) edge on
the Choctaw. The Specialist have stop motion video tape now and they
can replay everything perfectly now. I think the others may have
stepped fractionally onto the inside edge and then gone to the
outside. But you would only see that on the play back.”
Boursat said that Camerlengo’s endless drills
are “the only way to be sure you have enough skill in the elements.
That doesn’t come about by chance. We have a lot to learn from
them.” Pechalat added, “It was our goal to reach a medal. The
hardest part about these World Championships was not the competition
itself but the last two weeks of preparation, we are very tired now.
It was a great competition, especially because we are skating here
at home. The crowd was fantastic, but sometimes it was hard to hear
the music because the audience was so loud.
Bourzat said, “We are very
satisfied with this performance, we did our very best and could
finally show our level, the one we have in practice. I was more
nervous than yesterday, but I pushed until the end. Our practice was
good all week and this performance was the top of it. We’ve had a
really hard time the past 2 weeks (after Pechalat’s March 13
accident).”
After the Short Dance, where they received the maximum Level 4s for
both segments of the Rhumba while the top US and Canadian couples
received only the lower Level 3, Bourzat said, “This is pretty fun.
We’ve never been this close to these two teams before and I think
we’ll try to attack. After all we are skating in France and we must
give our best, and make it entertaining for the audience. Usually
we’ve been like ten points behind and no matter how well we skated
in the free dance we were unable to catch up. But not today.
Pechalat said, “I’m
fine. I mean my nose -- it’s broken – what can happen next? I was so
focused that my nose was the last thing I thought of. I heard the
crowd during the warm-up but I was so concentrated on what we were
doing. However, during the competition the audience’s cheering gave
me energy to keep going to the end. They were great.
“I was tight going into the
event. After all, we've worked all season -- actually, we've worked
20 years for a World medal. We’ve been competing in Worlds since
2004.”
Bourzat said, “The free dance is our best program ever and we feel
very confident with it, with the story, with our costumes, with
everything. The crowd was amazing, very motivating, you feel them
when you get tired. They were with us all the way through.”
4. Overall 166.65;
4.FS 100.18 (49.64+50.54); 4.SP Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje,
Canada, the Four Continent bronze medalists, who were fifth in
Worlds last year, presented a smooth and very mature Rhumba to
Historia de un Amor by Perez Prado, and an energetic Samba to
DJDero’s Baracuda in the Short Dance. One of their rhumba segments,
the one away from the judges, got the maximum Level 4.
Poje, 25, said, “We
definitely wanted to end this (short dance) program on a high this
season and we feel like we went out and performed it – that was our
main goal.” His partner agreed, “It was definitely our best (SD)
performance of the season and, judging by the (enthusiastic)
audience reaction, we did a pretty good job. Our free dance is our
favorite program to date and we did our best to show the story of
thwarted love and project the passion of the story. We really
enjoyed doing that.”
In the Free, they skated immediately after
Davis and White, presenting an emotional routine of a broken love
story, sung in French, I am Lovesick. The audience lapped it up.
Weaver, who moved from the United States to team up with Poje in
2006, and is now 22, trains alongside Nathalie and Fabian in
Detroit. She explained, “It was just amazing. We showed exactly what
we wanted to show, both from the emotions and the technique. Our
biggest fear actually was to screw it up. That would have been
embarrassing in front of the French audience but it was great. I cut
my knee on the lift because the ice was really rough in that spot,
but we survived.”
Although they were a very significant distance
behind the top three couples, they were an impressive 5.65 marks
overall in front of the Russians, Ilinykh and Soloviev.
5. Overall 161.00, 5.FD 95.66
(46.87+48.79); SD 5. Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov, the
Russian European bronze medalists, executed the first portion of
their Short Dance to the same music as did Virtue and Moir, HipHip
ChinChin by Club de Beluga. That was followed by a Rhumba to Mas Que
Nada and a return to a Samba, Mujer Latina. In an interesting point,
they received a Level 4 for the second rhumba sequence which, like
the Canadians, they chose to present ahead of the first sequence
which has them closer to the judges, they also got a Level 4.
However seven of the judges did not approve of the execution of the
whole sequence and gave negatives Grades of Execution.
Ilinykh, 17, said, It was a
very good performance, we were in good mood. Nikita helped me a lot
today, he helped me to concentrate, told me what I need to do, so I
skated for him. Katsalapov, 20, said, “It was so easy to skate
today, we enjoyed the skating very much. I noticed a lot of my
friends on the tribune. Stephane Lambiel was sitting in the first
row, then Florent Amodio and Sergei Voronov. So we skated for them
and for our friends and relatives in Russia, in Moscow, who follow
the competition there.
“For our Free Dance (which was set to Thomas
Spenser-Wortley’s male vocal Ave Maria, choreographed by Nikolai
Morozov,) it wasn't easy to skate after the French couple. The
audience supported them so much. That is understandable, since this
is the host country, but we had to wait for our turn for a long
time. Otherwise it was very nice to skate today.”
Katsalapov, 20, said about
finishing as the top Russian couple, “I think now we feel, that we
can compete not only with Russian couples but also more serious
rivals. We wanted to prove this at this competition, and I think we
did. Now we will have new goals, new horizons. And it will be better
and better from now on, I am sure. I think we made 90 percent of it.
But the remaining 10 percent maybe are the most important. We know
now what we need to work on. We know our weak points. We will work
more on our physical condition. I don't say we are weak, but we need
to skate our programs more and more. Sometimes we feel lack of time
before the competition.
6. Overall 160.62; 6.FS 95.51
(45.86+49.65); 6.SD Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte are the 2012
national champions, who finished fourth in the recent European
championships, their best placing since their debut in 2007. They
performed their Free Dance FD to the poignant music from the movie,
La Strada, dress in black and white. Cappellini, who is 25, said,
“I'm definitely happy with today's performance, although it could be
better in terms of power and speed. We are focusing on
interpretation and we have achieved what we were focusing on. We
learned a lot from today's result, there are things to improve
still, especially skating skills and interpretation.
“At the Europeans, we were
so ready, maybe it was too much. It was mentally tough, we went for
the medal for the first time and that was a mistake. We tried to
stay calm and to keep a clear head for this competition. We prepared
the same way. At Europeans we probably were skating for points too
much.”
Lanotte,
26, said, “I was disappointed about the combination spin. I felt too
light. I never make such kinds of mistakes, I was mad at myself for
that but we were trying to give the best performance not just
thinking about the elements. We are so satisfied with the Short
Dance performance, the way we used the music and the emotion we put
it out.”
7.
Overall 150.75; 7. FS 92.46 (42.86+49.60) 9.SD Ekaterina Bobrova and
Dmitri Soloviev, Russia, who are both 22, are the 2012 European
silver medalists. Their Free is set to music from Gounod’s Opera,
Faust.
Soloviev said, “We were ready to skate well today, ready to fight
(in the Free). Yesterday was disappointing but it was her fall was
our own fault. This mistake affected us for sure. We didn't expect
that and after that happened everything went not so easy. We felt a
little out and didn't execute our step sequence at the highest
level.”
Bobrova said about her fall in the SD, “It is difficult to say what
happened. It was a very disappointing mistake. I don't even remember
when we fell last time not on competition or even on the practice. I
was really angry, mostly with myself. And I don't even remember if I
ever was so angry during the competition before. Now I think that I
need to remember this feeling. It helped me to gather myself
together. I was totally in control of myself in the FS. Nothing
bothered me. I felt my partner. I felt the ice. I felt the music.
When we finished skating I thought that I didn't have any thoughts
during the performance about being tired. We analyze all our
competitions, so this one also will give us something. We didn't
think yet about future plans. We'll have rest for a couple of days,
and then we'll see.”
8. Overall 144.72; 11.FS 82.37
(35.71+46.66); 7.SD Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani, the Americans
who unexpectedly won bronze in their debut in the World Seniors last
April, were understandably not pleased about their eighth place.
They performed their Short Dance, set to Batuca by DJ Dero, The Girl
from Ipanema, and Bellini’s Samba de from Janeiro, immediately after
Virtue and Moir. Their Free was to a Glenn Miller selection,
including In the Moonlight Serenade and Chattanooga Choo Choo. They
were lying 7th.
But Alex Shibutani, 20, had a disaster on their opening move of the
Free. “I can't explain my mistake on the twizzles.” In an earlier,
more minor competition in Oberstdorf, Germany, his sister had also
messed up this move. In both competitions, this was their opening
element in the Free. It is very difficult to recover from such a
major error, especially when the error comes early in the move and
the result is no marks at all.
They had executed the twizzles very well in the
Short Dance, earning the maximum Level 4, which has a base value of
6 points, plus they received an additional +0.86 from the judges for
superior Grade of Execution. He said, “Obviously we're very
disappointed with this skate but we've faced new challenges and
stuck together for a long season, and we're going to be around for a
while.”
They
had also received a Level 4 for their lift in the SP. In the Free,
they pulled themselves together, and the rest of the routine was
good. They Level 4s, for all of their lifts and for their spin. He
said, “We felt no pressure at all today about being the bronze
medalists. It is very rare that a couple that enters such a big
championship for the first time wins a medal, so today we just
wanted to go out and attack.” His sister, Maia, 17, said, “It was a
rough performance today but we've seen so much improvement from last
year.”
9.
Overall 144.43; 8.FS 86.24 (41.93+44.31); 10 SP Ekaterina Riazanova
and Ilia Tkachenko The Russians, who were 5th in the recent European
championships did their Free to music from The Snowstorm. Tkachenko,
25, said, “We are very happy about our performance and that the
season is finished. We have no more competitions now and no more
stress. Our run-through was unexpectedly good, since I was suffering
from food-poisoning (from seafood had consumed the previous day). We
are happy that we skated this program for the last time now. We
don't know yet what we will take home from here. We don't leave till
Monday so we can enjoy our time here.”
Riazanova, 20, said, “I think I will miss this
program as I really loved it. We don't have plans for new programs,
but we will go to Miami and get them done there.”
In their Short Dance, they had minus GoEs on
both Rhumba sequences. Tkachenko said, “We were happy to finish this
dance, the last short dance of this season. This is our first
Worlds, but we weren't nervous, we just took it like any other
regular competition.”
10. Overall 144.43; 10 FD 84.39
(43.28+41.11); 8 SD Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue. Hubbell
used to skate with her brother. She and Donohue they train at the
Detroit SC alongside Pechalat and Bourzat. The two 21-year-olds
teamed up at the beginning of this season and have had some ups and
downs. In the Short Dance, they got Level 4 for both Rhumba sections
(a feat neither Virtue & Moir nor Davis & White could achieve.)
Donohue was thrilled since he is the less
experienced skater in their partnership. He said, “We're very, very
happy to receive all Level 4s in the Short Dance, except for our
twizzles. We've been working especially hard on the Rhumba all year
so getting a 4 on both patterns is a huge thing for us.” Hubbell
said, “I couldn't be happier, it's our first Worlds with my new
partner and the sky's the limit for next year. I'm just enjoying the
experience with no pressure, and we're hoping for a top 10 finish
here.
After
earning third place in the US championship, they finished fifth in
the Four Continents Championship despite making major errors. He
said, “Overall we can be proud that we had a strong performance.
It's nice not to have any expectations since this was our World
debut and even though I did feel a lot of pressure myself, I have
the best partner in the world.” Their Free was a sexy number to I
Put a Spell on You by Joe Crocker.
Askec what her favorite part of this Worlds
was, she said, “Being done. We've never been to a world championship
before and the audience here was warm, rooting for everybody, and
very vocal - it was great to be out there and get the support from
them.”
11.
Overall 141.36; 9 FD 85.07 (42.78+42.29) 11. SD Nelli Zhiganshina
and Alexander Gazsi are the three time and reigning German national
champions.
Gazsi said, “Our performance was really good except for the twizzles.
We were a bit disappointed after the Europeans (where they finished
eighth one place lower than the previous year), so we took a break
to clear our minds. After the Free, he added, “It definitely wasn't
easy today, but it was a good performance. We got a Season’s Best. I
am very happy with that and that I did my twizzles. We now finished
a second successful season and we picked up where we left off last
year, which was our goal. (What they need to progress further) We
need to be more consistent and we need to be able to put out in
competition the same performances we do in practice. This is
something we don't manage yet.
Zhiganshina, 24, who originally Russian, is
applying for her Germany citizenship because she wants to compete in
the Olympics. She said proudly, “I scored a 100 percent in my second
language test and now we have to wait and hope. It depends on higher
authorities. Hopefully our performances will help us in this
process.”
13.
Overall 129.55; 14 FS 78.80 (39.44+39.36); 15SD; Kharis Ralph and
Asher Hill. The Canadians, 19 and 21, won their first international
medal last summer at the Nebelhorn Trophy in Germany. He said, “We
are so happy to be here. It is such a great honor to represent our
country. It was our first really big competition and we did well. It
was very exciting to perform here in front of so many people, but I
found a good way to calm down, so I was not too nervous. Moreover,
the pressure is more on the two other Canadian couples, so we could
just go out on the ice and perform our best.
14. Overall 129.31; 17
FD; 12 SD Penny Coomes and Nicholas Buckland (GBR), the British
champions who were sixth in the Europeans. However, she incurred a
hip injury and they did not skate as well as had been hoped. Coomes,
22, said, “I'm not 100% sure what my injury is. I have some disk
bulges in my back and possibly a stress fracture in my sacro-iliac
joint, which has resulted in occasional numbness in my leg. I'm a
little disappointed by our performance today but I really wanted to
come and do this competition despite my injury. Our coach Evgeny
Platov has been amazing with us during our preparations for this
competition, very understanding and calming, because he has competed
with injury in the past.”
Buckland 22, said, “We did the best we could
under the circumstances. Our preparation wasn't all it could have
been due to Penny's injury, but I'm very proud of her for competing
here. We met the criteria set by our federation for funding
(something which has not happened up to this point) and that's the
most
21.
SD Pernelle Carron and Lloyd Jones, France, 2012 Cup of China bronze
medalists, 47.24
Carron: We did a mistake on the twizzles at the beginning and knew
this would be very costly. But we reached a very low score in the
end and didn't know why exactly. Our preparation to these World
Championships was very hard, but we really enjoyed skating in front
of our home crowd.
22. SD Irina Shtork
and Taavi Rand, Estonia 45.70
23. SD Zsuzsanna Nagy
and Mate Fejes, Hungary 44.19
24. SD Cathy Reed
and Chris Reed, Japan, 2011 National Champions Cathy
Reed said, “It has been a very tough season for us. We missed a lot
of competitions because of Chris' injury. We had only two weeks of
practice before this competition. I wish we could skate tomorrow but
I know we are not going to qualify. I am very sad. Chris Reed: I
suffered an injury at the NHK Trophy because of a collision. I got
four stitches, but I afterwards we found out that a bone was broken.
I am still recovering.
25. SD Anna Nagornyuk
and Viktor Kovalenko, Uzbekistan 44.08