2012 Four Continents: Ladies Free Skate

Ashley Wagner (USA) skated off with the gold medal, surging ahead of Mao Asada of Japan who claimed the silver medal.  Caroline Zhang (USA) moved up to win the bronze medal.

Wagner put out an superb performance to "Black Swan“, reeling off six clean triples and three level-four spins. She posted a new personal best score of 128.34 points and racked up a total of 192.41 points to win her first international title, following up on her victory at U.S. Ntionals two weeks earlier this season. "Overall I am pleasantly surprised with how this weekend went. It’s a great build on top of my nationals performance and hopefully I can keep on this upward trend“, the U.S. Champion commented. "Going into Worlds we just need to work on getting the Axel toe and the triple flip-triple toe consistently in the program. I think that’s the most crucial thing for me to have.“  She added that getting the triple-triple clean in the short program (no two-footing) and adding it to the long program were her main goals working towards the World Championships next month.

Asada opened her routine to "Liebestraum“ with a triple Axel, but as in the Short Program is was under-rotated. She went on to produce two triple flips, a double Axel-triple toe and triple loop and difficult spins. The 2010 World Champion scored 124.37 points and slipped from first to second at 188.62 points overall. "My goal for this competition was to land the triple Axel and I am happy that I did that. But I lost a lot of points on other jumps. For the World Championships I want to include the triple Axel in both short and long program and avoid the little mistakes and minuses on my jumps“, the Olympic silver medalist noted.

Performing to the Allegretto from Dvorak's Cello Concerto in B Minor, Zhang completed five triple jumps and two double Axels. The 2010 Four Continents bronze medallist picked up a personal best of 117.44 points and pulled up from fourth to third at 176.18 points. "There were a lot of things that I did differently than my previous long programs so I’m really happy with how I did“, the 18-year-old said. "It (beating the personal best) feels great. It just gives me more motivation to keep working and help me get an even better one next year“, she added.

Kanako Murakami (JPN) dropped from third to fourth after some errors on several jumps.

Kexin Zhang (CHN) placed fifth with a solid but less difficult performance than the leaders with 162.59 points.

Agnes Zawadzki (USA) placed sixth overal at 157.32 points.

Copyright 2012 by George S. Rossano

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