2009 U.S. Nationals

Junior Ladies

Text and  photos copyright 2009 by George S. Rossano

DeeDee Leng took a 1.75 lead in the Junior Ladies Short Progarm, skating to Rimsky-Korsakov's "Capriccio Espangnol."  Leng, from Naperville, IL celebrated her 15th birthday, the day before her event began.  Her program was well skate with only an edge alert call on an opening triple Lutz. Five of the nine judges gave negative GoEs for the junp, while the others scored it at zero.  Leng also landed a strong triple Salchow - double toe loop combination and a very nice double Axel.  Her spins and spiral sequence were called levels three and four, but her straight line step sequence was only level 1, though a nice one, with six judges scoring it at plus one.  Her Program Components were respectable mid-fives.

Just behind Leng is Ellie Kawamura, who skated to "Libertango" by Astor Piazzolla.  Kawamura scored nearly as well as Leng in Program Components, just 0.05 points behind.  In elements, she trailed Leng by 1.80 points, due primarily to a poor landing on double Axel, where she put a hand down.  She lost 1.49 points on that element alone.  Another 0.43 points were lost on triple Lutz, which had an edge alert call.  For her combination she landed a nice triple toe loop - double toe loop.  Her spins and sequences were called at levels three and four, with a well executed straight line step sequence which was called level three and for which two judges went to plus two.

Christina Gao and Kristine Gong lie in third and fourth place, with a negligible  0.24 points separating them.  Gao had the edge in elements for these two skaters, while Gong it was the Program Components.

Gao landed a nice triple Lutz, and also Triple toe loop - double toe loop, but on double Axel she barely got around on the landing, and most judges scored it at minus two.  Her spins and sequences were called levels two through four, with her last two spins (FCSp2 and CCoSp3) receiving a few negative GoEs.  Skating to "Liza's Dance" from the Stepping Out soundtrack, her Program Components were mainly in the low fives, with a few judges going as low as 4.00.

Kristine Gong, had a somewhat less difficult program, executing a double Lutz instead of the triple, and some of her spins and sequences were called at slightly lower levels than Gao, though all above level 1.  While her base value was lower than Gao's she made up some ground on the quality of those elements which was scored higher than Gao.  For components she recieved marks in the mid-fives, with a few judges going into the sixes.  Her Short Programmusic was "Bublitchki" by Ziggy Elman.  Gao and Gong are essentially tied, and both numerically have ample opportunity to move up.

Kendall Wyckoff, sits in fifth place, 2.09 points behind Gong.  She too is numerically in range to move up substantially.  She skated to "You'll Be Under My Wheels" by The Prodigy, a piece of music that was just too painful to listen too.  Her element base value was slightly greater than Gong's, but for quality of elements Gong was scored about one point ahead.  Where Wyckoff mainly lost ground was in the components where she was scored about 5.0 on the average with some judges going into the low fours.  It was a difficult program for the viewer to get into.

For elements, Wyckoff landed triple Salchow - double toe loop, double Axel and double Lutz.  Her spins and sequences were called levels two through 4, with GoEs that were mostly zeros and ones.  Only her spiral sequence received a couple of negative GoEs.

The scores in the Short Program are sufficiently close that the top four places could change in the Free Skate, and event the skaters in sixth and seventh are numerically in range to move up into the medal places.  Nevertheless, Leng and Kawamura are in the best position to win, as these are the only two ladies that appear to have enough triples to bring home the gold.

The Ladies Free Skate was another fine example of the increased importance of the Short Program under IJS.  The top four ladies all changed places in the Free Skate, and yet, the final order of finish was the order of finish in the Short Program.  In fact, the order of finish in the short for the top seven ladies proved to be their final order of finish as well.  Racking up big points in the short is KEY to success under IJS.

Kristine Gong, who was fourth in the Short Program, placed fifth in the Free Skate and ended up fourth overall.  Skating to music from "Phantom of the Opera" it was a pretty program, that was very musical, but had a few technical errors.  She was clearly disappointed with her performance, and also with her marks when they came up.  She obviously had hoped to move up in the Free Skate, and long after when I saw her that evening after the medal ceremony she looked "down."  She had errors on six jump elements, landing only one clean triple.  Though she got a few high component marks from individual judges, on the average they barely made it to the fives.

Kristine Gao was second in the Free Skate, but third overall.2.52 points ahead of Gong.  Her performance seemed rushed, with too many errors to make it really enjoyable to watch.  A poor landing on triple Lutz led to minus twos and threes on the first jump element, which also had a fall.  After a clean triple flip she fell on triple Salchow.  A nice level four layback spin was followed by an under-rotated double Axel and a fall.  Nevertheless, she didn't give up, and after element five (the double Axel) began to pull it together.  Her last three jump elements were clean and included three triples.  She earned decent scores for Skating skills.  The errors, however, pulled down her marks for presentation, with performance and execution, obviously, ending up the lowest (together with Transitions).

The Free Skate was won by Ellie Kawamura, who finished second overall, as she had placed in the Short Program.  Kawamura skated fast.  Real fast.  Maybe even too fast, rushing some of her jumps.  She had errors in three jump elements and left two jumps out of planned combinations.  Her opening triple Lutz had a poor landing edge, and also an edge alert call from the Technical panel.  After a clean double Axel she had a downgraded triple flip with a fall.  Throughout the middle of the program she was back under control, though left a double loop off of one planned combination and a double Axel off a planned sequence.    Including either of those jumps would have given her the overall victory.  Near the end of the program she fell on a triple Salchow.  Her components were respectable for a Junior, in the mid fives, though hardly in the range indicative of being ready to move up to Senior -- unless she plans to sit there for a long time.

DeeDee Leng won the event, though she was but third in the Free Skate 0.51 point behind the Kawamura in the Free Skate.  Skating to the "Polovetsian Dances," she had an edge call and fall on an opening triple Lutz, and another fall on triple Salchow.  She also had four mostly clean triples (just a few minus one GoEs).  Her spins and step sequence were decently executed, but except for her closing combination spin, did not achieve more than a level two for those elements.  Her components were second best of the group, which helped her keep her position in the final standings.  Her component marks were mostly in the low fives.

In addition to illustrating the importance of the Short Program in IJS, the ladies event also was symptomatic of something that many have come to lament about skating under IJS -- the lack of clean programs.  All four medallists had falls in the Free skate;  two from Kawamura, three from Gao, two from Leng, and one from Gong.