Americans Win Skate America Pairs’ Title
Two-time U.S. champions Rena Inoue & John Baldwin
Jr. won their first Grand Prix event despite a flawed free skate with
two falls.
It was that kind of night for the field of eight pairs,
who took to the ice at Hartford’s Civic Center while the crowd of 4,900
was still reeling from an exciting ladies’ final.
Still, a win is a win, said Baldwin.
"It feels great to have a Skate America title and
it feels even better to get through our first competition of the season.
When I fell on the triple toe, our first element, I thought, ‘Great—now
I’ve got another four minutes!’ But our goal was to get Level 4’s on
almost all our elements and we did that so that was a good
accomplishment."
Skating rather tentatively to a Puccini medley, the
couple amassed an impressive eight Level 4 elements; only their
straight-line step sequence was rated Level 3. This difficulty buffeted
them from the effects of Baldwin’s fall, as well as Inoue’s crash on
the landing of their trademark triple Axel, which still earned 6.25
points.
Their free program score of 110.60 (59.26 TES + 53.36
PCS) was the second-highest of the night, and when added to their free
skate gave them the win with 169.90 points.
Both Inoue and Baldwin are battling injuries. She
sprained her ankle in practice two-and-a-half weeks ago, and he is feeling
the effects of a lingering groin problem.
"This was a challenge for us. The whole fall season
will be a challenge, I’m sure. But we’re going to (continue) to go out
there, give it 100% each time and do what we can do," said Baldwin.
Competing at Skate America for the first time in their
16-year career, Dorota & Mariusz Siudek of Poland captured the
silver medal with a solid performance to Chopin selections.
The veteran couple, who have announced that this is
their final competitive season, opened with triple toe loops. Mariusz
doubled his, reducing the value to just 0.68. From then on, they made no
major mistakes, although Dorota had to fight for the landing of the throw
triple Salchow.
As always, the couple’s spectacular lifts drew ‘oohs’
and ‘aahs’ from the crowd, particularly their trademark Axel lasso
lift, where Mariusz pulls Dorota through his legs and up into a one-arm
position with one-arm set down. They won the free skate with 111.13 points
(57.21 TES + 53.92 PCS) and earned 161.47 points overall.
"Right now, I am mad about our fall (on the
combination spin) in the short program because that could have made a
difference in this result. But we are very happy to do this competition;
two weeks ago, we didn’t even know that we would do it," said
Mariusz. (The Poles were substitutes for World Champions Qing Pang &
Jian Tong, who withdrew from Skate America due to Pang’s severe kidney
infection.)
Competing in their first Grand Prix event, Naomi Nari
Nam & Themistocles Leftheris of the U.S. took the bronze
medal with a clean, but technically less difficult, program to exotic
Khachaturian selections. The couple, paired together by coach Peter
Oppegard in the spring of 2005, opened with a stunning triple toe loop-
triple toe loop sequence, followed by double flips they hope will be
triples in future competitions.
Nam, a former U.S. ladies’ silver medalist who
switched to pairs due to hip injuries, landed the throw triple Salchow but
fell on the throw triple loop, an element the couple has only recently
added to their programs. In the final third of the routine, both skaters
fought valiantly to keep pace with the frenetic circular step sequence,
set to the impossibly fast "Sabre Dance," but lagged well behind
the beat.
"This just feels amazing. We worked hard all year
and now that hard work is paying off. We hope to continue to improve
through U.S. Nationals and, hopefully, on to Worlds," said Nam.
Skate America is the couple’s only Grand Prix
assignment, although they both expressed interest in a second event.
"We hope (for a second Grand Prix), but there are
technicalities and rules we are not aware of. We haven’t heard anything
on another possible assignment," said Nam.
An ISU representative confirmed that there are lists of
substitute skaters for the Grand Prix series, who can replace competitors
forced to withdraw. Host organizations review the lists and invite skaters
who meet the minimum requirement of a free program personal best 75 points
to their events.
Despite earning a personal best 97.77 points, Canadians Anabelle
Langlois & Cody Hay had a disappointing free skate to music
from the soundtrack of "The Notebook," choreographed by David
Wilson. Langlois fell out of the landing of both triple throws, and the
pace of their program slowed to a crawl at times. They placed fourth
overall with 153.63 points.
"We tried to keep focused but it was hard because
pretty much every element is still high risk for us. I’ve been having a
hard time with the throws this week but I should be better soon,"
said Langlois, who placed a high of fifth place at Worlds with former
partner Patrice Archetto in 2003.
Russian bronze medalists and 2005 World junior champions
Maria Mukhortova & Maxim Trankov placed fifth in the free skate
and fifth overall with 141.31 total points. Skated to Rachmaninov’s
mournful "Elegy," the young couple opened with a strong triple
toe loop-double toe sequence, fine double twist and solid side-by-side
double Axels, but their speed dropped off considerably after the halfway
mark when Mukhortova had sloppy landings on back-to-back triple throws.
Americans Tiffany Vise & Derek Trent opened
their program with a triple twist, but since it was judged a Level 1 with
a grade of execution of -0.70, they earned only 3.80 points – fewer
points than most of the evening’s double twists. They two-footed the
landings on their side-by-side triple toes, but Vise nailed the landing of
the throw triple loop.
In the second half of their program, the couple tried a
quadruple Salchow, but Vise fell before completing the rotations.
"We’ve only been trying the quad for about a
month and this is just the second time we’ve ever put it in a
run-through. I’m proud of Tiffany for trying it here. She hit it a few
times in practice this week and we had nothing to lose. We hope to land it
at ’07 U.S. Nationals," said Trent.
The couple’s coach, Doug Ladret, lamented the change
in the scoring system that has devalued the triple twist.
"We did the triple twist, and I thought it was
pretty good, but they just didn’t get the credit. The way they judge
twists is setting back the sport. When I competed (with Christine Hough),
if you didn’t do a triple twist, you were dropped to the bottom. The ISU
was supposed to fix this problem by giving the triple more credit this
season but I don’t think the fix has been effective," he said.
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