-
.
Pairs - Short ProgramPl. Name Nation TSS
=TES
+PCS
+SS TR PE CH IN Ded.
-StN. 1 Wenjing SUI / Cong HAN CHN 66.75 37.31 29.44 7.11 7.07 7.61 7.43 7.57 0.00 #8 2 Caydee DENNEY / John COUGHLIN USA 63.35 35.55 27.80 7.04 6.64 7.11 6.96 7.00 0.00 #1 3 Mary Beth MARLEY / Rockne BRUBAKER USA 62.42 34.96 27.46 6.79 6.61 6.96 6.96 7.00 0.00 #3 4 Narumi TAKAHASHI / Mervin TRAN JPN 61.54 34.74 27.80 6.96 6.79 6.89 7.07 7.04 1.00 #7 5 Amanda EVORA / Mark LADWIG USA 60.75 32.47 28.28 7.00 6.93 7.18 7.21 7.04 0.00 #9 6 Paige LAWRENCE / Rudi SWIEGERS CAN 57.97 31.28 26.69 6.64 6.36 6.68 6.82 6.86 0.00 #10 7 Jessica DUBE / Sebastien WOLFE CAN 57.68 31.28 26.40 6.61 6.29 6.82 6.64 6.64 0.00 #2 8 Meagan DUHAMEL / Eric RADFORD CAN 57.53 31.44 26.09 6.75 6.43 6.36 6.54 6.54 0.00 #4 9 Huibo DONG / Yiming WU CHN 49.52 27.29 22.23 5.89 5.32 5.68 5.57 5.32 0.00 #6 10 Yue ZHANG / Lei WANG CHN 48.04 24.41 23.63 6.11 5.64 5.93 6.00 5.86 0.00 #5
Judges Scores (pdf)
. -
.
Ice Dance
Short DancePl. Name Nation TSS
=TES
+PCS
+SS TR PE CC IT Ded.
-StN. 1 Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE USA 72.15 34.71 37.44 9.39 9.25 9.32 9.43 9.39 0.00 #8 2 Tessa VIRTUE / Scott MOIR CAN 71.60 33.92 37.68 9.39 9.29 9.46 9.39 9.54 0.00 #9 3 Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE CAN 64.23 31.43 32.80 8.07 7.93 8.29 8.29 8.36 0.00 #11 4 Maia SHIBUTANI / Alex SHIBUTANI USA 63.38 31.86 31.52 7.93 7.64 8.04 7.89 7.89 0.00 #10 5 Madison HUBBELL / Zachary DONOHUE USA 49.93 25.50 25.43 6.43 6.39 6.21 6.39 6.36 1.00 #7 6 Alexandra PAUL / Mitchell ISLAM CAN 48.52 23.71 24.81 6.39 6.00 6.29 6.29 6.07 0.00 #5 7 Xiaoyang YU / Chen WANG CHN 45.42 24.00 21.42 5.43 5.14 5.36 5.46 5.36 0.00 #4 8 Danielle OBRIEN / Gregory MERRIMAN AUS 40.10 20.64 20.46 5.25 4.93 5.14 5.21 5.04 1.00 #6 9 Anna NAGORNYUK / Viktor KOVALENKO UZB 39.93 21.49 18.44 4.75 4.50 4.61 4.75 4.46 0.00 #2 10 Corenne BRUHNS / Ryan VAN NATTEN MEX 35.93 20.64 15.29 4.00 3.71 3.82 3.93 3.68 0.00 #3 11 Cortney MANSOUR / Daryn ZHUNUSSOV KAZ 25.53 13.22 13.31 3.54 3.25 3.32 3.43 3.14 1.00 #1
Judges Scores (pdf)
Small Medals
Edited by Andrea Rika - 12/2/2012, 10:45. -
.
Ladies - Free Skating
Result DetailsPl. Name Nation TSS
=TES
+PCS
+SS TR PE CH IN Ded.
-StN. 1 Ashley WAGNER USA 128.34 66.61 61.73 7.61 7.46 7.93 7.71 7.86 0.00 #20 2 Mao ASADA JPN 124.37 62.95 61.42 7.75 7.43 7.64 7.82 7.75 0.00 #23 3 Caroline ZHANG USA 117.44 63.25 54.19 6.86 6.36 7.07 6.79 6.79 0.00 #19 4 Kexin ZHANG CHN 108.52 58.32 51.20 6.71 6.25 6.39 6.54 6.11 1.00 #24 5 Kanako MURAKAMI JPN 105.87 51.58 54.29 7.00 6.68 6.82 6.86 6.57 0.00 #22 6 Agnes ZAWADZKI USA 104.36 49.27 55.09 7.04 6.71 6.86 6.93 6.89 0.00 #21 7 Cynthia PHANEUF CAN 96.71 44.83 51.88 6.54 6.21 6.50 6.54 6.64 0.00 #14 8 Amelie LACOSTE CAN 95.93 43.84 53.09 6.75 6.50 6.57 6.75 6.61 1.00 #15 9 Haruka IMAI JPN 89.30 49.05 42.25 5.54 5.11 5.18 5.36 5.21 2.00 #13 10 Min-Jeong KWAK KOR 81.80 40.41 42.39 5.75 5.00 5.32 5.29 5.14 1.00 #18 11 Bingwa GENG CHN 80.91 37.02 45.89 6.07 5.57 5.61 5.82 5.61 2.00 #16 12 Alexandra NAJARRO CAN 80.03 40.29 40.74 5.21 4.89 5.11 5.14 5.11 1.00 #8 13 Victoria MUNIZ PUR 75.20 36.36 40.84 5.39 4.82 5.07 5.21 5.04 2.00 #17 14 Chantelle KERRY AUS 70.21 37.72 32.49 4.14 3.96 4.14 4.07 4.00 0.00 #3 15 Melinda WANG TPE 68.34 32.15 36.19 4.54 4.36 4.61 4.57 4.54 0.00 #12 16 Sandra KHOPON THA 67.57 35.39 32.18 4.21 3.79 4.11 4.11 3.89 0.00 #10 17 Qiuying ZHU CHN 66.34 34.09 34.25 4.61 3.96 4.29 4.36 4.18 2.00 #11 18 Melanie SWANG THA 64.95 36.05 28.90 3.71 3.46 3.64 3.71 3.54 0.00 #4 19 Yea-Ji YUN KOR 64.39 33.50 31.89 4.29 3.71 4.11 4.00 3.82 1.00 #6 20 Crystal KIANG TPE 62.88 31.61 31.27 3.96 3.79 3.93 3.93 3.93 0.00 #2 21 Lejeanne MARAIS RSA 62.19 30.12 32.07 4.11 3.71 4.04 4.07 4.11 0.00 #1 22 Mimi Tanasorn CHINDASOOK THA 59.96 28.04 32.92 4.36 3.96 4.00 4.21 4.04 1.00 #9 23 Chae-Yeon SUHR KOR 58.41 28.47 31.94 4.25 3.75 3.96 4.07 3.93 2.00 #7 24 Zhaira COSTINIANO PHI 56.93 27.64 30.29 4.07 3.61 3.68 3.93 3.64 1.00 #5
Judges Scores (pdf)Ladies
ResultFPl. Name Nation Points SP FS 1 Ashley WAGNER 
USA 192.41 2 1 2 Mao ASADA 
JPN 188.62 1 2 3 Caroline ZHANG USA 176.18 4 3 4 Kanako MURAKAMI JPN 169.32 3 5 5 Kexin ZHANG 
CHN 162.59 5 4 6 Agnes ZAWADZKI USA 157.23 6 6 7 Amelie LACOSTE 
CAN 147.65 7 8 8 Cynthia PHANEUF CAN 147.47 8 7 9 Haruka IMAI JPN 134.49 11 9 10 Min-Jeong KWAK 
KOR 130.52 9 10 11 Bingwa GENG CHN 127.89 10 11 12 Victoria MUNIZ 
PUR 117.83 12 13 13 Alexandra NAJARRO CAN 117.11 14 12 14 Melinda WANG 
TPE 103.69 18 15 15 Sandra KHOPON 
THA 103.15 17 16 16 Qiuying ZHU CHN 102.77 16 17 17 Chantelle KERRY 
AUS 102.49 20 14 18 Mimi Tanasorn CHINDASOOK THA 97.19 13 22 19 Yea-Ji YUN KOR 96.85 19 19 20 Melanie SWANG THA 96.16 22 18 21 Chae-Yeon SUHR KOR 94.95 15 23 22 Lejeanne MARAIS 
RSA 94.34 21 21 23 Crystal KIANG TPE 93.79 23 20 24 Zhaira COSTINIANO 
PHI 87.26 24 24 25 Reyna HAMUI 
MEX FNR 25 26 Chaochih LIU TPE FNR 26 27 Mericien VENZON PHI FNR 27 28 Brittany LAU 
SIN FNR 28 29 Zara PASFIELD AUS FNR 29 30 Jaimee NOBBS AUS FNR 30 CITAZIONEAsada dons new costume; wins ladies short at 4CCsMao Asada, the 21-year-old former World Champion from Japan, showed off a new costume and rekindled confidence in today’s short program at the 2012 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Colorado Springs, Colo.
With a strong short program—marred only by a glitch on the landing of her opening triple Axel, Asada stands atop the leader board with 64.25 points.
“Today my performance was good except for the triple Axel,” she said in the post-event press conference. “I look at this as a learning opportunity for me, and will use it to build on tomorrow’s performance.”
Up until this point in the season, Asada sported a unitard for her Scheherazade short program, which she felt hindered her ability to land her signature triple jump.
“I wasn’t able to move freely in the pants,” she explained. “This costume allows me to do the triple Axel.”
Asada takes a miniscule .18 point lead into the free skate over freshly-crowned American champion Ashley Wagner, who skated the performance of her career thus far. Her performance to music from the film Pollack was perhaps the best received by the Colorado crowd.
“This is the best that I have ever skated internationally,” the 20 year-old said. “To up the ante by nine points (over her previous personal best) is not too shabby.”
Wagner opened with a triple flip-triple toe loop combination—an upgrade from the triple-double that she completed at the U.S. Championships. Though she received full credit for the jump, Wagner was not completely satisfied with the attempt.
“It has been great in practice,” she noted. “I landed it on one foot in the warm up, but I was a bit nervous and the two-foot ugly face reappeared.”
Wagner heads into tomorrow’s free skate with 64.07 points.
Asada’s teammate, Kanako Murakami is in third place after struggling in international outings all season long.
“I got off to a rough start because I was having boot issues,” said the 17-year-old, “but everything has been good since I got new boots. Since I came to Colorado Springs, I have had a little bit of an upset stomach, but I think that might have been nerves. I’m okay now.”
Murakami opened with a strong triple toe loop-triple toe loop combination, and skated with confidence throughout her Violin Muse program. The only issue was a tentative entrance into her double Axel.
“I was nervous about that today,” the former Junior World Champion said of her Axel. “It was good, but I will try harder in tomorrow’s free skate.”
The Japanese bronze medalist is less than a point out of first place with a score of 63.45 points.
American pewter medalist Caroline Zhang finds herself in a familiar position—fourth place after the short program. The 18 year-old has been on a high since her resurgence in San Jose, Calif. a little more than a week ago.
“I have just learned to love my skating more,” Zhang said with her bright smile. “I really hope it shows in my performances.”
Zhang went for the triple loop-triple loop combination in her Rushing Wings of Dawn program, but was unable to hold onto the landing. She received full credit for the rotation of both jumps, however.
“I’m disappointed because other than the one that I did in warm up today, I haven’t missed any since nationals,” she shared. “I’m happy that there wasn’t a downgrade, but I wanted to nail it.”
Zhang earned a total of 58.74 points in the short program, one of her best totals since winning the silver medal at the Junior World Championships back in 2008.
“I’m not paying attention to the standings,” the 18-year-old said. “I’ll take anything that I can get. I don’t have any goals in terms of points or placement. I just want to skate well.”
Kexin Zhang, 16, of China earned a career best of 54.07 points despite a fall on the triple Lutz, and is in fifth place.
USA’s Agnes Zawadzki fell on her opening triple toe and is in sixth with 52.87 points.
“I don’t have that much pressure on me since I’m not in medal contention,” said the 17-year-old of the upcoming free skate. “Im going to skate free, not worry about anything, and let everything fall into place. I’m going to leave it all on the ice.”
The Canadian ladies continue to make things interesting. Reigning champion Amelie Lacoste, 23, takes a slim .96 point lead into the free skate over teammate Cynthia Phaneuf, 24. Both skaters are in the running for Canada’s single allotment for the 2012 World Championships next month in Nice, France. They are in seventh and eighth place respectively.
Korea’s Min-Jeong Kwak and China’s Bingwa Geng, both 18, round out the top ten.
Wagner captures 4CC titleThe American ladies made a pronouncement to the rest of the world last night—they are back, and they are ready to start winning titles again.
Ashley Wagner, fresh off of her win at the U.S. National Championships, threw her hat into the World Championships medals race by winning the 2012 Four Continents Championships title in Colorado Springs, Colo.
“[It] was an awesome performance for me—a personal best—and to receive that internationally is a huge accomplishment,” said the gold medalist. “Everything I did out there was solid and strong.”
Wagner performed a captivating program to music from the movie Black Swan, interspersing strong triple jumps between Philip Mills’s modern ballet choreography. She credits Mills and coach John Nicks for much of her success this season, and was eager to share the win with them.
“We wanted to create something that was very authentic,” she explained. “This program combines Phillip Mills’s choreographic excellence with Mr. Nicks’s awareness of the audience. For me, it is the perfect performance package.”
Wagner decimated all of her personal scoring records in this one competition, eclipsing her previous total score by more than 20 points. She was credited with six clean triple jumps on her way to her season leading total of 192.41 points.
“The next step is to learn how to take these great scores and compartmentalize (them),” said the 20-year-old. “It’s one competition at a time. I did a good job at nationals and Four Continents. As long as I can do the same thing, stay calm and focus on my performance and technical elements, I will be fine for the World Championships.”
Wagner achieved another first in Colorado Springs—defeating two-time World Champion Mao Asada, who turned in a good performance, but is still rebuilding to her championship form. Asada collected her second consecutive silver medal in the competition, and sees much that can be improved heading into the World Championships.
“I’m very happy about succeeding on my triple Axel tonight, but I made several other mistakes,” said the 21-year-old. “I understand my result.”
Skating to Franz Liszt’s Liebestraum, Asada opened with her trademark triple Axel (scored as under rotated), and nailed a beautiful double Axel-triple toe loop combination. Her total score of 188.62 points is the second best for any lady in an international competition this season.
“I lost points on quality of jumps and that’s something I would like to work on before Worlds,” she explained. “I would like to land the triple Axel both in the short and free programs in Nice, and I’d like to fix the small problems in free program.”
USA’s Caroline Zhang moved up from fourth after the short program to capture the bronze medal after the free skate of her career.
“I’m happy to be getting back on the right track,” the 18-year-old said with her rediscovered smile. “This is really motivating me to work for higher scores next year. I didn’t care where I finished here. It was about putting out good performances so that I could build my mental confidence for next year.”
Zhang skated to music by Antonin Dvorak and brought life to what was a dismal competition to that point. Skating first in the final flight, the bronze medalist lit up the crowd from the start by landing five triple jumps and closing with her jaw-dropping pearl spin, which received the maximum points allowed for a layback spin.
“I was very happy with how I skated today,” Zhang admitted. “Something I wanted to do was to get those levels on spins and footwork. To get those was a big accomplishment for me.”
Zhang scored a total of 176.18 points in the competition, less than a half a point than her personal best recorded more than three years ago.
Finishing in fourth place was Japan’s Kanako Murakami, 17, with 169.32 points. Though the performance was a new season’s best for the 2010 World Junior Champion, she was one of many who struggled with the high altitude here in Colorado Springs. She was credited with four clean triple jumps, but failed to land her high scoring triple-triple combination.
“I’m very mortified about my triple toe-triple toe combination,” she said. “I haven’t made mistakes at practice on this element, but I made it at competition. My condition is gradually getting better so I’d like to achieve a perfect performance at Worlds.”
In her first season on the senior level, China’s Kexin Zhang fit right in among the top ladies in the competition placing fifth in this tough field. The 16-year-old finished in fourth place in the free skate, landing five clean triple jumps—including a triple toe loop-triple toe loop combination. Her total of 162.59 points is a new personal best.
“I am pretty pleased with what I did today,” she said. “I only regret that I missed one jump, but everything else was quite good. This is my first time at the Four Continents Championships, and to come in fifth is very good for me—especially since this is a senior level championship.”
USA’s Agnes Zawadzki, 17, had an up and down performance and held her sixth place finish from the short program. She finished with a season’s best 157.23 points.
“It’s a little disappointing because practice was a lot better,” Zawadzki said. “I think I need to work on getting it the same and having it click during competition instead of practice. Yeah, it’s a seasons best, but I had higher standards for myself.”
The Canadian ladies battled it out until the last note of their music for the one World Team berth, and national champion Amelie Lacoste, 23, came out on top by the slimmest of margins—.18 points more than Olympian Cynthia Phaneuf, 24. The two finished the competition in seventh and eighth, respectively.
Japan’s Haruka Imai moved up from 11th place to finish ninth overall, while Korean Olympic Team member Min-Jeong Kwak finished in 10th.
Edited by Andrea Rika - 12/2/2012, 16:26. -
.
Pairs - Free Skating
Result DetailsPl. Name Nation TSS
=TES
+PCS
+SS TR PE CH IN Ded.
-StN. 1 Wenjing SUI / Cong HAN CHN 135.08 75.54 59.54 7.46 7.04 7.79 7.46 7.46 0.00 #7 2 Caydee DENNEY / John COUGHLIN USA 122.07 62.82 59.25 7.43 7.00 7.57 7.46 7.57 0.00 #9 3 Mary Beth MARLEY / Rockne BRUBAKER USA 116.47 60.91 56.56 7.04 6.89 7.14 7.25 7.04 1.00 #10 4 Meagan DUHAMEL / Eric RADFORD CAN 114.23 62.27 52.96 6.71 6.50 6.54 6.71 6.64 1.00 #3 5 Narumi TAKAHASHI / Mervin TRAN JPN 109.57 55.32 55.25 6.93 6.86 6.71 7.14 6.89 1.00 #8 6 Amanda EVORA / Mark LADWIG USA 107.24 54.30 53.94 6.82 6.64 6.61 6.93 6.71 1.00 #6 7 Paige LAWRENCE / Rudi SWIEGERS CAN 100.69 49.99 50.70 6.57 6.36 6.04 6.43 6.29 0.00 #5 8 Jessica DUBE / Sebastien WOLFE CAN 97.11 49.45 49.66 6.46 6.04 6.04 6.36 6.14 2.00 #4 9 Yue ZHANG / Lei WANG CHN 92.20 46.77 45.43 5.75 5.43 5.71 5.82 5.68 0.00 #2 10 Huibo DONG / Yiming WU CHN 88.39 46.37 42.02 5.54 5.00 5.36 5.25 5.11 0.00 #1
Judges Scores (pdf)
Pairs
ResultFPl. Name Nation Points SP FS 1 Wenjing SUI / Cong HAN CHN 201.83 1 1 2 Caydee DENNEY / John COUGHLIN USA 185.42 2 2 3 Mary Beth MARLEY / Rockne BRUBAKER USA 178.89 3 3 4 Meagan DUHAMEL / Eric RADFORD CAN 171.76 8 4 5 Narumi TAKAHASHI / Mervin TRAN JPN 171.11 4 5 6 Amanda EVORA / Mark LADWIG USA 167.99 5 6 7 Paige LAWRENCE / Rudi SWIEGERS CAN 158.66 6 7 8 Jessica DUBE / Sebastien WOLFE CAN 154.79 7 8 9 Yue ZHANG / Lei WANG CHN 140.24 10 9 10 Huibo DONG / Yiming WU CHN 137.91 9 10 CITAZIONESui and Han charm audience, win 4CCs short programIt was a hoe down of a good time at the 2012 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships as Chinese national champions Wenjing Sui, 16, and Cong Han, 19, won the pairs short program with a routine fit for a barn dance.
Skating to Country Dance by Josh Turner, the duo turned in a season’s best performance, and earned a total of 66.76 points.
“Today we got [a lot] of points,” Han said. “We did our best in the short program, and the points were very amazing and wonderful. We feel so happy. My partner did very well, and I am proud of her.”
The two-time and reigning Junior World Champions had the most spark in the competition today, and showcased some pretty huge technical elements—what is becoming the hallmark of Chinese pairs skating. Their triple twist lift was the highest scoring element in the competition.
“In the free skate, we will do a quad twist,” Han explained. “We will also try a quad throw. We hope to succeed.”
In second place with 63.35 points are the newly crowned American champions Caydee Denney and John Coughlin. Trained right here in Colorado Springs, Coughlin was excited to be competing in front of a home crowd.
“It felt really good,” said Coughlin. “It felt like I hoped it would skating at home, and I felt that support from our friends and family. It was nice to put out a good performance for them and for ourselves.”
“For us, we try to stick very close and similar to how we feel in training and it felt like we did that,” added Denney. “Going into this, we felt we could improve on this program and we could improve on this from nationals, and I felt like we did that.”
“I think I was most excited to compete here this season,” said Coughlin. “After our program, we sat with our coach, and we all agreed that this was a step in the right direction in heading to the World Championships. This is one of the stronger pairs fields from top to bottom at the Four Continents Championships that I can recall, and it’s great to be sitting here in second place.”
Coughlin and his 18-year-old partner erased the mistake they made two weeks ago in San Jose, Calif., nailing each element and putting an exclamation point on their East of Eden program with a strong throw triple flip.
“It obviously feels great to land it and it’s obviously the improvement in the program (from the U.S. Championships),” said Coughlin regarding the throw jump. “I thought we felt more comfortable. Our components improved greatly from our last Grand Prix score, so I’m excited about that.”
“Since nationals, we have focused on polish and the character of the program,” the 26-year-old added. “We really didn’t have time to make any changes, so we paid attention to how much we relate and making everything as clean as possible.”
American silver medalists Mary Beth Marley and Rockne Brubaker put out another strong short program today, finishing in third place in their second year in the competition.
“We are really happy with our skate today,” said Brubaker. “Like Caydee and John, we feel that this is a step in the right direction, and is the way you want to skate heading into the World Championships.”
Marley, 16, and Brubaker, 25, were nearly clean in their Singing in the Rain program—the lone mistake was a tight landing by Marley on the throw triple Lutz. Still, the Los Angeles based duo earned a career best 62.42 points.
“We left some points out there on the throw,” Brubaker pointed out. “Unless you are getting plus threes on every element and tens in all of your components, there is always work to do. If you settle, you end up losing points in the long run. We always work on presentation, focusing on our interaction because for the type of music that we choose, it is required.”
The Japanese team of Narumi Takahashi, 20, and Mervin Tran, 21, finished in fourth place with a beautiful program to an instrumental version of John Lennon’s Imagine. Though they opened with a mistake on their triple Salchows, the Grand Prix Finalists were clean the rest of the way through the program. They scored a career high 62.42 points, putting themselves in medal contention.
American bronze medalists Amanda Evora, 27, and Mark Ladwig, 31, finished in fifth place with 60.75 points, also a career best. The Olympians’ lone mistake was an under rotation call on their side by side triple toe loops, but their experience was rewarded with the second highest component scores of the day.
“I thought it was good,” Evora commented. “I think it was an improvement from nationals. We skated better here than we did a few weeks ago, so that’s something we can take something from as well as ending the season on a happy note with our short program.”
“I thought it was a great crowd,” said Ladwig. “They were cheering for Team USA and it had the feel of the big event that it is, and I feel it was a great performance for both of us. I felt we finished off every element really well even though there were a few levels in the footwork that I’m not sure about.”
“What our goal was here was to break 60 as we have and we are only six points from the top,” Evora added, “so anything can happen in the free and we are excited to skate tomorrow.”
In an interesting twist, the Canadian team reversed their standings from their national championships with bronze medalist Paige Lawrence and Rudy Swiegers finishing the highest of the three teams in sixth place.
Teammates and silver medalists Jessica Dubé and Sebastian Wolfe are in seventh, while champions Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford sit in eighth.
Two Chinese teams—Huibo Dong and Yiming Wu and Yue Zhang and Lei Wang are in ninth and 10th, respectively.CITAZIONESui and Han quad their way to 4CCs titleIt was a performance that could change pairs figure skating at the 2012 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships. Chinese national champions Wenjing Sui and Cong Han showed a new level of technical mastery by attempting and completing both a split quadruple twist and a throw quadruple Salchow.
Both elements were completed with such speed, that they almost appeared to be triples to the naked eye.
“We feel very excited. Maybe tonight we can’t sleep,” Han said. “I think later in the program there were a little nerves, but we feel we adjusted to our program. The throws were successful and we are very pleased. This is our first time to win a senior competition and we are happy and excited.”
In just their first season of ISU Championship eligibility, Sui, 16, and Han, 19, made the transition from two-time World Junior Champions to World medal hopefuls look like a piece of cake. The duo presented a more mature Flamenco program this afternoon, earning a new personal best of 201.83 points—and the gold medals.
The you team has a very aggressive competition schedule in the coming weeks, but are eager to take on the challenge.
“We will go to Junior Worlds and senior Worlds,” Han explained. “We are excited for this chance.”
Finishing in second place were American champions Caydee Denney and John Coughlin, who performed well under the pressure of skating in front of a hometown crowd.
“It felt great,” Denney said. “Right before they called our names out, I was sort of taking it in the environment. It felt awesome.”
“We had a great time out there,” added Coughlin. “I was talking to Rockne and we could feel the American presence in the crowd. It was fun to skate at home.”
Denney and Coughlin, performing to Nessun Dorma, opened with a giant split triple twist lift and a strong throw triple loop. The audience was behind them from the start, giving the local kids the biggest welcome of the afternoon, staying with them through a mistake on an early program double Axel combination.
“We felt strong. Like we said in the short, we took a step in right direction to build toward Worlds,” Coughlin said. “We still left points on the table. We don’t want to lose what I call ‘fool proof’ points. We will get to work on our levels and performing together. We had fun and are happy with how it turned out.”
The program ended with what started out as a fantastically executed carry lift, but the exit was a little scary for the audience.
“I wasn’t tired really at all going into our carry, I think I just was excited and I was a little quick,” Coughlin explained. “She didn’t even get a chance to jump, so I ended up doing it by myself, which is less than ideal.”
Denney and Coughlin carry the momentum of their personal best score of 185.42 points from this competition into next month’s World Championships.
Another American team, Mary Beth Marley and Rockne Brubaker captured the bronze medals—and stood on the podium for only the second time in an international competition together.
“We are trying to take a stand and be a world power as far as pairs goes,” said Brubaker. “This is a good start. Before we went on the ice, I saw the American flags in the crowd. I told Mary Beth, ‘We’re competing for the U.S. today.’”
Though the team got off to a rather shaky start—Marley fell on the opening triple toe sequence—they salvaged their Rachmaninov program with strong lifts and spins. Their total of 178.89 points is also a new personal best, and gives them confidence heading into their first World Championship competition.
“Overall we were just really happy to be here. We’ve come a long way since last year,” Brubaker noted. “Mary Beth kind of jokingly said our season best was 88 at Skate America and today it was 116. There are some points we know we can easily get back. Our jumps and throws are usually pretty solid. We’re ready to get to work for Worlds.”
Finishing in fourth place were Canadian champions Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, who pulled up from eighth place after the short program. Like most of the others, their program was far from perfect, but they did have some highlights. Their opening split twist lift was strong, and they attempted side-by-side triple Lutzes. Last year’ silver medalists finished with 171.89 points.
The Japanese team of Narumi Takahashi and Mervin Tran struggled on the jumps and throws this afternoon, and slipped from fourth after the short program to fifth place overall.
American bronze medalists Amanda Evora and Mark Ladwig finished in sixth place.
“Of course it wasn’t our best skate, but we did fight out there,” said Evora. “It was interesting. The lights kind of turned off on us in the middle of the program, but we didn’t let that affect us,” Evora said.
“We could tell that we were a little shaky going out there, but we fought throughout the whole thing,” Evora explained. “Knowing when you’re trained you’re allowed to do that. It had some good and some bad. What’s interesting is some of the things we usually don’t do so well we did well this time and some of the things we usually do well we didn’t do so well, so experience, always.”
Canadian bronze medalists Paige Lawrence and Rudy Swiegers bettered their teammates Jessica Dubé and Sebestien Wolfe once again, finishing in seventh to the silver national silver medalists’ eighth place.
Two Chinese teams—Yue Zhang and Lei Wang and teammates Huibo Dong and Yiming Wu rounded out the top ten in ninth and 10th place, respectively.
Edited by Andrea Rika - 13/2/2012, 11:07. -
.
Ice Dance
Free DancePl. Name Nation TSS
=TES
+PCS
+SS TR PE CC IT Ded.
-StN. 1 Tessa VIRTUE / Scott MOIR CAN 111.24 54.07 57.17 9.46 9.32 9.71 9.61 9.71 0.00 #10 2 Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE USA 107.25 50.01 57.24 9.54 9.36 9.68 9.61 9.64 0.00 #11 3 Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE CAN 99.03 47.42 51.61 8.50 8.36 8.75 8.71 8.89 0.00 #8 4 Maia SHIBUTANI / Alex SHIBUTANI USA 94.91 47.06 48.85 8.14 8.00 8.21 8.25 8.21 1.00 #9 5 Madison HUBBELL / Zachary DONOHUE USA 79.27 40.72 39.55 6.61 6.43 6.54 6.75 6.75 1.00 #5 6 Xiaoyang YU / Chen WANG CHN 69.63 36.50 33.13 5.68 5.36 5.54 5.54 5.57 0.00 #7 7 Alexandra PAUL / Mitchell ISLAM CAN 69.45 33.07 37.38 6.29 6.11 6.11 6.36 6.36 1.00 #4 8 Anna NAGORNYUK / Viktor KOVALENKO UZB 67.68 38.07 30.61 5.18 4.93 5.21 5.18 5.11 1.00 #3 9 Danielle OBRIEN / Gregory MERRIMAN AUS 65.81 34.93 30.88 5.21 4.93 5.21 5.32 5.21 0.00 #6 10 Corenne BRUHNS / Ryan VAN NATTEN MEX 55.64 32.66 22.98 4.00 3.64 3.82 4.00 3.79 0.00 #1 11 Cortney MANSOUR / Daryn ZHUNUSSOV KAZ 53.13 30.43 22.70 3.96 3.46 3.86 4.04 3.79 0.00 #2
Judges Scores (pdf)
Ice Dance
ResultFPl. Name Nation Points SD FD 1 Tessa VIRTUE / Scott MOIR CAN 182.84 2 1 2 Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE USA 179.40 1 2 3 Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE CAN 163.26 3 3 4 Maia SHIBUTANI / Alex SHIBUTANI USA 158.29 4 4 5 Madison HUBBELL / Zachary DONOHUE USA 129.20 5 5 6 Alexandra PAUL / Mitchell ISLAM CAN 117.97 6 7 7 Xiaoyang YU / Chen WANG CHN 115.05 7 6 8 Anna NAGORNYUK / Viktor KOVALENKO 
UZB 107.61 9 8 9 Danielle OBRIEN / Gregory MERRIMAN AUS 105.91 8 9 10 Corenne BRUHNS / Ryan VAN NATTEN MEX 91.57 10 10 11 Cortney MANSOUR / Daryn ZHUNUSSOV 
KAZ 78.66 11 11 CITAZIONEDavis and White take the lead in Colorado SpringsThe rivalry between training mates Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the United States and Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir from Canada continued in Colorado Springs, Colo., today at the 2012 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships.
The Americans haven’t lost a competition since the 2010 World Championships in Turin, Italy. Davis and White eked out a victory in the short dance this afternoon at the Four Continents Championships.
“It felt really good,” White said. “Our levels weren’t what we wanted, but we’ll work on that.”
The Technical Controller, Shae Zukiwsky, a former competitive ice dancer himself, was particularly hard on the leveling of the rhumba patterns for the competitors. Davis and White earned only a level three for each of their two patterns.
“It’s a little frustrating, that’s for sure,” Davis, 25, said in the post-event press conference. “It’s different for each team. For us, our rumba is a bit slower than the rest of our program and it’s in the characters we try to play. We’re certainly more focused in the rumba.”
White, 24, continued, “You can’t be mad at the callers. They were consistent throughout. From competition to competition the callers focus in on different things. After the competition we will figure out what exactly went wrong, but they are just doing their job.”
Davis and White earned 72.15 points for their samba/rhumba short dance, a mere .55 points ahead of Virtue and Moir.
The Canadian champions also suffered from lower than usual levels on the rhumba pattern, but were satisfied with their performance nevertheless. Moir, however, is not a fan of the rhumba compulsory, even if it is so important to his success this season.
“The rhumba is the part of the program that is worth so many points,” he explained. “One little turn from [a dance created] in 1964 is worth so many points in 2012. I think it kind of dumbs down the program to fit the rhumba in, but that’s just my personal opinion.”
Virtue, 22, and Moir, 24, earned 71.60 points with their samba/rhumba program, winning the component mark over Davis and White.
“This performance was a step up from what we’ve done so far this season,” Virtue pointed out. “We lost a little bit of momentum on the circular footwork until the end, but it’s definitely the path that we want to be on heading into Worlds.”
Canadian silver medalist Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje may be in the beginning stages of a little rivalry themselves. The duo outscored Worlds bronze medalists Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani by less than a point, and finished in third place in the short dance.
“We started out a little bit bobbly,” Weaver said, “but we forgot about that right away and were able to build on the program until the end.”
Like the teams ranked above them, Weaver, 22, and Poje, 24, struggled with the rhumba pattern, and in their case, only earned level twos.
“We really trained it after nationals,” Weaver said of the rhumba. “Every caller has a different objective, and it is our job to go home and cover all of the gray areas so that we leave no doubt that we’ve got it right.”
“With the rules being where they are with the rumba, we’re trying to bring excitement to the program,” added Poje. “Sometimes it might feel a little lackluster. We all try to portray our version of the rumba.”
Weaver and Poje scored 64.23 points for their rhumba/samba short dance.
Shibutani, 17, and Shibutani, 20, who used to train in Colorado Springs, seemed to have the crowd on their side with their sassy samba/rhumba short dance. Like the other competitors, Shibutani and Shibutani believe that the Technical Controller’s toughness will help them in the long run.
“I think it’s another good experience for us,” Alex said. “We want the judges to be tough because then we know what we have to work on when we get home and be ready for the World Championships.”
The American silver medalists earned 63.38 points.
Finishing in fifth place were American bronze medalists Madison Hubbell, 20, and Zachary Donohue, 21, with 49.93 points. Despite a fall early on in the program by Donohue, the duo earned a new personal best and was one of just two teams to earn a level four for the rhumba pattern.
“It obviously was a pretty poor performance,” said Hubbell. “We really worked hard in the time that we had which was only a few days from nationals.”
“We felt like we made significant improvements on our short dance, and I think we displayed those in the practices,” she continued. “Unfortunately when we went out there today it didn’t click. We are going take today as today, rest tonight, and comeback and fight tomorrow. So we’ll look forward to the free dance.”
Canadians Alexandra Paul and Mitchell Islam finished in sixth place with 48.52 points, while Xiayang Yu and Chen Wang of China were seventh (45.52 points).
Australians Danielle O’Brien and Greg Merrimen finished in eighth place. Anna Nagornyuk and Viktor Kovalenko (UZB) and Corenne Bruhns and Ryan Van Natten (MEX) round out the top ten in ninth and 10th, respectively.CITAZIONEWinning streak ends for Davis and White; Virtue and Moir take 4CCs titleCanada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir put an end to the nearly two-season long winning streak that USA’s Meryl Davis and Charlie White have enjoyed, winning the 2012 Four Continents Championships in Colorado Springs, Colo., this afternoon.
“I think it was a great performance,” Moir said. “Today we felt really strong and it was kind of a test for us up here with the altitude, and we were definitely feeling it. Regardless of that, we just came together and got a strong score and it was just a great feeling.”
The difference in scores came down to the technical panel’s calls as the two teams were nearly tied on the program component scores. Virtue and Moir earned level four in all but one element—the circular steps (level 3). Davis and White, however, earned four calls of level three.
“Today I think some of the calls didn’t go our way,” White said. “I could not be prouder of the way we fought through both programs. Obviously you can tell by the way I’m breathing it’s not easy. We really worked through it. We wanted to work on expression and we did that. I felt like our elements were pretty good.”
The champions skated to music by George Gershwin, and used it to create a playful mood, fitting for this team. With kind of a Fred and Ginger flair, Virtue and Moir sold the program with a light sophistication.
“I think we really skate to win,” Virtue said. “We skate for ourselves, we really love these programs.”
Moir added, “There’s no doubt that we benefit from training with Charlie and Meryl and Maia and Alex (Shibutani). You can’t slack off when you go the rink every day and see your biggest competition working hard every day. We have a great atmosphere and have been able to make it work.”
Virtue and Moir earned a total of 182.84 points in the competition, while the silver medalists Davis and White earned 179.40.
This was Davis and White’s first loss since the 2010 World Championships—a fact that was not lost on the four-time U.S. medalists.
“I think we’re pretty proud of ourselves finishing this competition. Nothing came easily, but we really fought for it,” Davis admitted. “We’re really proud of what we put out there.”
“Our score really isn’t what we were looking for,” she added. “Silver isn’t the color we were aiming for this year, but that’s OK. We have a lot to go home and work on and we are looking forward to it.”
In stark contrast to the whimsical choreography of the champions, Davis and White performed instead a more refined program to the music from Die Fledermaus. The altitude in Colorado Springs seemed to take it’s toll on White at the end of the performance.
“I was tired, but it’s not something you really think about when you’re going through it,” he said. “There’s always the next step to push you, and you’ve got your partner to rely on. I don’t feel like it affected the performance, but yeah, I was gassed when I was bowing.
Canadians Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje took the last step on the podium and a giant leap forward with their passionate Je Suis Malade program. Along the way, the Canadian silver medalists have established themselves as potential medalists at next month’s World Championships.
“This is definitely a stronger field than before,” Poje said when comparing the team’s win in this event in 2010 to this year’s. “Even though this is just a bronze medal, we are grateful to be where we are at this point in our season. Medals are great, but they are kind of peripheral to the overall performance, and this is something that Kaitlyn and I can be proud about.”
In preparation for Nice, Weaver and Poje know that they have their work cut out for them. Like many of the other teams here, they will be working on their levels so that they can increase their base score.
“We treated this competition as sort of a stepping stone,” Poje explained. “We are going to go back and look at the levels—especially in the short dance. We left a few points out on the ice in this competition, and we don’t want to leave any doubt at Worlds. We’ll also work on bringing our performance up a bit higher.”
The bronze medalists earned a total of 163.26 points in the competition, defeating the fourth place finishers, Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani of the USA by nearly five points.
The American silver medalists performed well in their Glenn Miller free dance, but lacked the connection that Weaver and Poje demonstrated. In fact, Shibutani and Shibutani kept pace with the bronze medalists in the technical marks, but were overtaken on the program component scores.
“Alex has been fighting a cold all week so it was definitely challenging today,” Maia revealed. “I’m proud of the way we fought through the performance and I’m proud of Alex for skating the way he did when he’s not feeling his best.”
The reigning Worlds bronze medalists earned 158.29 points in the competition, far below their personal record from the World Championships last season, and have much to work on before they compete in Nice next month.
Americans Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue struggled once again in the free dance, but managed to hold onto fifth place overall. As in yesterday’s short dance, Donohue fell during the team’s I Put a Spell on You program. The U.S. bronze medalists earned 158.29 points in the competition.
“We learned what not to do,” Donohue said. “Even though we didn’t have the best skate, if anything, we improved our partnership this week. Being there for each other, especially her for me, that’s a positive to take from this.”
Canadians Alexandra Paula and Mitchell Islam finished in sixth place while the Chinese team of Xiayang Yu and Chen Wang remained in seventh.
Uzbekistan’s Anna Nogornyuk and Viktor Kovalenko traded places with Australians Danielle O’Brien and Gregory Merriman in the competition, finishing in eighth and ninth place, respectively.
Mexico’s Corenne Bruhns and Ryan Van Natten finished in 10th.
Edited by Andrea Rika - 13/2/2012, 11:13. -
.
PODIO DANZA
PODIO COPPIE
PODIO DONNE
PODIO UOMINI
Edited by Andrea Rika - 16/2/2012, 11:35. -
.
Questa la veduta dall'hotel 
. -
+1 .
Una copertina così, la squadra statunitense se la meritava... 
.
2012 ISU Four Continents Championships (4CC) |
