The 2009 ISU World Figure Skating Championships opened in Los Angeles, USA, on March 24 with the Compulsory Dance and the Pairs Short Program.
Ice Dance, Compulsory Dance
The competition kicked off with the Paso Doble in the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The Paso Doble is a dramatic and powerful Spanish dance requiring good body control and precise footwork. It can be expressed in terms of its origins from the music of bull fighting or in Flamenco style. The Paso Doble was created by Reginald B. Wilkie and Daphne B. Wallis. It was first performed in London in 1938.
Russia’s Oksana Domnina/Maxim Shabalin grabbed the lead in this first portion of the dance event ahead of Tanith Belbin/Benjamin Agosto (USA) and Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir of Canada. All three couples achieved a new seasons best score.
Domnina/Shabalin put out a passionate Paso Doble with precise footwork and matching expression. They picked up 40.77 points (element score 21.10/program component score 19.67). “It was good. We maintained the pattern throughout all the three sequences, which is very important. If you are off even a little bit, you can loose points on the technical mark. Technically it was good, and we pulled ourselves together, we had to show the character of the dance, the corrida (bull fight)”, Shabalin said. “I’m still continuing my recovery. We started almost immediately to train again after the European Championships, but there were a few moments when we were forced to leave out one practice a week because of the problems with my leg. Thank God we went through the process of preparation. We are in the best shape of the season so far”, he continued, referring to their withdrawal from the European Championships after he hurt his knee in the Compulsory Dance.
Belbin/Agosto, on the comeback trail after his back injury forced them out of the Grand Prix Final and U.S. Nationals, gave a strong performance of the Paso Doble as well, scoring 39.65 points (20.26/19.39).
Virtue/Moir showed off their precision and speed as well in the Paso Doble and earned 39.37 points (20.48/18.99).
Pairs, Short Program
The day concluded with an exciting Pairs Short Program. Germany’s Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy won the Pairs Short with an excellent performance. Yuko Kavaguti/Alexander Smirnov of Russia came in second and China’s Dan Zhang/Hao Zhang were third.
Savchenko/Szolkowy had drawn to skate last out of the 25 couples. They had the attention of the crowd the second their dynamic routine to “Lost in Space” started. The Germans were spot on and hit a beautiful side by side triple toeloop, a throw triple flip, a triple twist and got a level four for their spins, spirals and the lift. The crowd gave them a standing ovation and gasped when the high score came up: The defending World Champions earned 72.30 points (41.26 element score/31.04 program component score) which was a new seasons best for them. “Our practice went well and we were very focused on everything we had to do. In practice we never had major problems with the short program, but in competition we were sometimes nervous”, Szolkowy commented. “What makes us sleep well tonight is that we did well and we are in first place, but we know that everything will be decided in the free program and the difference in points to second, third or fourth place is not big”, he added.
Kavaguti/Smirnov had chosen a completely different routine with a balletic program to “The Swan” by Camille Saint-Saens. They opened with a solid triple toe followed by a triple twist and a throw triple loop. The Russians produced also strong spins, spirals and a difficult lift that all were graded a level four by the Technical Panel. The European silver medalists picked up 68.94 points (38.94/30.00), which was a seasons best for them.
Zhang/Zhang sparkled as well in their romantic routine to “Riding on the Wings of Songs”. Their performance included a big triple twist, a high throw triple loop and a side by side triple Salchow as well as two level-four spins and a level-four death spiral. The reigning World silver medalists picked up 67.42 points (38.66/28.76).
The ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2009 continue Wednesday with the Men’s Short Program and the Pairs Free Skating. For more information, full entry lists and results please see: www.isu.org and http://www.isuworlds2009.com/. An extended version of this report will be available later tonight on the website.
