U.S. ladies champion Alissa Czisny went from No. 18 to No. 16 with her victory. Also affecting this week’s rankings are the results from the 2009 European Figure Skating Championships. The ladies winner in Helsinki, Finland, local favorite Laura Lepisto, vaulted six places to No. 5, while ice dancing champions Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski of Russia jumped four spots to No. 3.
Ladies
Lepisto earned her second medal in a row at the European Championships, improving on her third-place finish last year. Tying Lepisto for the biggest rise in this week’s ladies rankings is countrywoman Susanna Poykio, who continued her career revival with the bronze at the European Championships. That placement catapulted her six places to No. 14. European silver medalist Carolina Kostner held her position at No. 3. U.S. silver medalist Rachael Flatt climbed from No. 10 to No. 9
Pairs
The top 11 pairs teams remained the same. The most surprising result of the week was Caydee Denney and Jeremy Barrett’s silver medal at the U.S. Championships, but that finish did not affect the rankings. The French team of Adeline Canac and Maximin Coia placed ninth at the European Championships and, as a result, improved their ranking three places, to No. 12.
Ice Dancing
Khokhlova and Novitski took advantage of the top two teams in the rankings – France’s Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder, and Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin of Russia – withdrawing from the European Championships to win their first European gold medal. The podium in Helsinki was comprised entirely of first-time medalists, as Italy’s Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali (silver) and Great Britain’s Sinead Kerr and John Kerr (bronze) rounded out the medalists. Those teams each improved one spot, Faiella and Scali to No. 5 and the Kerrs to No. 9. Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates won their first U.S. senior medal – a silver – pushing them up one notch to No. 9.
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