Worlds Day 4-- when Kim Yu-Na Became Kim Yu-Huh?

LADIES SP as it happened… (well, 20 of them, anyway)

CHELTZIE LEE (AUS)—3salchow/2toe was good, 3toe good too, 2axel also…nice layback at end… wish she’d held her end pose for even I really do like her style, in that she does have some! Of course her jump difficulty needs to increase, but hopefully that will come. LOVE this SP dress, as I think I said at Olympics time. 51.36; IN 17TH.

SARAH MEIER (SWI)—Huge fall on the 3lutz, and by that I mean she completely flattened to her back and bumped against the wall… looked like it REALLY hurt. But, almost in tears already, she keeps going… then pops her salchow, and tentatively at that. Again, thought she might stop. But on she went, and managed a 2axel (nice one) among other things. 45.06; FINISHED 26th and missed the cut for the Free Skate. Damn, what a crappy way to end a season. And possibly an amateur career.

CYNTHIA PHANEUF (CAN)—2axel wide-ish leg… 3lutz hand down but 2toe combo anyway… 3toe good… lovely everything else, and no fall on footwork this time (as happened in Vancouver)… quite a pretty program and she has wonderful presentation. Now, if I could just talk to her about a new haircut… :-) 59.50; IN 8th.

KWAK MIN-JUNG (KOR)—Fall on 3lutz… 3sal/2toe good… 2 axel good… has sort of junior-ish presentation for now, but of course that’ll improve… but she looks quite upset coming off the ice. Brian (Orser, he coaches her too) tells her “good thinking” about adding the toe loop to her salchow (the lutz was supposed to be a combo I guess)… but still, plenty of tears in the K&C. 47.46; IN 23rd.

SARAH HECKEN (GER)— 3Toe/3Toe good, 3salchow good (w/double fist pump)…2axel good too… it’s so much fun to watch her skate well; she gets so happy… 55,20; IN 13th.

JENNA MCCORKELL (GBR)—2axel OK…3lutz/2toe looked good…3flip good!...already looks very happy…all the way through in fact… (she missed the finals cut in Vancouver, so this was probably especially sweet)… they cut to a shot of her hubby, Kevin VanDerPerren… 52.12; IN 15th.

VIKTORIA HELGESSON (SWE)—3toe/2toe I think looked OK…3 loop nice…2axel too…has one of those “laybacks” that is more like a headback… sigh. 56.32; IN 8th.

KSENEIA MAKAROVA (RUS)—had a good 3toe/3toe… then a good 3flip… and a nice 2axel… and a fast combo spin too. Get the door; I hear the future knocking… 62.06; IN 5th.


MIRAI NAGASU (USA)—3lutz/3toe (!)…3Flip good… 2ax good… fab layback…wow! It’s hard to believe this is the same Mirai that was competing just 4 months ago; let alone last season. Gets a 70.40 and it’s great to see she and Frank Carroll both staring at the score shrieking “WHAT?!” IN 1st.

KIM YU-NA (KOR)—3lz/3toe great… 3Flip not her best (and cheated)… then she mangles the hook into her next spin; has to start again, and this resulted, I think, in one of her spins (at the end?) not getting any credit. Then she had trouble with her spiral sequence (!) to the point where it was downgraded to a Level 1… then everyone’s jaw drops as she gets a 60.30; IN 7th. Yep. It’s true.

AKIKO SUZUKI (JPN)—3Flip FALL… 3Loop double three out to 2toe…also has a bit of trouble with her spirals (looks very tired)… 2axel fall out…oy. One event too many I guess. 48.36; IN 20th.

RACHAEL FLATT (USA)—3flip/3toe became a 3/2…. Too bad; I think she must’ve done it because her 1st landing was a little wide… 3lutz OK…2ax is fine…audience doesn’t really seem to be with her until the footwork. 60.88; IN 6th.

JULIA SEBESTYEN (HUN)—3lutz/2toe huge as usual… 3Flip downgraded?... 2ax ok… she seems to have extra punch in her footwork, and she’s probably the oldest one here… take that, whippersnappers!

ALENA LEONOVA (RUS)—Fell on opening 3flip... then tried to make her next pass a combo,but did a lot of unintentional hopping around on the 2nd jump…2axel OK. This program seemed especially manic this time, but maybe that’s because it’s the last SP we’ll likely see this season. 54.36; in 12th…

And now, my odd request for tomorrow’s free skate: Don’t win, Mirai! Kimmie Meissner won a Worlds title right after the 2006 Olympics at age 16, and we all know what’s happened to her since then. Let’s pull for Asada (assuming Kim cannot make up the 10+ point deficit, which she probably can)… even with the Bells of Moscow dragging around her neck, it would be remarkable if she could claim her second World title. Or if she falters, let ‘em give it to Lepisto (in 3rd)—they’re dying to anyway.

Finals start tomorrow (Sat) at 7:30AM eastern, you can catch them online all morning or from 10-12:30 on Universal’s TV channel.

Not the shortchange the ice dance finals, but I’m giving the Extreme Cliff Notes version right now and will delve a little deeper over the weekend:

1) One event where my predictions were right… (Virtue/Moir, Davis/White and Faiella/Scali went 1-2-3)

2) For added fun, Davis/White actually won the FD with an even better skate than at Vancouver… and then Virtue/Moir had the not-Vancouver-but-not-bad performance right behind them.

3) Pechalat/Bourzat pulled a “Kerr” and went back to an old program (the circus-inspired dance from 2008-9). Then pulled down their season best score… and scored better in the FD than Faiella/Scali… but still didn’t overtake them. At least we didn’t have to hear “Requiem for a you-no-what” again.

4) Cappellini/Lanotte may have had the most disappointing FD of the night, when Cappellini went down on the twizzles sequence. They recovered fairly well, but she was downright inconsolable afterwards. Rough event for them; after starting up in 7th on the CD, they were 12th in the OD and 14th in the FD, resulting in 11th overall.

5) Khoklova/Novitski withdrew from the event, which didn’t hurt as Samuelson/Bates pulled up to 9th overall (3 spots next year guaranteed), and Navarro/Bommentre finished 14th. (I couldn’t find a reason for the withdrawal, though… anyone know?)

More coming soon on all that… gotta get to bed so I can catch as much of the ladies tomorrow as possible. Is the season really this close to (finally) being over?