14th Lalique Trophy
 
 

Friday, 24th November 2000


 









Ladies short program report

Judges are HUN, SWI, BLR, USA, JPN, FRA, ITA, CAN, RUS
 

Vanessa Gusmeroli   FRA
Light blue skirt, and ... light blue finger nails ;-). Jazzy music.
3Lz-2T, spiral sequence, steps to 3F t-out (great in warm-up), layback, 2A, good spin, well centered, straight footwork.
Really low marks in technique (from 4.8 to 5.1), when i only saw a mistake on the 3F...

Diana Poth   HUN
Music is 'the professional'    (royal canin in France !!)
3T not enough flow for another 3T so 2T, steps to 2F pop, 2A hand down to layback nice, circular footwork.

Maria Butyrskaya   RUS
Same program as last year :-), same pale green costume.
3Lz-2T light, steps to 3F easy, 2A easy too. Splendid ! (when i have only a few notes like jumps, it means i was really in the program ;-) ). So at ease with the jumps ! Even with the 3F, which she did effortless in warm-up. Excellent short, as great as in Nice.
Would have she skated later she would have most probably received some 6.0.
5.6 in technique is ridiculous.

Silvia Fontana   ITA
Spanish black costume, red flower in her head. spanish music.
3Lz fall (1/4 of turn missing), steps to 3T, spiral sequence in serpentine, 2A light, very tight in the air, good final combo spin.

Elina Ketunnen   FIN
3Lz-2T, 3Lp, 2A, spiral sequence, straight fotwork, combo spin w/ Biellmann variation with one hand holding the skate and the other one on the knee. Good edges, good program.
Maybe she could spread the jumps better all along the SP.

Viktoria Volchkova   RUS
Ugly costume, black and flesh with a red underskirt. spanish music.
3Lz high -2T, 3Lip obvious and light, 2A big smile out of it.
The russian judge gave her 5.7 5.7 when the other were at max 5.6 5.6 and qs low as 5.2 5.7.
No Lip deduction ?

Jennifer Robinson   USA
Violin music
3Lz-2T, 3F slightly 2ft, serpentine spiral sequence, 2A leg warp, circular footwork, great layback.
A bit slow maybe.
?? on the first mark..., from 4.6 to 5.1 only.

Julia Soldatova   BLR
red costume, spanish music
3Lz fall (too outside edge, surprising as it was great in warm-up), 3F fall (Lip ??), 2A, circular footwork.

Dirke Baker   NZL
Cute, long legs. Blue costume (all the different blues from dark to light)
Steps to 3F fall (sit on landing), 3T, layback excellent, her arms were joining to form a circle, and in this circle there was, from my seat view, a 'Q' from a Lalique logo in the middle of her arms ;-) 1A 2ft big pop.

Shizuka Arakawa   JPN
green dress
3Lz 2ft -2T, 3F fall, camel, layback, 2A, spiral sequence with decent speed, straight footwork ending with spread eagle, camel to sit, then layback change foot camel donught on a stick.

Laetitia Hubert   FRA
Gorgeous dress, dark purple. Music is piano, sweet and light.
3Lz fall, 3F fall (great in warm-up), backward spiral into 2A.
Great speed as usual.
(a little girl who carries flower fall just before leaving the ice, which made the audience "Oooohhh" ;-) )
Second mark could have been way higher IMO (only from 4.7 -!!-  to 5.2).
I don't understand why Laetitia keep trying the 3Lz in the short if she's not consistent with it yet (but i had the confirmation the 3-3 combo she did yesterday in practice and that i didn't know what the first jump was for sure was a 3Lz-3T indeed). She should do the 3T-3T, she is really consistent with it.

Jennifer Kirk    USA
Red and black dress, music is variation on 'Don't cry for me Argentina' from Evita.
3fLz-2T, steps into 3F, 2A with a great double S shape landing (outside edge to inside then outside, even took a pic ;-) ).
In the spiral sequence she was slow, the music was too heavy for her.
I guess she's the type of skater Dick button call 'Baby Ballerina' ??
 
 
 

Mini press conference (wiht the 3 first after the short)
Maria gave a paper in which she wrote what she had to say, starting with apologies for not being at the press conference but as she was really tired she went back to the hotel to rest. Then she was really happy with  her short program, especially with the 3F that she did perfectly, even though this is a new solo jump for her in the short.
Viktoria said she didn't feel completely ready for the short porgram but she was happy it went very well and that she did land all her jumps.
Vanessa was of course a little disappointed that she did the mistake on the 3F, but she was happy she attacks the jumps and she has a strong motivation. On the 3F she felt slow on the rythm of the jump, but the jump could have been clean, it was really close. Overall she's happy with her program, and being 3 she still can win.

Q : do you feel this GP event has a strong impact ont he rest of the season ?
Viktoria : sure, it's a great prepatation for the upcoming events.

Q : your opinion on not having all the top World skaters on this competition, like what happen in ski for example ?
Viktoria : i don't think this event does not include top skaters, Maria was 3rd at Worlds and Vanessa finished 4th so this is a tough field.
Vanessa : our sport does not function the same way as ski, there are 6 GP and all the best skaters can't skate at 6 events in a row with only one week separating the events (and thousands of kilometers i would add, skatak). Sure then we may have more media coverage then and what we could dream about is being as mediatic as football...
Anyway a competition like Lalique can be a good opportunity to progress in the opinion of the judges; when medalling at a GP the judges will remember you as a strong skater.

Q : when competing this season do you have Salt Lake City in mind ?
Vanessa : it's sure that all the competition i'm doing are exclusively with the goal to learn more, to feel more confident and be in great shape in order to do great programs at the Olympic Games, which is my main objective; and i don't know yet if i will still be there for the following one, so....

Q : then is the  year before the Olys the year you have to try new things ?
Vanessa : yes, like 3-3 combo, which i will try at french nationals, Euros and Worlds. Also the triple Axel, but maybe not in the programs, only in practice.

Q : why only in practice ?
Vanessa : again, to progress in the opinion of the judge, and they will think 'yes she is really strong, she is capable to win'.
 

Skatak