Sunday, March 23 - Ladies Short Program Practice
Girl Talk
I arose bright and early on Sunday morning after such an exciting day the day before. I grabbed some snacks from the refrigerator, threw them into my large purse, snatched the booklets and pillow and left. I actually got to the security check entrance before they were even opening the doors to let people in. Only two people were in line in front of me waiting to get in. The security table now had a wooden box slot with no middle that was being used to measure purse size. If your purse could fit in the slot, you were free to proceed. Any mashing or smashing or changing the contours of your purse that you wanted to do was fine as long as it fit in the box slot. They weren't very strict with it yet this particular morning, so I was glad.
Once they opened the gates, I walked as brisk as possible without running to the seat I had on Saturday morning, next to the rail of the warm up area. I was in the second row from the front again. Sitting in the row in front of me was the most engaging lady and quite a figure skating fan. Lyla was quite happy to be at Worlds. She had been to several U.S. Nationals, skating shows and more. She was very chatty and had found herself in conversations with skaters' parents, coaches and even the skaters themselves at these events. She had so much information about skating and everything that was going on. It was funny because she would be totally into chatting with someone, but as the skaters were landing their jumps and tricks, she knew exactly when to clap even though she wasn't directly looking because her attention was divided. As a teacher, Lyla had this way of calling the skaters over to sign autographs without even raising her voice to get their attention, and they just came naturally. So, we were there helping each other identify the skaters as they practiced, so we would know names to call when the session ended.
Group 3 was already on the ice when they let us in the main entrance.
Julia Sebestyen of Hungary: She opened with a doubled axel. A lot of arm waving in the choreography. She did stroking into backward spiral than catch foot in front spiral to backward spiral. Her combination spin was flying camel to sit to layback to donut position to biellmann.
Zuzanna Babiakova of Slovak Republic opened with a double jump. She did a layback with feet perpendicular to the ice and not much turn out. She did another double jump. Next was a camel spin. Then, the spin combination: sit to camel to sit to catch foot in front by shoulders.
Julia Lautowa of Austria had a fall on the triple lutz. She did a double jump. Then the spiral sequence: catch foot in front, backward spiral. Another layback with foot not very turned out.
Lucie Krausova of Czech Republic wore a blue dress instead of the usual training clothes. She had a spiral that was held for a long while. She did the catch foot in a backward spiral. Her layback had good arm positions - like the ballerina music box turning, but the leg position could be better. She did a camel spin. Her footwork flowed nicely. She did a charlotte. Her combination spin: sit-change-sit-catch foot in front by shoulders.
We managed to call Julia Lautowa over for autographs. Lyla asked her if she got her skate fixed so she must have had a slight problem with it. Julia said she was going to get it fixed. She told us that we must be big skating fans to be up so early in the morning. It was about 6:30 a.m. at that time. We laughed with her. She was naturally chatty and personable. She told us 'Bye bye' when she left.
I spotted Yoshie Onda near the entrance from backstage watching the practices.
Group 4 now on the ice.
Joannie Rochette of Canada was also dressier and had on a black dress. It looked like she skipped the opening lutz in the run-through. She skipped another lutz in the far corner. She did a camel spin. A forward spiral and backward spiral in the sequence. Then, a spin combination. She did a lunge. She had a nice layback with good leg positions.
Sarah Meier of Switzerland had a nice opening pose. She omitted the opening jump. There was a Latin feel to the choreography. Her combination spin: camel-sit-biellmann position with a hand on one leg. She did the spiral sequence. Then, a double axel. She has a light, smooth style.
Sara Falotico of Belgium was also in a blue dress, with leggings. She opened with a triple lutz. Her music is tango flavor. She did some double jumps. Spin combination with sit to camel to scratch spin. She did a backward spiral holding the knee, then forward spiral. She did a double jump close to the boards.
Jennifer Robinson of Canada began with her spiral sequence. It was a forward spiral to the backward spiral, add the catch foot onto the backward spiral. She executed the triple lutz-double jump combination. You could see what they say about how her lutz set up holds a long inside edge before switching to the outside edge before takeoff. She fell on the triple flip. Then, she did a double jump. She did a sit spin with a low position. A footwork sequence with hops in the choreography. She has a nice layback position and draws her arms in during the spin.
After practice, Joannie was walking toward the back and didn't hear our calls. Her coach got her attention for us. 'Joannie! Joannie!' she called and pointed her to the autograph wall. By the way, the coach said it 'JOE-AH-KNEE' with accent on the 'KNEE' (last syllable). Joannie came right over to sign. She was wearing a lovely heart necklace. Someone complimented her on it, and she said thank you.
Sarah Meier was signing autographs for the children in the front row and asking them for their names to address the autographs.
Lyla struck up conversation with Coach Richard Callaghan who was standing in the warm up area watching. She asked him what skater he had here. He said Shizuka Arakawa came to him after nationals, so he was here for her.
Group 5 follows.
I have sketchy notes for Olga Vassiljeva of Estonia. I have written that she singled the first jump and did a single axel.
Anne Sophie Calvez of France: In the spiral sequence she could hold the positions a little longer. Her layback began nicely. She did a combination spin.
Diane Chen of Chinese Taipei skated to Don't Cry for Me Argentina from Evita. She did a double axel. She did a backward spiral, then forward spiral. She did a flying camel with nice positions, but a little slow. She popped the loop jump. Her combination spin was camel to sit to layback to sit. She did a footwork sequence. She did a forward spiral, then ina bauer. She had a nice layback spin.
Also, in attendance was Tugba Karademir of Turkey and Shirene Human of South Africa, but I was unable to multitask well enough to take notes for them. I did get Shirene's autograph after practice and remember that she was very sweet and stopped to smile and pose for a picture for me. Shirene was wearing a shirt that said 'U.S.A.' Someone teased her about wearing a shirt advertising another country than her own, and she just smiled.
And now for Group 6.
Yoshie Onda of Japan began with running across the ice. She did the triple lutz-double combination. She did another triple jump in the far corner. She did a double axel. Her spiral sequence went from forward spiral to backward spiral while holding the knee. Her layback spin features the torso extended far back, but the leg position is perpendicular to the ice instead of turned out. Lyla and I both thought her presentation looked spades different than what we had seen during the Grand Prix events on TV this year. It was a great improvement or maybe she was just better live. She has a softness, and her positions looked better and overall skating smoother.
Fumie Suguri, also of Japan, began with her triple lutz-double jump combination. It looked like she landed the last jump fine, but slipped off her edge and fell shortly afterward. She did a triple in the other corner. She did a camel spin. She had good stretch and lean on her spiral of the skaters so far. She also had a backward spiral with her hand holding the knee. She did another jump, then a layback spin. She did footwork with steps twirling across the ice. Her final combination spin featured camel to sit to layback to sit to backscratch, with the latter position rotating very fast.
Hae-Lyeum Cho of South Korea did a double axel. Her sit spin position was not low enough. She also did a camel spin.
Dang Fang of China wore a dressy costume. She did a double jump. She did a triple lutz-double jump combination. She fell on the triple flip. Overall, she has a nice presence on the ice and is definite potential for the future.
Shizuka Arakawa of Japan opened with her triple lutz-double combination that was clean, but finished very close to the boards. She did a double jump. She did a camel spin, then layback spin. She had a footwork sequence. Then the combination spin: sit with catch foot in the sit to donut to backscratch.
After the session ended, I told Fumie she had done well and had a nice spiral while she signed my autograph book. That seemed to spark her attention, and she smiled and said, 'Oh! Thank you.' She shared some words in Japanese with some girls from Japan sitting behind me.
Shizuka also came over, and I got her autograph as well.
Group 7 rolls on.
Ludmila Nelidina of Russia skated to piano music. She started with a triple lutz-double jump combination. She did another triple. She did a double axel. She did a lunge in the choreography. She did a layback spin with the leg not turned out enough. Her spiral sequence included a backward spiral and forward spiral to one leg held in front by shoulder level. Her spin combination went from camel to layback to camel to sit to position with leg held in front near shoulders.
Gintare Vostrecovaite of Lithuania fell on the double axel. She popped the lutz. She doubled the flip. She did a spiral sequence holding the foot in front. Her combination spin included camel-sit-foot held in front near shoulders-backscratch.
Also present for this group were Roxana Luca of Romania and Dario Timoshenko of Azerbaijan.
There were two very cute first grade aged girls that skated at a local rink. They were sitting near us with their grandmother. Lyla was having fun teaching and quizzing them. The girls kept asking us the first name of each skater on the practice ice. They wanted to be prepared to call each name for the autographs they were collecting.
Group 1 was next to take the ice.
Vanessa Giunchi of Italy opened with a layback with not so great a position. I'm sorry, I seem to be a broken record with this. What can I say? This is one area I have to agree with Dick Button - his fixation with the layback position.
Vanessa's music is dramatic with low notes and sticks clapping together - there is no definite melody. She did a spread eagle into the spiral sequence. Her combination spin was layback to camel to leg held in front near the shoulders. She did the straight line step sequence. The camel spin led into the ending position.
Carolina Kostner of Italy skated to wedding music. It's a classical piece that I just associate with weddings because it is heard often in the ceremonies. She began with a triple jump. Then, the triple lutz-double combination. It was clean, but ended with the free leg at the landing barely scraping the boards as it was too close to the boards. Her layback had good backward extension of the torso.
Elena Liashenko of Ukraine completed the triple lutz-double combination. She did a double jump. She did a spiral sequence. Then, a double axel. There was a lunge in the choreography. Her combination spin was camel to sit to layback to a biellmann like position with a leg not fully stretched backward and up.
Galina Maniachenko of Ukraine put a hand down on the first triple. She singled the double axel. Her spin combination was camel to sit to layback to foot held in front near shoulders. She did a footwork sequence.
Miriam Manzano of Australia wore an orange dress. She opened with the jump combination. She did a double flip. She did a layback to sit spin to spin with leg held in front near shoulders. She did a camel spin. She did a straight line step sequence which could have a few more turns. She did a spiral with the hand holding the knee. She did a final combination spin that ended with the leg bent at the knee behind the body and arms stretching the leg to where it extends to the back of the ear level. Ann Patrice McDonough of the U.S. does this spin, but I didn't see it much at Worlds.
Hristina Vassileva of Bulgaria began with some dance jigs that were part of the choreography. She popped the lutz jump. She did a camel to sit spin. She executed a spiral with a good forward bend at the waist that was held for a long while. She also did a spiral with a hand on the knee extended behind her.
Miriam Manzano was quite nice while signing autographs. She said, 'How are you?' as she took the autograph notebook to sign.
Carolina Kostner was quite pleased to be signing autographs. She was so diligent. She signed them with her first name only. She drew a smiley face in the letter 'O' in the middle of her name. It was cute.
The next thing I know, I looked to the back of the warm-up area. There stood Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov. I attempted to get a snapshot, and Alexei saw me trying to take it and smiled for the picture. I noticed Maria's hair has gained in its redness, so my little tints of red were a bit pale in comparison.
For Group 2 practice, all three of the American girls were absent, but everyone else was present.
Johanna Götesson of Sweden donned a cream dress. She fell on a jump. She did the spin combination. She did the spiral sequence. She did a death drop into the sit spin.
Alisa Drei of Finland did a layback with a far extended back position. She did a camel spin with her hands linked behind her back. She did a spiral, then spread eagle, then backward spiral, then forward spiral. Her combination spin included camel to layback (travelling) to sit to biellmann to scratch. She had a softness on the ice and nice body carriage.
Georgina Papavasiliou of Greece wore a long sleeved dress in a lovely shade of pale blue. She did a double jump. She executed a layback with nice torso and leg positions. She did a lutz jump, then a spin. Then, a spin combination of camel to sit to camel to sit. She also had a nice softness and flow.
Afterwards in the process of autographs, I told Georgina that she had a good layback. She smiled and said thank you. She was very nice and was asking people what location on the page or book did they want her signature.
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