Saturday's
competition began with the pairs
free program. Unfortunately it started with an announcement about
Eva-Maria Fitze and Rico Rex:
"German champion-pair Eva-Maria Fitze
/ Rico Rex have withdrawn after the jump competition on Friday night.
Their results in this part of the competition lay in the fact that Rico
is still suffering from effects of an injury he sustained at the 'Nebelhorn
Trophy' early September in Oberstdorf. After they fell during the Jump
competition, they didn't feel sure enough for the free program. The
strain on the male partner for thrown-elements weights so heavy that
he should be absolutely fit."
This
left the first couple Rebecca Handke and Daniel Wende to be the only
pair in their warm-up group. Somebody sitting next to Daniel
Weiss, who was commenting for the German television, introduced all
the skaters in this part of the contest. However, this was just an ordinary
introduction, stating who he/she/they were and from which country they
come and was, unfortunately, not near as amusing as the way the MC previous
night made it to be.
Since
there were now only 4 couples left, this part of the day was over very
quickly. The ranking order remained the same as after the jumping contest.
Vic Ceremony (held later)
***
QUOTES ***Pairs***
Valerie Marcoux / Craig Buntin (CAN),
1st: "Somehow we love to skate in front of German spectators.
They really give us a lot of support. At the beginning of this season
we started practising with a new coach and this has been a great step
forward. We're hoping to qualify for the Olympic Games. I think we should
pay some German spectators to cheer us on during our Canadian nationals."
(Buntin)
Julia Obertas / Sergej Slavnov (RUS),
2nd: "We didn't show our full potential today, perhaps
50 percent of what we can do." (Slavnov)
Elizabeth Gale Putnam / Sean Wirtz
(CAN), 3rd: "We're quite happy with the result. Presenting
the spins and jumps we made some minor mistakes. The marks were okay.
We will work on it in the next weeks." (Wirtz)
Rebecca Handke / Daniel Wende (GER), 4th: This was
our third competition within two and a half weeks, our first large one
ever. It's already fantastic to skate for a home crowd. I think we came
through well. Hereby you must also consider that we only heard on Tuesday
that we were to start here in Gelsenkirchen. Within
three days we had to make our program 30 seconds longer, which wasn't
easy. Now we're focusing on the German championships in January in Berlin, where we
want to be right at the top. After that follow the
Junior WC in The Hague. " (Wende)
Next up was the men's free program. Stefan Lindemann
won this convincingly. Jeffrey Buttle remained second just as he was
after the jump element. The rest of the results are, from 3rd
to 7th: Silvio Smalun, Kristoffer
Berntsson, Gregor Urbas, Tomas Verner and Alexei Vasilevskiy.
Vic Ceremony (held later)
Of
course they had to speak out in a press conference as well:
***
QUOTES *** Men ***
Stefan
Lindemann (Erfurt/GER), 1st: 'Tm so happy that I
was able to present a clean quad in my program and I hope that this
mental block I had will now be history. Compared to my performance at
the Grand Prix event 'Skate America' I'm pleased
with today's presentation. To be honest, I've really waited for a competition
as the one here in Gelsenkirchen. Hopefully
I can show a similar good performance at the Grand Prix event in Paris. The jump
competition was a lot of fun for all of us."
Jeffrey
Buttle (CAN), 2nd: "Unfortunately I've made same mistakes today.
I've had two very good competition days here in Germany; especially
the jump competition on Friday was fun. I'm sure that this kind of event
has a future. My goal for this season is a rank among the best eight,
perhaps even six best skaters at the World Championships in Dortmund."
Silvio
Smalun (Oberstdorf/GER), 3rd: "I'm quite happy
with my performance but, of course, I have to improve until the German
national championships. Today I missed some jumps, among others the
triple-triple combination. My next competition is the Grand Prix in
Moscow and then
the German nationals. However, I'm giving all my attention to the Worlds
in Dortmund"
Last
to skate a free program on Saturday were the ladies. Most changes
in ranking between Friday and Saturday were here. Just two of the girls
kept their ranks as they were after the jump element, namely Susanna
Pöykiö (2nd) and Denise Zimmermann (6th and last).
Joannie Rochette grabbed first place, coming from 4th. Julia
Sebestyen improved from 5th to 3rd, Carolina Kostner
had to settle for 4th and Elina Kettunnen took 5th
place.
Vic Ceremony (held later)
They
also spoke a few words:
*** QUOTES *** Ladies ***
Joannie
Rochette (CAN), 1st: "It wasn't a perfect performance but much
better than at Skate Canada last week
when I finished in tenth position. I didn't have much time practising
between Skate Canada and the
'Bofrost Cup on Ice' and this is why I'm quite pleased with my performance
here."
Susanna Pöykiö (FIN), 2nd: "I'm disappointed
because I know that I can do better. It was a long day and I had problems
keeping focused. And then, being on the ice, I couldn't concentrate."
Julia
Sebestyen (HUN), 3rd:
"I had same problems with the order of jumps in yesterday's
competition. The loop isn't my best jump anyway but it was third on
the program. However, I presented a clean loop in today's free program
as well as five triple jumps. This makes me rather optimistic. Now I'll
focus on the European championships back home in Hungary and hopefully
I'll be able to qualify for the Worlds in Dortmund. I have
some very good memories
of Dortmund; the 1995 Europeans were my very first international
senior competition. I was 14 years old then."
Denise Zimmermann (GER), 6th: "I was very excited, but on the
ice I'm always much more sure of myself. I'm happy to have been allowed
to skate here, being a junior. It was a good experience."
Saturday's
last and Sunday's first event were the ice dancers with respectively
the original and free dance. In the Bofrost Cup on Ice there was no
Compulsory Dance.
This
year's OD is the Swing-combo, which contains lots of entertaining music,
so it isn't hard to clap along and cheer for the skaters. With this
kind of music you have several little parties on the ice, which makes
it quite enjoyable to watch.
Although
Kati Winkler fell during the OD, the German couple Winkler/Lohse still
received the highest marks. Canadian Dubreuil/Lauzon came second and
Faiella/Scali from Italy placed third. In prolongation of what
was started by the jump competition, a small victory
ceremony was held. Except... after the jump elements the ceremony
was held on the ice, but now the podium was used. Well, it was on the
ice anyway, after having served the final ceremonies for the other disciplines.
***
QUOTES *** lce Dance - Original Dance***
Kati Winkler (Berlin/GER), 1st: "We
started info the Original Dance rather relaxed. It's a pity that I was
stuck with the blade and stumbled. That's bad luck. Tomorrow's the free
dance and until then the tiny mistake is surely forgotten."
René Lohse (Berlin/GER), 1st:"Everything went fine, with the exception
of this tiny mistake. Now we know that we have to pay attention to this
sequence in the future. We have shown a good original dance even though
it was a bit flawed by the mistake."
Marie-France Dubreuil / Patrice Lauzon (CAN), 2nd: "Of course we've already shown
better performances but on the whole we're quite pleased. Tomorrow we
want to give our best. Our next competition is the "Trophée Lalique"
in Paris" (Lauzon)
Federica Faiella / Massimo Scali (ITA), 3rd: "We're happy. This is our third
competition after the national championships and Skate Canada. Today's performance was our best
so far." (Scali)
Go to Part 4
*** Previously published by Europe on Ice