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Chinese and US skaters split the four gold medals on offer at the
World Junior Figure Skating Grand Prix Finals in Scotland on Saturday,
with the Chinese winning the pairs and men's singles and the United
States taking the ice dancing and women's singles events.
The men gave it all they've got in today's free skate. They didn't
't seem to be holding back whatsoever and most of the men displayed
an assertiveness that they were missing in the short program.
There were no clean performances, but these guys put it all out
on the ice, and no one more so than China's Ma Xiaodong, the gold
medal winner.
Ma blew his competitors right out of the water by opening with
a huge triple axel-triple toe combination, followed by a quadruple
toe loop. If the quad wasn't clean, he could have only had a slight
touch down but we'll have to wait and see what the officials say.
If that wasn't good enough for the youngster, he then landed a perfect
triple lutz-triple toe combination, a triple flip, a double axel,
and yet another triple axel.
First to skate in the final group was 14-year-old Sergey Dobrin
of Russia.
Opening with a triple salchow-triple toe combination, he went on
to do a triple lutz-triple toe, and one other triple, the loop.
He singled his first attempted flip and two footed the second try,
resulting in technical marks ranging from 5.1 to 5.4 and for presentation
he received 5.2's to 5.4's.
Dobrin really got the crowd going because he is so small and can
pull off the difficult tricks. He ended up with the silver medal.
Pleased with his performance, Dobrin said, "I'm happy. I did
all the targets that my coach put out for me."
Next to skate was Stanislav Timchenko of Russia. His opening jump
was a beautiful triple axel- double toe combination. Timchenko also
landed a triple toe-triple toe, but singled his triple flip. He
later made a gutsy attempt at trying the triple flip again, but
fell, and also fell on the triple loop jump.
Although he wasn't perfect, it was good enough for the bronze medal.
Disappointed, Timchenko said, "I did okay, but not as good
as I expected."
Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao of China won the free program, but not
in any spectacular fashion like everyone had been hoping.
The team opted for a triple twist rather than the quadruple they
had been practicing perfectly all week, and they had trouble with
their side-by-side triple attempts, both the toe loop and the salchow.
The pair struggled, as Zhang Dan wasn't clean on the landings of
the throw triple salchow and throw triple loop, while Hao looked
very tired toward the end of the program. Although they may not
have performed up to their ability today, their quality was still
superior to the rest of the field and they received marks ranging
from 5.0 to 5.5.
The teams coach, Yao Bin said, "They were very nervous. This
was their first time to win a medal. Last year they were fifth.
Here they had a good chance to medal. They were thinking too much.
"
Second after the short program, Kristen Roth and Michael McPherson
of the United States held on to their position to take home the
silver medal.
Finishing third, and moving up one spot from the short, was Yuka
Kawaguchi and Alexander Markuntsov of Japan.
American Ann Patrice McDonough came out on top moving up from fourth
place to win the women's singles title.
In a beautifully choreographed free program to Romeo and Juliet,
McDonough won in a very close decision over Russian Kristina Oblasova.
The 15-year-old McDonough was able to clinch first place by winning
the free program in which she executed four clean triple jumps,
with two in combination.
Americans Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto are in first place
after a brilliantly skated original dance to The Maddest Kind of
Love, Girls, Girls, Girls. Their marks ranged from 5.3 to 5.6.,
and both skater's were very happy with the performance. Agosto later
said, "It's the best we skated the OD the all season."
(People's Daily 12/17/2000)
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