Favorites cruise to gold in Bratislava
No surprises as seniors start season at Ondrej Nepela Memorial
(09/22/2007) - For the 15th time, the Ondrej Nepela Memorial Trophy was held in
Slovakia's capital, Bratislava. It was this season's first international senior
competition.
Ladies
The favorite in the ladies competition was the 2004 European champion,
Julia Sebestyen of Hungary. She won with a comfortable margin of 28 points,
because she was in better shape than in most of her competition in the last
two years. For her world class short program to classical music by
Franz Schubert, she got 61.82 points. Her triple Lutz and triple flip were
higher than most men's. And her style was quite mature. She started her long
program in impressive fashion, with two Lutzes and one flip. Later, she
reduced planned triples to doubles but still kept her good style.
The silver-medal winner, Michelle Boulos from Boston, started her short program
with the combination of a triple Lutz and double toe loop. Her toe loop out of
steps was a bit shaky, though. The other elements were good; the spins even
excellent. In the free program to "Swan Lake", a triple loop and a triple toe
loop were clean, but two other jumps were not correctly landed, and she fell on
the Lutz. Afterwards, she said, "My goal was to skate well. I did little
mistakes, but I am still happy with my overall performances."
Jenna McCorkell of Great Britain won the bronze medal. In the short program,
she had singled her planned triple Lutz, but the other elements were good. She
had one triple Lutz and triple toe loop in her long program -- skated to the
soundtrack of "Frida" -- but all other jumps were double. By Klaus-Reinhold
Kany / Special to icenetwork.com
Source:
ICEnetwork.com