2007 Other articles, O.Nepela Memorial

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