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Wednesday, the 24th: Ladies qualifying A

Fumie Suguri screwed up her 3flip, she landed on the wrong foot and 2footed it (I know that sounds strange, but it's the best kind of description I manage) and she stepped out of an underrotated 3loop attempt. I think she also might have had another 2flip. It was not the most inspired skate. Viktoria Volchkova fell on her second lutz, but otherwise was clean. She is just too slow, you just want to get behind her and push. I don't get why she does have to be so slow, it's not like her stroking looks as if there's anything wrong with it, she got nice flow and usually is quite powerful, so...? She had well-centered spins and the program suited her style nicely. Michelle Kwan popped her loop and fell on her second lutz. She wasn't terribly fast on that day (on the following days she looked faster) and did not seem very inspired, not her best skate. Keren Shua Haim screwed up all her triple attempts and landed some doubles. She had well-centered spins, but was slow.

Lucie Krausova had a lot of falls, she used Latin sounding music. She had some parts where she expressed the music well, but there were also lots of empty spots in the program. Shizuka Arakawa started with what would turn out to be her only "mistake" in the whole competition, a 2lutz-3toeloop combination. She went on to nail everything else in her program, including a 3s-3l and a 3l-2l. She skated with great flow and I especially loved the beautiful slow section in her "Turandot" program. My notes say "fantastic!!!" :) She got a wonderful standing ovation for her skate and I nearly would have started to cry at the end of her program (and I was luckily not the only one of our group of friends...). That skate was also the very first time (but not the last at this Worlds :) ) where I just felt like I had to jump up at the end.

Irina Slutskaya did not skate bad, especially considering the circumstances. She had a good combo spin with her trademark double Biellman and wore a nice costume with a red heart on front. She doubled the lutz and fell on the flip on the first attempt, but did it on the second attempt. She did not look as energetic and fast as she used to be, but she still had respectable speed, I mean it's not like was as slow as some other skaters (like Viktoria Volchkova or Jennifer Robinson) always are. I actually managed to get the stuffed animal for her onto the ice (well nearly :-P, but the flower girl helped with the last centimeters :D ), even if it included climbing over a seat and ended with me having a bruise now :-P.

Susanna Pöykiö doubled her second lutz, but otherwise was completely clean. She could use a bit more power to her skating, but we thought she was the better Michelle tonight ;) Hristina Vassileva landed most of the jumps she tried, including a shaky 3z and 3f. She also had a good spiral and a nice Spanish program. Overall she was good and nice to watch. Zuzana Babiakova also landed nearly everything, except for the second lutz being 2footed and some of her jump landings were iffy. She had a good camel spin and I thought everything she did was pretty good and it was a cute program. This was most definitely a great group overall.

Anne-Sophie Calvez slowed down towards the end of her program. She had a good skate overall, except for 2 falls in the middle. She has an a bit sloppy style and could make more out of her music. Sara Falotico had minor jump problems, but overall it was a very good skate for her. She is always a pleasant to watch skater with nice flow and lots of content in her choreography. Her ice coverage needs to be improved. Carolina Kostner had a light and shadow program, she landed a 3f-3t-2t for example, as well as a 2a in sequence with a 3salchow, but screwed up the lutz and stepped out of the loop, plus there was a problem with the second 2axel. Her speed and ice coverage are amazing.

Karen Venhuizen had a skate that was not bad for her, she had two triples and landed pretty much everything she planned. Julia Lautowa was the first Aaaaargh! moment of this qualifying, she screwed up flip and lutz, popped the loop, had a fall on a salchow and a touchdown on the second 3flip. Tugba Karademir did a cool camel spin, landed a 3t-2t and a 3s-2l (but she stepped out). She had lots of problems with her other jumps though. But her spins were nice and I was impressed with her well presented interesting Tango program. Miriam Manzano physically looks a bit like Amber Corwin (well we were still missing her :D ), but her program was a bit generic. She got some good stuff in (for example 3z-2t), but also lots of mistakes. Mojca Kopac as usually for her had a well-choreographed and presented program, from the beginning to the end. All her non-jump elements have good quality. She also got some good jumps in, but made some quite mistakes too.

Steffi and I noticed in practice and competition that if Dan Fang falls, she practically always ends up splat on her stomach (I guess because her most frequent jump problem seems to be getting to much forward in the air). In the qualifying she had one of those bad splats and one popped jump, but the rest was good. Her ice coverage is weak, but she has interesting spin positions, a good spiral and a nice lyrical program that suits her perfectly, even if the straightline step sequence at the end looked strangely Morozovian and wasn't the right thing for her IMO. Anna Bernauer did one clean triple, her program was all the same speed and she looked to be fighting throughout. Miki Ando fell on her quad attempt and had a shaky 3loop, but the rest of the program was great, including one of her "easy" 3z-3t's. She looked very secure and confident in the qualifying :) Great way to end it...