[MakkabI]
October 25th, 2004, 03:34 AM
Israel's top ice dancing duo, Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovsky, won the silver medal at Skate America, their first tournament of the season, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
They solidified their hold on second place, out of twelve pairs, with a fine performance in the free skate, a Toccata and Fugue in D minor by Johann Sebastian Bach, which gave them a combined total score of 204.32, but were unable to overtake the winning couple, Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto of the United States (ranked fifth in the world), who finished with a 212.87 total. The third spot went to Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe of Canada, well back with a 178.60 combined score.
Sakhnovsky described some of the confusion resulting from the New Judging System after their original dance, which was a combination of the quickstep, 'Sing,Sing,Sing' by Benny Goodman; the slow foxtrot, 'Smile' by Nat King Cole; with a finish of the former. "With the new rules, there are more requirements," he said. "We even made another change two days before the event. Even the judges do not know what to do and everybody understands [the system] differently."
Julia Shapiro and Vadim Akolzin, skating in their first ever Grand Prix event, showed continued improvement, only a year since Akolzin switched from a singles skater to pairs.
The pairs free skate, the tourney's final event, came to a shocking halt with two accidents, with the second one ending the event. Russia's Tatiana Totmianina suffered a career-threatening fall when her partner, Maxim Marinin, caught his foot in the ice and tripped while Totmianina was high in the air. She came crashing to the ice head first and was carried out unconscious. On Sunday, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported that Totmianina sustained a concussion but no broken bones in the fall. "Tatiana has nothing broken, nothing cracked," Valentin Piseev, the head of Russia's figure skating federation, was quoted as saying.
In the men's singles, Roman Serov, after receiving a surprise invitation just last week after winning a silver medal at the Finlandia tournament, almost pulled off a medal-winning performance, finishing fourth overall. He was in third after his exceptional short program, but Ryan Jahnke of the US won the free skate, which catapulted him from fourth place into second overall, bumping Serov off the medal platform.
Brian Joubert of France (ranked No. 2 in the world), won the event, even though he was second in the free skate to Jahnke. Michael Weiss of the USA (6) had to settle for the bronze, while Serov finished ahead of the world No. 3, Stefan Lindemann of Germany.
"I didn't try my quad," Serov, who had to sit out of major international competitions because he changed nationalities, said after the event. "I just wanted to do my best program. It was good to skate clean after a two-year break."
Judith Javor, secretary of the Israel Ice Skating Federation, summed up the Israelis' accomplishments and looked towards next week's Skate Canada. "We're really delighted that Galit and Sergei did so well," she said. "Their scores were very high, and hopefully, the problems that they faced at last year's Skate Canada won t repeat themselves.
"It's wonderful that Julia and Vadim have been invited to two Grand Prix this year it will help them gain experience, and of course, Roman Serov has been doing an amazing job after coming off such a long layoff. It would be wonderful for him if he could receive another Grand Prix invitation this year, but there is a very long waiting list for the top skaters."
They solidified their hold on second place, out of twelve pairs, with a fine performance in the free skate, a Toccata and Fugue in D minor by Johann Sebastian Bach, which gave them a combined total score of 204.32, but were unable to overtake the winning couple, Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto of the United States (ranked fifth in the world), who finished with a 212.87 total. The third spot went to Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe of Canada, well back with a 178.60 combined score.
Sakhnovsky described some of the confusion resulting from the New Judging System after their original dance, which was a combination of the quickstep, 'Sing,Sing,Sing' by Benny Goodman; the slow foxtrot, 'Smile' by Nat King Cole; with a finish of the former. "With the new rules, there are more requirements," he said. "We even made another change two days before the event. Even the judges do not know what to do and everybody understands [the system] differently."
Julia Shapiro and Vadim Akolzin, skating in their first ever Grand Prix event, showed continued improvement, only a year since Akolzin switched from a singles skater to pairs.
The pairs free skate, the tourney's final event, came to a shocking halt with two accidents, with the second one ending the event. Russia's Tatiana Totmianina suffered a career-threatening fall when her partner, Maxim Marinin, caught his foot in the ice and tripped while Totmianina was high in the air. She came crashing to the ice head first and was carried out unconscious. On Sunday, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported that Totmianina sustained a concussion but no broken bones in the fall. "Tatiana has nothing broken, nothing cracked," Valentin Piseev, the head of Russia's figure skating federation, was quoted as saying.
In the men's singles, Roman Serov, after receiving a surprise invitation just last week after winning a silver medal at the Finlandia tournament, almost pulled off a medal-winning performance, finishing fourth overall. He was in third after his exceptional short program, but Ryan Jahnke of the US won the free skate, which catapulted him from fourth place into second overall, bumping Serov off the medal platform.
Brian Joubert of France (ranked No. 2 in the world), won the event, even though he was second in the free skate to Jahnke. Michael Weiss of the USA (6) had to settle for the bronze, while Serov finished ahead of the world No. 3, Stefan Lindemann of Germany.
"I didn't try my quad," Serov, who had to sit out of major international competitions because he changed nationalities, said after the event. "I just wanted to do my best program. It was good to skate clean after a two-year break."
Judith Javor, secretary of the Israel Ice Skating Federation, summed up the Israelis' accomplishments and looked towards next week's Skate Canada. "We're really delighted that Galit and Sergei did so well," she said. "Their scores were very high, and hopefully, the problems that they faced at last year's Skate Canada won t repeat themselves.
"It's wonderful that Julia and Vadim have been invited to two Grand Prix this year it will help them gain experience, and of course, Roman Serov has been doing an amazing job after coming off such a long layoff. It would be wonderful for him if he could receive another Grand Prix invitation this year, but there is a very long waiting list for the top skaters."