Finlandia-Trophy 6-7 October, 2006
I’ve been a few times to Finlandia Trophy and I always enjoyed this event. I skipped it two years ago, because they didn’t have ice dancing anymore, and then it was cancelled last year. But when the roster was published, I knew I couldn’t resist to go…. I’m a big fan of Russian skating, and four promising young Russian competitors came: Alexander Uspenski, Sergei Dobrin, Andrei Lutai and Sergei Voronov. Later, Margarita Tertychnaia was added, and I was also eager to see her in competition after watching her in practice in Novogorsk in September.
There was just one problem - I could come only for Sunday’s free skating because of a family celebration. My family and friends didn’t really understand why I took a train at 3.30 am to catch a flight to Helsinki at 7 am… but skating friends understood very well.
I didn’t regret it! My Finnish friend Jyrki and another Jyrki met me at the airport and drove me to the ice rink. The hotel was just next door, which was very convenient. I had time to go to the hotel and had a coffee with Jyrki before we went back to the rink. There was also a cat exhibition going on (I love cats!), but there was no time to visit, unfortunately.
At the rink, I met another old friend, Nigel. When I walked through the hallway, I run into Alexei Urmanov. I told him that I read about Igor Bobrin’s show and saw the cute pictures of him and his little boys Andrei and Ivan on the internet, and he smiled. He is very proud of them, you could tell. Alone meeting Alexei was worth the trip. ;-)
The competition started with the Men’s free skating. I’m not writing a lot about technique and jumps here as this was covered elsewhere well enough. I’ll write more about my general impressions of the skaters.
Men
Justus Strid (SWE)
A new face for me. He skated to classical music, I recognized “1812 Ouverture” by Tchaikovski. He went for a triple Lutz, which I didn’t expect (he fell).
Adrian Alvarado (MEX)
He obviously was far behind of the others in terms of technique and ability, but he had a nice costume! There was also the director of the costume design company from St. Petersburg, and he said to me that he was surprised to see the Mexican skater in these elaborate outfits, before he found out that Adrian is training in Moscow. :-)
Ari-Pekka Nurmenkari (FIN)
I heard that Ari-Pekka is in the army, which explains his hair cut.
Valtter Virtainen (FIN)
He somehow doesn’t seem to grow! He still looks so young, but he is 19 by now. Unfortunately, I think his free program music (“Rienzi” by Richard Wagner) wasn’t a good choice for him. The music overpowered him and was too difficult for him, at least in my opinion.
Sergei Voronov (RUS)
Sergei is Alexei Urmanov’s student and so I always have to decide if I watch him on the ice or rather his coach at the boards. ;-) Well, this time, I could have just watched Alexei. Sergei isn’t yet in top shape. Strange enough he usually hits the 3A, but then messes up other jumps. His overall skating has improved, though. He looks less juniorish and has more polish than last year, but there is still a lot of work to do. Actually, I don’t know why the Russian Federation decided to send him on to the senior Grand Prix. Another junior year probably would have been better for him. Alexei feels that it was time to move up for Sergei but he doesn’t rule out that Sergei goes back to Junior Worlds (I guess in case he doesn’t make the senior team for Euros or/and Worlds).
Nicholas Laroche (USA)
I’ve seen him a few years ago at Junior Worlds and I recognized him immediately. He is very tall for a skater and appears heavy. He has a strange jumping technique, more based on power or force than on actual technique, it seems to me. So it was no surprise that he had some problems with his jumps.
Jeremy Abbott (USA)
I never had seen him before, but it was a pleasant surprise. I watched his short program to “American Beauty” on video, and I really liked the unusual choreography. Jyrki said that it was even better live. The long program was less interesting, though. A Finnish journalist and I later waited to get some quotes from him after he had won, and he was on the phone for quite a while before we could talk to him! Of course, he was really excited. This win meant a lot to him.
Sergei Dobrin (RUS)
Seriozha kept his old Zorro program, which would have been ok, hadn’t he also kept his short program! He said that his coach wanted him to keep the programs. Maybe they were too lazy to do something new, in any case it’s disappointing. Sergei is quite tall now and grew up over the summer again. Five years ago at Junior Worlds in Sofia, Bulgaria, he was one of the youngest and tiniest competitors! He always seems very focused on each element and takes it step by step in his programs. Here was no exception, but it takes away a lot of the flow and energy I like to see in a performance. It made him look heavy and slow. He tried the quad Salchow for the first time in competition, but he landed forward and it was downgraded. Good for him that he tried and even better that he landed all his seven triples afterwards. He was very pleased and pointed out that his coach was happy with him, too. I heard that Zhanna Gromova was not happy at all after the short when he fell on the flip and was only in 5th place! Sergei won the free skating, but he finished third overall.
Andrei Lutai (RUS)
Andrei is a student of Alexei Mishin, and the “maître” had come with him to Finland. Andrei left a good impression at the test skate in September and he won the (national) Cup of Russia Samara (I don’t know how he skated there, but he beat Dobrin). He had won the short program with a clean performance and he had the chance for a breakthrough by winning here and beating his close rivals. But it wasn’t to be this time. He fell hard on his 4T, and later he tried another 4T. It wasn’t planned at all, and he fell again, no wonder. His music is a kind of modernized Vivaldi selection but the program does nothing for me. It was a bit bland. He got a third deduction for timing violation. Mishin was not pleased! I went downstairs to the mixed zone to talk to Sergei Dobrin and I met Mishin on the way. He just shook his head and worried about all the deductions. Andrei then didn’t stop in the mixed zone and ran off into the dressing room, clearly upset. I felt sorry for him.
Alexander Uspenski (RUS)
Alexander (Sascha) Uspenski is a huge talent, he just moves so naturally on the ice. I later had a look at the scoring sheet and expected to see really high “skating skills” scores. But they were all 6.50 and 6.75 (in the short he had also 7.25). One judge gave him 0.25 less than Nicholas Laroche. Sorry, there is no comparison. Like Sergei, Sascha went for the quad for the first time in competition, but fell. At least he got credit for a quad. It was an important step for him. He kept the flow and speed throughout the program, especially also in the footwork. The “Godfather” music underlines this flow, and it suits him well. He had a long talk with his coach Natalia Dubinskaia before joining the journalists in the mixed zone, but he also gave elaborate answers to us. :-) He said that he didn’t land the quad in practice here (at home he did), but he still wanted to try it.
Ladies
Roxana Luca (ROM)
She obviously wasn’t in shape yet. She said that she hadn’t trained very much, so no wonder she struggled.
Margarita Tertytchnaia (RUS)
This was the first time I saw this girl competing. She has good basic skills, nice lines and triple jumps up to triple Lutz, but of course they aren’t consistent yet. I think she is promising and I hope to see more of her in the future. Margarita trains in Zhanna Gromova’s group.
Niina Laksola (FIN)
She is tall and looked a bit awkward on the ice. Unfortunately, her jumps weren’t there.
Elena Muuhina (EST)
The poor girl had a really bad day, she fell three times and also messed up her spiral and spin.
Erica Archambault (USA)
Another skater that I saw for the first time. She did a good 3T-3T, but she struggled with many other jumps, apparently has trouble with the double Axel. She didn’t land it in the short program either.
Elena Glebova (EST)
I always liked her coach, Anna Kondrashova and I remember when she was a skater. Elena has a fairly consistent 3T-3T, and she did it in the short.
Julia Sebestyen (HUN)
Julia has her hair dyed a bit reddish, at least it seemed to me. She was her usual self, on (with a great 3L and 3F) and off (missing or doubling other jumps). Her long program is to “Otonal”. I thought it was ok, nothing special. Julia seemed quite pleased overall. I hope she’ll have a better season than last year.
Alisa Drei (FIN)
Many people including me were surprised that Alisa stayed in after the big disappointment last season when she narrowly missed to qualify for the Olympic Games. She left her coach, Sirkka Kaipio, according to my Finnish friends they had an argument at Europeans where Alisa was very depressed before the long program. Now Alisa is back training with her mother Elena. Her program was typical for her, a typical music (“Warsaw Concerto”) and some mistakes. It must have been very disappointing for her to be 2nd in the short, 3rd in the free but 4th overall.
Kiira Korpi (FIN)
She is getting really, really popular in Finland. She got more flowers and presents than everyone else here (and I felt that the audience was generous with presents and flowers in general, I think each skater got at least something). Kiira has a good presence on the ice, power and high jumps. The fall on the 3T in her combo with 3F obviously threw her off and none of her remaining jumps was clean. The name of her free program music was listed as “Phantasia” by Andrew Lloyd Webber, it definitely contained “Phantom of the Opera”. I can’t say that I particulary liked her costume, the black belt didn’t seem to make much sense. It’s not a martial arts program after all!
Susanna Pöykiö (FIN)
Susanna had to skate last and she felt uncomfortable with it. She appeared insecure and fell right away on her first jump, a doubled flip. That seemed to take away all the courage she had, she doubled most of her other jumps and looked very hesistant. It's hard to judge her program based on this rather uninspired performance. I can say that I liked her music ("Munich" soundtrack), which is melanchonic. It suits her classical, elegant style.
