Some More Finlandia Results

Short Program - Men: Weir; Chiper (Romania); Timchenko; Delmore.

Short Program - Ladies: Poykio (Fin); Kostner (Ita); Hegel (Croatia); 6th Place: Lindsey Weber; 9th Place: Jenna McCorkle;
11th place: Angela.

Pairs Final: Canada; Canada; USA; USA.

Dance Final: Bulgaria; Russia; GBritain.

Joe

FINALS

Men: Chiper (Romania); Johnny (USA); Berntsson (Sweden) Timchenko (Russia); Smalum (germany); Derick Delmore (USA

Ladies:; Poykio (Finland); Drei (Finland); Marzano (Autralia); Hegel (Croatia);
Other skaters: 9. Weber (USA); 10. McCorkel (GBr); 11.Nikidinov (USA).

Bummer about Angela. I was really hoping she'd have a good showing here. Kostner in 2nd. I'd like to see her skating right now. I wonder if she looks less 'coltish' this year.

Yay for the Canuck pairs!

FINAL MEN'S AND LADIES RESULTS

1 CHIPER ROM 2 1
2 WEIR USA 1 2
3 BERNTSSON SWE 5 3
4 TIMCHENKO RUS 3 5
5 SMALUN GER 6 4
6 DELMORE USA 4 6
7 YIK CAN 10 7
8 SVIATKO SVK 8 8
9 NURMENKARI FIN 9 9
10 DOMANSKI POL 7 10
11 MINKKINEN FIN 11 11


1 POYKIO FIN 1 1
2 DREI FIN 5 2
3 MANZANO AUS 4 3
4 KOSTNER ITA 2 4
5 HEGEL CRO 3 5
6 KETTUNEN FIN 8 6
7 DYTRT GER 7 7
8 VENHUIZEN NED 10 8
9 WEBER USA 6 10
10 McCORKELL GBR 9 9
11 NIKODINOV USA 11 11
12 VASSILJEVA EST 12 12

Strange, isn't it? Kostner was 4th at last year's Europeans and 10th at Worlds. Manzano was 10th at 4C and didn't make the finals at Worlds.

Great results for the Finnish ladies!

Great coverage of this event per the internet! [two thumbs up]

Just got through reading all the reviews.......btw props to Paula for the superb articles that she always provides (one of the reasons why this site is my favorite skating site)........and a special thanks to Jaana, Eislauffen, & Ritti ~ GREAT JOB! ^)

First off, CONGRATULATIONS to all the winners, with special hugs going to the following:

Chiper (ROM) ~ for truly being an underdog (totally came out of left field); landed his first quad in competition and as a result won the whole thing! Also, if I'm not mistaken, he was the oldest competitor on the men's side at the age of 25! YES! This reminds me of when Maria Butyrskaya became the oldest female to win a World Championship at the age of 26 in 1999. ^)

Drei (FIN) & Manzano (AUS) ~ for winning the silver & bronze medals respectively, but most importantly for doing so at the ages of 25 (Drei) & 28 (Manzano); the latter being the oldest competitor in the competition btw. YES! Score another one for the old warhorses. (;^)

***Note: also Congrats to Drei's teammates ~ Poykio ~ for winning the whole thing for the second year in a row. One more time and she will have tied Elena Sokolova for the most wins at Finlandia.***

Hinzmann & Parchem (USA) ~ for winning the bronze despite only being together since the summer. ^) ***Note: however, being a huge Aaron Parchem Fan, I have to admit that I'm concerned with his choice of a new partner - one not known for being able to land the jumps - basically the same story as his old partner, which was aesthetically gorgeous on the ice but not good technically. IMHO he should have just stayed w/Stephanie. Or tried to get Jennifer Kirk as his new partner, who represents the best out of the not-so-best. JMHO***

On a somewhat down note, too bad about Kostner.......the result here obviously is not an indication of what she is capable of......and I'm wondering what the problem is since last year she came out fairly strong early on in the JGP??? And I'm not talking about coming in 4th at a B-level competition, rather about her missing so many jumps in competition as well as practice. Not that I expected her to repeat her amazing performances at 2003 Euros & Worlds, but I didn't expect her to make soooooo many errors: SP - only landed the 2A cleanly, whereas the other two required 3jumps were shakey/underrotated/turnout/etc.; LP - only landed three 3jumps cleanly, no 3/3s (which she had become known for), 1A!, etc. Hmmmm....

***Note: IMHO Kostner has either had a growth spurt, which would obviously explain the aforementioned errors and therefore take about a year to get back (crossing fingers). Or she was just plain out-of-shape, undertrained, et al. Hopefully for her sake it was the latter. And she can get it together before Skate America in 2 weeks time and manage to place in the Top 5.***

Peace & Love, Nadine

P.S. Though none of my FAVS for this particular event (i.e. Kostner, Nikodinov, & McCorkell) did well, it's only the beginning. And hopefully the results here will give them the impetus to do better in the future. ^)

"this above all????" - CLo

Just wanted to say something in reply to what Nadine said about the pairs event,,,,Hinzmann/Parchem in particular. Doesn't sound like she has much faith in Aaron's choice for a partner,but I wonder if she realizes that the short program that they skated in Finland was the first CLEAN short program Aaron has ever done with a partner. Having said that, I wouldn't be so quick to insinuate that Marcy is not a good enough partner for him. Just MHO'

Alas, pairfan, someone to scuffle with! lol

Seriously, I'm hoping that you're right b/c I really want them to do well. Pairs skating has always been one of my favorite disciplines. And thus, it has been discouraging over the years to see how the American pairs in particular have done. Because of that, it's hard to get excited about a brand new pair - been burned too many times in this regards - as far as getting my hopes up for a promising pair.

As regards Aaron skating cleanly, hmmm, I'm not too sure about that. My memory, which I do admit is not always on, seems to recall that the majority of the time it's been Aaron's partner that hasn't been able to skate cleanly. At least that was the case with his last partner (aka Stephanie Kalesavich). Though I do admit that at least Stephanie tried the harder elements, such as sbs-3salchows, even if not quite successful. The best they ever did, as far as skating cleanly, was at 2002 Nationals IMHO. In fact, I think they should have been the second pair team to go to the Olympics (along with Ina & Zimmerman). JMHO.

We shall see how this new pairing works out...

Peace & Love, Nadine

"they are two halves of a perfect whole" - Dick Button referring to G&G

Nadine, what I was trying to say was not that Aaron himself had never skated a clean short program but that as part of a pair he had not had a partner that landed or performed all the elements in the short program until this past week in Finland with Marcy. I myself enjoyed Steph's look on the ice, but we all know that the look alone will only take you so far. I will be cheering for Aaron and his new partner Marcy this season as I think they have great potential to do well in the future. No hard feeling!

for Nikodinov. It just gets worse for her, doesn't it?

Jimmy Hoffa said:

for Nikodinov. It just gets worse for her, doesn't it?

Click to expand...

I hope we shouldn't read too much into this. Remember Yags at Goodwill in 2001? Everyone said there was no way he could possibly beat Plush that seaon, that the top of his career was over, etc. Well, we all know how thatseason went for him

My apologies, pairfan!

I'm sorry you thought I came across w/"hard feelings".........honestly, no........too bad it came across that way. I didn't mean for it too (no lie).

The only skaters I ever get a little 'hot around the collar' about are my all-time favorites (aka Henie, Baiul, Hughes) and sometimes other favorites. And out of those times, only one time did I go AWOL (lol ) ~ that was when NBC refused to show Oksana's second number at World Pros a few yrs. back.

Back on topic, GOOOOOOOO MARCY & AARON!!!

Peace & Love, Nadine

P.S. Actually, skating is pretty tame. Now go to the music boards - Holy Cow - are they ever vicious (no lie)! Thus, I'm on my way over there (lol).

AMERICA'S SWEETHEART - DUE OUT FEBRUARY 1ST - GOOOOOO CLO!

Nadine...your'e too funny!!! I really appriciate your humor!!! Have fun at the music boards, I'll stick to skating though!!