Swiss Nationals 19-20 Dec

Swiss Nationals start tomorrow (junior and senior level).
http://www.cpns-cs2004.ch/
[Competition site in French, all other links to German-language sites.]

There are 6 senior men listed as of 11 Nov.

Moris Pfeifhofer
Raphael Bohren
Andre Kilchenmann
Patrick Meier
Jamal Othman
Stephane Lambiel

A German and a French skater will also compete under the exchange program the 3 countries have to help skaters get more competition experience.

As of 11 Nov., 20 senior ladies, plus one German and one French skater were planning to compete.

In the past week, the top two Swiss ladies have withdrawn due to injury.

Kimena Brog Meier, 16, has been off the ice most of the year with an unspecified injury and hasn't had enough time back on the ice to prepare for Nationals.
http://www.nzz.ch/2003/12/10/sp/tic/page-nzzam-sport-20031210_brz014.html

Sarah Meier, 19, has also been injury plagued this year, but felt ready to compete until she injured her left foot this week while practicing a lutz. She will continue to train, leaving out the lutz and the toeloop for now. The Swiss federation has indicated that she could be sent to Europeans despite missing Nationals.
http://www.nzz.ch/2003/12/17/sp/page-newzzDOBA0R2F-12.html

No senior dance teams are competing. The Hugentoblers have retired due to Daniel's back problems.
http://www.ecz.ch/ets/saison0304/etnews.htm
(scroll down for story)

There are 4 Swiss junior dance teams, the best known being Daniela and Fabian Keller.

Good luck to all the skaters, and to Sarah and Kimena, best wishes for a successful return to competition level!

Anke G.

I presume Stephane will win this. He better! I am a fan. sorrry to hear about Meier. She's good and I hope she gets a bye for the euros.

Joe

The Sr. Men's SP is over and here are the results:

1 Stéphane LAMBIEL GENEV SUI 0.5 1
2 Patrick MEIER WINTE SUI 1.0 2
3 Jamal OTHMAN BERNE SUI 1.5 3
4 Michael GANSER GER 2.0 4
5 Moris PFEIFHOFER BUELA SUI 2.5 5
6 André KILCHENMANN THUN SUI 3.0 6

Final Results

Senior Men (5th place is the German guest skater)
http://www.cpns-cs2004.ch/elithet.HTM
Championnats Suisses Elite et Junior 2004
Elites Messieurs avec étrangers
Résultat Clf Nom Club Pays Points PC SL
1 Stéphane LAMBIEL GENEV SUI 1.5 1 1
2 Patrick MEIER WINTE SUI 3.0 2 2
3 Jamal OTHMAN BERNE SUI 4.5 3 3
4 Moris PFEIFHOFER BUELA SUI 6.5 5 4
5 Michael GANSER GER 7.0 4 5
6 André KILCHENMANN THUN SUI 9.0 6 6

Senior Ladies (3rd place is the German guest skater, 6th place is the French guest skater)
http://www.cpns-cs2004.ch/eliteda.HTM
Championnats Suisses Elite et Junior 2004
Elites Dames avec étrangers
Résultat Clf Nom Club Pays Points PC SL
1 Cindy CARQUILLAT BERNE SUI 1.5 1 1
2 Lucie Anne BLAZEK LUGAN SUI 4.5 5 2
3 Kristin WIECZOREK GER 6.0 2 5
4 Angélique STEUDLER NEUCH SUI 7.0 8 3
5 Myriam FLÜHMANN ILLNA SUI 7.5 3 6
6 Anne Sophie PICHON FRA 8.5 9 4
7 Jennifer SCHMID KLOTE SUI 10.0 6 7
8 Viviane KÄSER ZU-OE SUI 11.0 4 9
9 Sarah AEPLI HERIS SUI 15.5 15 8
10 Nicole GRAF UZWIL SUI 15.5 11 10
11 Corinne DJOUNGONG GENEV SUI 15.5 7 12
12 Fabienne STOOP ZOUG SUI 18.0 14 11
13 Tamaki BIERI ZU-OE SUI 19.5 13 13
14 Nys MEYER MONTH SUI 22.0 16 14
15 Mélanie BAUMANN ZUERI SUI 23.5 17 15
R Myriam LEUENBERGER BUELA SUI 10
R Fabiola ERBETTA BELLI SUI 12

Junior Dance (1st place is the French guest couple)
http://www.cpns-cs2004.ch/danset.HTM
Championnats Suisses Elite et Junior 2004
Juniors Danse sur Glace avec étrangers
Résultat Clf Nom Club Pays Points D1 D1 DO DL
1 Elodie BROUILLE / Lionel RUMI FRA 2.4 2 2 1 1
2 Daniela KELLER / Fabian KELLER MITTE SUI 3.6 1 1 2 2
3 Nora VON BERGEN / Boris RÄBER BERNE/ZUERI SUI 6.0 3 3 3 3
4 Livia WETZEL / Gerrit KNOBLOCH ZUERI SUI 8.4 5 5 4 4
5 Andrea MÜLLER / Sven LANG FRAUE/KREUZ SUI 9.6 4 4 5 5

You can get the results for Junior Men and Ladies at
http://www.cpns-cs2004.ch/res.htm

And there's some kind of note on that page that the Elite Ladies didn't achieve scores necessary for the title Swiss Champion. I think that relates to who will go to Euros and Worlds, and the hope is that Sarah Meier will be able to recover from her foot injury in time to be the one to go.

whats this with guest skaters?

skatepixie said:

whats this with guest skaters?

Click to expand...

The Swiss, the Germans, and the French are trying to work together to improve their skating programs. They have some joint coaching seminars, and they allow one or two skaters from the other countries to participate in their national championships. The idea is to give skaters more opportunities to skate in competition conditions. The guests generally aren't skaters who get international assignments, so they may only get a couple competition opportunities in a year.

This is the second or third year they've done it. The official winners of the national championship are always local skaters. The Kellers, for instance, are considered the Swiss Champions of the junior dance event. I included the guest skaters, though, because it does help to give a sense of the performance, both for the local skaters and the guest skaters.

Anke - That's such a nice idea. I think the USFSA should do 'guest' exchange with Puerto Rico, Mexico, and other countries south of the boarder. I am sure Argentina has a few talented skaters.

Joe

Question

Anke, does Switzerland have any pairs teams?

Re: Question

Matt said:

Anke, does Switzerland have any pairs teams?

Click to expand...

There certainly weren't any pairs teams at the junior or senior level at nationals. I'll have to do some more looking around (I'm actually in the US so I get my info from the web and a German skating magazine I subscribe to). I've actually wondered if they ever had any pairs teams at the world level. If I find any information, I'll post it at The Edge forum. Maybe there's someone from Switzerland who can answer the question...

Joesitz said:

Anke - That's such a nice idea. I think the USFSA should do 'guest' exchange with Puerto Rico, Mexico, and other countries south of the boarder. I am sure Argentina has a few talented skaters.

Joe

Click to expand...

I like your idea! Mexican skaters do participate in the North American Challenge Skate events that take place each summer (2 in the US and 2 in Canada last year). These events are for junior and novice level skaters. It would be nice for Puerto Rican skaters to eventually be included.

exchange programs

I can see the following happening-

Mongolia, Thailand, Korea, China, Japan, UZB, KAZ, and India..

Can, USA, MEX, BRA...

Maybe we should just form federations by REGION rather than by country...

Re: Re: Question

Anke G said:

There certainly weren't any pairs teams at the junior or senior level at nationals. I'll have to do some more looking around (I'm actually in the US so I get my info from the web and a German skating magazine I subscribe to). I've actually wondered if they ever had any pairs teams at the world level. If I find any information, I'll post it at The Edge forum. Maybe there's someone from Switzerland who can answer the question...

Click to expand...

No there weren't any competing, there was one last year in the junior field, but they weren't that strong, the judges gave them 4.0 in the long programm to be cool and not too rough... But this year again the desert... Leslie & Cédric Monod were the last senior couple competing in the nationals, 10 years ago now! But couple skate is so hard to do, so much work... And so few guys motivated to skate in Switzerland...

No mention of Sara Meier. Is she injured?

Joe

Sarah Meier

Yes, Sarah injured her left foot while practicing the week of the competition. I don't have any information beyond what I posted at the start of this thread. I do expect that there will be a news report when she "tests" for the Europeans spot. I'll let you know when I see something.

Happy New Year!
Anke G.