2009 World Figure Skating Championships

The following countries, according to the results of the performances of their athletes at the 2008 World Cup , had the right to put more than one athlete (pair) in each category for this championship:

This tournament, for the first time in the history of the World Championships, was attended by skaters from Brazil and Ireland . And the skater from Montenegro was supposed to be the first athlete of her country to take part in competitions held by ISU ^[3] . However, she did not go to the start, and thus the Montenegrin athletes did not make their debut. Russian skaters were expected to receive medals in competitions in sports pairs and in ice dancing. ^[four]

Schedule

Men's Singles

In men's single skating, in the absence of the champion of the previous year, Jeffrey Battle , who completed his sports career, ^{[5] the} favorites were considered, first of all, European champion Frenchman Brian Joubert , Canadian Patrick Chan and Japanese Takahiko Kozuka , winner of the Four Continents tournament . The Americans also had hopes for their athletes Jeremy Abbott and Evan Lysachek , in addition, last year's European champion Tomas Werner and Japanese Nobunari Oda could compete for medals. ^[6]

Brian Joubert was in the lead after a short program , 1.7 points ahead of American Evan Lysachek. Third place after the short program was held by Canadian Patrick Chan (82.55 points). ^[7] However, in the free program, Brian Joubert made several mistakes in jumping and did not perform the second quadruple. The world champion was Evan Lysacek, who made no mistakes in the program. With the basic complexity of the program at 74.33, Lysacek's technical score was 80.53, while Joubert's initial base was 74.43, and the total was 75.77. ^[eight]

In the short program for men, American Jeremy Abbott and Russian Sergey Voronov scored the same amount of points (72.15). In such cases, priority is given to evaluating the technique, so Voronov was 9th in the short program, and Abbott 10th.

Women's Singles

In women's single skating, the main rivals were the current world champion Mao Asada and her peer Kim Yong-ah , a skater from South Korea. ^[9] Japanese Miki Ando and Italian Carolina Costner could compete with them. Among the possible contenders for the medals were European champion Laura Lepisto of Finland, American Rachel Flatt , Canadian Joannie Rochette and Japanese Fumie Suguri . ^[6]

After a short program, Kim Yong-ah was in the lead with a big opening, consolidating her position in an arbitrary one. She updated her own record for the short program, receiving 76.12 points for her (the previous record was set by her at the championship of the Four Continents of 2009 ), and, having scored a total score of 207.71 points, she broke Mao Asada 's record for total points held since 2006 . The points she received were so high that they would be enough to get into the top ten strongest in the men's category. Last year’s world champion Mao Asada tried to fight a Korean woman by including two triple axels in the program, but fell from the second jump and took fourth place. ^[ten]

Pair skating

In pair skating, the Russians Yuko Kawaguchi and Alexander Smirnov competed with the Chinese pairs Pan Qing / Jian Tong , Zhang Dan / Zhang Hao and the tournament favorites, reigning champions Alena Savchenko and Robin Sholkov from Germany. ^[eleven]

After a short program, Alena Savchenko and Robin Sholkov were in the lead by a wide margin. ^[12] Yuko Kawaguchi and Alexander Smirnov took second place with 68.94 points, while the intermediate third place was occupied by the Chinese Zhang Dan / Zhang Hao (67.42 points). ^[13] According to the results of the performance in the free program, Alena Savchenko and Robin Shelkov re-won the gold medal of the World Cup. Despite the fall of the partner in the pace, they were ahead of the closest Chinese rivals Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang by more than 10 points. ^[14] Kawaguchi and Smirnov fell to third place, as a partner fell at the beginning of the program. ^[15] Kawaguchi and Smirnov, as usual, ^[14] included a quadruple release in their free program, this time a failed partner. Nevertheless, the pair scored 114.45 points became their best mark of the season. ^[sixteen]

Ice Dancing

In ice dancing, the current world champions Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schonfelder did not participate in connection with the injury from a partner. ^[17] The silver medalists of the 2006 Olympics Tanit Belbin and Benjamin Agosto took the leader’s places, saying that they would "fight for gold." ^[18] Russian athletes Yana Khokhlova / Sergey Novitsky (last year’s bronze medalists) and 2008 European champions Oksana Domnina / Maxim Shabalin , as well as Canadians Tessa Vertyu / Scott Moir , Italians Federika Fayella / Massimo Scali , Americans hoped to compete with these athletes Meryl Davis and Charlie White . ^{[6] [18]}

After the performance of the compulsory dance, Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin were the leaders, although Shabalin was in the process of recovering from a knee injury, which he suffered at the end of 2007. ^[19] . The judges gave them 40.77 points for the rental of pasodobs. An intermediate second place was occupied by the American couple Tanit Belbin and Benjamin Agosto, the third was Tessa Vertuy and Scott Moir, ^{[20] who were} forced to miss most of the season because of a partner injury. ^[21] In the original dance, Domnina and Shabalin lost to the American duo, however, they retained first place in the sum of two performances. ^[8] Ultimately, Domnina and Shabalin scored a little more than Tanit Belbin / Benjamin Agosto. ^[ten]

Men

Women

• WD = retired

Couples

Dancing