FIGURE SKATING: Australia’s Figure Skating duo Harley Windsor and Ekaterina ‘Katia’ Alexandrovskaya have finished 6th at the Four Continents Figure skating Championships in Taipei, Taiwan.
The pair were the last to skate in the Free Program on Friday after claiming a silver “small medal” earlier in the week following the Pairs Short Program.
Windsor doubled the opening salchow then rallied for the triple double double combo. A lift later in the four-and-a-half-minute skate did not eventuate, interrupting the flow of the pair’s program.
“It just wasn’t our day,” Windsor said.
“We’re going to Japan after this so we’re just going to have to put our heads down and train just like we would every other competition again. It’s in the past now so there’s nothing we can do about it.
“We just have to try and take the good away from this competition. Obviously, there were a lot of mistakes in the free but we did a good short so if there’s anything we can take away from this it’s just some of the good elements that we did do and just focus on our preparation into the next one.”
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Tarah Kayne and Danny O’Shea, who were third in Wednesday’s short dance, won gold with a total segment score of 128.68 while their fellow Americans Ashley Cain and Timothy Leduc claimed silver with a combined score of 123.85.
Meanwhile, North Korea’s Tae Ok Ryom and Ju Sik Kim claimed the country's first ISU Championship medal after taking bronze.
Following the women’s free program on Friday night, Sochi Olympian Brooklee Han finished 14th and said that while she “left a few points on the table” she was “feeling pretty good” after returning to the ice after battling an injury for most of the season.
“I had some silly mistakes, especially on the triple toe which I can do in my sleep,” Han said.
“I’ve been jumping and doing triples for about a month so, with that being said, I’m really happy with how it went.
“The triple Lutz is the last jump that I’ve added back in and that only happened a week-and-a-half ago and I can’t really train that as much as I would like based on doctor’s orders at the moment.
“I was just really focused today and wanted to put out a good solid program and I felt for the most part I did that, I was happy with how it went overall.”
Japan dominated Friday night’s podium, with Kaori Sakamoto winning gold, Mai Mihara silver and Satoko Miyahara taking bronze.
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Newcastle native Kailani Craine, who will compete in her first Olympics next month, said that Friday’s free program was “definitely not my best performance” after finishing 16th but added that she was feeling positive for PyeongChang.
“I thought I would score higher but, you know, what can you do?” she said.
“I guess that they’re just making me work hard for next time and that’s ok, this competition was a competition to iron out the wrinkles in my skating.
“I really want to be perfect for the Olympic Games and if this is what it takes me to just push that extra level then that’s ok because I really want to do my best at the Olympics.”
Craine's fellow PyeongChang teammate Brendan Kerry finished 13th in the men's program.
Performing his free program, the 23-year-old opened with a flawless quad toe but incurred a landing deduction in his second quad.
Multiple landing errors on easier triples proved costly for Kerry who said that he was “pretty disappointed” with his performance.
“I’m not going to lie, I don’t think I’ve even done one in practice that bad to be honest,” he said.
“But I’d rather do it now and know exactly what I have to improve on before the Olympics.”
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China’s Boyang Jin won gold with 300.95 points while Japan’s Shoma Uno finished second with a total of 297.94.
Meanwhile America’s Jason Brown, who finished fourth in the short program, took bronze with a score of 269.22.
Andrew Dodds, who also competed in the ice dance with partner Chantelle Kerry, finished the day in 21st place with 177.81 points and though exhausted said that he was happy with the results.
"It’s a long week, no one has ever done this before at a championship event doing two disciplines so it’s a challenge,” he said.
“Yes there were things that I missed out on and I can do a lot better but even that was a season’s best so it’s just building and I’m happy that I’ve got a season’s best at every time I’ve been out this week so that’s all I can ask for.
David Barden
OWIA