Cohen wins short program
CALGARY, Alberta – Sasha Cohen used a weak performance as the spark for yet another brilliant short program, giving her the lead at the World Figure Skating Championships.
Cohen’s “Dark Eyes” brightened her chances for her first world title Friday. The U.S. champion won the short program with a grace and energy missing from her qualifying effort earlier this week.
Although she two-footed her triple lutz in a combination jump, the two-time world silver medalist surged past Canada’s Joannie Rochette, Japan’s Fumie Suguri and fellow American Kimmie Meissner.
Bulgaria’s Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski won their nation’s first world gold by taking the ice dancing championship Friday night. Americans Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto added bronze to their Olympic silver medal, finishing behind Canadians Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, who won the free dance.
Denkova and Staviski’s melodramatic routine to “Adagio” featured several innovative lifts, and it was just enough to give them the overall edge after winning compulsories and original dance. They were third in the free dance; all three of Bulgaria’s medals at worlds – one of each – belong to them.
The Canadians didn’t get a chance to show off their classy, intricate free dance to “Somewhere in Time” at the Olympics. She fell hard after losing her grip on his arms in the original dance, forcing them to withdraw.
But they were mesmerizing before their countrymen hoping for one gold medal out of these championships.
Belbin and Agosto blew their chance to win the first U.S. ice dancing gold in a world championship when they were only fourth in the original dance. They recovered well enough with their fiery flamenco free dance to get the bronze after winning silver in last year’s worlds.
“I felt like I allowed myself to enjoy this free dance,” Belbin said. “All season long I have been dreading this free dance because I was so nervous.”
Emily Hughes fell on her triple lutz, didn’t do the required combination, and slipped to eighth. The 17-year-old American has little chance for a medal in her first senior worlds.