The reigning junior world champions Mrázek performed the free dance of a lifetime at their premiere adult WC. They received 115.23 points for their Swan Lake, which was about five points better than at the European Championships in January. “We are very happy that the holiday went well for us. When the season started, our rhythmic dance was weaker, so we paid more attention to it even before Europe, but then there was the mistake in the free run, so now we concentrated a lot on the free run,” said the 20-year-old Mrázek in a press release.
“Before the World Cup, we worked a lot on the free one to gain confidence in it, because it is more demanding. We always have respect for her from a number of elements, so now we are happy that it turned out the way we wanted,” the sister added. Together, they were close to moving into twelfth place after placing eleventh in the free dance, but remained six hundredths of a point behind Georgians Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin.
The more experienced Taschlers avoided a more serious mistake, unlike in the rhythmic dance, where they missed the lift. Their performance in the free dance was rewarded by the judges with 111.92 points, which was three points lower than at the European Championship.
“It was a lot more emotional and more challenging because of how we were thinking about how to approach the program after yesterday’s mistake. If by chance we were not very energetic in the rhythmic dance or where was the mistake. That’s why we told each other the points in the program that we focused on, and it worked out, so we’re happy with how we went,” commented Taschlerová on the program, which is their memory of their late father. It was enough for the eighth pair of last year’s WC to move up three places in the ranking.
This is exactly what was needed to maintain the Mrázky’s position, for the two Czech pairs to have a ranking sum of no more than 28, which means two quotas for the next World Championship. This will be the main qualifier for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo and a precursor to the 2026 World Championships, which will be hosted by Prague.
Chocková and Bates won the world gold for the second time in a row. Their performance on the theme of time accompanied by Pink Floyd was not the best free dance of the evening, it was performed by Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier. However, the American figure skaters defended the first place by 2.52 points thanks to the lead from the rhythmic dance. They rejoiced in Montreal, where they train and which they described as their adopted home in an interview at the stadium.
Local Gilles and Poirier moved to the silver position with the best free dance. Compared to last year, they switched positions on the podium with Italians Charlene Guignard and Marc Fabbri. The European champions finished bronze this time.
World Figure Skating Championships in Montreal: Dance pairs – final ranking: 1. Chockova, Bates (USA) 222.202. Gilles, Poirier (Can.) 219,683. Guignard, Fabbri (It.) 216,524. Fear, Gibson (Brit.) 210,925. Lajoie, Lagha (Kan.) 208,016. Reedová, Ambrulevičius (Lit.) 200.96…13. MRÁZKOVÁ, MRÁZEK (ČR) 188.2815. TASCHLEROVÁ, TASCHLER (all CR) 180.1723:00 men – free ride.
2024-03-23 20:58:00
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