Worlds 2010: Ladies' Free

The very last portion of these World Championships finished up yesterday with the ladies' free program, and the event was almost as bizarre as the short. I'm still getting over the fact that our brand new world bronze medallist, as much as I love her, earned that medal with a three-triple program.

Gimazetdinova somewhat set the tone for the afternoon with am absolute mess of a skate. I'm not a fan, but it wasn't a nice way for her to finish her career and it was sad to see her looking so devastated at the end. Sonia Lafuente skated well, aside from a fall on her first jump, and finished up in 18th on the free and 20th overall, so not bad for her. I wish she'd be a little more expressive in her face, though.

Little Min-Jung Kwak wasn't bad, but she wasn't as impressive as she was in Vancouver, which is completely understandable. She seems to have changed coaches since the Olympics, because I'm sure she wasn't with Orser then. She has really nice spirals, but she got a lot of under-rotations. Definitely a lot of potential, though, and isn't she just adorable?

Manouk Gijsman looked huge after Kwak. She stepped out of almost every single jump, but still, good for her for qualifying and for at least staying on her feet, for the most part. She has nice presentation and spins and I liked her spirals with the music, and she's pretty, too. Apparently she's the first Netherlands lady to qualify for the free in some ridiculously long amount of time.

Glebova was having a great skate and hit all her jumps, and then fell off her last spin, literally ten seconds before her program ended, which has got to hurt. I like her, but my God, I will not miss that dress of hers. She finished 21st, which is disappointing for her.

Suzuki looked a million times better than she did in the short, as we'd expected. It wasn't perfect, but there were no major mistakes and she finished in eleventh, which is quite a comeback from 20th. She absolutely sold the hell out of her steps, and that red dress is so much better than the orange thing with the white jacket she was wearing earlier in the season. I've heard that she isn't planning to retire, which is good to hear. She's grown on me a lot over the season.

I actually really enjoyed Sarah Hecken, much more than I have done previously. She fell on the lutz but was very clean otherwise, and she's doing a much better job of presenting herself and not getting distracted by mistakes/falls, as she did at Euros and in Vancouver. She looked very happy with her scores and so she should be; she finished up in twelfth.

Leonova was even messier than ever. She definitely peaked too early, which is a shame to see given that she was so fresh and fun and perky last season. This will probably be the last we'll see of her what with all the junior talent coming up in Russia, although I'm not sure how many of them will be age-eligible. It's clear that Makarova is already sailing ahead, anyway.

Kiira was hard to watch. Her jumps appeared to have completely left her, but bless her, kept performing it and kept smiling the whole way through. At least her pops were kind of pretty.

I don't know what Jenna & KVDP have been doing lately but they should definitely keep doing it because that girl was on fire today. Even her hair looked better than usual. She came in 14th, which is her best ever Worlds result, and a great way to make up for the epic disaster that was Vancouver. I was kind of assuming she'd be retiring after this season, but apparently she says that she'll definitely be back next season and is even hoping to do four more years.

Cheltzie Lee is lovely to watch and had a couple of mis-steps on landings, but other than that, it was a good skate for her. She needs to use her face a little more though. She didn't look too impressed with her scores, but they weren't bad at all, and she finished seventeenth.

Elene G started off fairly strong but it all fell apart towards the middle and she ended up falling out of her spin, too, and then stumbling in her ending choreography. She didn't seem to have her usual spark, either, and at times she was really just skating right through her music. She ended up eighteenth.

Miki Ando gave one of the few clean performances of the night and I actually enjoyed it. She hit all her jumps and she was actually engaging and had lots of attack, so that was nice to see. She did have a hell of a slow sit spin though. I have no idea what was up with these girls and their spins yesterday. It was lovely to see her so happy at the end, she usually looks so miserable, and she finished fourth, so Japan easily secured their three spots; they were actually the only nation to do so this year.

Yu-Na looked like she was absolutely back on track and it was all going perfectly, I was convinced she was going to take back the world title, and then she fell on a 3S, and it was obvious that it threw her completely off for the whole rest of the program. She has no idea what to do when she falls, does she? She pulled off an easy 3Lz right after the fall, and then completely popped a 2A, and all of a sudden things looked very, very good for one Miss Nagasu. Still, she still got silver, which really is an indication of the quality of the rest of the girls.

Viktoria Helgesson has had the competition of her life. Once again, she skated really, really well, and I actually found her blonde hair/hot pink dress/Barbie doll aesthetic kind of refreshing and cute. I loved her music, too. She made the top ten, earning two spots for Sweden next year, which will likely go to her and her sister, Joshi, which is great. Fantastic job from her.

To me, Phaneuf was mildly uninspiring, but she was completely clean and perfect and I always like seeing skaters skate their absolute best. She definitely stepped up to the plate in Joannie's absence. I know there'd been some question over whether or not she would be able to hold onto Canada's two spots, especially since Samson bombed, but she ended up in fifth, so good for her.

Sebestyen did not have a great skate. Her KnC was very emotional and was probably very bittersweet, because that will have been her last competition performance ever.

By her standards, Carolina actually went clean, which was a lovely way for her to end the season, and she placed in sixth. Hopefully that, paired with her European title, will be what she needs to get right back on track next season, although honestly, like Jeremy, I feel like I am just losing patience with that girl.

I am seriously delighted that Mao won gold! She was definitely on yesterday, and I'm so glad that she was able to 'beat Yu-Na properly', like she said she wanted to. If you think about her form at the beginning of the season and on the Grand Prix circuit, it's amazing that she was able to come back and get a silver Olympic medal and then win the world title. I will definitely not miss that free program of hers, though. Apparently she will not be coached by Tarasova next season, and hopefully she'll be able to use much lighter music that really lets her shine more.

I don't think I've ever seen Rachael Flatt pop a jump before, but she did yesterday. She didn't really look sure of herself the whole way through, like she wasn't over her skates properly. I feel sorry for her; you have to wonder if all the negativity that surrounds her generally, and her winning of the National title, is finally getting to her. She says she's thinking of deferring her college entry for a year but I wonder how limited her time at the top is, because there are a lot of younger, more dynamic girls - Christina Gao, to name one - coming up who will probably start to overtake her pretty soon, and I like Rachael's skating.

You know what, I'm gonna stick it out there and say that Laura Lepisto is my current favourite ladies' skater. She is absolutely gorgeous to watch. She nailed the 3T-3T, great speed going into that, and the 3Lz, and then doubled the loops and the salchow, but who cares, because apparently that is good enough for a medal. I find it vaguely hilarious that our new world bronze medallist had three triples in her whole program. She is lovely, though.

From the sparkle in her eye at the beginning, I thought Mirai was going to be on, but she wasn't. She had a step out on the 3Lz, tight landings, and a fall on a 2a. It must have been pretty much downgrade central as well, because she dropped all the way down to seventh. That means that, with the two US girls finishing in 7th and 9th, they only earned two spots for next year. I thought three was a done deal after their 1st and 6th placements after the short, but there you go. I'm hoping Wagner gets a shot next year.

I love Ksenia Makarova. She is beautiful. After Flatt, Lepisto and Nagasu, I thought she was basically a lock for the bronze, but she ended up all the way down in eighth. She needs better choreo - and better dresses - but otherwise, she has a lot of potential. She seemed pretty delighted with her scores, anyway.

And that's it! The season is really over! I feel like I'm not entirely sure what to do with myself anymore. There is, of course, already a few exciting things coming out about various teams and various rules, so hopefully it won't be too long until September rolls around and the 2010/2011 season can begin!