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Kwan easily wins short program
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Michelle Kwan wanted to let loose and give the audience something to remember. Did she ever.Skating with the flair she was missing at the Olympics, Kwan received one perfect 6.0 for artistry to win Friday's short program at the World Figure Skating Championships. The audience roared as the mark flashed, and Kwan gasped and grabbed coach Frank Carroll's knee.
"When I stepped on the ice, I saw the American flags and banners and I wanted to give to the audience the joy and freedom I have on the ice," she said. "I felt like they were carrying me through and that was really nice."
A second world title would be nice, too. And about the only way anyone is going to steal it from her is if Kwan doesn't show up for Saturday's free skate.
Anna Rechnio of Poland, whose best finish in a major international event was ninth in the 1995 European champions, was second. Laetitia Hubert of France, another longshot, was third.
The other American, Tonia Kwiatkowski, stepped out of a jump combination and finished eighth.
With Olympic champion Tara Lipinski taking a pass and the other skaters bumbling, stumbling and fumbling around her, all Kwan had to do was stand up to win the short program.
But she did more than that. Much more. That tentativeness she had in Nagano, where she was everyone's favorite yet came home with silver, was gone. Her old smile was back as she stepped onto the ice, and so was her speed.
She flew around the rink, landing every jump with her blade gripping the ice like a magnet. She made the audience feel every note of Rachmaninoff's piano concerto, giving it life with her intricate footwork.
When she landed her triple toe loop, a jump that's given her problems because of a stress fracture in her foot, a huge smile crossed her face. As she spiraled across the length of the rink, skating with her leg extended gracefully behind her, the crowd went wild.
It gave her a standing ovation as she finished, and Kwan looked happier than she's been since her transcendent performance in the national championships in January, where she received 15 6.0s.
"When I went home after the Olympics, I was working on my speed and flow and my spins, and to attack," she said. "When I went out there, I just felt like everything was on the go. I felt really ready to go."
Kwan's technical marks, ranging from 5.5 to 5.8, were lower than she expected, and the Hungarian judge even had her second to Hubert. The same judge gave Kwiatkowski a 4.3 for technical merit and had her 15th, far lower than any other judge.
Rechnio, 19th in the Olympics, dazzled the crowd -- and herself -- with a flawless program. Skating to "Gone With the Wind," she blew away everyone but Kwan. Her jumps were huge, carrying her far across the ice, and she sped across the rink.
When she finished, she clasped her hands and pumped her fists in the air. She savored her moment as long as she could, even stopping to sign a few autographs at the sideboards.
"It has been a long time since I have been able to do well," said Rechnio, who recently returned to Poland after training for three years in Marlboro, Mass.
"I missed my parents and my friends, and I had some problems," she said. "Now I feel more secure. I'm always thinking about skating now."
Hubert felt comfortable, too, and it showed. After a disastrous 20th at the Olympics, she went back to France and concentrated on improving her programs.
While she didn't have Kwan's flair or Rechnio's strength, Hubert quietly did her job. She was fast, and one of only two skaters to do a triple-triple jump combination. Her spins were unique and the program was elegant.
"I thik I did not have enough repetitions of my programs to feel well enough about them," Hubert said of her problems at the Olympics. "When I feel well about them and enjoy myself, I can skate like this."
There was little for the other skaters to enjoy as they fell hard and fast. First to go was Russia's Maria Butyrskaya, the European champion who finished fourth in the Olympics. Her infamous inconsistency struck with a vengeance, as she singled the triple lutz in a jump combination and didn't even attempt the second jump. She finished a charitable fifth.
Next was Russian Irina Slutskaya, a two-time European champion and bronze medalist in the 1996 world championships. She fell on a triple lutz, her first jump, but managed to salvage the rest of the program for fourth place.
The bad luck that follows Germany's Tanja Szewczenko, came to Minneapolis, too. She missed almost two years because of a viral infection, then had to withdraw from the Olympics after coming down with a bad case of the flu.
Szewczenko started by running into a flower boy as she took the ice. On her opening triple lutz-triple toe combination, she crashed into the sideboards. But what really hurt was when she tried another triple toe at the other end of the rink -- something you can't do in the short program.
The judges marked her accordingly, and she finished 11th.
World Figure Skating, Results
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Results Friday from the World Figure Skating Championships at the Target Center:
Women
Short Program
1. Michelle Kwan, U.S., .5 factored placements; 2. Anna Rechnio, Poland, 1.0; 3. Laetitia Hubert, France, 1.5; 4. Irina Slutskaya, Russia, 2.0; 5. Maria Butyrskaya, Russia, 2.5; 6. Elena Liashenko, Ukraine, 3.0; 7. Tatyana Malinina, Uzbekistan, 3.5; 8. Tonia Kwiatkowski, United States, 4.0; 9. Vanessa Gusmeroli, France, 4.5; 10. Tanja Szewczenko, Germany, 5.0;
11. Yulia Vorobieva, Azerbaijan, 5.5; 12. Yulia Lavrenchuk, Ukraine, 6.0; 13. Yelena Sokolova, Russia, 6.5; 14. Zuzana Paurova, Slovakia, 7.0; 15. Diana Poth, Hungary, 7.5; 16. Joanne Carter, Australia, 8.0; 17. Lenka Kulovana, Czech Republic, 8.5; 18. Marie-Pierre Leray, 9.0; 19. Angela Derochie, Ottawa, 9.5; 20. Julia Sebestyen, Hungary, 10.0
21. Silvia Fontana, Italy, 10.5; 22. Shizuka Arakawa, Japan, 11.0; 23. Mojca Kopac, Slovenia, 11.5; 24. Lucinda Ruh, Switzerland, 12.0.
Did not qualify
25. Alisa Drei, Finland, 12.5; 26. Anna Wenzel, Austria, 13.0; 27. Anna Lundstrom, Sweden, 13.5; 28. Marta Andrade, Spain, 14.0; 29. Hyung-Kyung Choi, South Korea, 14.5; 30. Yankun Du, China, 15.0.