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Surprising start for a rising star
Fumie Suguri of Japan, who trains regularly in Toronto with choreographer Lori Nichol, captivated the Skate Canada audience with a strong and moving short program, beating out such favourites as defending world championship silver medallist Irina Slutskaya of Russia and Laetitia Hubert of France, who placed fourth at the 1998 worlds.
Given the quality of the competition here and her limited experience internationally, it's doubtful Suguri, 17, will be able to hold on to first overall after tonight's freeskate program. However, her performance yesterday was certainly a revelation, and a surprise, even to herself.
"Yes, really, really surprised," said the composed young skater when asked about her skate. "This is a very big competition for me."
Suguri's only other appearances at major senior competitions was her fifth-place showing at the 1997 NHK Trophy and a 18th-place finish at the 1997 worlds. Suguri is not even her country's national champion.
Skating to a entrancing medley by the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt, Suguri landed a triple Lutz-double toe jump combination, a triple flip and double Axel. She appeared totally relaxed throughout the performance and not at all bothered by a hip injury which kept her out of last year's Skate Canada.
Placing second in the women's short last night was Elena Liashenko of the Ukraine, who finished ninth at last winter's Nagano Olympics. Slutskaya, skating to the beautiful Concerto No. 6 by Alfred Schnittke, was third, thanks to some rather generous judging. The popular Russian skater two-footed her opening triple Lutz jump and fell attempting a triple loop.
Last night's competition was certainly one of the better international women's singles event in years.
Unfortunately, British Columbia's own Keyla Ohs, second at the Canadians last year, had a rough go in her short, two-footing a triple Lutz and falling on a triple toe attempt. She finished 10th.