Helsinki Rockettes and Team Unique are in good positions at the World Championships in Lake Placid. Finland even has the potential for a double win.
The Finnish teams are strong in the competition for the World Cup gold in formation skating in Lake Placid. Helsinki Rockettes skated second in the short program with a season record score of 78.61. Team Unique also reached their best score of the season, 76.13, and goes to the free programs in third place. Reigning world champions Canada’s Les Suprêmes lead the race with 79 points.
The Team Finland 2 team, the Helsinki Rockettes, leads the results statistics of the sport this season and aims to improve on last season’s World Championship bronze. The team skated last in the short program competition and made their program Breath a technically skillful and accurate move, which was also rewarded with commendable points for its presentation.
– For the first few moments, I breathed along with the breaths of the program, but after that I could only enjoy. When the team gets into its own bubble in such an exciting situation and succeeds, it speaks of top athletes who have prepared well, Rockettes coach Kaisa Arrateig said in the announcement.
According to the coach, there was a lot of good in the program, which is also shown by the season’s record points.
– Maybe a little more volume would have been needed, which would have brought more speed to the start, but on the other hand, the mills were spinning well and we could see a wonderful glide. In any case, we are satisfied with the result and we are moving towards a new day. The differences are small and Saturday is the decisive day.
“The starting points for the day of free programs are good”
The Team Finland 1 team, Team Unique, achieved a significantly improved season’s record points and third place with its successful performance. The strong bet from the program It ain’t over reached the planned technical levels and brought high marks for both technical quality and presentation.
Coach Mirjami Penttinen said he was very proud of his team’s performance.
– The WC gold was an emotional victory for us, and it even created panic about the upcoming trip to the WC. From that, we were able to pull ourselves together for a performance that was really relaxed and focused. The best thing was to see how the team really had fun together on the ice. Skating lacked all compression.
– The starting points for the day of free programs are good. It would be great if the points were enough for bronze, but we’ll see how it goes. We enjoy the competition anyway.
The free programs will be skated on the World Cup ice on Saturday and you can watch them through ‘s channels. Thanks to the small point differences, Finland has full chances even for a double win. The live broadcast of free programs starts at Areena at 22:25 and on TV2 the broadcast starts at 23:50.
The Finns’ previous World Cup gold is Marigold IceUnity’s victory in 2018 in Stockholm. The Rockettes have won in 2008, 2010 and 2011, Team Unique in 2013.
The situation after the short program:
1. Les Supremes, Canada 79.00 points
2. Helsinki Rockettes, Finland 78.61
3. Team Unique, Finland 76.13
4. Nexxice, Canada 72.17
5. Miami University, USA 70.07
6. Haydenettes, USA 64.77