Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis finished third in the figure skating Espoo GP ice dance. The GP series is the most prestigious international competition series in figure skating.
The Finnish pair skated their best combined score of 195.80 of the season.
After Friday’s rhythm dance, the Finns were third with 77.65 points and kept their position in Saturday’s free dance, where they skated their season record score of 118.15.
However, there was still room for improvement.
– Ulosanti was not our best. We had to fight at certain points, and we weren’t able to give our best, Versluis said.
The competition was won by the United States with 209.46 points Madison Chock and Evan Bateswho are the reigning world champions of the sport.
Canadian couple Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sorensen was second (206.32 points).
Another couple that represented Finland in ice dancing at the Espoo GP Yuka Orihara and Juha Pirinen was sixth with his record score of 176.73. They were in seventh place after the rhythm dance, but moved up a notch in their free dance.
– We followed the music really well and hit the accents. We could feel the crowd and the cheering which was great. Even all the judges were smiling. That’s when I knew it was okay, we succeeded, Pirinen laughed.
Pelkonen strengthened his positions in the EC selections
Nella Pelkonen confirmed their positions in the Espoo gp race in the struggle of Finnish female figure skaters for the two representation spots in this season’s European Championships, while Janna Jyrkinen the chances of getting one of the two representative seats were clearly weakened.
The two female skaters who have achieved the highest combined Total Points from two competitions this season will be nominated for the European Championships in January. At least one of the races taken into account in the points total must be a gp or Challenger series race.
Pelkonen successfully skied through his free program with only one small relief and collected a total of 172.88 points. Pelkonen was fifth in the final results in the race won by Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto and smiled widely.
– Really good feeling. The same lutz that was left in the Finlandia Trophy is still there now, but you can’t help but train it more. Yes, it will come from there. It’s a jump I know I can make, though.
Pelkonen will compete next time in December’s WC.
– I think it kicks you forward more when you know that there is always someone on your heels. From now on, we’ll just continue training, so that we’ll be in even tougher shape there, he described the competition from the European Championship representative places.
Janna Jyrkinen, on the other hand, swallowed tears after her free program. Jyrkinen is currently ahead in EC selection points Emmi Peltonenwho competed this week in Warsaw and was not involved in Espoo.
Jyrkinen fell in the free program immediately during the descent of the first part of his first triple jump combination. He fought until the end but was left with 153.74 total points and 11th place.
– I don’t know if I will get a European Championship place again, Jyrkinen was told.
Jyrkinen also said that he felt sick.
The third Finnish woman in the Espoo GP race Oona Ounasvuori collected his best total points of the season 144.16.
Virtanen reached 200 points
In men’s single skating, Finland has only one representative place for the European Championships. The most important news regarding the EC selections came on Saturday from Warsaw, where Valtter Virtanen scored 200.55 points.
Finland competed in Espoo Makar Suntsev improved his moves in the free program, but he was last among the twelve skaters with a total score of 162.00. In last month’s Finlandia Trophy, Suntsev broke the ghost mark of 200 points.
Kisan won Japan Kao Miura (274.56 points), who was barely behind his countryman Shun Sato (273,34).
– I want to thank the public because it helped me fight today. This was a good improvement from yesterday, but not a great or even a good performance, Suntsev assessed.
In pair skating Milania Väänänen and Filippo Clerici received 94.13 points from the judges for their free program, which gave them a total score of 142.69 and a relief after Friday’s short program that went poorly.
Väänänen and Clerici finished last among the eight couples in the final results. The competition was won by the couple representing Germany Minerva Fabienne Hase/Nikita Volodin with a score of 192.72.