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American Wagner wins Four Continents skating at World Arena
American Ashley Wagner had the best free skate of her career late Saturday night to win the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships for her first international title.
The U.S. champion skated an elegant, clean program to finish with 128.34-point score that left her with a career-high total of 192.41.
That was enough to edge two-time world champion Mao Asada of Japan, who settled for second at 188.62 after touching a hand to the ice while attempting to land a triple lutz and having a triple axel downgraded by judges.
American Caroline Zhang finished third and Colorado Springs' Agnez Zawadzki was sixth.
Earlier, U.S. champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White won the ice dancing short program, and China’s Sui Wenjing and Han Cong topped the pairs field after the short program. Canadian star Patrick Chan won the men’s title Friday night.
TEAM USA QUOTES:
Ashley Wagner (Alexandria, Va./Aliso Viejo, Calif., SC of Wilmington) – 1st place – 192.41 points overall (128.34, 64.07)
(On her free skate) I was very pleased with that. I decided while I was out there to do the Axel-double toe instead of exerting the extra energy for the triple toe so that I would have energy for the rest of the program and I think that worked out very well for me.
(On the overall competition) Overall, I am pleasantly surprised with how this weekend went. It’s a great build on top of my nationals performance and hopefully I can keep on this upward trend.
(On Worlds) Going into Worlds we just need to work on getting the Axel-toe and the triple flip-triple toe consistently in the program. I think that’s the most crucial thing for me to have.
Press conference
(on being first U.S. lady in five years to win the event) I don’t think I can say right now I feel pressure. The next step is to learn how to take these great scores and compartmentalize. It’s one competition at a time. I did a good job at nationals and Four Continents. As long as I can do the same thing, stay calm and focus on my performance and technical elements, I will be fine.
(on Worlds prep) Both of my performances here were better than at nationals. Going into worlds, I want to get my triple-triple in the short on one foot and the axel-triple toe in the long. If I can do something similar to this at Worlds, I would be extremely pleased.
Tonight was an awesome performance for me a personal best and to receive that internationally is a huge accomplishment. Everything I did out there was solid and strong.
(on being the “almost girl”) I think that I have the confidence and technique and performance to put that to rest but at same time I have to maintain this level of skating to not be the ‘almost girl’ anymore.
Agnes Zawadzki (Des Plaines, Ill./Colorado Springs, Colo., Broadmoor SC) – 6th place – 157.23 points overall (104.36, 52.87)
(On tonight’s performance) It’s a little disappointing because practice was a lot better. I think I need to work on getting it the same and having it click during competition instead of practice. Yeah, it’s a seasons best, but I had higher standards for myself.
Caroline Zhang (Brea, Calif./Artesia, Calif., All Year FSC) – 3rd place – 176.18 points overall (117.44, 58.74)
(on tonight’s performance) I was really happy with my performance tonight. There were a lot of things that I did differently than my previous long programs so I’m really happy with how I did.
(on beating season & personal bests) It feels great. It just gives me more motivation to keep working and help me get an even better one next year.
Press conference
I was very happy with how skated today. Something I wanted to do was to get those levels on spins and footwork. To get those was big accomplishment for me.
(on offseason plans) I don’t have any plans right now for new programs. I will be getting a new long. I will probably keeping my short because I like it. I hope to improve on it and learn to perform it better. I want to add the triple-triple back into the long. And work on my triple Salchow and the triple loop-triple loop so they will be better next year.
TOP THREE:
Mao Asada (JPN) – 2nd place – 188.62 points – through interpreter
I’m very happy about succeeding on my triple axel tonight, but I made several other mistakes. I understand my result. I showed my stronger performance at Worlds.
Press conference
Today my goal was to land my triple axel. I was happy I did that. I lost points on quality of jumps and that’s something I would like to work on before Worlds.
I would like to land the triple axel both in the short and free programs in Nice and I’d like to fix the small problems in free program.
Actually in this altitude the jump (axel) was easier to jump but I do have the tendency to under-rotate some jumps even without altitude so that is something I need to work on.
