Italian Nationals: short programs

Today was the first day for the Senior competitions at Italian championships. 

Firstly, in the dance competition Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte gave their best earning for the second time (and are still the only ones who got that) a level four for both Polka sequences. They skated effortlessly and dominated the competition scoring 72.71, fifteen points above the second ranked team (Guignard/Fabbri).

In the pairs Berton/Hotarek did great despite some problems they have had in practice and warm up. Indeed the two struggled a lot all day long with the throw triple loop, but they fought in competition and landed it with a slight two foot by Stefania. All other elements were excellent. They scored 65.84.

The highlight of the event was reached during the ladies were both Valentina Marchei and Carolina Kostner showed their amazing improvements. Valentina was highly supported by the home crowd who gave her cheers during the whole program. She started very confident with her triple lutz-double toe and triple salchow but then lost a little bit of focus singling out the double axel as she was very close to the board. She scored 56.23.

Carolina Kostner looked very confident in the practice where she landed some gorgeous jumps including a textbook triple lutz and a triple flip-triple toe. Her short program is one of the best she has ever had and interpretes it very well. She opened the routine with a very good triple loop from the steps, continued with a triple toe-double toe (was meant to be a triple-triple but she saved the quality of the combo). She did some beautiful steps that received a level four and a +3 from any judge. Scored 70.13

Tomorrow all the free skates will take place.