Results
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| The Haydenettes in their 2003 free skate Photo by Paul Harvath |
(2/20/04) — The international synchronized skating season continues with the Neuchatel Trophy in Neuchatel, Switzerland, this weekend, Feb. 20-21. This is the last international competition for U.S. synchronized teams until the World Junior Challenge Cup in Milan, Italy, March 11-14, and the World Synchronized Skating Championships in Zagreb, Croatia, April 1-4.
Thirteen-time U.S. champions the Haydenettes (Hayden Recreation Centre FSC) lead the U.S. contingent at the event. This will be the first international competition of the season for the reigning U.S. champs. They recently captured the gold medal in the senior division at the 2004 Eastern Synchronized Skating Sectional Championships.
The Hockettes of the Ann Arbor FSC will join the Haydenettes in Switzerland. Last year the Hockettes competed internationally at both the Prague Cup (4th) and the North American International (6th). The team finished fourth at the World Junior Selection Competition earlier this month.
The Neuchatel Trophy is the only synchronized skating competition this year to be judged under the new ISU judging system. The system was used during the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series this season. Just like in the free skate competition, the new judging system uses a cumulative scoring system to mark synchronized skating teams. The technical elements in the program, such as intersections, lines, blocks, steps sequences and movements in isolation, will all have a set value, or base value, determined by the difficulty of the element. Judges then can add or subtract up to three points based on the quality of the element.
Judges then evaluate program components on a 1-10 scale. Program components include skating skills, transitions, performance, choreography and itnerpretation. The sum of the scores from the technical elements and program components is used as the team's final score.
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