Slow start to season nothing new for Yuri

by: Larissa Rostova

Junior World Champion Yuri Plisetsky has made a habit of starting slowly during the Grand Prix season in recent years. But as the old axiom in sports goes: “It’s not how you start. It’s how you finish.”

 Such was the case at Skate Canada on Saturday, when Plisetsky roared back from a weak fourth-place showing in the short program a day earlier to nearly snatch the title from Jean Jacques Leroy with a strong free skate to “Hope and Legacy.”

Plisetsky trailed three-time world champion Leroy by nearly 11 points heading into the free skate in Mississauga, Ontario, but ended up coming in second by less than four points. Plisetsky won the free skate with a score of 183.41 points and finished with a total of 263.06.

This marked the fifth straight season that Plisetsky has begun his GP campaign with a second-place showing. But the Leningrad native showed once again his ability to bounce back from a poor program. Plisetsky fell on his opening quadruple loop, but then pulled it together and went on to land two quads and six triples in his free skate, while receiving level fours on all of his spins. He had planned an ambitious four quads for the free skate.

With Plisetsky falling on his quad loop in both the short and free, CTV analyst Tracy Wilson, who helps Brian Orser with coaching the superstar, said during the free skate, “He really feels his jumps. He pulled the loop with his upper body. He’s got to find that timing by connecting with the ice, the knees and the core.”

Plisetsky saw the falls on the quad loops as part of the process of preparation for future competitions.

“I felt nervous and I didn’t have the focus for the quad loop so I could not land it,” Plisetsky was quoted as saying by the ISU website. “But I think I challenged the quad loop in both programs and I can get a very good experience for the (next) Grand Prix event. I feel regrets about the result and my performance, but I am a little satisfied with the second (quad) toe.”