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Rechnio takes world by surprise
Actually, Anna Rechnio came out of Warsaw. But other than that, very little was known about the 20-year-old heading into these world championships.
"I'm just a normal Polish girl," said the personable skater, whose highest finish at a major international meet prior to her performance yesterday was a seventh-place showing at the 1994 Europeans.
Rechnio, who lived in the U.S. for two years as a teenager, even surprised herself with her program, which included a triple loop, a triple lutz-double toe jump combination and a double Axel, all skated to the theme from Gone with the Wind. The only Polish skater to win a medal at a worlds was Grzegorz Filipowski in 1989.
KWAN BRILLIANT
"I didn't expect this," said Rechnio, who first received a pair of skates as a Christmas present when she was six. "I was so excited (when it was over), I wanted to skate more and more."
But while Rechnio's performance was a surprise, Kwan's was anything but. Skating to Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3, the 1996 world champion and defending Olympic silver medallist demonstrated her unique sense of artistry and athleticism to near perfection.
In fact, one judge, Susan Heffernan of Canada, awarded the American star a perfect mark of 6.0 for presentation. With Olympic and defending world queen Tara Lipinski of the U.S. out of this competition, there's little doubt Kwan will win her second world crown tonight at the Target Center.
"I wanted to give to the audience the joy and freedom that I have on the ice," said the Torrance, Calif., native, who received a huge ovation from the crowd.
Kwan's performance actually shed a huge ray of light on what's been a rather uninspiring world championships, racked by the withdrawals of the defending Olympic champions from all four events.
'WASN'T TOO BAD'
But Kwan, 17, wasn't the only girl spreading sunshine yesterday. Canadian skating officials were greatly relieved by the decent skate of Trenton native Angela Derochie, who made it into today's free skate by finishing 19th.
Not a performance to write home about, but respectable considering the New Jersey-based skater is suffering from a hip-flexor injury.
"Under the circumstances it wasn't too bad," said Derochie, who fell on the front end of her triple lutz-double toe jump combination, but held her program together and nailed a triple loop and double Axel.
The only other major surprise in the women's short, other than Rechnio's skate, was seen on the board. One judge placed Laetitia Hubert of France, who ended up third, in 13th, while another scored her first. Heffernan scored 10th-place finisher Tanja Szewczenko of Germany third.