After Battle Rome on the 8th of last March, the Italians seem to find the motivation to organize Battles: The second Italian battle of 2009 was in Ancona (a small town on the East coast) on May 2. It was a Basic event (one cone), very friendly: it was a good opportunity for the Italians to meet and share a day of skating in the sunshine. There were about thirty competitors, exclusively Italians, amongst whom Luca Ulivieri, Savio Brivio, Daniele Lenzi, Francesco Masseli… (but the only regular, Tiziano Ferrari was missing) – not to forget a few French intruders of the SebaTeam (Seba, Chloé Seyrès, Igor Cheremetieff, and Xuan Le).
The event itself took place on Saturday, but workshops were held on Friday in the public park in Ancona, with the Italians Sarah Barlocco, Chiara Lualdi and Barbara Bossi, as well as a general demo in the late afternoon with all the skaters who were game.
On Friday evening a festive dinner was organized at Elsa’s place (one of the skaters) – many thanks to her mum for the pastas, it was awesome. The evening was somewhat cacophonic, I couldn’t describe precisely what happened because I fell asleep at the table – thanks also to the kind skater who brought me a cushion for me to resume my sleep, lulled (mainly) by the surrounding blahblahs, the rather inconclusive tries at playing the accordion (there was an accordion on the spot), and the bipbip-tchactchacs of the flipper which had been requisitioned for the evening.
On Saturday morning we all squeezed into cars to the spot of the competition which was to start (roughly) around 10AM. That spot was in fact a rescue plan – the initial spot having been forbidden two weeks before the event because of a stupid incident. Thus instead of a Battle on the sea-side on a crowded place surrounded by a ring for the spectators, we were inland on a slab at some distance from the town center next to a small village with a very nice big church, in the middle of a rural landscape (except for the buildings at work that were beginning to block the sigh-seeing). Thus, the visitors were less numerous than expected… but too bad for the absentees, anyway that was not enough to spoil the general good mood.
The slab was dusty, which was quite unpleasant for the speed starts and for the edge takings in freestyle… but it’s all just a question of adaptation!
A great surprise awaited us on the competition spot: the organization had booked a rock band (the Monkey Fighters – or a name of that sort) who played punk-rock covers during the breaks. And finally they got enrolled to play during the Mens Battle Final!
The schedule was simple: speed in the morning, battle in the afternoon.
There were Pros and Amateurs categories. The qualifications (in speed and battle) were common, and according to the results the participants entered either the amateur or the pro competition.
Speed Slalom
In speed slalom the first eight girls and the first eight boys were qualified for the Pro KO systems, and the rest was treated to an Amateur chart (a kind of consolation chart).
Womens Speed Slalom
Qualifications
Out of the 11 competitors, the first eight run between 5.88 (for the first Barbara Bossi) and 6.65.
Quarter Finals
The first eight are confronted with one another during the quarter-finals of the Pro KO systems. It is at this very moment of the competition that Chloé Seyrès gets knocked out after a three-run round against Chiara Lualdi – a close dual with equivalent times around 6 sec (skidding at the start slows down the speed). Together with Chiara Lualdi, Barbara Bossi, Sara Barlocco and Cristina Rotunno qualify for the semi-finals (all three in two winning runs) respectively at the expense of Sara Massi, Chiara Castagni and Roberta Marino.
Semi-Finals
In semi-finals, Barbara Bossi wins her round helped by her opponent Cristina Rotunno who striked on the third run ; while Chiara Lualdi also wins her round – also in three runs – against Sarah Barlocco who kicks the fatal cone on her third run.
Final
The final then gathers Barbara Bossi and Chiara Lualdi. A messy final won by Barbara Bossi: she wins the first run despite the two cones she kicked (thanks to Chiara Lualdi who striked), the second run is null because both finalists striked, and on the third run Barbara Bossi does a perfect which enables her to win the competition.
As for the consolation final, Christina Rotunno offers the third place to Sarah Barlocco with two strikes.
Results of the Womens Speed Slalom
1-Barbara Bossi (ITA)
2-Chiara Lualdi (ITA)
3-Sarah Barlocco (ITA)
4-Cristina Rotunno (ITA)
Mens Speed Slalom
Out of the 18 skaters who subscribed, only the first 8 remain for the KO Systems.
The best times of the first 5 who qualified (including Luca Ulivieri, Igor Cheremetieff, and Savio Brivio) are under 6.00. The 8 times following are still under 7.00.
Quarter Finals
Nicolas Quiriconi, Gianni De Angelis, Daniele Lenzi and Xuan Le are knocked out at this stage: the four favorites (i.e. the first four at the qualification ranking: Luca Ulivieri, Savio Brivio, Igor Cheremetieff, and Simone Nai Oleari) win their respective rounds in two runs.
Semi-Finals
The two semi-finals unfold in three runs with pure times around 5.5. Luca Ulivieri and Igor Cheremetieff go through to the Final, relegating their respective opponents Savio Brivio and Simone Nai Oleari to the Consolation Final, which is won by Savio Brivio in only two runs.
Final
Still with times around 5.5, the final is as quickly set and done as the co-final: two runs. On the first run, Luca Ulivieri and Igor Cheremetieff both run in 5.56 but Igor Cheremetieff having kicked a cone, Luca Ulivieri gets the advantage; which he keeps on the second run: though not as fast as Igor Cheremetieff, he makes less mistakes (only two cones down Vs. five).
Results of the Mens Speed Slalom
1-Luca Ulivieri (ITA)
2-Igor Cheremetieff (FRA)
3-Savio Brivio (ITA)
4-Simone Nai Oleari (ITA)
Freestyle Battle
Just as for the speed slalom, the qualifications (that is to say the first round) were common to all the participants. The first two of each qualification group go to the Pro chart, and the last two to the Amateur chart.
Womens Freestyle Battle
There were fourteen girls, dispatched into four qualification groups.
For each round, each skater was treated to two runs (plus one last trick for the finalists).
Semi-Finals
The Pro chart started thus in semi-finals with the two following groups:
SF#1: Chloé Seyrès, Chiara Lualdi, Chiara Castagni, and Roberta Marino.
SF#2: Valeria Falicia, Sarah Barlocco, Barbara Bossi, and Cristina Rotunno.
The qualifications follow the logics of the World Ranking: Chloé Seyrès and Chiara Lualdi from the first group, as well as Barbara Bossi and Cristina Rotunno from the second group are the four who qualify for the Final.
Final
Gathering Chloé Seyrès, Chiara Lualdi, Barbara Bossi and Cristina Rotunno. It’s Chloé Seyrès who wins the battle with fairly average performances but still varied and complete, followed by Barbara Bossi, Chiara Lualdi and Cristina Rotunno, who all got a good technical level but still lack a bit of letting go and personal touch in their own personal styles.
Results of the Womens Freestyle Battle
1-Chloé Seyrès (FRA)
2-Barbara Bossi (ITA)
3-Chiara Lualdi (ITA)
4-Cristina Rotunno (ITA)
Mens Freestyle Battle
Concerning the men, there were six qualification groups of three skaters. Due to two last minute withdrawals, only four skaters (instead of initially six) attended the Amateur chart, so that they went straight to a unique final group.
The winner of the Amateur battle is Davide Ferrara. Fabio Ferrara ends up second, followed by Alessandro Cola in third position, and at last Gianni Poleselo.
Quarter Finals
As for the Pro Battle, it started with quarter finals.
End of the journey in quarter finals for Simone Da Ronch, Gianluca De Cristofaro, Andrea Rotunno, and Francesco Maselli.
Semi-Finals
The group #1 is made up of Igor Cheremetieff, Sébastien Laffargue, Savio Brivio, and Daniele Lenzi. The two Italians are no match for the two French and get knocked out: Daniele Lenzi has a very personal and recognizable style (dancing steps) but lacks technique to rival, and Savio Brivio is undeniably a tremendous opponent in speed slalom but (still) containable in freestyle.
Group #2 gathers Fabio Cotto, Luca Ulivieri, Nicolas Quiriconi, and Xuan Le. Xuan Le and Luca Ulivieri qualify quite easily for the final, Xuan Le thanks to his style (which I don’t need to present anymore) and to his technique (which I undeniably have to illustrate: back heel wheeling managing 20 cones), and Luca Ulivieri thanks to his fast and energetic knitting, punk-rock style.
Final
The finalists are: Igor Cheremetieff and Sébastien Laffargue from the first semi-final, and Xuan Le and Luca Ulivieri from the second semi-final.
Two internal fights: the first between Igor Cheremetieff and Xuan Le for the first place, and the second between Sébastien Laffargue and Luca Ulivieri for the third place.
The first place goes to Igor Cheremetieff – but the fight was close: most of his big tricks are not finalized or not mastered enough (but still he managed some big tricks)… and he owes his first place to a nice line of sitting tricks – this kind of tricks being the weak point of Xuan Le, the other candidate to the first place; as for the latter, he managed again his 20-cone back heel wheeling thing, and also managed a nice 10x10 heel wheeling (front-back), the whole delivered with his natural style.
Between Luca Ulivieri and Sébastien Laffargue, the fight is just as tough. After some looong debates, it’s eventually Sébastien Laffargue who reaches the first place thanks to a smoother general impression and to better mastered wheelings (front-back 5x5).
Results of the Mens Freestyle Battle
1-Igor Cheremetieff (FRA)
2-Xuan Le (FRA)
3-Sébastien Laffargue (FRA)
4-Luca Ulivieri (ITA)
Close Yr E’s
Paris, 18th Arr.
May, 16th ‘09