2014 WFSC

Oct. 22-26, PARIS

DAY 4 – BATTLE FREESTYLE

After Slides and Jumps on Thursday, Speed on Friday and Classic on Saturday, Battle was the closing competition of those 2014 Worlds of Freestyle in Paris, and mobilized the whole Sunday. Qualification rounds had already taken place on Thursday so that the competition resumed with the 1/8^th finals for both categories of Women's and Men's.

Out of the 58 men and 45 women registered for the first round of the qualifications, 32 men and 24 women went through to the next round: 8 groups of 3 for the women, and 8 groups of 4 for the men.

Men's BATTLE

The clearing went on in 1/8 finals, with the qualification of Sergey Timchenko (RUS, #1), the current European champion in Battle (and Classic), and new World champion in Classic, and that of Kanchanok Sawangsri (THA, #4) in GROUP 1; with the elimination of Carlos Nelson (ESP, #19) by Ye Hao Qin (CHN, #8), the 2013 world champion in Battle, and Michal Sulinowski (POL, #9) in GROUP 2; The qualification of Pan Yu Shuo (CHN, #35) the junior World champion in speed and of Dawid Jaworski (POL, #13) – with a 2 vs 1 decision of the judges as for the 1^st rank – in GROUP 3.

It was the end of the competition too for Dmitry Shevarutin (RUS, #14), who ranked 3^rd behind Zhang Hao (CHN, #4), the freshly crowned world champion in Classic junior, and Alexandre Claris (FRA, #5), the new vice-champion in Classic senior, in GROUP 4. Yu Jin Seong (KOR, #3), the 2013 world vice-champion in Classic, qualified hands down in front of Ricardo Lopez (MEX, #22) and Alexandre Del Marmol (BEL, #34), who fought for the 2^nd position... with a 2 vs 1 decision of the judges in favor of the Mexican.

Alexandr Timchenko (RUS, #6) and Lorenzo Guslandi (ITA, #12) dominated GROUP 6, just like Lee Choong Goon (KOR, #7), the 2013 world champion in Classic, and Teddy Thierry (FRA, #11) dominated GROUP 7 – here again the Korean won the group with a 2 vs 1 decision of the judges at the expense of the French; Last but not least GROUP 8 was dominated by Romain Lebois (FRA, #2) and Toni Castro (ESP, #18).

The ranking of the first group is clearly defined, with the 1^st place going to Ye hao Qin with two combos of 30 sec, including shifts, fishes, sevens and low tricks... against Sergey Timchenko who gets the second place with the same kinds of combos, at the difference that his wheeling sitting tricks were not linked to the rest of his combos.

Alexandre Claris finishes 3^rd with less clean combos, a few taps and messy endings, but with a far more confident skating than Dawid Jaworski, who ranks 4^th of the group.

Group 2 is dominated by Zhang Hao with toe christie, back and forth combos, and low sevens, followed by Michal Sulinowski who seizes the 2^nd place in front of Kanchanok Sawangsri with cleaner and more balanced combos. Pan Yu Shuo finishes 4^th with shaky combos, missed tricks and a fall.

The 3^rd group has the same configuration as the 2^nd group with Alexander Timchenko as the strong leader, Yu Jin Seong in the 4^th place, and Toni Castro and Teddy Thierry fighting for the last qualifying spot. After long discussions, the 2^nd place goes to Toni for his better run management, showing a constant performance throughout his two runs, while Teddy did a very strong first run with a 30 sec combo and a weaker second run.

In the 4^th and last group of the round, two inner fights take place: Lorenzo Guslandi and Romain Lebois for places 1 and 2, Ricardo Lopez and Lee Choong Goon for places 3 and 4. Lorenzo Guslandi takes the lead with a slight technical advantage, with more spins (thus more loss of bearing) in his combos, against Romain's more linear combos.

The two semi-final groups look like early finals.

The first group gathers Chinese Ye Hao Qin and Zhang hao, and European Toni Castro and Romain Lebois. The Asian domination is strongly felt although the Europeans don't prove unworthy at all. Zhang Hao is the first to qualify for the finals with 3 combos of 30 sec, mixing sitting and standing wheeling tricks. Ye Hao Quin takes the second spot for the finals with three strong runs and the same strategy as his team mate: in terms of combos, the longer the better. His loss of balance in his last run is one of the elements that cost him the 1^st qualifying place.

Romain Lebois and Toni Castro have opposite evolutions during their runs: While Toni starts strong and gets more hesitant in the end, Romain starts with a fall and a destabilized first run, pulls himself together with a 30 sec combo on his second run, and performs a 3^rd run strong enough to rub it in.

The second group is exclusively European with the Timchenko brothers, Sergey and Alexandr, Lorenzo Guslandi and Michal Sulinowski. Sergey seizes the first place with disconcerting ease – varied runs and ultra technical combos with changes of rotations, toe and heel combos...

Michal Sulinowski, with less balanced combos than his opponents, takes the 4^th place.

The second spot for the finals is closely played between Lorenzo and Alexandr, who both perform clean and technical runs. The advantage goes to the Italian after a best trick to decide between the two candidates: three lines doing heel shift for Timshenko, against low seven on 20+5 cones for Guslandi.

Alexander Timshenko wins the consolation final, finishing 5^th at the overall ranking, with a constant and varied performance on his two runs and last trick, including his superman toe footgun and heel and toe combos. Romain Lebois ranks 6^th with an extremely strong first run: a 30-sec combo with toe christie, shift, fish to the right and to the left and toe seven – but an emptier second run.

The 3^rd and 4^th places go to Michal Sulinowski and Toni Castro.

Zhang Hao wins the 2014 title with the cleanest runs and longest combos of the group (3 combos of 30 sec), mixing sitting tricks – toe christies, toe seven up to down, shifts, big sewing machines, fishes and sevens, both on toe and heel, and finishing with a low seven on 17 cones (-2) as a last trick.

Ye Hao Qin, last year's world champion, finishes close second, with slightly unbalanced endings and big combos that have to be divided into two because of tapping. His last trick is the best of all, with an insane combo on the 50's including sewing machine, fish and low wheeling jumps (!)

Sergey Timchenko's runs are less successful than during the previous rounds, with a fall during his toe back footgun, and losses of balance in his last run. His last run is also more basic than those of his opponents: a toe seven on 10+10+10 cones.

Last but not least, Lorenzo Guslandi, who managed to slip through the net and reach the finals, comes 4^th, with strong combos but too much repetition – too much toe wheelings, and thermos-based tricks.

Women's BATTLE

Note: The women's write-up is not going to be as thorough as the men's because I didn't judge the category.

No real surprise in the 1/8 Finals for the women's, the real thing actually starts in the 1/4 finals round.

Daria Kuznetsova and Feng Hui make short work of the Czapla sisters, Ewelina and Justyna in GROUP 1, with Daria, the Senior Women's World Champion in Classic taking the advantage over Feng Hui, the Junior Women's World Champion in Classic.

Maryna Boiko, the 2010 World Champion in Battle, leads GROUP 2, followed by Zoé Granjon.

Klaudia Hartmanis wins GROUP 3 in front of Guan Yu Xiang, the World Vice-Champion in Junior Classic, while Su Fei Qian, the double world champion in Battle 2012-2013 takes the lead of GROUP 4 closely followed by junior Sofia Bogdanova.

Daria Kuznetsova and Guan Yu Xiang take control over the first group, winning their tickets to the final, while Feng Hui and Su Fei Qian make short work of Klaudia Hartmanis and Zoé Granjon who meet Maryna Boiko and Sofia Bogdanova in the Consolation Final.

The Consolation final is won by Maryna Boiko, followed by Sofia Bogdanova. Zoé Granjon has a low rate of success on that round and is relegated to the 4^th place. As for Su Fei Qian, it is the first time that the multiple world champion doesn't reach the finals and she forgets there are only two runs (instead of three in finals) and one last trick, which leads to management mistakes and important omissions, and she takes the 3^rd place.

The Women's final is won by Daria Kuznetsova who gets her second freestyle medal in those championships (Classic and Battle world champion!)! Just like Zhang Hao in the Men's category (Junior Men's world champion in Classic and Battle champion), she is the big winner of the 2014 edition! The silver goes to Guan Yu Xiang and the bronze to her team mate Feng Hui. Klaudia Hartmanis gets the 4th place.

2014 WFSC BATTLE RESULTS

2014 WFSC MEDAL RECAP

Out of the 38 participating countries, only 7 nations reached the podiums.

China is once again the nation with the most medals at the end of the championships, with 6 world titles, totally controling the junior categories in Speed Slalom and Classic - and let's not forget the Men's Battle, as well as 5 silver medals and 4 bronze.

The Russians played their cards right too, with 3 gold medals in freestyle, reigning on top of the world in senior Classic this year - a first in the history of the WFSC and getting the gold in women's battle, as well as 1 silver medal in women's slides, and 4 bronze medals.

The French dominate the Jump Open competition with 2 victories, in the men's and women's, get 1 silver and 1 bronze medal in speed slalom, and a vice-champion title in the senior men's Classic category.

Italy and Taipei are more focused on Speed Slalom with a world title each in senior categories, and Taipei reaching the two junior finals.

Last but not least, Hong Kong gets 2 bronze medals in junior categories.

Check out the reviews on the three first days of the Worlds (links below) if you missed them!

• WFSC DAY 1: Battle Qualifiers, Slides & Jumps
  
• WFSC DAY 2: Speed Slalom, Pair Classic & Women's Classic Qualifications
  
• WFSC DAY 3: Classic Freestyle
  
• BATTLE VIDEOS
  

Chloé Seyrès for WorldSlalomSeries.com

Photo by Christiane Menard, Ksenija Komarchuk, Papy Dom,

Pierre Apache, Denis Shirobokov, Carroll Wong

Video by SlalomTimTeam

November 2014