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Strong Japanese Ladies Team Looks to Medal in Dortmund

Fumie Suguri is looking to win her third straight World medal. File photo by Paul Harvath

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(3/23/2004) - There is a commercial airing in Japan now. Three Japanese ladies heading to Dortmund for the World Championships - Fumie Suguri, Miki Ando and Shizuka Arakawa - do a spin and say something roughly translated as, "The opportunity is there."

Well, the opportunity is surely there for the Japanese women to cause a big surprise at this week's World Championships with not only high places, but also firsts in competition.

There is Suguri, who is looking for her third consecutive medal. She also had a win at the Grand Prix Final in Colorado Springs in December where three Japanese ladies were among the six finalists.

Suguri combines grace and technique. She also has some tough nerves, dealing with the pressure of Japanese hopes in Nagano, Japan, in 2002 when she won the bronze medal in front of her hometown fans.

There is Arakawa, with triples and triple-triples and a recent move to train with Tatiana Tarasova, who coached Alexei Yagudin, among other Olympic champions.

And there is Ando, looking to become the first lady to land a quadruple jump in a major senior competition. The 16-year-old Ando recently had a win at the World Junior Championships in the Hague, Netherlands, her eighth consecutive victory of the season.

And it that weren't enough, Ando is the Japanese champion over Suguri, Arakawa and Yukina Ota. Ota was this year's Four Continents champion, but she didn't make the World Team because of the tough competition in the Japanese championships.

A lot of people are impressed with Ando's jumping ability. She consistently lands the triple Lutz-triple loop but admitted she had trouble with the double Axel before in junior competition. She admits that the jump from the junior to senior World Championships over a three-week span is a big step.

"I am still not good enough for senior level," Ando said. "I am young enough, and I hope to show my performance to as many people as possible."

Still she has the quadruple Salchow, which she landed for the first time at the Junior Grand Prix Final in 2002 - ironically in The Hague, also. She says her completion rate in practice is about 60 percent.

"Every day is different," Ando said.

She said she has done them three times this year in Japanese competitions. At World Juniors she tried and fell, landing forward. But even though she was favored for the victory, she didn't back off the risk of trying it saying, "It was important for the future."

The future may be now for Ando, Suguri and Arakawa and the other Japanese ladies. The ladies competition begins Wednesday with the qualifying rounds.