NOS Sport•vrijdag, 22:15
Ice dancing to the music of Queen: Americans in the lead, Dutch couple penultimate
The mustache was slick, the white shirt was recognizable and the dance steps looked great. Yet the World Cup debut of Hanna Jakucs and Alessio Galli with their ‘Freddie Mercury’ act is already over after the rhythmic freestyle.
In Montreal, the duo representing the Netherlands finished 35th. Only the best twenty pairs qualified for the decisive free freestyle on Saturday.
Reigning Olympic and world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates are in the lead after the rhythmic freestyle. The American couple achieved a score of 90.08 in the rhythmic freestyle, more than 2.5 points more than the Italian number two Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri.
Two top-level ice dancing couples
Hanna Jukacs and Alessio Galli made their debut for the Netherlands at the World Cup. The Hungarian Jukacs and the Italian Galli still skated under their own flag until 2018, but often trained in Eindhoven due to their collaboration with top choreographer Adam Solya. They had to wait two years for their Dutch license, but since 2020 they have been allowed to play for the Netherlands in major tournaments.
The Dutch figure competition was happy to be able to send an ice dancing duo for the first time in years, not knowing that Chelsea Verhaegh and Sherim van Geffen would join them.
NOSHanna Jakucs and Alessio Galli leave the ice after their debut.
In Montreal, only Jukacs and Galli came on the ice. In fact, they kicked off all 31 participants in the rhythmic (also known as short) freestyle with their ode to Freddy Mercury. Just like earlier at the European Championships, Galli took on the role of Freddy Mercury to dance to a compilation of hits by the British band Queen.
In the rhythmic dance, ice dancers are bound by requirements set annually by the ISU skating federation. Certain parts of the freestyle had to be done in a rhythm of 100 this year beats per minute. And there was – as is the annual tradition – a theme: the eighties.
NOSHanna Jakucs and Alessio Galli during their World Cup freestyle.
During the day ‘Another one bites the dust‘ they stood neatly with their pirouettes, twizzles and innovative samba steps. However, the pirouettes cost some points deductions, because they were not completely synchronized.
The lesser known and calmer ‘Play the Game‘ the couple moved gracefully across the ice. On ‘Radio Gaga‘ the beating started again, including a ‘lift’ in which Jakucs was lifted over Galli’s shoulder before setting foot on the ice again.
Ultimately, this resulted in a score of 51.99, almost two points less than their personal best of 53.91. With this they only kept the Azerbaijani couple Adrienne Carhart and Oleksandr Kolosovskiy behind them.
NOSThe score by Hanna Jakucs and Alessio Galli is a bit disappointing.
If you want to cheer for the Netherlands on Saturday, you can go to the Finnish couple Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis. Versluis, born in Switzerland, has a Finnish mother and a Dutch father. They qualified ninth with a score of 75.89.
The British Phebe Bekker also has Dutch roots. With her British partner James Hernandez, Bekker (daughter of a Dutch father) narrowly missed out on qualifying. They finished 21st.