Chinese skaters showed their quality instead of quantity at the World Junior Figure Skating Grand Prix finals by opening the lead in the men's and pairs short program through Ma Xiaodong and Zhang Dan/Zhang Hao in Ary, Scotland on Friday.

The junior skaters are usually an indication of what we can expect to see on the senior level in a few years' time. Although many of the teams here excelled in the technical department, most of the couples lacked artistry, but they will no doubt build on that as they gain more and more international experience.

The Chinese team of Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao won the short program with ease, and in doing so, showed why they have dominated the junior's this year. This team not only displays high twists and throws, but also an artistry that has been lacking with their senior countrymen. One of their lifts showed his strength as he threw his partner up, while she was already in a lift, and she continued to change position.

In the long program they will be attempting a quadruple twist which they have been landing in practice with incredible ease, and already completed successfully at last year's Junior World Championships.

Zhang Hao later said that he and his partner Dan were happy with their program, "I am very satisfied and very happy with the result and score, finally."

On a side note, Zhang and Zhang are not brother and sister and are not even related, Dan changed her name to his because she thought it sounded better.

Finishing a surprising second in the short program were Kristen Roth and Michael McPherson of the United States. Roth said, "I thought we skated well and skated with confidence. We still have a lot of work to do, but we went for everything."

McPherson was ecstatic, "I was shocked by it. Well, surprised more or less. I knew we could do it, I just didn't know where we would end up." This is the team's first year of juniors.

Rounding out the top three is Svetlana Nikolaeva and Pavel Lebedev of Russia. With a bad fall on the double axel, by Nikolaeva, their program had most of the elements but their moves were choppy and didn't have much flow. Nikolaeva said, "We are happy with third place, but we want to skate better tomorrow."

The men's short program at the Junior Grand Prix Final was completely up for grabs as there wasn't a clear front-runner in the event. Even though American Ryan Bradley is the most experienced of the group, he hasn't really been having good practices.

Getting the ball rolling was Xiaodong Ma of China, who has been landing triple axel-triple toe combinations in practice, only managed to pull off a shaky triple axel-double toe combination when it counted. It was the trouble with the landing of the axel that only allowed him to do a double. Other than the one error, Ma had a solid skate and finds he leading after the short with technical marks ranging from 4.9 to 5.4 and 4.9 to 5.2 for his second mark.

Other then Ma, none of the other men skated cleanly. The only other skater to land a triple axel was Stanislav Temchenko of Russia, in combination with a double toe. However, he later put his hand down on the triple flip and two footed the landing of the double axel. Regardless of his faults, Temchenko finished in second place.

Teammate Sergey Dobrin was by far the smallest skater in the event and got the loudest ovation of all the competitors. The 14 - year old attempted a triple lutz-triple toe combination, falling out of landing of the triple toe, he just managed to save it. It's the closed I've ever seen anyone to the ice without falling. Dobin also landed a triple flip and a double axel, which was enough to put him into third place.

Eight ladies from seven different countries are competing in Ary at the Junior Grand Prix Final. Experience won the day in the ladies short program as Sarah Meier of Switzerland, the current World Junior bronze medallist, came out on top. Landing a triple lutz-double toe combination, a triple flip and a double axel, she was one of a couple of clean programs skated here.

Pleased with her program, Meier said, "I was injured three weeks ago and I am not in good shape." Meier had hurt her knee when she fell on a loop jump.

Many of the ladies had problems with one thing or another today. Three of the ladies fell on the landing of their double axel and there were also a couple of flutz's. At this level, the ladies seem to have problems with some of the edges going into and coming out of the jumps.

Currently in second place is Kristina Oblasova, of Russia, who despite a fall on her attempted triple lutz-double toe combination, did land a beautiful triple flip and had no trouble with the double axel. Oblasova's second set of marks held her up just behind Meier, and she later said of her program, "It wasn't super. "

Japan's Yukari Nakano, the youngest competitor in the ladies field, sits in third place. Although she skated a clean program, it wasn't a performance of quality. She landed a triple flutz, double toe combination, and also had high leg extension coming out of the triple flip.

(People's Daily 12/16/2000)