Helsinki Rockettes won the WC gold and secured a place in the WC

Turku

Figure skating reigning world champion Helsinki Rockettes won the championship gold in Turku on Sunday.

Team Unique was second in the tough competition and Lumineers, who won their first SM medal, was third. Marigold Ice Unity, which was somewhat unsuccessful in both of its programs, finished fourth.

Helsinki Taitoluisteluklub’s team Rockettes returned to the championships as champions after a two-year break.

“It still feels a bit unreal for now. In a way, today showed again how tough a team we are,” the team’s captain Eveliina Tikkinen said after securing the championship.

The Rockettes, who led the competition after the short program, skated their free program almost flawlessly. It took the brightest medals and lifted the championship trophy with a total score of 236.91.

“It seems that everyone was able to enjoy themselves there and give their all, in my opinion it showed the joy of skating”, Vice-captain Wilma Lindström analyze.

The Rockettes with the preliminary favorites of the competition included Team Unique of Helsingfors Skridskoklubb, who took silver, who found the competition exciting.

Unique, who started the free program in second place, did great on Sunday and was not far from victory. The WC silver medalists were only 2.53 points behind the Rockettes.

“We really skated together and for ourselves. That has been our goal here,” Uniquen Emilia Balistreri said after the free program.

“We did on the ice what we have been training for and we were really happy with it. Of course, victory always tastes good, but today it went like this,” he stated.

In the free program The Rockettes succeeded despite the difficulties in the morning’s training. One of the lifts failed miserably, but the top team handled the situation in style.

“After training, we quickly discussed in the booth what happened and what to do next. We knew that the team is so tough that we are not bothered by what happens in the game,” Tikkinen said.

The audience at Turkuhalli was energetic throughout the weekend, and the atmosphere did not weaken during the Rockettes’ performance that culminated the free program.

The multi-thousand-strong audience literally screamed after almost every successful element.

“Probably at least the best audience that has been seen this season. I even almost remembered the atmosphere of last season’s World Cup home games, that encouragement was absolutely amazing,” said Tikkinen.

“It’s wonderful to notice and feel that the audience is on our side. When someone succeeds and everyone immediately cheers in the stands, it’s a wonderful feeling,” Lindström said.

According to Tikkinen, the audience’s encouragement cannot go unnoticed during the performance.

“Yes, you can see it, it really gives you a lot of energy for your own work. The audience usually gives quite direct feedback on each element, it’s wonderful.”

Juniors in the end, the exciting championship battle of the series narrowly went to HTK’s Helsinki Fintastic.

HL’s Musketeers, who won the SM silver, led the competition by less than a point after the short program, but Fintastic won with their free program with a total of 208.16 points. The difference between the top teams was only 0.63 points.

Kaarina’s Figure Skaters kept their third place and won the bronze medal in Turku.

In the junior series, representation rights to the youth World Championships were not distributed like in the senior series, because the country spots for the March games in Gdansk, Poland were already allocated in February.

Fintastic and Espoo Jäätaiturien’s team Valley Bay Synchro, who finished fourth in the WC, will represent Finland at the Junior WC.

Finland with the championship, the Rockettes secured a place at the World Championships in April, where they travel as the reigning world champions.

Finland will defend Austria in Salzburg on April 10-11. in the organized world championships, in addition to the Rockettes’ gold, also the World Championship silver.

Last year, the Rockettes and Unique made a splash with their double victory at the World Cup home games in Helsinki. The same teams will represent Finland in the main event of the season this year as well.

“We’re going there to skate for ourselves. There’s no way we’re going to defend (the championship), I don’t know if there’s any joy in that either. We want to take our best there, now we’re training for it,” underlined Lindström.

“It’s amazing that we can continue to work and develop the team.”