Kimmie in 6th after short program

Posted on Friday, February 9th, 2007 at 4:10 am

Fresh from winning her first national championships, Meissner could place no higher than sixth in her Four Continents debut, dealing the 17-year-old’s confidence a heavy blow ahead of her world championship defense in Tokyo next month.

Meissner was greeted by loud applause from the small crowd which was quickly replaced by moans when she crashed to the ice on her opening jump.

“It wasn’t my best,” Meissner told reporters. “My favorite is the long (program), there’s much more that I could do.”

Needing to produce something special to reach the podium, Meissner hinted she may be ready to attempt a triple Axel in her long program.

The first and only time Meissner has successfully landed the difficult jump was at the 2005 Nationals.

“I would like to try it,” she said. “I’ve got nothing to lose.

“Sometimes you take the risk, you miss it you take out a lot of points and it really kind of messes up the rest of your program,” she said.

“It’s one of those jumps… if you put it in, the whole flow of the program is different whether or not you make it.”

Reuters