Russian skater Alena Leonova, who placed 14th at the World Championships in Torino, named the reasons for her poor performance and summed up the results of the season.
Alena: I got seriously ill after returning from Vancouver, I couldn’t skate at all. I only practiced jumps from time to time. That’s why it was so hard for me to skate here. Surely, I wanted to skate clean and conclude the season on a high note. But under the circumstances it was good that I could skate both programs to the end.
Q: Such circumstances build up one’s character. Was the experience positive?
A: Certainly. The thing is, this event took place immediately after the Games. I skated better there than I did here. I completely failed my short program, but in the free one I did some elements well.
Q: The season is over. Would you sum up its results?
A: The season turned out to be very difficult. But I was going all out at every event. I tried to do a 3T-3T combination at all the competitions, but landed it only at Olympics and Grand Prix. Both my programs were very complicated.
Q: It was your second Worlds. What was the difference between this tournament and the last year’s one?
A: It felt like I never left Olympics. The stands were full of spectators! The audience was great, everybody were applauding all along. It was very pleasant. Last year I was more relaxed, I didn’t think of what place I would take. This time I wanted to make the top ten.
Q: Do you think you can keep your position as the leader of Russian ladies figure skating?
A: This will depend on my performance next season. I’m going to bend every effort to be head and shoulders above all the rest. | 
