Wednesday 24 March 2010

Day Two of Worlds

The pairs event is just starting, so thought I'd comment on the mens event.

Firstly, has there ever been such a deep competition at a post-Olympic Worlds? Jeremy Abbott managed to get his act together and skate a fantastic short program (the Eurosport commentators adored it, and rightly so!) but is down in sixth, showing just how great this competition is, even without Lysacek, Weir, Lambiel or Plushenko.

Speaking of getting your act together, I have two words; Brian Joubert. To come back and skate like that after the agony of bombing in Vancouver was just amazing - he also got the highest technical score of the night with his quad-triple combo. His fist-pumping after his jumps and roaring at the end shows how much that must have meant to him, and even a Joubert hater couldn't fail to have enjoyed that.

I've always maintained that the pattern when you have three skaters in an event will be that two will nail their program, and one will meltdown, and this event managed to prove this right. Jeremy Abbott and Adam Rippon both skated great, whilst Ryan Bradley had such a heartbreaking short (though not unexpected, given his injury issues). In the same way, Daisuke Takahashi and Takahiko Kozuka skated fantastically, whilst Nobunari Oda's meltdown (he popped every jump) means he doesn't even qualify for the long! Who'd have thought? Ice is slippery, after all.

So questions for the long prgram; how much will the top ten move around? Can any of the twenty-fourteenies sneak up in the rankings - after all, Brezina, Ten and Rippon all seem to want to make 2010 their year, judging by their skates! Can Joubert pull out a clean long program? Who'll be the next World Gold medalist?

I can't wait for tomorrow: comments on the event below!

Day One of Worlds

So the pairs short program and the ice dance compulsories happened last night;

Pairs

Results

Questions:

Can Pang and Tong take the title, or will Kavaguti and Smirnov's "Blue Danube" end their gold medal dreams?
Will Maria Mukhortova/Maxim Trankov EVER look happy?
Can Jessica Dube actually land a sbs triple salchow?
Can Savchenko and Szolkowy hang onto that precarious bronze medal position?
Will the American pairs come out and nail their free skates as well as they did their short programs?

Compulsories

Results

Questions:

Have Faiella and Scali made it a race for fourth, and not bronze, with their lead?
Can the Kerrs/Pechalat & Bourzat/Khoklova & Novitski move around their placings?
Does anyone have nicer costumes than the North American teams?
Will these be the last compulsories ever?
Can Davis and White take that World title?