2011 Draws to a close...I call it the "Year of Chan." He certainly had a great year...a Canadian Title, a World Title, another Grand Prix Title, and recently named Canadian Press Athlete of the Year. He's going to win another Canadian Title (take it to the bank!)in Moncton next month (short of a withdrawal) and probably another World Title in Nice. I've been very critical of the judges overmarking of Chan this season, let's see if it continues into the Championship span of the season.
Speaking of Championships, several have taken place naming top skaters around the world National Champions. In France, Brian Joubert won another National Title. Take a look:
He went back to his "Matrix" program that brought him success in the mid 2000s. I am a bigger fan of the more artistic Brian that tried to peek out over the last couple of years but he was having no luck with results so he's gone back to what works for him. Trouble is, there aren't any "component boosters" to speak of in this program so it doesn't have a hope or prayer outside of Europe. Pechalat/Bourzat also captured another French Title last week.
In Ostrava, Czech Republic, Tomas Verner bested Michal Brezina to win another Czech (and Slovak and Polish) Title:
One of the better skates from Verner in a while. Beauty of a quad off the top.
In Saransk, Plushenko did it again, I have no words.:
The ladies standings at Russian Nationals were a hot mess. Sotnikova won. Leonova (who looked to be on track this season) could only muster 3rd, Makarova was 4th, and seemingly immune to defeat Tuktamysheva was just 6th. Both Volosozhar/Trankov and Kavaguti/Smirnov skipped the event giving Bazarova/Larionov an easy win. Bobrova/Solviev took the Dance Title.
Finally to Osaka, Japan which had the most contested titles up for grabs. On the Men's Side, Takahashi held on to win after being bested in the free skate by Kozuka who finished 2nd and Hanyu who finished 3rd (Hanyu won the free skate). Nobunari Oda, whose had a terrible season after recovering from injury, did not compete. Despite the win, Takahashi's skate was marred by several errors. Here are all three performances:
On the ladies side Mao Asada, in what must have been a very difficult week after the recent passing of her mother, turned in a beautiful performance to win another Japanese Title:
While not perfect, you all but forgive her the last two jumping passes given the circumstances. Akiko won the silver and Murakami took the bronze.
Hope 2012 is great to everyone! Have a Happy and Safe New Year!
In General, I was very BLAH about Rostelecom Cup this past weekend. Very little actually got my blood pumping. I felt the ladies competition was boring. Miki Ando skated a clean but safe program to win. Akiko skated a pretty program peppered with little errors for the silver, and Ashley Wagner nabbed the bronze after a better but still not amazing free. Half the dancers didn't even compete leaving a field of medalists nobody would have predicted. The men failed to excite with Tomas winning with his less than spectacular MJ Medley (The choreo Hugo...the choreo!). We learned that Chan is beatable, he just has to fall like 3 or more times. And Jeremy may have missed his shot at Beijing with just a bronze.
The only thing that DID excite me about Rostelecom Cup was Kavaguti and Smirnov's Free Skate. GUSH! It's a thing of beauty and they skated it brilliantly. Tamara Moskvina has really put something special together there. Not sure on the outfits (Sasha's in particular) but the skating gets an A+.
How did I do fantasy wise...don't ask. The Men's and Dance events killed me! But somehow I keep moving up the overall standings...156th overall...meh!
Later this week a Grand Prix Final Crunch pre Trophy Eric Bompard.
Also, bare with me...my work schedule has become haphazard so blogging and working has become...interesting. But...I'm still committed!
The oldest skating event on the books, the European Championships will be happening concurrently with U.S. Nationals. Like the men's field in Spokane, the men's field in Tallinn is equally impressive. An Olympic Champ, two Olympic medalists, three World Champions, three European Champions, two Junior World Champs, and too many national champions to mention will all battle to become Europe's best. As I see it, ten men (seriously...ten!) have a shot at taking this title (or at least medaling). Who are the ten I'm watching?
Kevin van der Perren - Poor KVDP has had a really rough go this season. At HomeSense Skate Canada he looked absolutely disgusted with figure skating. Hopefully a bit of break from competitive skating and the Olympics just around the corner can put him back on track. European's offer Kevin a chance to reintroduce himself as a serious contender prior to the Olympics. Kevin finished 5th at Rostelecom Cup and a devastating 11th at HomeSense Skate Canada.
Michal Brezina and Tomas Verner - Both of these Czech skaters have had quite different seasons thus far. Tomas, who was the 2008 Champ of this event, has struggled here and there this season. He made the Grand Prix Final (after Joubert withdrew with injury) only to finish last. Brezina, on the other hand, has made steady improvements and nearly made the Grand Prix Final himself. He went on to defeat Verner for the Czech National Title. Verner needs to turn his season around and Brezina needs to continue his upswing.
Brian Joubert, Yannick Ponsero, and Alban Preaubert - Team France is easily the strongest in the field. Europeans offers Joubert the chance to do two things: test his skating after coming off of mid season foot surgery and also test himself for the first time since Torino against both Lambiel and Plushenko. Joubert is without question one of the leading men heading towards Vancouver, a status he'll hope to keep coming out of this event. For Ponsero and Preaubert, this is likely the end of their season as neither is slated to compete in Vancouver or Torino (one may go to Torino but it's too early know). Both were bested by young upstart Florent Amodio at French Nationals and failed to gain an Olympic berth (Amodio isn't competing in Tallinn). Both, however, are solid competitors and may surprise here.
Samuel Contesti - Last season's surprise European silver medalist is hoping to continue his emergence into the top ranks of men's figure skating. He kept it together at last World's in L.A. to place in the top five and while not perfect has skated fairly consistently on the Grand Prix. He'll need to bump it up a notch to compete with the heavy hitters here in Tallinn. His programs are unique crowd pleasers but he'll need to hit all his jumps and improve his levels to make a run at the title.
Evgeny Plushenko and Sergei Voronov - Plushenko is no stranger to this event. Ten years removed from his first European Title (2000) he's going after win number six. He made his comeback at Rostelecom Cup earlier this season with great ease but has since struggled with some knee problems. Even still, he enters this event as the Russian National Champ and skating fairly well. One thing many people will be looking at is the score Plushenko receives for his programs. At Russian Nationals his (and teammate Voronov) scores were very (very!) inflated...it'll be interesting to see what his actual international scores look like and if that knee continues to hold up. Voronov is still looking to crack into the top echelon of European men, he's been knocking at the door for several seasons now.
Stéphane Lambiel - It's a complete mystery to me that he has never won the European Title. Like Plushenko, he has made a rather impressive comeback this season, albeit he was only gone for one season to Plushenko's three. Lambiel, as a result of Jamal Othman's dismal performance in L.A. hasn't been afforded the chance to really pit himself against any of the world's best skaters this season. This competition will be the first time to see how Lambiel fits into this complex mix of skaters. Lambiel has a knack at being seemingly unprepared but looking rather prepared when you least expect it. He's also a very organic skater that likes new challenges and competes well given those challenges. He's planning a new free skate, we may (or may not) see it in Tallinn (We will! La Traviata). I look at Lambiel as the wildcard here.
Interesting, the top three big names are all entering this event nursing some sort of injury. Joubert has his foot, Plushenko his knee, and Lambiel his hip. This may throw a wrench into things...then again it may not affect things at all.
I've recently discovered that many fans of figure skating didn't quite know Tomas Verner. I received a couple of e-mail from people asking me who this guy was in my poll. Well, he's the European Champion for the first time in his career and a name we'll be seeing for some time to come.
He won the European title last week, defeating Lambiel and Joubert in the process. He is a skater who wears his emotion on his sleeve. You know when he's upset, you know when he's happy. After a great program, he's the skater that jumps up and down, pumps his fists, and nearly burts a blood vessel because he's so excited! And this season he has really shown he can compete with the best in the world. Besides his European win, he also skated great at the NHK Trophy, placing second but giving Takahashi a run for his money.
There have been few skaters from the Czech Republic I would call serious contenders (Sabovcik, Barna, Kavarikova and Novotny, and now Verner) but he very well may have the potential to be a contender hiself!
These finished last Sunday but I was so wrapped up with Nationals I hadn't had time to report. But I've caught up on my skating, logged into YouTube to catch the action in Zagreb, and can give you the call.
Let's start with the ladies. Last year's gold and silver medalists repeated as this year's gold and silver medalists! Carolina Kostner was able to defend her title with a performance that showed great speed. However, she still struggled on a few of her jumps and if she hopes to make the world podium she'll have to make improvements there. Sarah Meier took the silver with a solid performance but I feel her music doesn't lend itself to skating well. It just kind of drags on. Laura Lepisto who shocked everyone earlier this season by winning the short program at Skate Canada (beating Hughes, Asada, Rochette, and Nakano in the process) took the bronze with a shaky performance but good enough to fend off Finnish countrywoman Kiira Korpi. The overall impression I'm getting however is that this is definitely a transition time for ladies skating in Europe. Last season, Carolina Kostner was the only European women to make the top six at worlds (and it was 6th place) and the prospects for Europe doing better this season look slim.
In pairs it was a runaway for Savchenko and Szolkowy, I don't think they really had any competition, and they weren't even clean. Robin is continuing to struggle on the side-by-side triple salchows, for the third time this season he singled his. But the throws were amazing, the spins in good unison, inventive lifts, really the whole package is there. The same cannot be said for the Russian teams that finished second and third. Mukhortova and Trankov won the silver but struggled throughout their program with the throws and they lacked speed at the end of their performance. Their compatriots, Kawaguchi and Smirnov too looked rusty. After hitting a beautiful throw quad salchow at the top of the program, Alexander struggled on the side-by-side jumps and speed seemed an issue late in the program, however, I will say this is a trademark of Tamara Moskvina pairs. Remember Kazakova and Dimitriev and Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze when they made their debuts, terrible; but she molds them and by 2010 they'll probably be challenging for Olympic Gold!
Tomas Verner probably pulled off the biggest upset of the year by winning the European title, defeating Stephane Lambiel and Brian Joubert in the process. Tomas put a hand down on his opening quad but then proceeded to tick off triple after triple. His only other mistake came when he singled a planned double axel. While his component score was a bit lower than Lambiel's, he was simply able to land more triples. Lambiel, opened with a beautiful three jump combo that began with a quad but had some doubled jumps and got marked on under rotation on a triple triple that was late in the program. Also, at the Grand Prix Final Stephane had his triple axel back in the programs but for Europeans he removed them again...a jump he will certainly need in Sweden. Brian Joubert just looked tired and unprepared for the competition. Several of his jumps were under rotated and he was luck to not fall but finally took a plunge on a triple lutz. His spins were slow, he lacked speed and energy, and he let almost all of his artistic score go by focusing solely on the jumps (which were mostly unsuccessful). Joubert needs to get it together because he was nearly beaten out by Russian upstart Sergei Voronov. Not his day in Zagreb.
In Ice Dance this continues to be a close season. These teams are really going full out this season and it is making for an exciting time. The Russians and the French are really battling this season. Delobel and Schoenfelder won both the Compulsory and Original Dances beating Domnina and Shabalin. But Oksana and Max did what they have done all season and came back with a record breaking Free Dance score to take the gold over the french team. The Russians are just banking in the points on their technical content and it is hard for any team to beat them unless they have at least a 5 point lead over them coming into the free skate and these teams are so close on ability and talent that just ain't happening! Also, the other Russian team of Khoklova and Novitski made a bit of a move this season by winning the bronze, beating both the Italian team of Faiella and Scali and the upcoming french team of Pechalat and Bourzat. Looking ahead at worlds the teams to definitely watch are Domnina and Shabalin, Belbin and Agosto, Delobel and Schoenfelder, Virtue and Moir, and I'm gonna toss in Khoklova and Novitski as well as Davis and White (given their extremely strong Free Dance at Nationals).
