Wednesday Practices - Men

Group 1 -

Tomas Verner - free pgm / skated through 1st jumps / great speed & flow / looks like he’ll be skating through all of them / really skating the strt ftwrk full out - I like it then into the combo spin to end the pgm

Yannik Ponsero - short pgm / skated through an axel / and another jump / combo spin starts backwards - / skated through a lutz / back sit is fast as is the front sit - good spin / I liked the beginning part of his music but am not really fussy on the 2nd part - it just doesn’t seem to suit him (IMO) - he’s skating to it but . . .

Daisuke isn’t here and hasn’t turned in his music so we get 2min 50sec of background

During Daisuke’s ‘music’ Sergei and Jamal were both working on axels - I saw at least one clean 3a by Sergei and a bunch of doubles by Jamal (don’t think he has a 3a) Tomas did a couple of 4t’s

Sergei Voronov - short pgm / 3f3t I missed the next bit while re-connecting my wireless. Nice 3loop / then spread eagle seq into combo spin - I saw Urmanov arrive, but only just now spotted where he is at the boards /

Stephane Lambiel isn’t here and hasn’t turned in his music, so more background - Jamal just landed a nice 3t3t and Tomas a 3a and now all for of them ar at the boards with their coaches / Tomas another 3a but with a hand down this time / Yannick is trying 4t but all I’ve seen so far have been triples / there’s a clean 3a from Thomas and a 4t3t by Yannik bit of a step out on the 3t / Sergei’s trying axels but I think he’s doubled most, if not all of them

Jamal Othman - free pgm / 3z3t / now a bit of break / back in to the chor for the O ftwrk as the music picks up / and Tomas just did a 4t3t with a step out of the 3t and as he did it I missed a jump of Jamal’s / 3l / some interesting chor / Sergei’s bailing on a bunch of axels / 3f2t2t by jamal as he’s back into his program / and Thomas landed a good 4t3t right in front of me / Jamal’s doing that camel spin where he grabs his blade from behind his back - got very slow and looked awkward /

8 minutes left in practise / Yannick just fell on a quad something, looks like Sergei’s left the axels at least for now and doing a few lutzes all -doubles that I’ve seen / I missed something trying to get the wireless connect again because the small group of people across from me were clapping / clean 3z from Sergei if a bit tight and skiddy on the landing / Sergei just landed 3f2t2l - he has quite a loose air pos and a fair bit of wrap at least some of the time - great camel ch camel though /

Group 2

Warm-up no one’s really into jumps (of course) but marc-Andre just did a gorgeous bit of ftwrk right in front of me - he’s really developed from the not much other than jumps when I first saw him as a junior at Canadians when he got the bronze, yes it was a long time ago he he was more than that at Canadians last year but it was such a wow piece of ftwrk that it really struck me.

Vaughn Chipeur - short pgm - he isn’t going to show off much in the way of any line he has in this pgm because he’s wearing loose sweatpants with pockets / skated througha jump - probably all of them since he’s 1st / nice 3f3t from Shawn as Vaughn goes into a combo spin / a nice high easy double lutz and huge death drop / strt ftwrk is dynamic and right with the music / back sit ch sit ends the pgm - nice & fast & low /

Marc-Andre Craig - short pgm / just as he’s starting both shawn & Johnny did very nice triple in front of me but I missed the takeoff on both so don’t know what they were / marc Andre’s music is dance with me / great combo spin / 3f2t2l by Geoffry / and I get to see that great ftwrk seq again a spin and into his strt ftwrk that is very good but there’s something special about the curved one (not sure if S or O /

Shawn Sawyer - short pgm / nice chor to start / 3f3t both clean / I like O ftwrk bluesy jazzy sax music / his usual great camel spin / think Vaughn just landed a nice 3a / nice strt ftwrk too / flyback sit some chor and into his combo spin with trademark side split / good program - I like it

Geoffry Varner - free pgm / dramatic Spanish guitar & violin - I should know what this is / 3z2t z wasn’t really pretty and couldn’t get off a 3t / Vaughn just landed a great 3z / I missed some of the next part and I think he was just skating around then a 3z / I just saw Vaughn in the air landing a 3?3t / there’s too much happeneing at once and I keep seeing Johnny in the air but never the take off - there’s been some nice triples by him too / nice 3z by Shawn at the same time that Geoffry did a 3z or f but pitched forward / great 3a2t by Vaugn right in front of me / I kind hi-jacked Geoffry’s music by watching mostly the other guys, sorry Geoffry

Johnny Weir - free pgm - by the way he’s the only one in costume - at leasta I presume it’s his costume black belvet with turquoise bands down front and Kill Bill in letters on right sleeve / gorgeous 3z by Vauhn / Johnny seems to be skating through the jumps in this pgm / some nice flowing chor / marc-andre just fell on a 3z / johnny’s just skating around right now / now come ftwrk from Johnny and another pause / into the chor again / Shawn just 2ft a 3a - much the same his normal when he 2ft’s it - just the toe-pick of the free foot / great combo spin by Johnny - the music is really big there though and at least at this practise he doesn’t seem to be skating big enough for it /

About 5 minutes left or so
thought it would be clean but shawn fell on a 3a that he had landed on one foot but overrotated and fell out then fell / skid - Vaughn has left the ice and Shawn just fell on another 3a same as last time and marc-andre lands one with a bit of a tight landing and then Geoffry falls on one / #3 fall from Shawn almost exactly the same as the last 2 / Marc-Andre doubles one / Shawn just did a nice series of jumps starting with a 3l and ending with a 3l with some hops & such in between / Johnny was doing some ftwrk and caught his edge and landed on his rear in a very graceful position then got up and gave a gymnist’s pose - he was laughing as he came over to Presilla as were both of us (she’s sitting quite close to me and we were chatting during the zamboni break)

1 minute left and there’s just Geoffry Shawn & Marc-Andre - Shawn just tried another 3a, 2fted and stepped out of it/
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