Mens Short Program

[Serious Business]

Paolo Bacchini looks one one of Santa's little elves getting a little skating in in the off-season.

[russell30]

Pretending to be a conductor while classical music plays is a huge cliché for a choreography concept. A totally vacuous one.

At this point, if you follow figure skating at all, you've already seen enough Austin Powers programs to know exactly what it's about even if you've never seen the movie.

What do you call a concept of the program - concept is playing the conductor working round his orchestra on the ice. getting the audience to participate. sorry my opinion.

[Mirunna]

WoW. so many meltdowns :shock:
but Im happy Zhenya was able to hold on, good luck to the LP

and this is typical Gachinski, good in SP
lets see if he can hold on to his LP or bomb it.

He can do it. Remember how he skated clean at worlds in Russia with all the pressure in the world on his shoulders. He can do it, I'm sure he can

[DancerLily]

I'm soooo happy for Tomáš! really didn't believe he could skate that well...hope that Brian, Javier and Kevin will be better in the LP!

[russell30]

Paolo Bacchini

sorry missed his program. not a great skate. Music is pinocchio by R Portman.

[Nadine]

Artur was the only one that brought his A-game, he's no longer afraid to skate against his idol, as it should be. He does Russia proud. Finally, they have a brilliant skater to lead the pack after Zhenya stops skating in 2014. Worthy successor.

Remember people, when one is skating against a legend, it's *not* good enough to just match him jump for jump, nor to have a bobble or stumble here or there. ONE has to go above and beyond, as Artur did her with that gorgeous 4/3 combo. (only one to do it!), as well as the 3A, et al.

I have no quibble with the marks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLSkcXDHuMY (he grabbed his chance & ran with it)

[sky_fly20]

He can do it. Remember how he skated clean at worlds in Russia with all the pressure in the world on his shoulders. He can do it, I'm sure he can

well I also thought Gachinski is inconsistent, and what happened at Worlds was just pure sheer luck for him
this reminds me of his cup of china performance, I hope he will prove me wrong though
he needs to skate outside the shadow of zhenya and needs to further develop his own style and haircut.
a "mini" Pluschenko tag will not help him in his career

[russell30]

SUMMARY

Really nothing between the top 6, but amodio and Brezina must skate clean in order to medal, really gold between the top 4 so be interesting FREE. disappointing for the French not what they came for, surprise for me was Verner - sort of on today.

Interesting can Belgium claim 3 spots next year if VDP has a great skate and Jorik a good skate, who knows? be good for Belgium

[russell30]

If Plushy skates 1st in that final group I think it will be his, Gachinski needs to skate before Plushy I feel. Javi needs to have his 2 quads I think. Those 3 I think, Verner might blow it, Brezina has not got a consistent quad and Amodio is having an off year.

[Mirunna]

If Plushy skates 1st in that final group I think it will be his, Gachinski needs to skate before Plushy I feel. Javi needs to have his 2 quads I think. Those 3 I think, Verner might blow it, Brezina has not got a consistent quad and Amodio is having an off year.

But what if Verner doesn't blow it? Have you seen his LP? It's gorgeous! I have this tiny little hope he goes clean tomorrow. I'm proud of Florent. He showed some fight today. The fire is still in him. Don't count him out just yet

[figureskate]

plushenko is second with no quad and the best transitions...mhh it's kind of funny

[Trewyn]

SUMMARY

Really nothing between the top 6, but amodio and Brezina must skate clean in order to medal, really gold between the top 4 so be interesting FREE. disappointing for the French not what they came for, surprise for me was Verner - sort of on today.

Interesting can Belgium claim 3 spots next year if VDP has a great skate and Jorik a good skate, who knows? be good for Belgium

Verner was definitely a bit of a positive surprise.

3 spots for Belgium?? And Kevin retires?? Other than Jorik and Kevin we don't have any senior men (and Senior Men was still by far the most exciting segment in Belgian Nats ) But who knows, it might be a boost for a couple skaters that have potential.

[Mirunna]

Can you imagine there is a judge who gave Brian 9.25 for Performance/Execution? This sport is becoming a joke

[Serious Business]

Plushenko is going to need a lot more technical content than he's put into his FS so far in his comeback to be competitive. Unless, of course, the whole batch of European men have catastrophic meltdowns. Otherwise, Plushenko simply lacks the jumps to overcome the TES cushion the other top competitors have.

[SkateFiguring]

I have a feeling that tomorrow the top skaters would have had their Plushenko immunity up, like Gachinski, from today's exposure, and will settle down to strut their stuff better than today.