Men FS - 2014 European Championships

[spread beagle]

Zhenya for Sochi

I second it with good conscience :thumbsup:

However, it feel Michal was robbed some amount. His PCS is way low than he deserve with his skating skill, elegance and choreography. He took much from classic Petrenko but get not much reward for it, it seem.

 

[tae04]

I definitely would be sending Plushenko to Sochi. He's the only one with a chance to medal, imo. The others are way too inconsistent. Kovtun blew his chance big time here to mount any argument. He flops at major events.

 

[lady_bee]

It was the first time for me to watch Europian Championship, and was a great fun.
Thanks to technology
I could enjoy lots of "men" skating on link.

And like many of you, I'm so happy for Menshov!!!

 

[Frenchie]

Honestly, Voronov and Menshov should have shots at making the Olympic team.
The Russian fed must be scratching their heads now.
The only solution is a skate-off between Voronov, Menshov, Plushenko and Kovtun, IMO.

THAT would just make my day: Plushy sitting in the locker room on tuesday, putting his skates on for the test skate, and then the door opens, and Voronov, Menshov and Kovtun all 3 enter and say in unison "guess who's here?!?"
I'd pay good money to see the expression on his face.
Won't happen though... Don't want to stress the guy out. If he had wanted comparable stress, he could have... I dunno... competed here as well.
Actually, now I'm finally thankful to Plushy for not going to the EC, because we wouldn't have seen Menshov's FS if he had.
Thanks, Plushy! :agree:

 

[Trewyn]

Aww Javier crying during the anthem! He's so sweet! And he really cares about his fans - awesome. I hope he has a good Olympics. Never liked Voronov before, but seeing him look so happy and excited - I can't help being really happy for him too. And Menshov.

 

[wallylutz]

THAT would just make my day: Plushy sitting in the locker room on tuesday, putting his skates on for the test skate, and then the door opens, and Voronov, Menshov and Kovtun all 3 enter and say in unison "guess who's here?!?"
I'd pay good money to see the expression on his face.
Won't happen though... Don't want to stress the guy out. If he had wanted comparable stress, he could have... I dunno... competed here as well.
Actually, now I'm finally thankful to Plushy for not going to the EC, because we wouldn't have seen Menshov's FS if he had.
Thanks, Plushy! :agree:

Russian Fed's master plan is working like a charm. Now that Kovtun bombed, they can legitimately name Plushenko to the team.

 

[Icey]

So we will know Tuesday who is going to the Olympics?

Who will be observing the test skate?

 

[luckyguy]

Russian Fed's master plan is working like a charm. Now that Kovtun bombed, they can legitimately name Plushenko to the team.

Good tactics of Plushenko not to compete here.

 

[Ziggy]

He also skated rather poorly. News flash, PCS also depends on the performance and should go down when the skater did a 6AM morning practice in competition!

There wasn't really anything wrong with Kovtun's performance. He executed and accentuated his movements quite well and skated with good energy.

 

[wallylutz]

Good tactics of Plushenko not to compete here.

The sad thing is the plan and its intention is so obvious that everyone and their dog can see it beforehand.

 

[Bartek]

Eh, Voronov got blue jeans coat bonus :/. Kovtun should've gotten higher PCS than him. If Kovtun had skated better landing two quads celanly he would've gotten crushing Tarasova bonus.

 

[Ziggy]

Russian Fed's master plan is working like a charm. Now that Kovtun bombed, they can legitimately name Plushenko to the team.

That was obviously the plan all along.

Had Plushenko competed at Euros, he probably would have finished 4th or so, considering how well the top 3 have skated.

 

[Icey]

Surely you don't think that, Ziggy

 

[GF2445]

My goodness what a free skate. It had everything.
Well done Javier.
Also well done to Peter Liebers and Alexei Bychenko

Sad for Tomas Verner, Florent Amodio, Alexander Majarov and Macjiec Ciuplucha (sorry cant remember name from memory)

 

[Frenchie]

I would love to see Konstantin going to Sochi.

But, the Federation are dead set on Kovtun or Plushy. They have never even considered Menshov or Voronov. Otherwise, they would have sent one of them to Worlds last year.

And if it is a choice between those two, I'm going for Plushy. Kovtun is young enough to have other chances. Plushy is certainly going to retire, but he has unfinished business at the Olympics.

I still feel Plushy should have won the gold in Vancouver! And this is his chance to not only prove that point, but to do it in front of his home fans!

So, good luck Zhenya!

CaroLiza_fan

What unfinished business could he accomplish if he went? Since his unfinished business was not winning in 2010 - which he did in 2006btw - you're suggesting that he'd have a shot at gold? (beating Hanyu, Chan,...)
He got to go to 3 different olympic games to finish a lot of business Most athletes don't get that many opportunities to finish business

To be honest, I'd have a moral problem with the notion that we'd have to analyze Plushenko's smartest move and best accomplishment during the entire season was to NOT GO to the EC.

 

[wallylutz]

There wasn't really anything wrong with Kovtun's performance. He executed and accentuated his movements quite well and skated with good energy.

Honestly, you need to stop propping up the skaters you love by being blind to their poor performance. Same thing happened with Carolina already. Should be quite telling when several neutral observers keep telling you that netiher Kostner or Kovtun are anywhere close to their best and suffered as a result. You are letting your emotions clouding your judgement. Snap out of it and look again.

 

[Ziggy]

Honestly, you need to stop propping up the skaters you love by being blind to their poor performance. Same thing happened with Carolina already. Should be quite telling when several neutral observers keep telling you that netiher Kostner or Kovtun are anywhere close to their best and suffered as a result. You are letting your emotions clouding your judgement. Snap out of it and look again.

No, what is happening is you are confusing TES and PCS.

Execution of technical elements = TES
PCS criteria = PCS

(Kostner might have made mistakes on the jumps but her basic skating, posture, lines, choreography, and so on and so forth were clearly superior to anybody else at Euros.)

P.S. I don't love, or even like, Kovtun's skating. In fact, I think that 'loving' or 'being a fan' of any skater is quite sad and pathetic. Every skater is as good as their last performance.

 

[qwertyskates]

He also skated rather poorly. News flash, PCS also depends on the performance and should go down when the skater did a 6AM morning practice in competition!

We had that debate in Hanyu vs Chan already, it seems at GPF it didn't matter who skated cleaner.

Kovtun wasn't skating his best, but had the best presentation among all 3 Russians. Voronov 2, Menshov 3rd, I'm afraid, even though Menshov is a credit to the sport, he will likely not medal at Sochi.

Disappointed that Kostner was "playing up" too much with "showgirl" moves and expressions this time. She does naturally has the best presentation here, posture,line, carriage, elegance, moves in thefield that chalk up herstep sequence points, better than Sotnikova, despite weak TES.

Jason Brown is another example of presentation over technicals.

 

[wallylutz]

No, what is happening is you are confusing TES and PCS.

DeNial isn't just the name of a river in Egypt...

 

[Mao88]

MEN'S FREE SKATE - VIDEOS & RESULT

1. Javier FERNANDEZ (ESP) - 267.11 Free Skate, 2nd Copy
2. Sergei VORONOV (RUS) - 252.55 Free Skate, 2nd Copy
3. Konstantin MENSHOV (RUS) - 237.24 Free Skate, 2nd Copy
4. Michal BREZINA (CZE) - 236.98 Free Skate
5. Maxim KOVTUN (RUS) - 232.37 Free Skate, 2nd Copy
6. Peter LIEBERS (GER) - 225.76 Free Skate, 2nd Copy
7. Tomas VERNER (CZE) - 223.66 Free Skate, 2nd Copy
8. Brian JOUBERT (FRA) - 221.95 Free Skate, 2nd Copy
9. Jorik HENDRICKX (BEL) - 205.92 Free Skate, 2nd Copy
10. Alexei BYCHENKO (ISR) - 203.76
11. Alexander MAJOROV (SWE) - 202.47 Free Skate, 2nd Copy
12. Chafik BESSEGHIER (FRA) - 198.07 Free Skate, 2nd Copy
13. Florent AMODIO (FRA) - 190.13 Free Skate, 2nd Copy