Overall Results of Euros

[Joesitz (RIP)]

Tomas is the surprise in Men's. Yannick is also a surprise of a different kind. The guy has a lot going for him. He needs an understanding coach.

No surprises in the Ladies, but Sara seems to be a fighter. Nice to see Lepisto on the podium, and Jenna made top 10.

Absolutely no surprises in Dance. Why did they all compete?

No surprises in Pairs, except that Great Britain has a competitive Pairs team.

As the sunsets on Croatia we move on to Korea to see if that rehearsal has any surprises.

Joe

 

[eleonora.d]

yeah Huth should be absolutely proud. I think Carolina had so much pressure especially from italians to win Euros again, it was like she "had" to manage it.
I have seen her very very focused and a bit nervous in those days. But she did it. I think there is less pressure going into Worlds now.Great.

Sarah is a fighter,she did a good job on the free program, but it'll be too difficult for her to perform competitive shorts if she cannot jump a correct edge 3flip, and she doesn not have a 3 loop. She decided to go for the 3salchow, but it's way too simple jump to do in the short. And if it happens to double it..it's a real tragedy.
I like her very much but I see more likely a finnish girl to fight with Carolina in Helskinki.

Go go go Tomas.

 

[kikakiks]

The problem with Sarah is that every year at Euros she gives perfect performances (let's say she just has one major mistake, last year in the lp, this year in the sp) and she ends up behind.
This means that next year, if she wants to win, she has to do again her personal best...I wish for her to do so, but it is a bit unlikely that for three times in a row she will do the skate of her life at Euros. I must admit though that she is a good long program competitor, and this puts her to an advantage against what I think will be the contenders: Kostner and Lepisto (which i don't get all the hype about....but whatever, we already discussed this) who tend to do better in general in the short.

Unfortunately, I have the feeling it won't be once again her turn to win in 2009: if it's not Kostner once again (who I would REALLY like to see finally give a perfect performance, and get to 180* points) I fear it will be one of the finns. If it has to be one of the finns, then I would go for Poykio (if she competes) and Vahamaa.


Agree on ice dancing already decided beforehand. As a matter of fact it was the only competition I didn't completely watch live, since i knew what was going to happen...

 

[russell30]

A very good European's this year, the standard rises each year.

In Pairs, although a great depth between the German pair S&S and other teams, there is huge potential in the Russian teams. It was sad to see V&M in 4th if it wasn't for them missing a lift element I am sure they would have got silver, because they would have got in the region of 55.00 for TES and subsequently 54.00 for PCS. S&S will now be favourites for World Gold, the chinese teams will be strong challengers.

In Men's Tomas Verner seems to be getting better each year and his programs are mastered to COP, he will be a strong challenger for the world podium and Gold, but he will still be under the limelight of Lambiel, Takahashi and Lysacek who will be challengers for Gold. Joubert seems to be a strong outsider as there are doubts with his fitness.

In Ice Dance, as always subjective but D&S skated well than what I thought to claim European Gold and will be favourites for World Gold now, the French seem to be slipping away now but will hope to rebound and fight for a world medal that eludes them. The North American teams of B&A and V&M will be other strong challengers for medals.

In Ladies the SP was interesting to watch with a lot of clean programs, but Kostner narrowly claimed the gold in the end from Sarah Meier. I would have given it to Meier on the night but I cannot argue with the result. As with everyone else it was good to see Lepisto claim the bronze. It will be difficult for the European Ladies to challenge Asia. I will have to say that Yu Na Kim is strong favourite for world gold with Mao Asada a very strong challenger, then I would say Ando, Nakano, Rochette and Kostner to be challenging. The Americans do not seem as strong this year and Meissner seems to have lost her edge.

We will have to wait and see!!

 

[Audrey19]

I was glad that Sarah fought and made the podium, her free skate was great, and I loved her exhibition programme! I' m also very happy about Julia Sebestyen- she's back!

Very surprising result in men's, I'd never have expected Tomas to win the title! I was convinced that either Stephane Lambiel or Brian Joubert would take the gold.

In pair's there was no other possibility for the title, Aljona & Robin were out of reach for the other pairs. Go for gold at worlds!

Absolutely no surprises in Dance. Why did they all compete?

Actually I have started believing in fair judgements in ice dance, since I was mostly pleased with the results in the last few years. After seeing Domnina & Shabalin's FS, I was absolutely sure there was no way for them to win the gold or even silver. Why do they invent a new judging system when they don't use it? It's such a shame!

 

[Mehdi]

In the ladies, the revelation for me was definitely Vahamaa. Didn't do so well as far as ranking is concerned but wow, what a perspective for the future.

 

[Kati]

In the ladies, the revelation for me was definitely Vahamaa. Didn't do so well as far as ranking is concerned but wow, what a perspective for the future.

Oh yes, she's lovely! I hope she will recover soon (she had a tailbone injury and was clearly little afraid of doing the triples), and skate like she did at Finlandia Trophy, and she will be a real star!

 

[Big Deal]

I think, the overall quality was not the desired.
The results was acceptable, except maybe the Ice Dance, which HAS TO BE cancelled from the Olympics, to make it much more fair ( that is a too strong temptation to the Natinal Federations-led judges as long as anybody can win an Olympic Gold with this "sport". They prepare the Olympic Gold Medal 2-3 years before the Games all the time. Brrrrrrrr).

The field of the men was weaker than I expected. Lambiel is the only one I really like, but where are the jumps? Verner won fairly. When a technical skater loosing his technique, there are not too much left (Joubert).

Ladies: I'm Hungarian , but as long as Ms Sebestyén can be fairly 4th with a long program popped all the way through.... What a weak competition. We are lucky Suriya Bonaly is not competing anymore, she should win with ease even with her (.....) technique nowdays.

PAirs: Savchenko-Szolkowy was the highlight of the event even with their mistakes. They are awsome. The Russian pairs didn't remind me to the former Classical Russian stars, but they are OK in this field.

Somehow I find it rather boring. I'm watching all the event in the last 35 years, but sometimes it was difficult to keep my eyes open. The exception: the result of the Ice dance made me angry , so it woke me up....

 

[waxel]

I think the level of skating was appalling. Most of these podium finishers couldn't compete with US juniors.

 

[cristina]

I think the level of skating was appalling. Most of these podium finishers couldn't compete with US juniors.

But in a strange way US seniors can't compete very much with these. Let's see juniors after 5 years.