10th Douglas Razzano
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto #2
Poor Doug. Perhaps the less said the better about this program. But he did look very dashing on the ice. Only his 3lz3t well well. He did get at least a high enough TES for 4CC's though.
9th Tomas Verner CZE
Dracula soundtrack
Tomas did not fall on his 4t, but he might as well have, because it was underrotated and landed on two feet, thus netting him only 4.2 points. In contrast, when Brezina fell on his 4S, he got 7.5 points. Thus the peculiarities of COP. His 3A was fine, but he popped his combo to a single, but did not try to tack on a second jump, thus netting only .36, compared to Brezina again, who tacked on a 3t and feel on it for more points. Clearly Tomas needs a COP lesson. His costume needs a makeover too; it looks more drum corps than vampire. Maurizio Magaglio had the best Dracula costume
8th Alexander Majorov SWE
Ray's Blues
Alexander did have a decent 3f3t and an OK triple axel, and doubled his flip, but this was a completely unmemorable program for me.
7th Armin Mahbanoozadeh USA
Kashmir
Armin went for his quad toe, but this time fell on it. And his 3A had a wide swinging free leg on the landing. His footwork was interesting and complex, and I would have had him ahead of Brezina. However, he does not give the impression of power when he is skating, particularly in the second half of the program, and that may have hurt him.
6th Michal Brezina
Hall of the Mountain Kind
It's sad to think that Michal won Skate America last year, because this year, the same Michal did not show up. He was wearing a costume with an excessive amount of raggy bits hanging off it. Who knew the gnomes or goblins (whichever the mountain king was), with access to all the jewels of the earth, would be dressed in rags?
Things did not start well when he fell on his quad salcow, although it was fully rotated. His triple axel was very nice indeed; his best thing in the program IMO. However, his worst thing was his attempt at a combo. He popped the first jump to a single, and tried to take a triple toe on it, underrotating it and falling. The sad thing abou tthis is that he still managed to get 3 points for this disaster of a combo. He seemed to me to have lost energy by the end of the program, his last spin & footwork being particularly anemic. He failed to get a qualifying TES for worlds; however, he will have another GP and Europeans to earn it, if not some Senior B already.
5th Konstantin Menshov
Pina soundtrack.
He got a -1 deduction for a time violation-the timer on the scoreboard showed his program timed at 2 min 52 seconds, so that was right.
I liked his program a lot, no matter that this is Savchenoko & Szolkwy's last year's music. He had a wonderful 4t3t, and a slightly wild but still good 3a. And then he has to go an pop to a double lutz
:wall: The see through shirt with the black gloves was a trip, but I particularly liked his interesting arm/hand movements and his footwork. I hope I get to see him skate again. I think he was somewhat underscored here.
4th Tatsuki Machida
F.U.Y.A by C2C; Choreography by Lambiel
Stephane did the choreo and it showed. The music is rather odd, though. All three jump passes were nicely done, but he was the only guy here who did not try a quad in the SP. How things have changed since 2010. He did put a hand down in the middle of the footwork, and I wonder whether that dropped him to level 2 there. I really liked his program too! The choreo was interesting and entertaining to me.
3rd Jeremy Abbott USA
Spy by Nathan Lanier
Maybe its due to having watched seventy leven Junior boys doing spy programs with lots of bang- bang capgun hands, but this program bored me utterly to tears, and I think it was very below Jeremy. The footwork & the spins were relatively simple and nothing to write home about, too. Only his combo was topnotch. The triple axel was wonky, and he fell on an underrotated quad toe. I'd have him behind Machida & Menshov. I know this is not a popular opinion, but that's how it looked tome.
As to
Kozuka &
Hanyu, Taka was wonderful and Yuzuru sublime. Or maybe Taka was sublime and Yuzuru wonderful. either way, if they skate like this, I can definitely see them both medalling at Worlds.
And yes Yuzuru's 3a from a counter, so huge landed so securely, and with complex steps on the way out was instant
for me.
But Taka's steps, done with such feeling, were wonderful too. In the arena, who can see facial expressions, or care about them? His body is so expressive!
Of course, Taka lost points on the 4t, and he missed some chances for bonus points, but wonderful for him to get a personal best when he had struggled so hard in the practices, something I'm sure may have affected the judges more than it should.
I simply love him, his program, the energy he has and the easiness that you can see all through the program, you can see him landing a quad like "it's not difficult", it makes you want to put on your skates and try it! Yes, 95 is what he deserves!
