Men's Free Skate, Sat. 11/19 at 7:30 am EST

[Spun Silver]

Just getting ready.

Today's marathon makes yesterday look like a walk in the park. Skating fans work so hard!

Warm-Up Group 1
1 Chafik BESSEGHIER
FRA
10 46.43
2 Romain PONSART
FRA
9 50.03
3 Alexander MAJOROV
SWE
8 62.12
4 Nobunari ODA
JPN
7 62.95
5 Kevin REYNOLDS
CAN
6 65.56

Warm-Up Group 2
6 Florent AMODIO
FRA
5 71.42
7 Adam RIPPON
USA
4 72.96
8 Michal BREZINA
CZE
3 74.32
9 Nan SONG
CHN
2 76.53
10 Patrick CHAN
CAN
1 84.16

 

[fscric]

Go Patrick!

 

[aemeraldrainc]

Go Kevin!!! Go Nobu!!!
You guys have fun for me.

 

[icemusings]

I'll be doing a live play by play and commentary at http://icemusings.blogspot.com/2011/11/trophee-eric-bompard-mens-free-skate.html for anyone without a feed. Hope the skating is cleaner today!

 

[BackStage Barbie]

I'm doing a LIVE play-by-play as well http://backstagebarbie.blogspot.com/2011/11/2011-isu-grand-prix-of-figure-skating_19.html Do you think we'll have a surprise medalist like Song in China or Miner at NHK?

 

[Spun Silver]

I love it when both of you guys are doing pbp. I may not comment but I read every word!

 

[icemusings]

I love it when both of you guys are doing pbp. I may not comment but I read every word!

Thanks for reading! Please comment any time. I love to know what other people think of the programs!

The first warmup group is on the ice and we'll be underway here shortly.

 

[Nadine]

GOOOOOOOOOOOOO ROMAIN PONSART, KEV, ADAM, NAN, ET AL!!!!!!!!!!!!

Land the quad every time out, guys, if you want to play in the big leagues (aka Worlds & Olympics).

 

[Violet Bliss]

Live stream?

Eurosport is showing basketball.

 

[Nadine]

Darn, Romain had trouble landing every single quad he attempted in practice...hmmm....

 

[Nadine]

I love the opening music to MASSIVE ATTACK! However, the whole time I kept picturing Oksana Baiul skating to it, hers to "Safe From Harm" was the best ever, bar none.

The jumps that Chafik landed (aka lutz & axel) were gorgeous, excellent height & depth, Joubert would be proud!

 

[Nadine]

Rough skate by Romain, but I applaud him for going for the quad, and his attitude on the upright spin has to be one of the finest I've ever been priviledged to see.

But the whole time I was picturing A&P skating to this, their iconic program, and was wondering if Gwendal loaned Romain his outfit, then dyed it purple.

 

[Spun Silver]

But Chafik struggled with so many of his jumps. And Ponsart was worse (?), barely getting off the ground in some of them. A disappointing skate for him, I'm sure. Neither had interesting programs. Ponsart wasted the Balcony Scene. (Although what's he going to do with it all by himself, lol?) They sure looked good, though.

ETA: Their total scores are .06 apart! Chafik is about 3.5 pts higher in the FS.

 

[Shaba22]

Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/NikaQuest

 

[Spun Silver]

Go, Nobu!!!

 

[Nadine]

Man, I'm soooooooooooooo upset, my computer crashed right when I was really getting into this Swede's performance, which I LOVE! BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO!!!!

I don't give a fig about the jumps b/c he sold the performance, love it! And the height, rotation, and depth he gets on the jumps is incredible, reminiscent of that magnificent jumper from Canada that beat out Kevin Reynolds to go to the Olympics, then retired.

 

[Nadine]

Having a canary b/c my computer crashed again! I don't understand, it's brand new, just bought it last month, the latest fanciest version, et al, then this.

So what did Oda land?

 

[Spun Silver]

Very little. Disaster. Heartbreaking.

I think there were one or two clean jumps in the program. The 3A was fine. Otherwise - pops and falls, even on FW. Poor Nobu.

He's such a classy, loveable guy, and it seems like a good program for him. Maybe at Nationals he can pull it off. At least the audience was supportive.

 

[MissCleo]

^ not much of anything, that was so hard to watch

 

[ImaginaryPogue]

According to ice musings, he landed two triples.