After getting credentials sorted out and getting organized at Copps, I made it upstairs in time for the men’s practises. I spent all my time today at Copps & didn’t make it out to Chedoke.
First group up were the Japanese & South Africans
JPN Takeshi Honda - not here, not registered yet
JPN Daisuke Takahashi – looking pretty darn good. I wasn’t paying enough attention to take notes but the jumps were looking great. He seemed to be a lot smoother than I remember him.
JPN Yamato Tamura – looking pretty good except for the 3axel, I saw a number of scary attempts and don’t remember seeing any good ones. He’s sporting a blond mohawk style stripe in his hair – he really stands out with it, you’re not going to mix him up with any other skater J. I heard that he’s retiring from eligible competition and this will be his last one.
RSA Gareth Echardt – can’t really remember much
RSA Konrad Giering – again, don’t remember much
RSA Justin Pietersen – not here
Next group up were the Mexicans & Americans
I didn’t see much of this group, I was off sorting out ticket issues. Ryan Bradley was the only American to show
Next group were the Canadians, NZL & KOR
No Canadians here yet, Dong-Whun Lee was looking quite good – I saw numerous good triples but don’t think I saw any 3axels or quads
Last group of men were the Chinese & Australians
CHN Song Gao - Copps - r/t free / 4t3t tiny brush of free foot coming through / popped axel / didn't skate big section in middle / 3a not perfect but good / 3f / whe he does his jumps right they're just beautiful greast air pos & landing pos /
AUS Stuart Beckingham - Copps - He's bald & quite tall r/t 3t with bad wrap / 3l fell /
AUS Daniel Harries - green tshirt / didn't see r/t / saw some 3z attempts pretty good ones but none landed
AUS Bradley Santer - white tshirt dark hair / short / 3z2t / 3f fell out / 2a /
Next up were the Ladies. I didn’t see the first 2 groups (sorting out tickets again and getting more things organized in the media room)
First up were the Mexicans & Americans – no Americans showed, reports that Michelle Cantu from Mexico was looking pretty good
Next were 2 of the Australians and the Chinese
Next were the Japanese & South Africans
I finally made it upstairs for the ‘Misc’ group consisting of the following
TPE Diane Chen - Copps pm - short r/t / Don't Cry for Me Argentina / nice 2a / popped sal / clockwise jumper / fell on triple ? / was having real trouble with 3z - didn't see a fully rotated one
AUS Miriam Manzano - Copps pm - short r/t / 3z hand down 2t / 2f / nice pgm to soft pretty music / she flows well with good speed
TPE Amy Hou – wearing red velvet dress – saw a bunch of under-rotated 3loops and a couple of landed 3toes I think but she was having trouble with all of the triples.
RSA Jenna Anne Buys – can’t really remember her
UZB Anastasia Gimazetdinova – not here
Last Group of ladies were the Canadians & Koreans – finally a group that I have some fairly decent notes on <G>
KOR Sun-Bin Lee - Copps pm - short r/t - just arrived on the ice before her music started / no jumps /
KOR Eun-Byul Cho - Copps pm - long r/t - no jumps / all of a sudden the music came to life - t was soft & pretty up til now /
KOR Bit-Na Park - Copps pm - short r/t - announced that she wasn't her but she is / saw a turnout on 3s / looks like she might only have a 2z /
CAN Joannie Rochette - Copps pm - looking pretty good before music played - she was last / working on 3t3t saw her land one clean but really tight and hop out of another / free r/t / 3l / 3f pitched forwad but clean / 3z turns 3t / 3f or z / almost had an accident - Cynthia in a camel spin & joannie almost skated into her - it was a fairly close call TV camera got it - maybe it'll make the news??? Or, on second thought maybe they’re taping for a phluff piece / a little later Cynthia tripped on her toepick & splatted forward - she got up laughing kind of embarrassed / It was cute
CAN Jennifer Robinson - Copps pm - short r/t / good 3z at start / fell out of 2footed 3f / bad wrap on 2a - I've noticed this before where she wraps on the axel but no other jumps/ saw some nice 3z before her r/t
CAN Cynthia Phaneuf - Copps pm - free r/t / gorgeous red velvet with scoop neck & back / 2a / 3l / 3z / 3t / 3f / 3z 2t almost hands down on both but held off / 3s / 3t fell / The tv camera arrived as the group took the ice - he spent most of his time following Cynthia standing right next to Annie (coach) /
Last practises of the day were the pairs. I was downstairs getting packed up while the Americans were on the ice – the only ones were Scott & Dulebohn.
Next were the Chinese & UZB
UZB Aganina / Knyazev - Copps pm - no show, no music yet
CHN Zhang / Zhang - Copps pm r/t free pgm / huge lateral 3tw / sbs 2a she single into 2t / thr 3l / thr 3s great distance but not the height of the other Chinese teams / greats lasso lift really fast into it & up - no preparation /
CHN Pang / Tong - Copps pm - free - partial r/t gorgeous 3tw lateral / thr 3l / sbs 2a she fell / huge thr 3s /
CHN Ding / Ren - Copps pm - free r/t / thr4t 2ft but not badly & fully rot / sbs 3t turns 2t / 3tw lateral / Ding & Ren & the Zhangs did sbs 3s at almost exactly the same time and then almost ran into each other / there's just so much going on it's hard to watch it all much less watch & write at the same time<G> / lift that didn't get up
Last group were the Canadians – no one at practise
First group up were the Japanese & South Africans
JPN Takeshi Honda - not here, not registered yet
JPN Daisuke Takahashi – looking pretty darn good. I wasn’t paying enough attention to take notes but the jumps were looking great. He seemed to be a lot smoother than I remember him.
JPN Yamato Tamura – looking pretty good except for the 3axel, I saw a number of scary attempts and don’t remember seeing any good ones. He’s sporting a blond mohawk style stripe in his hair – he really stands out with it, you’re not going to mix him up with any other skater J. I heard that he’s retiring from eligible competition and this will be his last one.
RSA Gareth Echardt – can’t really remember much
RSA Konrad Giering – again, don’t remember much
RSA Justin Pietersen – not here
Next group up were the Mexicans & Americans
I didn’t see much of this group, I was off sorting out ticket issues. Ryan Bradley was the only American to show
Next group were the Canadians, NZL & KOR
No Canadians here yet, Dong-Whun Lee was looking quite good – I saw numerous good triples but don’t think I saw any 3axels or quads
Last group of men were the Chinese & Australians
CHN Song Gao - Copps - r/t free / 4t3t tiny brush of free foot coming through / popped axel / didn't skate big section in middle / 3a not perfect but good / 3f / whe he does his jumps right they're just beautiful greast air pos & landing pos /
AUS Stuart Beckingham - Copps - He's bald & quite tall r/t 3t with bad wrap / 3l fell /
AUS Daniel Harries - green tshirt / didn't see r/t / saw some 3z attempts pretty good ones but none landed
AUS Bradley Santer - white tshirt dark hair / short / 3z2t / 3f fell out / 2a /
Next up were the Ladies. I didn’t see the first 2 groups (sorting out tickets again and getting more things organized in the media room)
First up were the Mexicans & Americans – no Americans showed, reports that Michelle Cantu from Mexico was looking pretty good
Next were 2 of the Australians and the Chinese
Next were the Japanese & South Africans
I finally made it upstairs for the ‘Misc’ group consisting of the following
TPE Diane Chen - Copps pm - short r/t / Don't Cry for Me Argentina / nice 2a / popped sal / clockwise jumper / fell on triple ? / was having real trouble with 3z - didn't see a fully rotated one
AUS Miriam Manzano - Copps pm - short r/t / 3z hand down 2t / 2f / nice pgm to soft pretty music / she flows well with good speed
TPE Amy Hou – wearing red velvet dress – saw a bunch of under-rotated 3loops and a couple of landed 3toes I think but she was having trouble with all of the triples.
RSA Jenna Anne Buys – can’t really remember her
UZB Anastasia Gimazetdinova – not here
Last Group of ladies were the Canadians & Koreans – finally a group that I have some fairly decent notes on <G>
KOR Sun-Bin Lee - Copps pm - short r/t - just arrived on the ice before her music started / no jumps /
KOR Eun-Byul Cho - Copps pm - long r/t - no jumps / all of a sudden the music came to life - t was soft & pretty up til now /
KOR Bit-Na Park - Copps pm - short r/t - announced that she wasn't her but she is / saw a turnout on 3s / looks like she might only have a 2z /
CAN Joannie Rochette - Copps pm - looking pretty good before music played - she was last / working on 3t3t saw her land one clean but really tight and hop out of another / free r/t / 3l / 3f pitched forwad but clean / 3z turns 3t / 3f or z / almost had an accident - Cynthia in a camel spin & joannie almost skated into her - it was a fairly close call TV camera got it - maybe it'll make the news??? Or, on second thought maybe they’re taping for a phluff piece / a little later Cynthia tripped on her toepick & splatted forward - she got up laughing kind of embarrassed / It was cute
CAN Jennifer Robinson - Copps pm - short r/t / good 3z at start / fell out of 2footed 3f / bad wrap on 2a - I've noticed this before where she wraps on the axel but no other jumps/ saw some nice 3z before her r/t
CAN Cynthia Phaneuf - Copps pm - free r/t / gorgeous red velvet with scoop neck & back / 2a / 3l / 3z / 3t / 3f / 3z 2t almost hands down on both but held off / 3s / 3t fell / The tv camera arrived as the group took the ice - he spent most of his time following Cynthia standing right next to Annie (coach) /
Last practises of the day were the pairs. I was downstairs getting packed up while the Americans were on the ice – the only ones were Scott & Dulebohn.
Next were the Chinese & UZB
UZB Aganina / Knyazev - Copps pm - no show, no music yet
CHN Zhang / Zhang - Copps pm r/t free pgm / huge lateral 3tw / sbs 2a she single into 2t / thr 3l / thr 3s great distance but not the height of the other Chinese teams / greats lasso lift really fast into it & up - no preparation /
CHN Pang / Tong - Copps pm - free - partial r/t gorgeous 3tw lateral / thr 3l / sbs 2a she fell / huge thr 3s /
CHN Ding / Ren - Copps pm - free r/t / thr4t 2ft but not badly & fully rot / sbs 3t turns 2t / 3tw lateral / Ding & Ren & the Zhangs did sbs 3s at almost exactly the same time and then almost ran into each other / there's just so much going on it's hard to watch it all much less watch & write at the same time<G> / lift that didn't get up
Last group were the Canadians – no one at practise
