Classy Performances @ Skate Canada

Well - Alissa Czisny and Patrick Chan have both taught me a lesson - don't count them out!
Although both of them had a fall in their free programmes, they took deserved golds with beautiful performances and skating skills. I was particularly impressed with Alissa's ability to fight for her landings more than in the past. She has a painfully long history of being inconsistent when the pressure is on (rather like another vistuoso skater, Sasha Cohen). Chan also showed he can land his quad when the pressure is on, and the more he can do that, the more he can contend for a world title.

I hope these videos stay around on you-tube. Link to more videos here.

Money Shots - podiums.

Ladies - Makarova (S), Czisny (G), Lacoste (B)

Mens - Oda (S), Chan (G), Rippon (B)

Pairs - Moore-Towers & Moscovich (Canada-Silver)
Iliushechkina & Maisuradze (Russia-Gold)
Lawrence & Swiegers (Canada-Bronze)

Dance - Sinead & John Kerr (GBR - Silver)

Crone & Poirier (Canada - Gold)

Chock & Zuerlin (USA - Bronze)

Full results here.

Skate Canada - Day 1

Day 1 in Kingston is a busy one with all disciplines competing. Although the action will continue until long after we Brits go to bed, I will do my best to keep everyone posted with updates.


Ladies
Sadly Sarah Meier had to withdraw after morning practice. She sprained her ankle training her triple lutz.
First skater out of the box was Agnes Zawadski - a relative unknown from the US making her senior debut after winning silver at the World Jr Champs last year. She laid down a great short programme scoring 56.29. Last week at NHK Carolina Kostner won the short with 57.27 and Kanako Murakami was 2nd with 56.10. Zawadski should place very well by the end of today.
Canadians Myriane Samson and Amelie Lacoste also put in clean performances to score 51.62 and 55.30 respectively.
Fumie Suguri (JPN) first competed at Skate Canada in 1998 - 12 YEARS AGO! she put out a decent performance with some underrotated jumps, putting her in 4th behind the two Canadians with a score of 48.17
Haruka Imai (JPN) Skated with great character and speed to a programme of gypsy music - scoring 52.52
Ksenia Makarova (Russia) hit her triple-triple competition and got the crowd on her side with a great flamenco programme. She goes into first with 57.90
Alissa Czisny (USA) had beautiful spins (as ever) but struggled fully rotating on some of her jumps (as ever). No falls but not quite the performance she may have hoped for - 55.95.
Cynthia Phaneuf (Canada) delighted the home crowd with her clean spanish programme, full of character and quality. She goes into the lead with 58.24.

So with less than 3 points separating the top 5 skaters - Skate Canada looks to be shaping up for a better competition than expected.
The top ladies after the short programme are-
Pairs
New Canadian pair Duhamel & Radford had an great GP debut. She doubled one of their side-by-side jumps but they performed well together for a new pair. 54.80
Young pairs Lawrence & Sweigers (Canada) and Castelli & Snapir (USA) gave impressive and fun performances.
The two highest ranking pairs coming into the competition, Kemp & King (GB) and Dong & Wu (China) underperformed badly and end up at the lower end of the rankings after underwelming performances.
The stars of the day were the young Russians Iliushechkina & Maisuradze (Whose names I always have a nightmare spelling!) who outclassed the field with difficulty and performance quality.


So the pairs standings are -

Mens
History was made in the Men's competition when Kevin Reynolds of Canada became the first man to land 2 quads (toe and salchow) in the short programme. Reynolds also has a THIRD quad (loop) in his arsenal. If he can further improve his transitions and maturity to match his jumps he could really be the cat amongst the pigeons on the World stage.
Canada's leading man, Patrick Chan however had less luck in the short programme with 3 falls, however the judges were still kind to him and he is currently still in 4th and not a million miles away from medal contension.
Nobunari Oda leads the men with a clean and difficult programme and Adam Rippon made a great season debut of his new Romeo and Juliet programme, currently in third.

Dance
It's super close in the Ice Dance stakes with the Kerrs leading Crone and Poirier by just 0.001 of a point going into the free dance. My patriotic wish for the Kerrs to finally win a grand prix gold is balanced by my love of C+P's youthful, fresh style. I'm going to sit on my fence and wish them both well!

Full Live Scores
Tweets from Patinaggio
Great live blogging from Flutzing Around

Skate Canada

The second stop on the Grand Prix season is the Skate Canada International in Kingston ON this weekend. Canada will unfortunately be missing a few of it's stars as Virtue & Moir and Dube & Davison have been forced to pull out due to injuries. Still - many others will be looking forward to make a first big impression on Canadian soil since Vancouver


Men
Canada's young star Patrick Chan will be looking to re-assert himself amongst the best in the world after a slightly disappointing olympics. His performances at minor summer competitions were well recieved and having been training at altitude in Colorado he should be fighting fit.
He'll face competition from other young talents - American Adam Rippon (now Brian Orser's most senior pupil), Japan's Nobunari Oda and mini-Plushenko Artur Gachinski

Ladies
After the splat fest that was the ladies competition last week at NHK, the door is open for some surprise entries to win a Grand Prix final spot with a good performance here. The list for skate Canada is somewhat devoid of big names.
World bronze medallist Laura Lepisto was due to compee but is not on the start list. She recently started university so may be focussing on that for the moment.
In her absense the medal contenders include russian diva Ksenia Makarova, Canadian Cynthia Phaneuf, and the veterains Sarah Meier, Fumie Suguri and Alissa Czisny.

Pairs
This will be the grand prix debut of canadian Megan Duhamel and new partner Eric Radford - who recently finished 3rd at the Nebelhorn trophy.
The main medal contenders may be relatively junior pairs in this fairly inexperienced field - Lubov Iliushenka & Nodari Maisuradze of Russia and Huibo Dong & Yiming Wu of China.

Dance
In the absense of Virtue and Moir this could be the chance for British pair Sinead & John Kerr to challenge for gold in a season which may be their swansong. The Scottish siblings had long planned to retire after the 2010 games but found they were not yet tired of competing.
The home favourites at this event will be Vanessa Crone & Paul Poirier. Americans Madison Chock & Greg Zuerlin (who train at the Canton school of Ice Dance champions!) could also challenge the Brits with a good performance.


As ever the season after the olympics is a changing of the guard. More famous faces vanish off the radar and new ones arise. We may see a glimpse of the future at Skate Canada.

Full starting orders and results here.
The competition for all skaters starts Friday.

Event finals - day 2 (finally!)

Unfortunately my Sunday was rather busy (as was my Monday!) So it wasn't until last night that I managed to finally watch the event finals from Sunday.

Still there were a few happy- makers to be had.

1) Ana Porgras finally some gold around her neck after beautiful performances and graceful composure all week.


2) After the floor final had begun to look like a bit of a splat-fest, brilliant performances from Ferrari, Chelaru, Raisman , Sui Lu and of course Lauren Mitchell finished the women's competition in style.


3) The Rotterdam home crowd mustering to cheer on their gymnast, the incredible Epke Zonderland. And then with no subtlety at all boo the judges when he was knocked down to silver by Zhang Chenglong of China.


4) No bronzes handed out to the women on Sunday, showing just how close the competition is!

2 Golds, 4 silvers!

So that was Worlds 2010. With only 640 days to go until London 2012 it looks like we still have plenty to look forward to.....

Event Finals - day 1

She's wanted it for so long, now comeback queen Alicia Sacramone is World Champion on Vault.

The new world all-around champ Mustafina took silver and Jade Barbossa of Brazil (also in comeback mode) took the bronze.Full results here.

One question though may be nagging on a few minds - would things have been different if North Korea and Un Jong Hong had been allowed to compete. Most likely not- full credit to Alicia for achieving her goal at last.

Also Eleftherios Kosmidis of Greece took gold in the Men's floor final ahead of Uhemura and GB's Dan Purvis. Results here.

On Pommel Horse the honours went to Kristian Berki of Hungary with silver to Britain's Louis Smith and bronze Sellathurai of Australia.

In the bars final - I'm going on quick hits from Gym examiner here as the BBC coverage hasn't started yet!
first gymnast up - reigning olympic and world champion He Kexin fell on her jeager - there will be a new world champion this year - but who?
Her teammate Huang Quishang also comes off the bars. The door is wide open.
Beth Tweddle hits her routine out of the park - 15.733.
Bridget Sloan - a clean but less difficult routine 14.666
Aliya Mustafina - Also clean but can't quite match Beth. 15.600
Elizabeth Seitz goes for her difficult 'def' skill and misses. It was a risk which didn't pay off today but good on her for trying!
Ana Porgras- a good routine but can't quite challenge on difficulty 14.6
Rebecca Bross - Knocks team-mate Bridget Sloan out of 3rd place

So it's GOLD for Beth Tweddle
A second silver to Mustafina
and a second bronze for Bross.

Congratulations to the GB gymnasts - 3 medals in 1 day.
Right- I've written the results - now I can watch it!

The money shots-
Floor
Bars
Pommel
No prizes for guessing what she's praying for!
Bars
RingsGreat Britain

Another busy day.

After all the gymnastics and skating antics of yesterday there's more to come today. The event finals from worlds are about to start at 2.30pm UK time on BBC1.

Mustafina will be looking to add more gold to her gym bag havign qualified for finals on every event. Her competition includes Alicia Sacramone on vault and He Kexin & Beth Tweddle on bars.


The starting list for todays events is here.

Meanwhile in Japan, the expected winners prevailed in the pairs and dance events

Pairs

1	Qing PANG / Jian TONG	CHN	189.37	1	1
2	Vera BAZAROVA / Yuri LARIONOV	RUS	173.83	2	2
3	Narumi TAKAHASHI / Mervin TRAN	JPN	155.66	3	4

Dance

1	Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE	USA	165.21	1	1
2	Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE	CAN	141.57	2	3
3	Maia SHIBUTANI / Alex SHIBUTANI	USA	136.93	5	2

A great outing too for the young teams Takahashi & Tran and the Shibutani siblings, testing the water on the senior level.


The surprises came once again in the ladies event. Not only Mao Asada but also mini Mao (Kanako Murakami) had disasterous outings with 3 falls a piece. Mao will need a strong victory at her second event in Paris, as well as mistakes from others to even make the final now. 2010-11 could see a changing of the guard in ladies figure skating.

1	Carolina KOSTNER	ITA	164.61	1	2
2	Rachael FLATT	USA	161.04	3	1
3	Kanako MURAKAMI	JPN	150.16	2	5

Full NHK results here and a collection of videos here.

Women's AA moments

Full women's all around results here.
Hilarious podium shot!

Great performance from the GB girls. Hannah Whelan finished 16th and Nicole Hibbert 22nd. Solid performances building towards 2012.

Ana Porgras - ever graceful. Her time to medal will come soon.
Once again Rebecca Bross will be cursing her one costly mistake. Still a well earned bronze.


On a not so serious note - Ksenia Semenova may be earning herself a reputation! Remember this from Beijing? Perhaps it's just the russian way of celebrating :-)

Rotation 4

Ana Porgras on floor - great artistry and tumbling. She has made a strong bid for a medal. finishes with 58.165
Vanessa Ferrari - only a yurchenko full on vault but well performed.
Porgras is watching her competition with a smile.
Huang landed out of bounds on her first pass. looks a bit rattled but performs the rest of her routine well. Finishes ahead of porgras with 58.366
Raluca Haidu finishes with 56.332, shame not to see her routines though.
Ariella Kaeslin finishes with 56.900
Jiang Yuyuan performs well on floor - should end with a medal. 4 great performances. 59.998 - into first.
Lauren Mitchell - Awesome yurchenko double twist on vault. finishes 58.133 into 4th.
Tatiana Nabieva. Bitch face on- Messy but landed amanar. Good way to end though 57.728
Bross looks focused but already disappointed before floor. Great routine though. Shame about the mistake on beam though. Goes into second with 58.966. Looks like she will go home with bronze.
Mustafina on floor - good enough I'm sure! Russians are cheering!
61.032 Mustafina wins!

1	MUSTAFINA Aliya	RUS	61.032
2	JIANG Yuyan	CHN	59.998
3	BROSS Rebecca	USA	58.966
4	HUANG Qiushuang	CHN	58.366
5	PORGRAS Ana	ROU	58.165
6	MITCHELL Lauren	AUS	58.133
7	NABIEVA Tatiana	RUS	57.298
8	KAESLIN Ariella	SUI	56.900

Rotation 3

Lauren Mitchell (AUS) on floor - a good performance but a bit more untidy than we've seen her before.
Mustafina on beam - great double spin and standing arabian. Missed a few connections. Just about made the triple twist dismount. She knows the title is hers without a major mistake. 15.033
Ana Porgras on beam - working fast and with purpose. Great routine, not damaging her chances at all. 15.433
Huang Quishang (China) - steady performance on beam with a few balance checks. She could be a dark horse to step in if others make errors. 14.7
Vanessa Ferrari (Italy) on floor - has ATTITUDE! Doing her best Alicia Sacramone impression to Sacramone's old music. Not a medal contender now but still great to watch.
Jiang Yuyuan (China) - very precice routine on beam. I'd love to see her hold on for a medal and with Raisman's error on bars it's very possible. 15.066
Koko Tsurumi of Japan on bars hoping to make up for her mistake in qualifying hits the bar with her leg on the tcatchev but still manages to grab the bar. Will be a big deduction though. Sad to see her not having the best championships. 12.900
Hannah Whelan hits her yurchenko 1 1/2 on vault. big step though but still giving a good all around performance. 13.866
Bross has game face on for beam. Dissapointing fall on her ariabian. tried so hard to save it. No gold for Bross this year. Makes the dismount but looks gutted. We have yet to know how much those nagging injuries are affecting her. 14.100
Nabieva on floor - muscles her double arabian. Foot out of bounds on her double pike. Not her night either. 13.633

1	MUSTAFINA Aliya	RUS	45.999
2	JIANG Yuyan	CHN	45.432
3	HUANG Qiushuang	CHN	44.666
4	PORGRAS Ana	ROU	43.865
5	BROSS Rebecca	USA	43.733
6	MITCHELL Lauren	AUS	43.400
7	FERRARI Vanessa	ITA	42.332
7	LOPEZ Jessica	VEN	42.332