International Skating Union

[Satu]

I'm watching men's short live at http://areena.yle.fi/suora (not sure if it works outside Finland). Ari-Pekka Nurmenkari just finished his programme and almost nailed it. The landing of the second jump of his combo wasn't totally clean but otherwise, brilliant. I'm thrilled. My prediction of him finishing in top ten might come true!

[Lottie]

No, it does not seem to work outside Finland, it just displays a 20 second clip with a plain message in Finish, possibly telling me that I can't watch it

Looks like I have to keep on waiting until Eurosport is switching from tennis to skating. Already missed half of the short programs - how disappointing!

[IneZR]

Try this:
http://live.palmtv.ru/cgi-bin/index.cgi?Ch=7

[crystal]

They should be switching to figure skating at 2.30 CET for final two groups.

[crystal]

Excellent sp from Brian, rock solid stuff. The 4+3 combo was quite good and 3Lz was awesome. I really hate his step sequences, but the program simply works for him.

[lambielfan26]

The big 2 of European mens skating really stepped up today. Brian was amazing. Tomas was also very good but it is too bad he ended up doing a triple toe-triple toe for his combo.

[crystal]

Contesti is a very pleasant surprise, excellent jumps and spins, not so much the step sequences. Very decent efforts from Van Der Perren and Preaubert too, it's going to be quite a battle for the bronze (the first two look untouchable at the moment, but who knows). Voronov is also still in the mix.
Another disappointing performance from Ponsero.

[AliasJohnDoe]

Mens SP Result:

1 Brian JOUBERT FRA 86.90 48.00 38.90 7.85 7.40 8.00 7.75 7.90 0.00 #34
2 Tomas VERNER CZE 81.45 43.90 37.55 7.55 7.15 7.55 7.60 7.70 0.00 #33
3 Samuel CONTESTI ITA 75.95 43.90 32.05 6.50 5.80 6.65 6.50 6.60 0.00 #21
4 Kevin VAN DER PERREN BEL 75.80 42.30 33.50 6.90 6.40 6.75 6.70 6.75 0.00 #37
5 Alban PREAUBERT FRA 73.50 40.80 32.70 6.65 6.15 6.60 6.65 6.65 0.00 #30
6 Sergei VORONOV RUS 71.29 38.24 33.05 6.80 6.25 6.65 6.65 6.70 0.00 #39
7 Kristoffer BERNTSSON SWE 68.19 36.14 32.05 6.40 6.10 6.50 6.50 6.55 0.00 #32
8 Andrei LUTAI RUS 67.75 37.90 29.85 6.15 5.75 5.95 6.00 6.00 0.00 #25
9 Yannick PONSERO FRA 67.45 33.80 33.65 7.00 6.40 6.75 6.75 6.75 0.00 #35
10 Ari-Pekka NURMENKARI FIN 66.64 39.54 27.10 5.55 5.10 5.55 5.45 5.45 0.00 #13
11 Adrian SCHULTHEISS SWE 66.45 36.20 30.25 6.30 5.85 6.00 6.10 6.00 0.00 #36
12 Javier FERNANDEZ ESP 65.75 39.30 28.45 5.75 5.25 5.75 5.90 5.80 2.00 #28
13 Anton KOVALEVSKI UKR 63.35 36.80 26.55 5.45 4.90 5.45 5.40 5.35 0.00 #16
14 Peter LIEBERS GER 62.19 34.94 27.25 5.65 5.15 5.55 5.55 5.35 0.00 #23
15 Artem BORODULIN RUS 61.77 31.22 30.55 6.30 5.80 6.15 6.20 6.10 0.00 #31
16 Przemyslaw DOMANSKI POL 60.03 34.08 25.95 5.40 4.85 5.35 5.25 5.10 0.00 #22
17 Michal BREZINA CZE 59.35 29.00 31.35 6.45 6.00 6.30 6.30 6.30 1.00 #38
18 Alexander MAJOROV SWE 59.24 32.34 26.90 5.45 5.15 5.35 5.60 5.35 0.00 #27
19 Igor MACYPURA SVK 59.20 32.10 27.10 5.50 5.15 5.50 5.50 5.45 0.00 #26
20 Jamal OTHMAN SUI 57.50 31.30 26.20 5.45 4.90 5.20 5.35 5.30 0.00 #20
21 Boris MARTINEC CRO 54.80 31.60 23.20 4.65 4.25 4.70 4.80 4.80 0.00 #12
22 Clemens BRUMMER GER 53.47 27.82 27.65 5.50 5.15 5.50 5.75 5.75 2.00 #24
23 Elliot HILTON GBR 51.15 27.20 23.95 5.05 4.45 4.75 4.95 4.75 0.00 #14
24 Gregor URBAS SLO 49.23 23.18 27.05 5.65 5.10 5.45 5.45 5.40 1.00 #29
25 Ruben BLOMMAERT BEL 49.14 26.24 22.90 4.80 4.35 4.65 4.65 4.45 0.00 #18
26 Maxim SHIPOV ISR 48.39 27.14 21.25 4.55 3.95 4.25 4.30 4.20 0.00 #10
27 Kutay ERYOLDAS TUR 48.19 26.84 21.35 4.30 3.85 4.35 4.45 4.40 0.00 #7
28 Damjan OSTOJIC BIH 47.09 27.84 20.25 4.25 3.70 4.10 4.20 4.00 1.00 #5
29 Viktor PFEIFER AUT 45.65 20.30 26.35 5.40 4.95 5.30 5.35 5.35 1.00 #17
30 Georgi KENCHADZE BUL 43.66 24.56 19.10 4.05 3.55 3.80 3.95 3.75 0.00 #9
31 Alexandr KAZAKOV BLR 42.70 20.20 23.50 5.00 4.45 4.70 4.75 4.60 1.00 #15
32 Dmitri KAGIROV BLR 41.94 22.64 19.30 4.20 3.65 3.80 3.90 3.75 0.00 #3
33 Tomi PULKKINEN SUI 41.84 20.24 22.60 4.60 4.25 4.50 4.65 4.60 1.00 #19
34 Zoltan KELEMEN ROU 41.74 21.34 20.40 4.30 3.80 4.15 4.15 4.00 0.00 #4
35 Tigran VARDANJAN HUN 39.46 20.36 19.10 3.95 3.45 3.75 4.05 3.90 0.00 #1
36 Boyito MULDER NED 39.39 21.34 18.05 3.85 3.35 3.60 3.70 3.55 0.00 #6
37 Saulius AMBRULEVICIUS LTU 36.96 17.36 19.60 4.05 3.70 3.90 4.05 3.90 0.00 #11
38 Beka SHANKULASHVILI GEO 36.31 20.06 17.25 3.65 3.15 3.45 3.55 3.45 1.00 #2
39 Gegham VARDANYAN ARM 33.37 15.82 18.55 3.90 3.40 3.75 3.80 3.70 1.00 #8

[lambielfan26]

Unfortunately I cant see Ponsero coming from the 2nd last flight and passing Preaubert's point total from behind. Preaubert has been very solid in his LPs all season minus French Nationals. I guess it is possible but very unlikely. It looks like Preaubert will be going to Worlds along with Joubert.

[crystal]

[lambielfan26]

[crystal]

I don't disagree with you, I too think that Preaubert is overall a more consistent skater and his Russian LP is quite a crowd pleaser. Ponsero may be a more polished skater, but he is awfully inconsistent with his jumps.

[AliasJohnDoe]

Pairs LP Result:

1 Aliona SAVCHENKO / Robin SZOLKOWY GER 132.43 67.71 64.72 8.00 7.90 8.15 8.15 8.25 0.00 #19
2 Yuko KAWAGUCHI / Alexander SMIRNOV RUS 117.39 58.59 58.80 7.40 7.25 7.30 7.40 7.40 0.00 #20
3 Tatiana VOLOSOZHAR / Stanislav MOROZOV UKR 115.14 57.30 57.84 7.45 7.05 7.25 7.30 7.10 0.00 #18
4 Maria MUKHORTOVA / Maxim TRANKOV RUS 112.45 54.49 58.96 7.45 7.15 7.35 7.45 7.45 1.00 #17
5 Lubov ILIUSHECHKINA / Nodari MAISURADZE RUS 95.42 49.46 46.96 6.10 5.75 5.70 5.95 5.85 1.00 #16
6 Nicole DELLA MONICA / Yannick KOCON ITA 89.83 46.95 42.88 5.40 5.05 5.45 5.45 5.45 0.00 #15
7 Erica RISSEEUW / Robert PAXTON GBR 85.50 45.26 40.24 5.05 4.90 5.00 5.10 5.10 0.00 #10
8 Maylin HAUSCH / Daniel WENDE GER 84.47 45.39 40.08 5.00 4.70 5.05 5.15 5.15 1.00 #11
9 Vanessa JAMES / Yannick BONHEUR FRA 83.83 44.79 39.04 4.95 4.50 5.05 5.00 4.90 0.00 #9
10 Adeline CANAC / Maximin COIA FRA 83.16 41.96 41.20 5.25 4.90 5.10 5.30 5.20 0.00 #14
11 Stacey KEMP / David KING GBR 79.49 43.57 37.92 4.85 4.70 4.60 4.85 4.70 2.00 #13
12 Marika ZANFORLIN / Federico DEGLI ESPOSTI ITA 77.10 43.82 33.28 4.05 4.05 4.15 4.35 4.20 0.00 #8
13 Anais MORAND / Antoine DORSAZ SUI 76.64 41.92 36.72 4.70 4.40 4.50 4.80 4.55 2.00 #12
14 Maria SERGEJEVA / Ilja GLEBOV EST 74.62 39.54 36.08 4.60 4.30 4.60 4.55 4.50 1.00 #6
15 Joanna SULEJ / Mateusz CHRUSCINSKI POL 73.02 39.74 33.28 4.30 3.90 4.20 4.25 4.15 0.00 #5
16 Krystyna KLIMCZAK / Janusz KARWETA POL 72.70 40.90 32.80 4.25 4.10 4.05 4.15 3.95 1.00 #7
17 Jessica CRENSHAW / Chad TSAGRIS GRE 71.31 39.59 32.72 4.20 3.80 4.25 4.10 4.10 1.00 #2
18 Ekaterina KOSTENKO / Roman TALAN UKR 65.83 36.23 29.60 3.80 3.55 3.85 3.75 3.55 0.00 #1
19 Gabriela CERMANOVA / Martin HANULAK SVK 60.45 32.57 28.88 3.80 3.50 3.55 3.70 3.50 1.00 #4

Pairs Final Result:

1 Aliona SAVCHENKO / Robin SZOLKOWY GER
199.07 2 1
2 Yuko KAWAGUCHI / Alexander SMIRNOV RUS
182.77 3 2
3 Maria MUKHORTOVA / Maxim TRANKOV RUS
182.07 1 4
4 Tatiana VOLOSOZHAR / Stanislav MOROZOV UKR
171.34 4 3
5 Lubov ILIUSHECHKINA / Nodari MAISURADZE RUS
147.84 5 5
6 Nicole DELLA MONICA / Yannick KOCON ITA
135.33 8 6
7 Erica RISSEEUW / Robert PAXTON GBR
129.78 10 7
8 Maylin HAUSCH / Daniel WENDE GER
129.67 9 8
9 Adeline CANAC / Maximin COIA FRA
129.06 7 10
10 Vanessa JAMES / Yannick BONHEUR FRA
127.71 12 9
11 Stacey KEMP / David KING GBR
127.47 6 11
12 Anais MORAND / Antoine DORSAZ SUI
120.62 11 13
13 Marika ZANFORLIN / Federico DEGLI ESPOSTI ITA
118.52 15 12
14 Maria SERGEJEVA / Ilja GLEBOV EST
117.00 13 14
15 Joanna SULEJ / Mateusz CHRUSCINSKI POL
114.96 14 15
16 Krystyna KLIMCZAK / Janusz KARWETA POL
112.20 16 16
17 Jessica CRENSHAW / Chad TSAGRIS GRE
108.09 18 17
18 Ekaterina KOSTENKO / Roman TALAN UKR
103.97 17 18
19 Gabriela CERMANOVA / Martin HANULAK SVK
97.21 19 19
WD Ekaterina SOKOLOVA / Fedor SOKOLOV ISR
20
21 Nina IVANOVA / Filip ZALEVSKI BUL
FNR 21

[Leena]

Men SP:
Brian Joubert was excellent, imo. Strong and confident. He was very ON today.
Verner is a very sympathetic skater but to me a lacks a little bit in charisma.
Go Kevin Van Der Perren! Only worried about his hip. He told in the interview that he had hurt his hip (same that has been operated) when he fell in practise (or warm up) and he did not remember much about his skating because the hip was painful. Hope he can skate tomorrow. Nice to see what young Italian can do in LP. So proud of Nurmenkari. Onlu hope he can skate clean tomorrow.

Pairs LP:
S/S were clearly the best tonight. Deserved to win and deserved good scores.
They were very smooth. Great transitions. Effortless.
Maria and Maxim (esp. Maria) looked nervous and uncomfortable from the beginning of their performance. Another LP gone wrong. The fall in the second triple salchow throw looked just awfully painful.
K/S were good but imo they do a little bit too difficult and strange things in the ice and sometimes their presentation suffers from it.
Ukrainians were guite nice esp throws were huge and he shows finally some development. She has always been great.
After the top four, well not good. young Russian pair certainly is promising and I liked very much young French couple. Vanessa James esp.

[tennisfan]

Well the Germans are clearly establishing themselves as the favourites for worlds again after struggling in the GPF. I'm not a big fan of either of the Russian pairs of the moment (top 2 - not familiar with the third one) but I was really hoping that for the sake of the pairs competition (at this years world's and next years olympics) that they would step up and deliver great lp (120 points plus). Mukhortova/Trankov at least had a season best score but based on their abilities they should really be able to score much higher than they did. As for Kawaguchi/Smirnov, I hope they change coaches at the end of the season and move to someone who will choreograph a program to suit their style and ability instead of taking the most difficult elements and putting them back to back to back to create a challenging program that doesn't flow and allow them to perform.

[lambielfan26]

If the Germans skates like that they are simply unbeatable among the current pairs. They cannot even be challenged. It is too early to say they have their consistency issues worked out though. They did fall in the short after all.

So dissapointing to see Mukhortova/Trankov bomb the LP yet again. I cant imagine what it must be like to be coaching them, infuriating I imagine. I still think they are medal contenders for Worlds this year but it is a bit hard to see them doing it when they cant even get a decent LP all season. Kawaguchi/Smirnov skated well but their scoring potential to medal at Worlds comes into question if that is all they could manage for a clean short and a pretty decent LP performance. Volosozhar/Morozov now seem pretty far off for contention for a World medal, they clearly have not built off their early season momentum. I would say the 3 top NA pairs have a better shot of sneaking in for a medal than the Ukranians at this point.

[IneZR]

IMHO this LP is too difficult for M/T to perform. They don't look comfortable skating to this music and cannot handle the complex choreography. Hopefully they use time left before Worlds in L.A. to make some changes in their program. Good thing is that this skate, at least, wasn't such a splatfest as it was at Skate America and much better than at Grand Prix Final.

[IneZR]

According to this site Domnina/Shabalin withdrew due to medical reasons:
http://www.allsport.ru/index.php?id=23112

[lambielfan26]

Sadly I keep thinking more and more that Maxim really has to retire for his own good. I know it would be infuriating for him to retire without a world medal when they were starting to establish themselves as potentialy the dominant team before Worlds last years, but that is the reality I think he is going to have to accept.

[Satu]

What a men's short! Almost perfect performances by the top two skaters and a bunch of guys finishing close enough to each other to produce a great battle for the bronze tonight. I'm going to see it live, yay!

And Nurmenkari at 10th, I hope you marked my words earlier.