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Sunday, the 22nd: The Long Day

For the second group of the men's qualifying, I switched to my normal camera, because we couldn't sit on the seats closer to the ice any longer and I find it easier to work the zoom on my normal camera than on my digital one. So no photos of that for the moment. The group was openend with the announcement that Gareth Eckart withdrew. Min Zhang's jump highlights were a 3a-3t, a 4s and a 4t, but he seemed to run out of steam towards the end of the program, had problems with two triples and a stumble on nothing in particular somewhere in the program. Trifun Zivanovic's skate did not include a 3axel. (now that are extensive notes, LOL). Clemens Jonas had his hair in a strange ponytail and tended to screw up his jump landings. The program was a bit hectic and he looked as if he was struggling throughout it. Vakthang Murvanidze tried a quad, but stepped out. He did not skate his LP from the beginning of this season, but he was skating to "Natural Born Killers" instead, there was a lot of chanting in the musical selections. Is that a new or an old program??? It was an entertaining, different and cool program (as usually from him ;) ) with dancy steps and fun step sequences. He had to fight for his jumps though.

The overall quality of Aidas Reklys' skating is pretty high, he had fast spins and landed most of his triples in his nice Tango program. Ari-Pekka Nurmenkari started well, but then made a lot of mistakes from his fourth jump on, he seemed to run out of steam. Gregor Urbas skated pretty well. Steffi and I really can't understand why so many people think he's that good looking? (I mean it's not like he looks bad, but...).

Daisuke Takahashi most definitely was one of the biggest surprises of this competition, because he was definitely one of the men with the best programs and expression in the whole field. Steffi claimed that he was a skater we had seen at Bofrost in 2002 and had found very boring, well I just checked my report from there and she was right. He obviously has made tremendous improvements since then. It's a pity the Japanese didn't manage to get two spots for next year (they didn't, did they?), because I have to admit I most definitely prefer him over Takeshi Honda. Anyway Takahashi's qualifying LP was not a bad skate, but also not really good. As jump highlights he managed a 3a and one 3-3, but had no quad. His LP music is really beautiful and at it is a well-choreographed program.

Ilia Klimkin only had one 3axel and I think no quad (not sure though), but his program was very cool and IMO still one of the best ones in the field, because he was having such great body control throughout, great presence on the ice, his usual fabulous spins and it was great how his program build up tension throughout :) . Pavel Kersha skated to some music that sounded bluesy and rock-ish. He popped and 2footed lots of his jumps though and didn't get much in. The program was not bad though. Sergei Davydov had some clean jumps, but unfortunately also mistakes. He did one 3axel. Evgeny Plushenko skated last years' LP (I want to extend thanks to all the skaters who skated 2 different LP's in the competition - well I guess that's only Lambiel and Plushenko and maybe Murvanidze, even though we of course don't know what he would have skated in the LP, since he unfortunately did not make it :( , but he showed us another program than at Euros :) ). Anyway Plushenko as highlights landed a 4-3, a 3a-3t and a solo 3axel, he doubled one salchow. Michael Weiss landed a 4-3 on which the 4 was 2footed and a 3a - 2t, but he also had a mistake, he stepped out of the flip. His spin positions were interesting and his program has detailed choreography.

Gheorghe Chiper touched down on his quad, did a 3a and a 3a-3t (on which he 2footed the toeloop). He had one more fall and a doubled jump. But it still was a very good skate for him, especially because he skated with good speed and flow and had entertaining good footwork. After those Worlds I can definitely say that he is a very pleasant skater to watch live. Vitaly Danilchenko fell on his quad attempt and managed the 3axel only in the 2nd attempt. He managed some triples, but overall made too many mistakes. He really needs to vary his speed more, everything seemed to be on the same level. Stefan Lindemann was next. The 2 German fans around us were pitying him, because according to them he had ended up in the MUCH more difficult qualifying group. Uhm, no, not really :-P . He did a 4t-2t (with a slight touchdown on the quad) and a 3a-2t. He doubled one jump and stepped out of the 2nd 3axel.

Zoltan Toth looked like a much different skater than at Euros, he skated much better. He managed a 3axel, one clean 3-3 (I mean not a stellar one, but it was saved decently). He tried a second 3-3, but fell on the second jump. It was a good skate for him and a well-choreographed program. Dong-Wun Lee fell on his quad attempt, but had a nice style and the overall skate was not that bad. Kristoffer Berntsson had a bad start into his program, but really got himself together towards the end luckily.