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Saturday, the 27th: Ladies LP, Exhibition practice

On Saturday we also had free tickets for the coaching seminar, this time it was the ice dancing one, with Igor Sphilband, Shae-Lynn Bourne and Evgeny Platov, which was just as entertaining and interesting as the pairs one and another great start into the day. We were particularily impressed by Evgeny Platov's acting and miming abilities :D This time we even managed to get up early, but not TOO early :-P

After the seminar it was too late to make it really worth it to go to the ladies practice, so we went to the inner city instead to eat something proper (again we had managed to not really make any use of the breakfast at the coaches seminar :-P), so we found a cafe inside a bookstore and ate a baguette sandwich there, practically the best thing we had eaten all week. We also tried to find some rattles to buy, so that we are better prepared for our next skating events, cheering-wise, but were not successful.

Before the ladies LP I tried to decide whether I would rather seen Arakawa or Cohen to win (I figured it would be between those two), but it seemed simply impossible to make a decision, too bad there is only one spot on the top of the podium *drama*

Jenna McCorkell had some falls, but the skate was not a complete catastrophy. She really needs to stop using that drippy music all the time. I mean nothing against soft music choices, but even with soft, slow music there are beautiful pieces and then there are drippy boring pieces. Valentina Marchei had two falls and one 1axel (the axel generally seems to be a jump that gives her an awful lot of trouble, while the 3lutz actually seems to be more or less her most consistent jump...). She skated with good speed and flow. Zuzana Babiakova had another good skate, I think she had one fall and maybe another mistake or so. She skated with fine speed and energy and generally seems to get better with every year. Anette Dytrt managed only 2 clean triples, but at least those were the 3flip and 3lutz. She was fast and has good flow, as well as good footwork and spirals. I don't think her LP is as well choreographed as her SP. Miriam Manzano could use a bit more speed and I wish her programs were less generic, she needs to add something to her skating that really stands out.

Dan Fang had the first clean skate of the day and was really cool to watch, a great skate for her. In order to compete with the higher ranked skaters, she would need more speed and power, better ice coverage and improve the execution of her footwork, which was very slow. Jennifer Robinson was also clean, except for a wonky 2footed second lutz. It was a nice program, but she was a bit slow. I guess she will never be an exciting skater, but her consistency over the last years and during this event were impressive and she really skated very well all week here. Jenny Kirk on the other hand unfortunately fell three times, but I was still impressed with the flow in her skating and I like the way she uses her elegant arms. Susanna Pöykyiö was very good. She did a sequence of two 3toeloops (even though they second one may have been 2footed). I still wish she was able to up the excitement factor in her skating. Anne-Sophie Calvez started out great, but then screwed up some jumps towards the end of the program. She was very fast and energetic and I think her music choice suits her skating style well. Sarah Meier was not perfect, but it also was a very good skate for her. I was especially impressed with her really fast footwork and her good energy and the Evita program is very cute, especially the fast parts. She has become a really pleasant skater. Idora Hegel was really one of the biggest surprises of this Worlds for me, I mean she had never been that good and had been injured all season long, just to come to Worlds and skate 3 very good programs, with only a very few minor mistakes. I think she was pretty much clean in the LP, it was a nice program, skated with good energy, but she of course has some deficits, lacking flow and some quality.

Elena Sokolova was not as good as in the qualifying, but still a good skate for her. She was not flawless, but she had two 3-3 combinations, with some underrotation problems though. I like the power in her movements and she accentuated the music. Elena Liashenko doubled the salchow, but repeated it later. She had a good skate, but that long program could use some more in-betweens. Irina Slutskaya skated a very nice program, even though she didn't manage lutz and flip. She did a fun sequence of 3s-2l-euler-2s. She looked a bit powerless, but not bad and she did a really respectable job in all 3 competition portions, so I think it's really good that she came to Worlds, she can be really happy with herself. I am not sure if Fumie Suguri attempted a 3loop in her LP, she did in the qualifying, but I thought there wasn't one in the LP, but Steffi said she thought she saw one, so...I think she was also not able to complete another jump (the salchow?). She always has very nice flow in her footwork. The program seemed a bit empty to me, but her speed and flow overall are really great. Viktoria Volchkova unfortunately had a pretty much disastrous skate, taking some hard falls and always taking long to get back up and get back into the program. She must have been very glad when it was over.

Joannie Rochette had a fall on her opening 3loop (but rolled herself over her back and got up so quickly again, even doing a jump "run-out" anyway, that it did not marr the overall impression at all). She did two sequences of triple jumps and it was a very beautiful program, skated with good speed, power and flow. It was my favorite performance from her in this competition, a very good job. LOL, the rest of my notes say nothing anymore at all, I think I would not have been able to note down anything that makes even remotely sense about Arakawa anyway, but I don't need notes to remember the last group ;) I had been slightly worried about Arakawa, because I just could not imagine it to be too likely she would be able to top or even emulate the wonderful performance in the qualifying, but of course she managed to do exactly that and in what a way! A completely flawless skate, even more emotional than the qualifying skate and there was simply not a single thing wrong with it. I also have to say that her ShizukaTM (that's our official name for the Ina Bauer like move :-P) was just about the most breathtakingly beautiful skating move I have ever witness in person before and we all couldn't get enough of it, at first it wowed you and then later we kept anticipating it, just to be wowed all over again :D People were on their feet even before the music ended and I have to admit I was screaming all throughtout the last spin, but I'm sure I was not the only one. It was definitely the best and most beautiful ladies program and skate I've ever seen in my whole life. I think what I liked best is how she always just seemed to hold her movements for the exactly perfect amount of time, never too short and never too long.

The rest of the group was also good. Sasha Cohen unfortunately did not skate as fabulously as in the SP and also not as good as in the qualifying, but it still was a good skate, with a mistake on the final 3salchow. Julia Sebestyen also did well, I don't remember what she did with her elements, I guess there might have been a mistake or 2, but there definitely weren't many. Before Michelle Kwan skated that idiot of course came out onto the ice, which was very unsettling and we boo'ed him very loud (the first and hopefully last time I've boo'ed at a skating event, other than that time, booing as I suspected was one of the few things that kept upsetting me throughout the week, well at least I'm not a football fan *lol*), but luckily Michelle was still able to hold her concentration and skate very well, only doubling the second lutz as far as I remember. Miki Ando did well again (and showed an incredible consistency at her first Worlds), but today she looked a bit weaker than in the qualifying and SP, I suppose she was a bit nervous, since she did not look quite as confident and secure as in the other skaters, seeming a little shaky at times, even if there were no major mistakes (despite doubling the salchow, which should have been her quad attempt) as far as I remember. Still of course also a good skate. Carolina Kostner had as often good stuff and bad stuff again, she made 2 or 3 mistakes, but also landed some difficult jumps and combinations. She managed a 3lutz today, but tried to do a second one later and fell. It seems strange to me that she would try the 3lutz again of all jumps, since it was by far the most inconsistent one recently... Anyway, overall I think Carolina did a very good job at Worlds, she didn't have any really bad skates and fifth place is a great result :)

Here are some very very few pictures of the ladies LP, I got bored with taking photos very soon:
Zuzana Babiakova
Valentina Marchei
Susanna Pöykiö
Susanna Pöykiö

After the ladies LP, we watched the exhibition practice for a while, first were the pairs, who I think all showed up :) We were immediately taken by Petrova & Tikhonov's exhibition, which looked just too cute and funny. I took a couple of photos from that practice, so here they are:

Fitze & Rex
Pang & Tong
Pang & Tong
Pang & Tong
Pang & Tong
Pang & Tong
Petrova & Tikhonov
Petrova & Tikhonov
Petrova & Tikhonov (LOL, that wasn't a bad fall or anything, it was some posing scene)
Shen & Zhao
Shen & Zhao
Totmianina & Marinin
Totmianina & Marinin
Totmianina & Marinin
Totmianina & Marinin
Zhang & Zhang
Zhang & Zhang
Zhang & Zhang
Zhang & Zhang

The men were supposed to practice next, but Stephane Lambiel was the only one to show up and then Totmianina & Marinin took the opportunity to practice a bit more as well and came back onto the ice for the men's session too. They even stayed when Stephane already had left again, being extra-diligent. Well I guess in retrospective this unfortunately was a bit pointless and in vain :(

Saturday night was absolutely fabulous :D , there really is nothing else to say about it (and we got our first good meal of the week) and it put a fantastic ending to a day that overall could not have been any more perfect :) Wheeeeeeeee!