- Yu-Na Kim (KOR) who won the ladies event had a very large and vocal following in the arena! She skated well, although I was surprised that she won the short program by such a large margin considering she had a mistake on her double axel. Her long program was very good, marred only by a popped triple loop.
- The Japanese ladies, Yukari Nakano and Miki Ando, who came in second and third place respectively, both had errors in the short but skated very well in the long. Coincidentally, both skated to selections of music from "Giselle" for their long programs; Nakano's had a lighter, more balletic feel, while Ando's program was more dramatic. I preferred Nakano's program.
- The Americans, Rachael Flatt, Mirai Nagasu, and Kimmie Meissner, all have some work to do to be more competitive internationally. Meissner had the best "command of the ice" of the three, but she had disruptive falls on jumps in both programs. Nagasu has a sparkle that Flatt lacks, but Flatt skates with a bit more maturity.
- The crowd was very supportive of all the skaters. Poor Annette Dytrt of Germany fell on her first three jumps in the long program and the crowd did its best to lift her spirits, and gave her a warm ovation at the end.
- The men's event was very close, and I thought Evan Lysacek (USA) had done enough to win (and he certainly got the biggest ovation from the crowd), but he only ended up in third behind Takahiko Kozuka (JPN) and Johnny Weir (USA). Lysacek apparently had some jumps and other elements downgraded.
- My favorite long program of the men's event was Shawn Sawyer's (CAN). Although he missed or scaled down a couple of jumps, he skated with a lot of style and his line and stretch were exceptional. Some of his spin and spiral positions would have made Sasha Cohen envious. ;)
- Ice dancing is not my favorite discipline, but there were a couple of fun programs among the free dances here. Emily Samuelson & Evan Bates (USA) had the most entertaining free dance; they finished fourth overall but were third in the free. The winners, Isabel Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder (FRA) had an interesting free dance set to music by Pink Floyd, and I also liked the whimsical free dance of Americans Jane Somerset and Todd Gilles. Tanith Belbin & Ben Agosto (USA) skated very well, winning the free and finishing second overall, but I found their "Tosca" free dance to be rather flat.
I took several photos from the Saturday evening events; my camera unfortunately broke just prior to the free dance, so all I have from Sunday's events are a couple of crappy camera phone pics. :P
In addition to the skating, I also had the pleasure of meeting some skating fans I previously only "knew" from online, plus one skatefan who I had met at 2006 US Nationals in St. Louis. This was the first international skating competition I ever attended and it was an enjoyable time overall. Here's hoping that this coming skating season will be more interesting than the last few have been!
No comments:
Post a Comment