Like Watching a Train Wreck, part two

Posted by Sari

I don't suppose one should really see Scott of the Antarctic and Emmanuel Sandhu in analoguous terms, but there defenitely was a similar feeling of dread while watching him implode on ice and as I had finishing the Scott bio.

Why, yes, skating is back on the menu.

Pairs' Short was very high standard, lots of good clean performances. Again, I thought Petrova/Tikhonov could have edged into first place before Totmianina/Marinin but judges saw it differently. The margins were so small however, that there is no basis for crying foul. The reigning champions did IMO get a gift by being fourth.  The fall was in a major element (side by side triple toeloops), it was very disruptive and they do not have superior basic scating or other elements to counter the fall. So when Zagorska/Siudek, Obertas/Slavnov, Zhang/Zhang and Langlois/Archetto all scated good programs with no or only minor faults, I can't see why they are as high as they are. There is, of course speed, which is impossible to evaluate on the telly, but are the really that much faster? My favourites of this batch were Zagorska/Siudek who had one of the greatest skates of their lives and Langlois/Acrchetto, though I can see how the fact that they have a throw triple salchow when others are doing loop or even flip might count against them. All Chinese teams have big throws and twists, but there the performances feel sloppy and their spinning is still rather bad. And can I just say that Pang is scarily skinny?

And because there was no Australian Open, Eurosport showed all compulsary dances. Yay! Midnight Blues looks like a very interesting dance, not that many steps but lots of changes of hold and neat details which us less knowledgeable about intricacies of dance can access. I especially liked the Ina Bauers and that layback-layover dip at the end of the sequence. And I think Beanie and Pocket rocked, this is definitely a dance for them.

Men's Short

At this point my flu was getting the better of me, and was not paying as much attention as I should have, but let me just say that Plushy is king, Joubert was electric, Lindemann kicked ass,  Johnny Weir's skating looks as good on the television as he does live, I'd pike for Mike and Stephane spins like a top. And yes, my heart bleeds for Sandhu, who left Dr. Sandhu to the qualifier and showed up as Emmanuel Hyde as well as for Ilia who did not do much better. Actually, as my bete noir Tim Goebel had boot problems and did not qualify to worlds, there are no skaters I actually dislike here and can cheer everybody (almost) equally :-)

Comments

[Mekku]

Saanko tähän ihan pikaisesti vain kommentoida (Scottista lisää myöhemmin): Whrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Miehet jäällä rulettaa! IFK! Plushy! Stefan ja Stephane! Pikku-Johnny Weir! Way to go boys!!!

[Manu]

Täytyy myöntää, että kahdet taitoluistelun arvokisat lyhyen ajan sisään on hieman liikaa minulle. Sama juttu kuin viime vuonna, katsoin EM:ät mutta MM:ät jäi väliin. Ehkä ensi vuonna skippaan EM-kisat ja keskityn suosiolla MM-kisoihin. 2006 talvella on selvä juttu mitä kisoja sitten katsotaan.

Odottelen yhtä jännityksellä meidän talonyhtiön digikelpoiseksi saattaamista kuin Ateenan kisajärjestäjien verkkaisia rakennustoimia. Meillä päätettiin uusia koko antenni, mutta ostopäätökset tehdään vasta 2 kuukauden kuluttua.
Siihen jää sitten 2,5 kuukautta aikaa kisoihin, toivottavasti uusi antenni on sitten jo pystyssä.