Warm-up Group 1.
Markus Leminen (FIN) - 3lutz; 3axel2toe; flying sit; 3loop; 2toe2toe, not sure about the second; 3flip; combo spin, starting with back camel; 3axel fall; circular spirals (!); 3something, scratchy; 2lutz; flying camel; straight steps, a bit short; 2sal; deathdrop to scratch. 4.3 to 4.5, 4.3 to 4.8.
Michael Tyllesen (DEN) - Mikkeline Kierkgaard waving a Danish flag! - 3axel, perfect! right in front of the judges; 3lutz two-footed, fell out; back camel; 2flip stumble out; 3toe2toe; upright spin; spreadeagles; 3axel2toe! Chris says there may have been a touchdown on the axel, spoilsport!; spin that I didn't pay attention to after that combo!; 3loop hand down; straight steps; 3salchow; 3toe; steps into sit-sit to scratch. Despite the mistakes, a great skate for him. The jumps he landed cleanly had lovely flow. No replay of the second axel. 4.3 to 4.9, 4.5 to 5.0.
Ferreira leads, but due to stupid football reviews and five minutes of trailers (no exaggeration), we missed him, also Meier, Rylov and Kostin. Those last three don't seem to have skated very well at all, but I still would've liked to have seen them. Meier's one of my favourites, and Kostin was very interesting in the short.
Group 2.
Dmitri Dmitrenko (UKR) - 3axel3toe; 4toe fall, slightly underrotated, two-footed; camel spin; 3lutz two-footed; 3flip; spin combo; straight steps; 3axel step out; 2salchow; 3loop; layback spin; 3sal half-loop 2sal; deathdrop. 4.5 to 5.0, 4.9 to 5.5. Canadian has him third...
Ivan Dinev (BUL) - steps of a sort down centre ice to start; 1axel, Chris says he just bottled out; 4toe fall; spin combo; 3lutz spin out but kept the free foot off; 3axel; 3loop; ina bauer, spiral, spreadeagles; death drop; steps into 2flip; flying camel to sit; circular steps; 3salchow spin out; 2axel; changefoot sit, minor centring problems for first couple of rotations. 4.3 to 4.7, 4.2 to 4.9.
Andrejs Vlascenko (GER) - 3axel2toe; 2salchow; 3flip step out, bad lean in the air; 3lutz; deathdrop; 1axel; 3loop; flying camel; layback; 2sal3toe, toe two-footed; serpentine steps; 3salchow; spin combo. Chris said the music was dull, yay, someone speaks out LOL! Ooh, someone's given him a very nice bunch of pink roses. Crumbs, he's only 25?! I don't believe it... 4.3 to 5.1, 4.4 to 5.5.
Vitali Danilchenko (UKR) - 3toe, presumably meant to be a quad, yes, they just said he was doing them in practice; 3axel2toe; flying camel; 3lutz; changefoot sit; 3axel, a little trouble but completely clean; 3loop; 3flip, lovely; spin in which we were only shown his legs; straight steps, don't think there were many steps because he was going so fast!; 3salchow; circular steps; spin combo, fast. Kind of looks happy without actually smiling! Now he smiles! 5.1 to 5.4, 5.0 to 5.6. I think he'd look more pleased if he wasn't so exhausted!
Roman Skorniakov (UZB) - ooh, skating to First Knight - 3axel3toe; 3flip; 3axel step out, hands down; 3lutz hand down; spin combo; very nice outside spread eagle; 3loop spin out foot down; flying camel, lovely and light in the air; 3toe, looked very easy; death drop; 3sal, leaning very badly but landed cleanly; 2axel; circular steps; scratch spin. Looks absolutely exhausted at the end. Nice cross necklace, there was a close-up of it and then he kissed it. Thumbs up to the camera, looking happier now he's recovered. 4.8 to 5.2, 4.6 to 5.0. Fourth.
Takeshi Honda (JPN) - 3axel2toe, axel was huge; 4toe, leaning very badly, but somehow, impossibly, landed it!; 3sal fall out; camel hop over into sit; 3lutz; 3axel; spin combo; 3loop; straight steps; 3flip, smiles; outside spreadeagle into flying camel, butterflies into flying sit-scratch. In tears at the end as usual. Ooh, cool split screen thing with a whole body shot on one side and a close-up of the feet on the other, I like that, they should do it for everyone, every year. It seemed to me that while others were tiring easily because of the heat, his jumps got stronger throught the programme. Holding a big (about 2'?) Pikachu in the K&C, wiggled its ears by putting his fingers behind them, cute! 5.4 to 5.6, 5.1 to 5.8 (5.8 from JPN judge), first on free, second overall.
Group 3.
Anthony Liu (AUS) - 4toe, hands down, looked beautiful in the air, Chris says he got too much elevation to hold it; 3axel step out; 3lutz3toe, dragged the free leg on the ice as he opened out; serpentine spirals; 3flip; 3loop; flying camel; 3salchow; upright spin; steps into 3lutz; straight steps; 3toe; death drop. I don't know much about the technique of jumps, but he seems to have lovely timing, on the flip for example he seems to wait a little longer than most after the three turn, there's always just the slightest pause before he jumps. "He nearly jumped out of the building on the quad attempt" says Chris. 4.9 to 5.5, 4.8 to 5.5. First overall but third on the night.
Zhengxin Guo (CHN) - 3axel3toe perfect, wonderful flow out; 4toe beautiful in the air, trouble on the landing but clean; death drop; 3lutz; spin combo; straight steps; steps into 3lip; sit spin; outside to inside besti squat; 3loop; circular steps; 3sal; scratch spin. Badly edited music, it sounds like he just chucked in a bit of all his favourite pieces. 5.3 to 5.6, 5.1 to 5.5.
Katerina Witt talking to Elvis Stojko backstage.
Stefan Lindemann (GER) - 3axel3toe, his hand was inches from the ice on the landing on the axel; lutz made 1 1/2 rotatioins, landing forwards and stumbling out; changefoot sit; 3axel; 3loop; spin combo; 3flip just barely held, free leg extremely close to the ice but clean; 3toe; 1salchow; outside spreadeagle; deathdrop; serpentine steps; flying camel. Hits himself on the forehead with his fist at the end! Such energy, such fight! I do wish they wouldn't keep on about how short he is and how young he looks, it's very cruel. 5.0 to 5.4, 5.0 to 5.3, only fifth and the crowd don't like it, whistles.
Tim Goebel (USA) - 3flip; 1axel; 4salchow2toe, huge push from the free leg on takeoff; 4toe "he kind of wandered into it" says Simon, and yes he did; 3axel step out toe; spin I didn't really see; straight steps; 3flutz fall; 3loop; flying camel; deathdrop, only about two or three rotations; outside spreadeagle; 3sal out of hydroblading thing; changefoot sit. "Some good moves in there, but nothing was linked" says Chris. 5.2 to 5.7, 5.0 to 5.5. Canadian has him first... how you can give high tech marks to a performance without a triple axel I don't know, even with the quads.
Vincent Restencourt (FRA) - 4toe, high and floating; flying camel; 3axel3toe; silly prancing toe steps, straight; 2flip; backspin; 1axel; 3flutz; spirals; 3axel scratchy landing on toe and stepped out early; spin combo; 3loop; 3salchow; deathdrop. Crowd are happy. I think he should stop trying to be Candeloro. 5.2 to 5.6, 5.1 to 5.6. Second. Crowd don't like it, but they don't like anything less than a 6.0.
Stannick Jeanette (FRA) - 3axel3toe, very high axel; 3flip; spin combo with back part first; 3lutz fall, and the crowd squeal; flying camel into my favourite spin position of his, a kind of sideways sit; deathdrop to pancake sit; 2axel; 3loop; 3sal; 3toe, these last three triples in quick succession; changefoot sit; straight steps. Lots of French fans standing. 5.0 to 5.4, lots of whistles, 5.2 to 5.7, places from first to fifth, leading overall but not on the night.
Group 4.
Prince Albert of Monaco and Sergei Bubka are in the crowd again, as last night.
Didn't see much of the warm-up (adverts), but lots of quads.
Elvis Stojko (CAN) - 4toe fall, slightly underrotated; backspin, very fast; 3axel2toe, just barely held the axel; deathdrop; 3lutz; 3axel3toe; backspin; 3flip3toe, toe barely held, just kept free foot off; 3loop; that cool spin combo; straight steps; 3sal; scratch spin. His spins, footwork and basic skating have improved so much, but he's losing his jumps and I'm afraid I have my doubts about whether he'll get them back. But I am enjoying watching him skating again, more than I did before. Pity about the cheesy choreography. Nice costume. He looked pretty happy despite the mistakes. 5.5 to 5.7, 5.3 to 5.8. AUS & JPN judges have him second, there was some whistling and I think it was directed at them. He still looked happy after the marks.
Chengjiang Li (CHN) - 4toe3toe, 4toe was beautiful and perfect, stepped out of 3toe; 3axel3toe; flying camel, held for a long time; circular steps; 3lutz two-footed; changefoot sit, some travel; spin combo, looked a bit awkward; 3axel fall; 3loop; salchow, think it was only doubled; straight steps; flying spin straight into scratch, pretty fast. 5.2 to 5.7, 5.1 to 5.5, places from second to seventh, third on the night, second overall, some boos and whistles again.
Alexander Abt (RUS) - 4toe two-footed; 3axel2toe, barely held the toe; flying camel; 3axel fall, was two-footed; spin combo; 2lutz; straight steps, was halfway up the ice before the actual steps started, though; 3loop; deathdrop; 3flip; 3salchow. Exhausted at the end, gasping for air even in the K&C. 4.7 to 5.5, 4.8 to 4.7, second down to thirteenth! Very strange indeed.
Michael Weiss (USA) - 4toe step out, two-footed anyway; 3axel2toe; flying camel; 3flip3toe; upright spin, rather pointless looking; 3axel, step out hands down, would've been landed right on the beat of the music; deathdrop; 3loop; 3salchow; 3lutz; camel-hopover-sit to scratch. 5.5 to 5.6, 5.6 to 5.8, three firsts, four seconds, one third.
Alexei Yagudin (RUS) - 4toe3toe, 4 barely held, thought he wouldn't get a second jump, 3 even worse landing, landed right on the toepick, I've no idea why he didn't go down, came round in a tight circle; 4toe; 3axel barely held, again right over the toe, anyone else would've fallen; deathdrop; 3flip; 3axel turn 1toe, will it count?; 3salchow; butterfly into sit; spin combo; spreadeagle to besti squat; 3lutz fall; straight steps; split jump; spin combo. Pulled a strange face at the end, I don't think he quite knew how to feel, a little smile, crossed himself, I think he was probably very disappointed with the mistakes but slightly relieved not to have done worse. 5.4 o 5.8, all 5.9s except one 5.7 and one 5.8.
Yevgeny Plushenko (RUS) - crowd clapping along from the start - 2toe and a gasp from the crowd; 3toe; 3axel just held, right on the toepick, Yags would've managed a combo from that though!; 4toe fall, two-footed; "all around the rink people are chattering" says Simon; 3lutz; "As he went past Mishin there he roared something at him" say Chris; "And again that time" says Simon as he does the Biellmann spiral; 3flip; 3axel2toe1loop; 3salchow; 3loop; back spin; combo spin with Biellmann. Expression not much different from usual, maybe even smiling more than usual! But Yagudin must have it! 5.3 to 5.7, so many whistles, 5.4 to 5.9, second to fifth, out of the medals! Whistles, cheers, wow, this is just incredible! They show Yagudin sobbing backstage, Tarasova with her arm round him, was that after his performance or when he knew he'd won, I wonder, now they show him backstage and he's just barely smiling, this must be live, I wonder what he's thinking, now he's talking to someone. I thought this was a wonderful competition, not the great skating or quality performances that we're used to now, but the battle between the top two, the fight to hang on to jumps, the attempts to pack in the content after missed jumps, it was incredible. Yagudin's being interviewed, I think in English, but we don't get to hear it :o(. "He's a lovely guy" says Chris, and Simon agrees, yay! I've still no idea how Yagudin held onto some of those jumps, he was so far forward, on the front tooth of the toepick, I can't think of any other skater who could've held them, and certainly I can't think of anyone else who would've put that 3toe on the end of the quad!
Yagudin is the first man to win Worlds three times in succession since Kurt Browning! Huge roar for Elvis from the Canadians, but I'm sure I heard some booing too. Yagudin and Stojko keep chatting away to each other. "Might even get flags tonight" says Simon, referring to the medal ceremony! Yagudin's pretending to be weighed down by the bouquet, now he's sniffing the flowers, Tarasova grins at the boards. Jan Hoffmann congratulates them. Yagudin looks happy in a satisfied rather than excited way as the anthem plays, now he holds his medal to his heart. They all stand on the top of the podium for the photos, and there isn't room for all the bouquets, they're so big LOL!
What a night...