Day 5: Thursday, March 22

I went to some men's practices at GM Place in the morning. Lindemann landed a 3L3t2l. Sandhu landed some 4t3ts. All of his jumps, when he does them, look absolutely effortless; they are beautiful! His quad (again, when he does it) is better than Plushenko's. It was Elvis' birthday today, so many people in the audience sand "Happy Birthday" to him, and someone even brought him a cake complete with lighted candles! He stuck around a while for autographs.

I only saw the last six or so original dances. I'm no dance expert, but everyone seemed to do very well. I really like Winkler/Lohse's "Cabaret" program. Anissina and Peizerat were pretty aggressive in their warm-up; they certainly weren't getting out of the way for anyone.

Men's Free Skate
JUMP CHART

Dmitry Dmitrenko 3a(turnout)2t, 3t, 3L(2ft), 3a(fall), 2f, 2l, 3l(2ft), 3s
Markus Leminen 3L2t, 3a(2ft), 3t, 3l(2ft), 1f, 2s, 3?
Yamato Tamura 4t, 4t2t, 1a, 3l(fall out), 3L3t, 2f, 3s(kinda), 2a
Roman Skornyakov 3a3t, 3f3t, 3a(fall), 3L, 3l, 3s(fall), 2s, 2a
Gheorghe Chiper 3a(step out)2t, 3s3t, 3f, 2l, 2L, 3a, 3s, 3L
Vincent Restencourt 3f2t, 3a, 3a, 3t, 3L(fall out), 3t, 3l(step out), 3s
Emmanuel Sandhu 4t3t, 3a3t, 3f, 3s, 3a(fall), 3l, 3L
Min Zhang 3a3t, 2t-1.5t, 3L, 4?t, 3f, 3l(fall out), 3s
Patrick Meier 2a(2ft), 3L, 3s, 3a(fall out), 3f(hand), 3s, 3t2t
Sergei Rylov 3a, 3L, 3a(2ft)2t, 3s-hop-3t, 3f, 3L2t, 3s, 2a
Vitaly Danilchenko 3t, 3a(fall out), 3L, 3l(fall), 3a(fall), 2f, 3f, 3s
Stefan Lindemann 3a, 3L, 3a(fall), 3l(fall), 3f(fall), 3t, 2s
Anthony Liu 4t(fall), 2a(fall), 3L2t, 2t, 3l, 3s, 3f
Elvis Stojko 3f, 4t(fall), 4t(2ft), 3l, 2a, 2a, 3s(2ft), 3L(hand)
Takeshi Honda 3a(fall), 4t(step out), 2s, 3l, 3a2t, 3L, 3f
Chengjiang Li 4t3t, 2s, 1a, 3a3t(fall), 3a, 3l, 3s
Ivan Dinev 2t, 3a3t(hand), 3L, 3a, 3l, 3f, 3s, 3t(2ft)
Stannick Jeannette 3t, 3a, 2f, 3a(step out)1t, 2L, 1l, 3s, 3t
Alexei Yagudin 4t3t(barely), 3L, 3a-1/2l-3s(hand), 3l, 3a, 3f, 3s
Alexander Abt 4t(fall), 3a(fall), 3L(barely), 3a(hand), 3f, 3l, 3s, 3t
Evgeny Plushenko 3t, 3l, 3f, 3a3t, 3L, 3a, 3s
Todd Eldredge 3t, 3l, 3F, 3a3t, 3L, 3a, 3s
Yunfei Li 4t(hand?)3t, 1a, 3f3t, 3l, 3L2t, 2a, 3s
Tim Goebel 3L, 4s3t, 3a(step out)2t, 4t(fall out), 3a, 4s, 3f, 3l

Notes: someone threw Markus Leminen a pair of red underwear after his skate, and when the little flower girl discovered them, she didn't want to pick them up! LOL Elvis' marks were too high, IMO. He had a horrible skate, plain and simple. Chengjiang Li changed some choreography to add a jump or two. Yunfei Li was just ecstatic, and he was so cute in the KnC, waiting for his marks - he couldn't even sit down, he was so excited! Todd still gives me goosebumps when he skates like he did. His music choices are wonderful. He probably should have won silver, but I'm sure he's very happy to have stood on the podium!! Evgeni was flawless; I don't think there's anything anyone could have done to defeat him. I still prefer Yagudin, though.

Oh, yeah - the Russian National anthem is the "never-ending" anthem! It must have lasted 5 minutes; the melody kept repeating over and over and over....I wasn't there, but at the Skatefest public presentation of the medals, I heard that Alexei Yagudin started getting bored a couple minutes into the anthem and did a bunch of funny poses, apparently making Todd Eldredge crack up. Poor Evgeni was trying so hard to stay serious. Wish I'd been there to see that!

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