The amount of the Belgian Kevin van der Perrin outweighed by some minuscule - 27-year-old Davydova, who spends the best season in his career, should be very disappointing.
Surely all of this bondiana was tired of Joubert himself. The 2004 European Champion returned to the old program, which did not bring him success either on the Olympic ice of Turin or on the continental championship in Warsaw. Presenting himself in a secret monarchial service, the Frenchman boxed, shot, rushed in pursuit, but he could not cope with the main task - he lost leadership to Tomas Werner. The fault is the quadruple sheepskin coat declared in the cascade. Having clumsily performed the first jump, Joubert was unable to make the second and missed points in the assessment for the technique. Werner limited himself to triples, but his flip - sheepskin coat in a bundle, Axel, Lutz in three turns came out without a hitch. The Czech was generally on strike that evening, adding courage to good gliding and plastic. Leading the protocol after the first day, he jumped with joy.
After that, Joubert promised to use the main weapon - three quadruples. The demonstration of power took place at the Grand Prix stage in Moscow, where Brian entered his name in the history of the sport. In any case, the International Skating Union considered this, taking the new refereeing system as a starting point, although three quadruples were performed before. Moreover, Joubert made the third jump in four turns in the second part of the program, which is physically very difficult. Then he kissed Moscow ice, which became happy for him. At the Russian Grand Prix, Brian scored a prohibitive amount of points and demoralized his rivals. It is possible that for this reason, two-time world champion Stefan Lambiel refused to come to Europe, citing fatigue and lack of motivation.
Be that as it may, the hour of truth should have come during a free rental in the Warsaw Torwar Arena. The draw of the last rolling determined the output of the favorites according to the ranking table: at first, Davydov, who took the third position, then Joubert, and then Werner.
Belarus inspirationally skated to music from Don Quixote of Minkus. With this composition, he first hit the podium, becoming the second at the Chinese Grand Prix. Compared to that performance, Sergei complicated the program. True, I did not dare to include a quadruple in it.
Joubert came out onto the ice. The audience saw a cascade of quadruples - a double sheepskin coat, a neat triple axel, six more solid triplets, but the promised repetition of the record did not take place. Well, bluffing is in the spirit of James Bond.
Although no one will condemn the Frenchman for victory with little blood. To save his conquests, Tomas Werner failed. He tore off the sheepskin coat in four turns, did not twist yet another quadruple, made a mistake on the road after Axel's triple, and could not get ahead of Joubert.
It seemed that the three would hold their positions until the end of the competition. For the Russian Andrei Lutai, who took fifth place after the short program, also did not avoid mistakes. But all the same, the pupil of Alexei Mishin and the debutant of the European Championships was remembered. In Warsaw, he exceeded his personal achievement by 22.21 points. The Frenchman Alban Prober was also good, but he did not reach the prize place.
And the author of this sensation was Kevin van der Perrin, who completed the performances of men. The big guy, who appeared as an experienced boatswain, conquered everyone with the composition “Pirates of the Caribbean”. The limit of dreams for van der Perrin was to get into the top five, but a fair wind helped the Belgian reach the podium and bring his country the first medal in figure skating in the last 60 years.
Olga GONCHAROVA