The Swede Kristoffer Berntsson, who represented in the image of John Travolta in the composition "Saturday Night Fever", was the first to start the hall during the free rental. The Scandinavian danced just great - he never fell out of rhythm, leaving an impression of lightness and ease. In addition, Berntsson jumped a lot of triples and eventually became the ninth. The skater, hitherto lacking stars from the sky, loudly declared himself. But the next world championship will be held in Gothenburg, Sweden - the walls of Scandinavium will also help him there.
When a Swede in his dude was smoothing his hair with his palm, he thought: the guy has a style and a face. As is the case with Canadian Emanuel Sandyu. For him, figure skating is a ballet on ice with small interspersed sports. And even the Frenchman Alan Prober, who took as his basis not his face, but "Mask" (the soundtrack to the famous movie), you will not refuse individuality. These athletes remained in the top ten, but were remembered by the audience and the judges.
Unfortunately, this is not the case with any of the Russian loners. Both Voronov and Lutai performed faded. Today, in order to fight for medals today, it is not enough to simply perform the elements of the fourth level of complexity. Much more important is to bring your emotions to the ride, put your soul into it, make every movement accentuated. In this regard, our guys were faceless.
Lutai, a pupil of Alexei and Tatyana Mishinyh, staked out a ticket to Tokyo, as he took fifth place in Europe. For another vacancy, the national federation staged an additional “interruption,” which cost athletes and nerve trainers. As a result, the 18-year-old bronze medalist of the Junior World Cup went to Oberstdorf. You can give Sergei a discount on his age: together with his teacher Alexei Urmanov, he is still in search of his own self. But Andrei, who will turn 21 in July, would have to decide - at some point it seemed that the second Plushenko was being molded from him. But Eugene is one with us - the one and only. And we look forward to his return, since the Olympic champion of Turin has left such hope.
If Plushenko returns, the rivals will not meet him with bread and salt. Confirmation of this is the battle for the pedestal that unfolded in the Metropolitan Gymnasium. After a short program, the top three were Frenchman Brian Joubert, Canadian Jeffrey Battle and Japanese Daisuke Takahashi.
Two-time world champion Stefan Lambiel, for whom the championship of the planet was the second start of the season (he only appeared on "Skate Canada"), took sixth place. However, for this result, the Swiss should bow to the referees: with a ruined triple axel and a 3-2 cascade instead of 4-3, the judges still spared him.
The US skaters did not lose the chance to compete for medals. Evan Lysacek, who, as usual, fills up a short rental, this time set a personal record in points and took the fifth line. And Johnny Weir, whose trump cards are considered to be soft gliding, plasticity, choreography, ate a beast and showed character, settling in fourth place.
After a modest 9th line, Tomas Werner, silver medalist at the European Championships, was not taken into account. But it was the Czech who made a weighty application for the medal, inspiredly skating the composition. Among other things, Werner performed two quadruple jumps, tripping only on a triple flip. The judges awarded him a fabulous sum of 226.25 points, as if to say: "You stay here nearby until the last rolling takes place."
The draw of the final six appointed to open the group of the strongest Evan Lysachek. The American with his unfading “Carmen” did not manage to press the Czech skater - he lost both in technique and in program components. Johnny Weir did not dare to make the declared quadruple sheepskin coat: it’s obvious that it is also good to add RPPs to the character.
Then the turn came to speak to Lambiel, who presented the Flamenco audience, - then Werner lost his position. The Swiss, who was Plushenko’s main rival at the Turin Olympics, should be given credit. Like a year ago, he showed himself to be a real fighter - he pulled out a triple axel, performed the 4-2-2 cascade, jumped a triple lutz - a triple sheepskin coat. In another quadruple, Stefan touched the ice with his hand and in the first assessment lost to the Czech. But in the second he surpassed everyone: what is at least the interpretation of music, judged by the judges almost as much as possible! And about the beauty of the rotations, which along with cheese and watches became the crown of the Swiss, legends are composed.
After such a successful performance, it was not easy to go out onto the ice to Brian Joubert. Again he did not keep his promise to make three jumps in four full turns. But with such a margin in points, this was not required. The Frenchman took only third place in the free program, but he won in the total biathlon.
And won the four-minute competition Daisuke Takahashi, laid out one hundred percent, resurrecting the Phantom of the Opera. In the end, from the emotions overwhelming him, the skater almost cried. The stands filled to capacity, accommodating 6.5 thousand people, stood up in a single rush, welcoming the pet.
It is not surprising that this extravaganza served the poor service of Jeffrey Buttle. The champion of Canada was worried, did not avoid numerous disruptions and became only the sixth.
And Joubert obtained the world title for France after 42 years. We would have such patience ...
Olga GONCHAROVA