Steven looked relaxed and confident as he came out for his long program, in
spite of a warmup which included a fall on the triple axel. However, that
didn't seem to be on his mind, as he skated out to the centre, Simon Reed
commented that he was "lapping it up" He began with a perfect triple lutz,
much better than the one at Europeans. However, this was followed up by a
fall on the triple axel. It looked like he never really got his landing leg
securely underneath him, and he couldn't hang on. He recovered nicely, with
a brilliant, well-centred flying sit spin, with no travel whatsoever. The
salchow was up next, and he elected to play it safe with the triple rather
than risk the quad. His combination spin was well-centred as well, and
included a beautifully positioned camel spin. His next jump was a triple
flip, and he made sure of the landing before adding a double toe at the
end. He double his next triple axel, and got the crowd clapping along to an
upbeat march, with some great footwork! He did another triple flip and a
triple (toe?) loop to finish. I think it was a loop, but it was a bad
camera angle, and I couldn't tell if the foot went in or not. His final
combination spin was great again. He looked happy at the end, but he said
sorry to everyone at home as he waited for his marks with Robert Tebby and
Doug Leigh. Marks for technical were a little muted, 6 5.4s, 1 5.5 and 2
5.6s with 4 5.6s and 5 5.5s for presentation. He didn't move up or drop
overall, but surprisingly enough, Michael Weiss moved above him on the
free, but was too far behind overall to threaten Steven.