Thursday, March 27 - Men Free Program
King of the Jungle
Tomas Verner was the first skater of the night. To my delight, I saw Tomas headed for Kiss & Cry with Emika's gift bag in his hand. I was so happy she had found a way to give it to him.
I sat in my assigned seat for the first time. I encountered a very nice Canadian couple, Liam and Lindsay. They sat together in two seats next to me. They hailed from Nova Scotia. When I first found out where they were from, they asked me, jokingly, if I'd be very irritated, as they were going to hold up their Canadian flag during the competition. They had a huge Canadian flag draped across both of their laps to be held up for the Canadian skaters. I shuffled my booklets to reveal the 4 inch by 6 inch maple leaf of my own that I was prepared to wave. They seemed pleasantly surprised, as they knew I am American.
Lindsay liked to look down in the skaters' section in front of us and around the center with binoculars to spot various skaters. She was very good at finding them. She spotted Alexei Yagudin in the lower level in the section one to the left of the judges and well above the bed of cameras that obstructed some views. He was seated next to Robin Wagner, Sarah Hughes' coach. Yagudin wore a blue jean color button up dress shirt with a black jacket. Todd Eldredge and Coach Richard Callaghan sat a few rows behind him. Not far from Todd in that same section, were U.S. ice dancers Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow.
In the skaters' section directly in front of ours, we saw several skaters enter and sit down:
Lu Chen, holding hands with a man I didn't recognize as a skater
Naomi Lang, holding hands with her acrobat boyfriend - Vladimir Besedin
Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang
Xue Shen
Albena Denkova
Tatiana Navka and Alexander Zhulin
Tatiana Totmianina
Ekaterina Gordeeva and Ilia Kulik
The Jumbotron revealed some of the above skaters and also Brian Boitano seated somewhere in the audience.
The skaters' section became so full that Maxim Shabalin sat behind us for awhile. He left shortly after a woman near him had commented that Tim Goebel had better jumps than Evgeny Plushenko, following both of their skates.
Sadly, there was some booing when the male French skaters were introduced. I guess it was that whole French versus 'freedom' political hullabaloo. Which translates for me into sheer rudeness and ignorance. Fortunately, this French booing did not occur also at any of the pair, ice dance or ladies events.
I took only limited notes at the Men Free, but will share the comments I have written down.
Emanuel Sandhu:
I left my seat and went out into the hallway to position myself outside of the section next to Kiss & Cry. The lower sections circa the boards and ice surface weren't directly accessible from my assigned section in the lower bowl, hence I had to go out into the hallway and go through another entrance. I had the King of the Jungle under my coat, making me look a little misshapen. He had a mane and fur on his tail and everything. I missed seeing most of Emanuel's skate live because I was shifting between the television in the hallway outside the entrance to the Kiss & Cry section and standing behind the handicap area at the top of the stairs to look through to the ice. When he finished and started his bow, the attendant let the gift bearers pass through. The seating attendants were more prevalent at the night events, and particularly the non-ice dance events. I was still descending the stairs, and it appeared as though Emanuel would reach Kiss & Cry before I reached the boards. Then this teenage girl, with a pet in a carrying case, held out her present for him at the boards. He skated over to her, took the handle of the case and gave her a hug. By the time she turned to leave, I had arrived at the boards. I gave him the lion. He took it, examined it briefly, and reached out his arms. I was happy to oblige, and I told him, 'You were great!' He said, 'Thank you.'
When I got back to my seat, Liam teased me and said it looked like I was not just going to give Sandhu the lion, but it appeared as if I would follow him to hop down on the ice with him. I told Liam that I was glad the girl in front of me had stopped Emanuel at the boards. Liam was like, 'She stopped him all right. By giving him a big hug!' Liam confirmed that he had skated well, and that was the best he had seen Emanuel skate in a while.
While waiting in the entrance to my section after greeting Sandhu, I found that I stood directly behind Tiffany Scott, Philip Dulebohn, Kathryn Orscher and Garrett Lucash. They were waiting to take a seat down in the skaters' section.
Brian Joubert:
He had a good skate going. He fell out of his final spin positions. But, it was a great comeback from the qualifying. He received good cheers at the end of his performance, probably including whistles from the female variety. Someone threw a green bear down from a long distance up. Brian picked up the bear and kissed it.
Sometimes the stuffed animals thrown from a long distance ended up pelting people, seated near the front, in the back of the head. Someone down in that lower section would then pick up the animal and throw it to the ice, to continue the trek. It became almost like a game of volleyball.
Takeshi Honda:
He received a huge applause. Because he trains in Canada, he received two different flag raisings of the red and white variety - the red sun and the maple leaf. Yes, Canadian flags were being waved quite readily for Honda. Also, the section at the end of the ice opposite the cameramen wall appeared to have Canadians bearing both Japanese flags for Takeshi and Canadian flags to switch to for the Canadian skaters.
Michael Weiss:
During his warm up group, a man behind me remarked that Weiss needs a new costume because he has worn the same one for three years in a row. LOL. Fairly good performance for him. Probably not going to put him into the medals at this point, but I've seen some strengths and improvements in his skating this week over recent years. My one patriotic move at this skating event was casting a polar bear beanie on the ice at the end of his performance. I didn't make it all the way to the boards; I just threw the beanie overhand from a few rungs of stairs away onto the ice. The bear made it without causing any damage.
Evgeny Plushenko:
He received cheers on the three jump combo at the opening. Plushenko can't be perfect all the time, but I thought it was a very good performance. He received some boos while he sat in Kiss & Cry as it was revealed that he held first place over Tim Goebel. I tried to drown some of them out by giving more cheers from the section where I sat.
I thought the decision wasn't even close really. Tim may have had a lot of jumps. But, so did Evgeny, and even still Evgeny's overall line and presentation is much better - positions cleaner and more flaunting style.
And, Tim is such a kind person and very down to earth, I have a hard time really criticizing him. He's great with the fans. If he could work on his in-betweens and overall line, he could be really great. But, he has a ways to go. And, I hate to single him out because there are others.
While at Worlds, I discovered that my interest in men single skating would increase if more of a return to artistry came back to the forefront. I know a jumps executed standard is necessary for the technical aspect. Also, I know sometimes even artistic skaters can lose their presentation edge and overall confidence when multiple jump errors mar the performance. But, I would much rather watch even a performance that included some falls on jumps by a skater who can still achieve: wonderful and interesting spin positions, well-extended stretch moves such as the spread eagle and split jumps, energetic lunges and dancing in the choreography, flowing circular footwork sequences, and an overall style, softness and line that is soothing and awe inspiring.
The ability to view all forty men skating at Worlds, from various countries and having various strengths, was a surprising enjoyment for this pairs and ice dance fan.
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