Night One - Short Program
Todd skated his Exotica program. Even though after He is considering keeping the program after the good showings at Skate Canada and Midwestern Sectionals. Todd wore the black Pity the Child costume for the short program that evening, the original Exotica costume will be replaced with a new costume eventually. During the practice session that day, Todd tried out a new costume, but the black shirt was too big and interfered with his jumps. He switched to a T-shirt halfway through the practice session. .
Although he fell on the quad in the program, he did land a nice quad-double in the warm-up. It's also good to see that even though he missed the quad, he was able to put it behind him and not let it affect the remainder of the program. He went on to land the 3 Axel and the 3 Lutz.
Todd followed Kurt and this being Canada, it took a long time to clear the ice after Kurt skated. Many fans wanted to hand their flowers to Kurt because he was stopping to collect flowers and was generally conducting a "meet & greet" in the middle of a competition. When Kurt finally left the ice, the fans who were left holding flowers finally decided to throw their flowers on the ice which further delayed Todds start time. If that werent enough, when Todd was finally ready to start he was called off his position because there was still debris on the ice. When Todd was again ready to begin, the person operating the music equipment took an inordinate amount of time to begin playing the music. Todd broke his focus to look over to see what was going on when the music finally started. All of these annoyances individually probably wouldnt have had an impact, but grouped together plus trying to land a quad was too distracting.
Short program results:
1. Alexei Yagudin
2. Kurt Browning
3. Todd Eldredge
4. Steven Cousins
5. Brian Orser
6. Emmanuel Sandhu
Night Two - Interpretive Free
Todd skated to his IF version of The 13th Warrior. Todd landed a 3 Axel/2 Toe, 3 Toe, 3 Lutz, and a second 3 Axel late in the program and a 2 Axel. Todd did not plan to include a quad in this program. He wore a new 13th Warrior costume which could best be described as a "space age warrior" costume. The blue vest and gold shirt were made from some sort of leather or leather-type of material and basic navy pants.
Todd skated this program with a great deal of intensity and was really into it as was the audience which sat with rapt attention during the performance. He even claimed some new fans directly as a result of this performance.
The judging at this event left many fans puzzled as to what criteria the judges are using to score Interpretive free programs. Todd was seriously under marked at this event. As Todd sat in kiss & cry, he laughed when his marks were read and the look on his face said "whatever." Even the Alexei fans who were in attendance thought that Todd was under-marked as well.
Cork hotelsIf the ISU plans to continue the Open series in future seasons, they should develop a training program geared specifically for judging Interpretive free programs. At the present time, there appears to be a great deal of confusion as to how to judge Interpretive free programs. If the judges cant figure that out, how are skaters supposed to know what they need to include in a program in order to win.
Interpretive Free results:
1. Alexei Yagudin
2. Kurt Browning
3. Todd Eldredge
4. Brian Orser
5. Emanuel Sandhu
6. Steven Cousins
