OK, so we never like to see Todd in fourth place. But considering the fact that this is the first eligible event Todd has competed in since August of 1998 (Goodwill Games), he did an outstanding job. This was also the first time he has done this new style of short program with a solo 3 Axel, 3 Lutz-3 Toe and a 3 Loop.
Todd was definitely a crowd favorite with this Canadian audience. I was impressed with the reception all the skaters received from the audience. While I'm at it, I would also like to say that the folks up here in Saint John have been absolutely wonderful and that I've enjoyed my stay here.
While it was very exciting to see so many quads in person, I'm still more of a fan of a complete program than watching a jump fest.
Because this event was being broadcast live on CTV, there were periodic lulls in the competition (never explained to the audience, naturally). At times, there was a rather long delay waiting for a skater's scores to be announced. Such was the case with Laurent Tobel. Todd took the ice to take his turn, and he skated around warming up take offs and stroking and even landed a jump or two. Still waiting to be announced, he finally pantomimed looking at his invisible wristwatch to check the time! The audience roared with laughter and Todd was laughing, too. He really appeared relaxed and confident.
Finally, Tobel's scores were announced and it was Todd's turn. According to one Todd fan, he delivered the program with joie de vivre. He landed all the jumps as planned and as always he was the best spinner of the event. I'm seriously considering making a "Travelling" sign to wave to the judges when quadmiesters are only able to produce spins that are blatantly uncentered and that traveling is measured in feet. If Todd is able to keep his spins so centered and so fast, why can't they? I really wish judges would recognize the technical difficulty of a good spin more than they do.
Alexei's program is starting to grow on me, or maybe he's not overselling it like previously. I'm still not crazy about all the instrument playing though.
I was really impressed with Elvis's program. I was also impressed with how he handled the pressure to performance in front of his home country. That must be daunting.
Laurent was having a crash and fall kind of day. He certainly marches to the beat of a different drummer. He and Todd seemed to enjoy themselves the most this evening.
The unlucky person of this event was Smalun. After falling twice, he was nearing the end of his program when his music stopped. He attempted to just continue skating and the audience was supporting him, but the referee blew the whistle. It then took a few tries before they finally got the music to continue at the point of interruption. He was given a partial standing ovation from the audience for his efforts, which pleased him.
Patrick Meier is competing in his first Grand Prix event here and made a fine first showing. He has a lot of interesting footwork and a very smooth style.
Dmitry Dmitrenko treated us to a footwork sequence that was executed completely on one foot!
Pairs Short Program
Standings
1. Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze
2. Sargeant & Wirtz
3. Pang & Tong
4. Ina & Zimmerman
5. Obertas & Palamarchuk
6. Saurette & Fecteau
7. Stiegler & Stiegler
8. Lariviere & Faustino
I don't know what was going on in this event. Frankly, no one should be in first place. B&S are only there because someone had to be, it certainly wasn't because they deserve to be. It was only because they were the least worst this evening. This is my first eligible competition, and I'd never heard such low scores announced before. I was amazed.
Only one team Pang and Tong were able to land their side-by-side jumps cleanly and they did 2 Axels. Unfortunately, Pang fell out of her spin and was unable to recover quickly; otherwise they would have deserved first place.
B&S were taking turns messing up. At one point he was unable to get her up in the air for a lift which was pretty scary.
It was too bad that Sargeant & Wirtz weren't able to take advantage of the door being held wide open for them to walk through to take the lead.
