O Canada was played and the maple leaf raised to celebrate Patrick Chan’s victory in the first event completed in these world championship. His scores (total 280.98) broke the world record for both the Short and the Free Programs and finished a huge 22.59 points ahead of the silver medalist, Takahiko Kozuka of Japan. Artur Gachinski, 17, the Russian national silver medalist, who was making his debut in this event, took bronze. The last Canadian mens world champion was Jeffrey Buttle in 2008.

The top three in the FS were the top three overall. Kozuka, 22, zoomed up from sixth after the SP. He has placed eighth, sixth and tenth in his previous entries to Worlds. He pulled off a stunning upset in December in his national championship, taking the title and beating the 2010 world champion and Olympic bronze medalist Daisuke Takahashi and his other teammate in Moscow, Nobunari Oda. Both Takahashi and Oda had problems in this year’s Worlds and finished fifth and sixth. Gachinski’s teammate, the Russian champion, Anton Kovalevski, 26, who was buried in 16^th place here.

The US skaters finished 9^th (Richard Dornbush); 11^th (Ross Miner) and 13^th (Ryan Bradley) which means that only two US skaters can be entered next season when Worlds are in Nice. Even Chan’s win hasn’t enabled his country to enter the maximum next year. To earn three spots, the sum of two competitors’ placements must be 13 or less. However, Chan’s team mates, Kevin Reynolds and Joey Russell, finished 20^th and 24^th respectively.

The 20-year old Chan has been the runner-up in this event for the past two years. The defending champion, Daisuke Takahashi, 25, who was the first ever Japanese to win this title, was considered a favorite for this title, despite losing his national title in December, because he had skated so well when winning the recent Four Continent Championships in Chinese Taipei. However, as you can read in the SP report, he was lying only third going into the Free. He subsequently dropped to fifth overall. Watching from the audience were past holders of this title Evgeni Plushenko, who was shown on the Jumbotron applauding both Russian entrants, and Stephane Lambiel.

1: Overall score 280.98; Free Skate 187.96 (96.44 elements + 91.52 components) Patrick Chan performed to Phantom of the Opera, a routine which he has done for the past two seasons. He said, "It was an amazing performance considering I had to skate first in my group (of six which means the skater can’t take full advantage of his six minutes without risking tiring himself and not having time to recover). The first quad toe was a little crooked in the air and I could have landed the triple Axel better, but I’m proud I was able to do the two quads."

Chan looked very serious when going to his starting position. This is the first season he has successfully included quads in his routines. He landed his first in competition in the Skate Canada Grand Prix, in Kingston, Ontario, where he fell on the jump in the SP but successfully brought off this amazing feat in the Free.

Canadians have been in the forefront in the advancement of jumping. The first triple Lutz was performed by Don Jackson at the 1962 world championships in Prague. The first triple Axel accredited in ISU competition was accomplished by Vern Taylor in 1978 although it was fellow Canadian Brian Orser who presented a superior version at the 1981 Worlds and became known as "Mr. Triple Axel." The first quad was accomplished by Kurt Browning at Worlds in 1988.

Chan’s first quad in his Free in Moscow was not solid enough for him to combine it, as planned, with a triple toe loop. However, the routine called for him to execute a second quad toe immediately after and he felt secure enough on this one to tag on the toe loop. Just those two moves alone earned him 22.59 points.

Four of the panel of nine judges thought the combination was good enough to punch in the maximum Grade of Execution, +3. Chan also got five +3s for his Level 3 Straight Line steps, one for his Level 4 flying sit spin, two for his Level 4 change foot sit spin, seven for the choreographed steps which don’t have a level, and three for his final Level 4 combination spin. His one error was a stumble on the landing of the triple Axel, for which he had 1.57 points taken off the jump’s base value of 9.35. (The original 8.50 base value is increased by 10% when the jump is executed after the half way point.). He also presented a unique combination of triple Lutz to half loop to triple Salchow. "I didn’t hold back or change my planned content at all," Chan said.

Nevertheless, he was outscored in the technical marks by 2.09 points by Kozuka but Chan earned 9.26 more for his components than the silver medalist who got the second highest score for this category. One of Chan’s assets, which earn him such high marks in this section, is his beautifully smooth, seemingly effortless but powerful flow over the ice. Asked what makes him a success, he said, "Figure skating is about being smart and taking care of my body, concentrating on both training but also making sure there is recovery time. I think I’ve taken a big step up from last season." To celebrate his win, Chan plans to go the Bolshoi on Saturday and to the circus on Sunday.

Kozuka, added, "I did the quad the best I could have done it. I am very glad that with my performance I was able to inspire the Japanese people in such hard times. It was my dream to medal in the world championships and I did it.

Gachinski was smiling afterwards. "I can say that my performance was almost perfect. I did my quad and two triple Axels. My points were just super! This is a big result for me. The support from the audience was great. I was nervous in the hotel, just a little, but then, when I came into the venue, I was calm, because I take skating as my job, which you must do what has to be done. This was a great season. I participated both in the Europeans (where he finished fifth) and Worlds. And both competitions were quite successful for me. I haven’t spoken about our future plans with Aleksei Nikolaevich (Mishin), so I can't tell anything about what is next."

Brezina, who performed to Gershwin’s An American in Paris, immediately following his teammate Tomas Verner and the American Ricky Dornbush, said, "I'm so pleased. Despite making the two mistakes at the end (falling on his 10^th and 11^th elements, a triple Lutz and triple flip), I had a great start with two different kinds of quads." He also had a negative on his first triple flip which was combined with a triple toe. He added, "I did this program and now I know I can do it. This season was quite hard for me because there was a time when I was injured (and had to have abdominal surgery). I even had the feeling it could be my last season." He appeared to tire at the end. "It could seem like that but in fact the beginning of the program was quite difficult and I'm pleased with it as a whole."

5: 232.97; FS 152.72 (71.64+82.08 -1.0) Things went wrong for the defending champion Daisuke Takahashi right from the start of the Free, which he executed immediately after Gachinski. Competing in his sixth Worlds, he was lying third after the SP only a small distance behind his teammate, Oda, but a chasm behind Chan (see below). At the start of his Free, he sped down the ice in preparation for his first element, the quad toe, but realized immediately he toe-ed the take off, that there was a problem, and aborted the jump. "A screw had come lose (attaching the left blade to the heel of his boot)," he later explained. "It’s my fault, although I check them every night." He went immediately to the referee, Briton Karen Archer, and was given the time, specified in the rule book, to fix the boot. The rules say the skater must pick up the routine from where he left off. The first element was counted as a single toe. Although a skater can improvise to some degree, there is a strict limit on the number of jumps which may be presented.

"I was very calm when I went out for the second time although I believed already that I won't have a medal now, because I didn't do the first jump." A quad toe has a base value of 10.40 and a single 0.40 and he even got a negative GoE on that!! He restarted the Tango routine at the second element, a triple flip to triple toe, followed by a triple loop to double loop to double toe but, although he tried, the program never really got going. He stepped out of his triple Axel, set at bonus time, and incurred a -1.86 GoE. The second triple Axel with an added double toe was good (+0.86) but then he collapsed and put two hands on the ice landing a triple Salchow. His triple Lutz was given a wrong edge call. Though he tried to put lots of energy into his steps, he was obviously disheartened at the end. His 6^th place in this section dragged him down to 5^th overall.

Oda just can’t get the hand of that rule. He had a triple Axel to triple toe scheduled next and did it fine. But that move was disallowed because he had exceeded his triple toe limit. That was a HUGE loss of marks – 10.10! He executed the rest of his routine without error, including a second triple Axel but his elements score was ranked only 11^th. He was only 9^th in the Free. He said, "I am really disappointed with my performance." Actually his performance was not the problem. His adding skill – 1 plus 1 is two is the problem.

7: 229.68; FS 152.04 (74.98+77.06) Florent Amodio, skating last to a Michael Jackson medley, immediately following Kozuka, showed his off-ice dance skills with an extremely energetic performance. He began with two triple Axels. The first gained +1.43 GoE and the second, combined with a double toe, +1.86 over the base values. His triple loop was given an extra +0.60. But his circular steps, though done in the spirit of the music were only Level 2. He doubled a planned triple Salchow in a combination to half loop to a second triple Salchow. He executed two triple Lutzes, the second combined with a double toe, after the half way point when the 10% bonus clicks in. However, his triple flip was given a wrong edge takeoff call. His flying sit and change foot combination spins were Level 3 but the final change foot sit was only Level 2. The choreographed steps, executed as his 11^th of the 13 elements earned one +3 and great applause. He was seventh in this section and overall, but finished ahead of his teammate Brian Joubert.

He said, "I did a double instead of triple (Salchow) on my triple-triple combination. I felt a lot of pressure as I came here as the European Champion. But this was the performance I was looking for and I'm very pleased with it. I had a magic moment out

there and I could show who I am. The lyrics turned the performance even more into a party and, if I had to lose one point because of it, that didn't matter to me. I know that I'm not yet at the level of Patrick Chan. I was 15th last year and now I'm in 7th and I like that!"

A triple Lutz and second triple Axel were great but then he did triple Salchow to double toe and triple loop to triple toe. Unlike Oda, Joubert was aware that since his second quad had become a triple toe, he was limited to only one more triple toe. Unfortunately, he stepped out of it and got -1.10 off the loop-toe combination’s base value. That seemed to take all the attack out of him and his circular steps were only Level 1 as was his final change foot combination spin. His final jump, a triple flip got an edge call. However, even with all these errors he was rewarded with fourth place in the Free. He pulled up to 8^th overall only a couple of points behind his teammate.

Joubert said, "It was a very high level of competition indeed. I couldn't allow myself to miss a single element. But it was quite hard. I was tired but I kept fighting until the end."

He said in the future, "I'll change my preparation, because the beginning of the season

was difficult. I only started to feel better at the European Championships. I was lagging behind in my preparation. But I had some good practices before these championships and will keep working on the programs during summer. The fans supported me not only during the program, but while warming up as well. I like skating in Russia. I did cut my hand. There is nothing special in that. It’s pretty ordinary occurrence in skating. I got injured while doing a spin. My blood was everywhere on the rink, but that happens. I have no regrets now. I was relaxed in the warm up and I hit a beautiful quad."

9. 222.42; FS 151.88 (78.24+73.6) Richard Dornbush, 19, went from 11^th last season in his first US senior championship to winning the silver this year shortly after taking gold in the Junior Grand Prix Final in China. He came out of this event as the leading US competitor. His Sherlock Holmes routine, which was ranked 8^th best, enabled him to climb from 11^th after the SP up to 9^th overall, not bad for a world senior debut.

13. 212.71; FS 142.26 (72.74+69.52) Ryan Bradley, the US National Champion, skated 17^th, immediately before Ten. He gave a well choreographed showing in which he "played" Mozart, accompanied to a selection of music from the movie Amadeus. There was criticism that he looked slow. He was unlucky in that, athough he was ranked 12^th in both sections, he dropped a place to 13^th. He said, "My performance wasn't perfect but it wasn't bad. I hit two quad toes, which took a lot of energy. (The first was good and earned +0.71 over its base value but the second was under-rotated and given one arrow which means it received only 70% of its base value.) Of course I hoped to place a little better, but that's how it is.