Men

Standings

Notes on the Long Program

Elvis Stojko leaped to his third World Championships on the strength of eight triple jumps and a quad.  He landed his quad toe - triple toe combination, triple Axel - triple toe, and a solo triple Axel.  His technique was nearly flawless with only three stained landing edges to detract from his effort.  He received one mark of 6.0 in the first mark, from the Italian judge.  His second set of marks, however, were distinctly lower, in one case 4/10s lower than the first mark.  Skating before Todd Eldredge, this left room in the marks for Eldredge to win if he skated a clean program.

Eldredge Almost pulled it off, until the last two jumps of the program, a solo triple Axel followed by a flying spin and steps into a closing double Axel.  He pressed too hard for the triple Axel and popped it to a single.  He then attempted to recover from the error by throwing a triple Axel for the final jump, but the setup would not work and he ended up pulling out of it and then crashing.  Despite a significantly superior presentation, the two errors put the gold beyond his reach.

Alexei Urmanov, who looked to have a good chance to take the gold here also pulled a groin muscle yesterday.  He skated the warmup but found he could not do the jumps and withdrew from the competition.  His injury will cost Russia a place in the men's event at the Olympics and Worlds next year.

With Urmanov out of it, there were three men in a position to win the bronze medal, Kulik, Zagorodniuk, and Yagudin.  They all made errors and none of them attempted the quad toe loops they had planned in their programs.  It was Yagudin who moved ahead of the others to take third place.

Michael Weiss started out sloppy but managed to pull it together in the second half of the program.  He placed eighth in the long and seventh overall, gaining two places over his short program result.  He did not attempt his quad toe loop and double three triple jumps in the program.  With a combined point total of 25 the US will have two entries in the men's event next year at the Olympics and Worlds.

Four quad two loops were landed in tonights long programs.  The Chinese skater Zhengxin Gou landed two, a solo effort and a quad toe - double toe combination.  The Latvian Konstantin Kotin landed a solo effort, and Elvis Stojko landed a quad toe - triple toe combination.

Notes on the Short Program

The men's short program was a major slug-fest with 10 men landing triple-triple combinations, mostly triple Axel - triple toes.

Alexei Urmanov came out on top with a majority of seconds despite slow spins and  slow footwork, but good jumps and an improved presentation that shows the effects of his having toured extensively in the past few years.  Eldredge, who skated third, placed a close second with a clean, secure program that made it all look easy.

Like the first two men, Ilia Kulik also skated clean and landed triple Axel - triple toe.  The only technical fault in his program was a small hesitation going into the triple Lutz.  He was followed by Elvis Stojko who skated a clean secure program with triple Axel - triple toe and triple Lutz.  Afterwards he was not happy with the judging but when you have five top men all skating essentially the same technical content without error its going to come down to speed, connecting moves, and presentation; three areas where Stojko is on the losing end of the stick.  In fourth place he will need some help to win.

A noteworthy effort was also put in by Takeshi Honda, a strong jumper for several years who is now also developing a sense of style and presentation.  The same cannot be said for Michael Weiss who ended up ninth thanks to a cheated triple toe in his combination and a presentation that is simplistic and superficial.

The long program looks to be a blood-bath, with any of the top 4 men capable of winning the long program, and the next two having an outside chance as well.  The last warmup group should be one to remember.

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