2005 World Championships

Men's Qualifying

 

Group A

 
Starting Order - Group A
  1. Even Plushenko

  2. Stefan Lindermann

  3. Konstantin Tupikov

  4. Aidas Reklys

  5. Ivan Dinev

  6. Chengjiang Li

  7. Gareth Echardt

  8. Ricky Cockerill

  9. John Hamer

  10. Karel Zelenka

  11. Vakhtang Murvanidze

  12. Andrei Dobrokhodov

  13. Jamal Othman

  14. Johnny Weir

  15. Zoltan Toth

  16. Ari-Pekka Nurmenkari

  17. Gregor Urbas

  18. Andrei Griazev

  19. Bradley Santer

  20. Emanuel Sandhu

  21. Sergei Davydov

  22. Sergei Dobrin

 

Group A Placements
Place Skater NOC
1 Evgeni Plushenko RUS
2 Stefan Lindermann GER
3 Chengjiang Li CHN
4 Johnny Weir USA
5 Sergei Dobrin RUS
6 Ivan Dinev BUL
7 Emanuel Sandhu CAN
8 Andrei Griazev RUS
9

Sergei Davydov

BLR
10 Karel Zelenka ITA
11 Jamal Othman SUI
12 Vakhtang Murvanidze GEO
13 Ari-Pekka Nurmenkari FIN
14 John Hamer GBR
15 Zoltan Toth HUN
16 Bradley Santer AUS
17 Andrei Dobrokhodov AZE
18 Konstantin Tupikov UKR
19 Gregor Urbas SLO
20 Aidas Reklys LTU
21 Ricky Cockerill NZL
22 Gareth Echardt RSA

It was unknown until the last minute if Evgeni Plushenko would skate today, but skate he did, winning Group A with a margin of nearly 22 points, and this without a quad and a shaky solo triple Axel.  He started off cautiously, but in the second half of the program hit his stride and finished with a decent performance.  Given the problem in the Axel, and the fact that half  his program was performed like he was walkingon eggshells, his program component marks seemed a bit high, though he we clearly the best of this group.  His program component marks ranged from 6.75 to 8.50; a wide range of opinion in terms of marks, but not in terms of placements, with all judges placing Plushenko first.

Stefan Lindermann skated second and that is where he ended in the standings today.  He struggled with his jumps, with three of his jump elements where marked with negative GoEs, those being a solo triple Axel, a triple flip, and fall on a second triple Axel.  His opening quad toe loop - triple toe loop was well done, and that element was key to keeping him ahead of the rest of the pack.

Skating in the third warmup, Johnny Weir started strong but in the second half of the program he doubled a triple loop which was poorly done and singled a flip.  His program component marks were the second highest of the group, keeping him competitive with Plushenko in that area, but without a quad he cannot afford the kind of errors he made today.  He remains an outside chance for a medal if he skaters well in the remaining segments of the event.  Initially he was placed third in the group, but late in the evening the scores were revised due to a entry error in the score for Chengjiang Li.  After the revision, Weir was placed fourth.

Chengjiang Li of China attempted a difficult program, landing a quad toe - triple toe combination and triple Axel - triple toe combination.  He did not attempt a planned quad Salchow, however, and threw a triple instead.  His element scores were the third highest of the group, but his program component marks were only fifth highest of the group and held him back for a third place finish.  In the original scoring of the event, his last element, a spin, was given no credit.  Late in the evening the identification was revised to a level 1 sit spin which gave him an additional 1.3 points (1.2 for the base value and 0.1 for the GoE).

Representing Canada in this group was Emanual Sandhu.  The eccentric and erratic Sandhu placed seventh due to a host of problems with his jump elements.  His program component marks where competitive with the leaders, but his steps and spins were all called at level 1.  Based on this performance, the outlook for Sandhu at this competition seems grim.

 

Group B

 
Starting Order - Group B
  1. Brian Joubert

  2. Alper Ucar

  3. Takeshi Honda

  4. Gheorghe Chipper

  5. Frederic Dambier

  6. Edward Ka-Yin Chow

  7. Humberto Contereras

  8. Daisuke Takahashi

  9. Stephane Lambiel

  10. Tomas Verner

  11. Kevin Van Der Perren

  12. Roman Serov

  13. Jeffrey Buttle

  14. Min Zhang

  15. Kristoffer Berntsson

  16. Evan Lysacek

  17. Viktor Pfeifer

  18. Silvio Smalun

  19. Samuel Contesti

  20. Trifun Zivanovic

  21. Yon Garcia

  22. Maciej Kus

  23. Timothy Goebel

 

Group B Placements
Place Skater NOC
1 Stephane Lambiel SUI
2 Brian Joubert FRA
3 Evan Lysacek USA
4 Jeffrey Buttle CAN
5 Samuel Contesti FRA
6 Daisuke Takahashi JPN
7 Min Zhang CHN
8 Kevin Van Der Perren BEL
9 Timothy Goebel USA
10 Gheorghe Chipper ROM
11 Frederic Dambier FRA
12

Kristoffer Berntsson

SWE
13 Roman Serov ISR
14 Viktor Pfeifer AUT
15 Trifun Zivanovic SCG
16 Tomas Verner CZE
17 Silvio Smalun GER
18 Maciej Kus POL
19 Yon Garcia ESP
20 Alper Ucar TUR
21 Humberto Contereras MEX
22 Edward Ka-Yin Chow HKG
w Takeshi Honda JPN


Group B was the more interesting of the two groups today, with several medal contenders skating in this group as well as four of the five North American competitors.

Brian Joubert led off, skating his "1492 Conquest of Paradise" routine, which he used last season.  He stepped out of the first jump in his opening quad toe combination and the element was scored as a quad toe - double Salchow sequence.  This was a major setback since the planned quad toe - triple toe combination has a value of 13.0 when executed with a GoE of 0, and his sequence only earned 6.4 points. .  He did not attempt his second combination, and threw only a solo triple Axel.  In the end, he had credit for only one combination and a sequence.  He also fell on a solo triple Lutz.  His performance was heavy and lethargic.  Nonetheless, he still managed to score a respectable 132 points which was enough to keep him in the running for a medal.

Skating third in the first warmup was Takeshi Honda, who last competed at Worlds in 2003 where he won the bronze medal.  This season he placed seventh at both Skate Canada and NHK, and failed to make the final.

In his opening combination, Honda popped a quad toe loop and came crashing down on his left ankle.  He crumpled to the ice and had to be assisted off the ice by the medical staff.  Later in the day it was announce he had a severe sprain and had been placed in a cast.

In the second warmup group, Stephane Lambiel, who at 152.00 points scored as many as Even Plushenko would later in the day in Group A (151.90).

Skating to "King Arthur", he landed a quad toe - triple toe combination, a solo quad toe and a triple Axel.  Hid only element with a negative GoE was a solo triple flip, which was supposed to have been part of a combination.  His performance was fast, strong and well done.  Both of his sequences and two of his spins were only level 1, so there are a few more points to be squeezed out of this program.

Placing third in this group was Evan Lysacek, the bronze medalist at U.S. Nationals this year and the 2005 Four Continents championships.  After 4C Lysacek had boot problems, but got them resolved and skater decently here.  He had problems on three jump elements, two footing and stepping out of the second jump of his opening combination (3A3T), falling on a solo triple Axel, and poorly landing a triple loop.  At this point he seems reasonable well placed to content for the bronze medal, though he has plenty of company in that respect.  One of those is Canadian Jeffery Buttle.

Like Lysacek, Buttle also had problems in three of his jump elements, including a fall on an attempted triple Axel that was scored as a double.  His  program component marks, however, where third best in this group, which keeps him in the hunt for the bronze medal.

The U.S. skaters in this group was Timothy Goebel.  Goebel struggle throughout the 2003/04 season and this year he competed in only one Grand Prix event, placing second at NHK.  Skating last, his program was a mess for the first half.  He had negative GoEs for six of his jump elements, and fell twice.  In the second half, however, he fought back , at least in terms of presentation and control.  His program component marks were third best, but with so many errors in his elements, he ended up ninth in this group and appears to be well out of the running for a medal at these championships.

Return to title page