The cream of the figure skating world has gathered in Dortmund, Germany, for the 2004 World Figure Skating Championships.
The cream of the figure skating world has gathered in Dortmund, Germany, for the 2004 World Figure Skating Championships.
The qualifying rounds of the Men’s event lead off the action on Monday 22nd, and will set the tone for these championships. The big guns from USA, Russia, Canada, Japan and China fine-tuned their free skating performances during the official practices over the weekend, with two time World Champion Evgeni Plushenko from Russia looking in top form.
American Champion Johnny Weir is also skating strongly, consistently nailing his quad toe/triple toe/double loop combination and is certain to figure in the top 10.
Australian Champion Brad Santer has had a challenging lead-up to the event, with boot problems which resulted in four changes in equipment over three weeks – and then catching a severe bout of the flu just prior to leaving for Dortmund. Santer’s Coach, Galina Zmievskaia, is pleased with his build up, but concerned that he will have difficulty with stamina through the arduous 4½ minute program. “He has been very, very sick and this has really affected his breathing, but he is working hard to build up again,” she said.
Forty-one men will skate the qualifying free program tomorrow and the top 30 will advance to skate the Short program on Tuesday. Favourites for the Men’s title are Plushenko, Canada’s Emanuel Sandhu (Silver Medalist at the Four Continents Championship in Canada in January and winner of the ISU Grand Prix Final) and Frenchman Brian Jourbert who recently picked up the Gold Medal at the European Championships. However the field is so strong that many other skaters could make it to the podium, including China’s Chengjiang Li and Japan’s Yamato Tamura.
Australian Ladies Champion, Miriam Manzano will compete the qualifying round on Wednesday, while our Dance champions Natalie Buck and Trent Nelson Bond will skate the qualifying Compulsory dances on Tuesday. (Story courtesy of Michael Santer – Editor OzSkater magazine).
The qualifying rounds of the Men’s event lead off the action on Monday 22nd, and will set the tone for these championships. The big guns from USA, Russia, Canada, Japan and China fine-tuned their free skating performances during the official practices over the weekend, with two time World Champion Evgeni Plushenko from Russia looking in top form.
American Champion Johnny Weir is also skating strongly, consistently nailing his quad toe/triple toe/double loop combination and is certain to figure in the top 10.
Australian Champion Brad Santer has had a challenging lead-up to the event, with boot problems which resulted in four changes in equipment over three weeks – and then catching a severe bout of the flu just prior to leaving for Dortmund. Santer’s Coach, Galina Zmievskaia, is pleased with his build up, but concerned that he will have difficulty with stamina through the arduous 4½ minute program. “He has been very, very sick and this has really affected his breathing, but he is working hard to build up again,” she said.
Forty-one men will skate the qualifying free program tomorrow and the top 30 will advance to skate the Short program on Tuesday. Favourites for the Men’s title are Plushenko, Canada’s Emanuel Sandhu (Silver Medalist at the Four Continents Championship in Canada in January and winner of the ISU Grand Prix Final) and Frenchman Brian Jourbert who recently picked up the Gold Medal at the European Championships. However the field is so strong that many other skaters could make it to the podium, including China’s Chengjiang Li and Japan’s Yamato Tamura.
Australian Ladies Champion, Miriam Manzano will compete the qualifying round on Wednesday, while our Dance champions Natalie Buck and Trent Nelson Bond will skate the qualifying Compulsory dances on Tuesday. (Story courtesy of Michael Santer – Editor OzSkater magazine).
