2007 Grand Prix Final

Hi!

Tickets for Grand Prix Final in Turin are on sale!!!
In Italy you can buy them on www.ticketone.it... but call center is only for calling from Italy...
I will try to understand how about people coming from abroad...

12/13 Thursday 10,00 am (Italian Time): trainings

12/14 Friday 6,30 pm: Short Program

12/15 Saturday 2,00 pm: Dance & Men Free Program
12/15 Saturday 8,00 pm: Pairs & Ladies Free program

12/16 Sunday 4,00 pm: exhibition gala

I've just buy tickets for the free program!!!
Unfortunatly my work doesn't allow me to see all the event...

Now I hope Daisuke will reach Grand Prix Final...
step by step... from this week end!!!

GO DAISUKE!!!

Thanks for the heads up, glorydave.
I wish I go to Turin in Italy. You're so lucky to see Daisuke at GPF.

Quote :

Now I hope Daisuke will reach Grand Prix Final...
step by step... from this week end!!!

I'm sure that he will reach it!! You don't have to worry about that.

I am sure Dai-chan will go final too!!!!

Hi everyone!
Here you can find a link about Grand Prix Final... in English.

www.torinolympicpark.org/interna_granprix.asp?IdArea=103&lang=en

You can also find Grand Prix Standings:
http://www.isu.org/vsite/vnavsite/page/directory/0,10853,4844-136494-137802-nav-list,00.html

Thanks for the heads up, glorydave!
I hope you that enjoy Daisuke's "Free Skating" at Torino.

PAIRS
QUALIFIED FOR THE ISU GRAND PRIX OF FIGURE SKATING FINAL
1- Dan ZHANG / Hao ZHANG CHN
2- Aliona SAVCHENKO / Robin SZOLKOWY GER
3- Jessica DUBE / Bryce DAVISON CAN
4- Qing PANG / Jian TONG CHN
5- Keauna McLAUGHLIN / Rockne BRUBAKER USA
6- Yuko KAWAGUCHI / Alexander SMIRNOVRUS

Thanks for the infromation, glorydave.
Today, except Men's, Dance and Ladies's single will be qualified for GPF in Torino!!

LADIES
QUALIFIED FOR THE ISU GRAND PRIX OF FIGURE SKATING FINAL
1- Yu-Na KIM KOR
2- Mao ASADA JPN
3- Kimmie MEISSNER USA
4- Carolina KOSTNER ITA
5- Yukari NAKANO JPN
6- Caroline ZHANG USA

ICE DANCING
QUALIFIED FOR THE ISU GRAND PRIX OF FIGURE SKATING FINAL
1- Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA
2- Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA
3- Tessa VIRTUE / Scott MOIR CAN
4- Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS
5- Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT FRA
6- Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI RUS

MEN
QUALIFIED FOR THE ISU GRAND PRIX OF FIGURE SKATING FINAL
1- Daisuke TAKAHASHI JPN
2- Johnny WEIR USA
3- Patrick CHAN CAN
4- Evan LYSACEK USA
5- Stephane LAMBIEL SUI
6- Kevin VAN DER PERREN BEL

GO DAISUKE!!!
I'M WAITING FOR YOU IN TORINO!

Thank you glorydave!!

Congrats to Carolina!! You are very happy you will be able to see Dai-chan and Carolina at GPF. And Lambiel?? Who is your second favorite single male skater??

Dai-chan is still having a busy day today. Here are photos of the press interview for GPF.
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/headlines/images/20071203/20071203-00000032-spnavi-spo.html
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20071203-00000017-jijp-spo.view-000
He worte "Two quads!! Victory!!" on the board in his hands.
(Yukari wrote "GUT". Yeah, she has GUT. )

Hi miyu!
Thanks for the photo!

Quote :

Congrats to Carolina!! You are very happy you will be able to see Dai-chan and Carolina at GPF. And Lambiel?? Who is your second favorite single male skater??

I'm happy Carolina will skate at GPF: she's the only italian skater... but sincerely I prefer other female skaters... Yu-Na Kim is fantastic for me!
Male skaters... after Dai-chan, obviously... I like Lambiel, but I think that Daisuke's rivals will be Weir and Lysacek. I'm very curious to see Weir's performance.
I'm also sad this year we can't see Nobunari at GPF... I hope he will skate at National Championship and he will be in good shape!

GO DAISUKE!!!

Yu-Na and Kimmie are my favorites for ladies - Kimmie and I used to be in the same skating club, she lives in my state.

I'm really happy about Johnny Weir making it, and Lambiel.

Honestly though, I don't think any of them are too likely to beat Daisuke, Weir needs to put in a quad to do that, and I'm not sure if even that would give him the win. Daisuke has been outperformer everyone so far I think.

Hi glorydave and Shatterpoint!!

glorydave wrote:

Male skaters... after Dai-chan, obviously... I like Lambiel, but I think that Daisuke's rivals will be Weir and Lysacek. I'm very curious to see Weir's performance.

Lambiel is my second favorite skater too. Now I also become fond of Verner very much. I'm interested in Wier's performance but what I fear is Lambiel's clean performance (if he can skate clean..... )

Shatterpoint wrote:

Yu-Na and Kimmie are my favorites for ladies - Kimmie and I used to be in the same skating club, she lives in my state.

WOW! You are a skater and used to skate with Kimmie! So you have to be a fan of Kimmie. Kimmie looks in good shape this year, motivated well.
I love both of Mao and Yu-na especially.

I'm going to GPF too!
(...of course )

I can't wait to see Dai live again, and I'm very very very much looking forwards to seeing Yukari Nakano! (I've never seen her live yet) And of course many other skaters and friends too!

I hope Dai will skate great and that he will go for 2 quads in the LP (I was a bit disappointed he didn't try at NHK).

Dai-chan, GANBARE!!

Just one week to go!!!
I'm looking forward to your report very much, MissC and glorydave!!!

Here you can see Dai-chan's interview for GPF.(You have to reload the page till his small photo will appear under the menu on the left side and click the photo.)
http://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/figure/

He said
"I have trained to do 2 quads in the program this seaon but I did only one quad at every game so far. If I'm in good condition, I'd like to try 2 quads at GPF. I've got 3rd and 2nd place at GPF. What I havn't got is only 1st. So I strongly want to win. So I wrote this."

The exact competition schedule is (Central European Time):

FRIDAY, Dec. 14
18,30 Opening On Ice
18,45-19,35 Original Dance
19,50-20,35 Men Short Program
21,05-21,50 Pairs Short Program
22,10-23 Ladies Short Program

SATURDAY, Dec. 15
14-14,55 Free Dance
15,15-16,10 Men Free Skating
Victory Ceremony

20-21 Pairs Free Skating
21,20-22,10 Ladies Free Skating
Victory Ceremony

SUNDAY, Dec. 16
16-18,30 Exhibition Gala


It's getting cloooooooser!!

Thanks for the shedule in detail, MissC.
I hope you and glorydave enjoy this competition. I don't worry about Daiske except he caught a cold during his stay in Sendai.
Take care and good luck to you, Daisuke!!

Thanks for the times, MissC. Hopefully, I will be able to catch some of it live on ESPN360.

Thank you MissC!! I've already got excited now!!
Was there any news of Dai-chan or his rivals in Italy, for example arrival or practice report? I read the news today Yukari had a practice at Palavela yesterday.

Here is starting order for Men SP:

1 Kevin VAN DER PERREN BEL
2 Stephane LAMBIEL SUI
3 Evan LYSACEK USA
4 Patrick CHAN CAN
5 Johnny WEIR USA
6 Daisuke TAKAHASHI JPN

GO DAISUKE!!!

Hi everyone!
Here are photos of Dai-chan in Torino!
http://iceblue.cocolog-nifty.com/figure/2007/12/2007_1256.html
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/photos/sports/other/071213/oth0712132321006-p3.htm

His expression of the photo of him and Utako is so sweet and gentle.

The article said,
In the official practice he landed cleanly 4-2 in R&J. He was successful in landing every jump including 3A-2T-2L and 3F-3T with the music even though he didn't do all of his jump elements. He used his body widely and intensely in step sequences. After the practice with music he checked carefully Cist of SP Swan Lake.

GO DAI-CHAN!!

Many thanks to MissC, glorydave, and miyu for the information/pictures!

Here is a video of the men's practice for the Grand Prix Final from today. Daisuke looks to be in really good form in the video.

The men all appear to be in indistinguishable black.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTp9YePz8oA

Thanks everyone for all the links and info. Daisuke seems very prepared for this competition.

Thank you UMgal!
I'm very happy to see him skating in good condtion. Yeah all men were in black....

Here is the new article of his interview.
http://iceblue.cocolog-nifty.com/figure/2007/12/2007_e0bd.html

(Sorry I don't have enough time right now. so this is rough summary translation.)

- This is the third time you come here in Torino.
Yes, now I've acustomed to the town, the arena and even the locker room very much. So I don't feel like I come to abroad. ...........

- Do you recall the Olympics when you come here?
I feel like Torino Olympics was long long time ago. Just 2 years has passed sisnce then but it's very far away. Because I have experienced very many thinkgs these 2 years.

-At Torino Olympics you skated first in SP and last in LP, this time you skate first from the start of the competition.
Yeah. But I have realized what I have to do is the same in any number. I have experienced a lot enough to think in such way. ................

-By the way you had your hair cut?
I did. I had my hair cut immediately after NHK. Looks fresh? Actually I had a staright perm. I'm embarrassed because it looks like a little boy. I will set my hair with hair wax at the competition.

At the last questtion he answered swinging his hair with embarrassed smile. He said before he wanted to skate his LP more refreshingly but always ended up with too dense performance. So we might be able see Romeo & Juliet which has different atmosphere with his new fresh hair style.

I love both of your refreshing performance and very dense performance, Dai-chan!!