European Championships 2008

Here you can find entries for the European Championships, that will be in Zagreb from 22 to 27 January.

http://www.isufs.org/events/fsevent00010320.htm

Here official Homepage:
http://www.euroskate2008.com/

Sunday
January 20, 2008
06,00 – 23,30 Official Practices

Monday
January 21, 2008
06,00 – 18,00 Official Practices

Tuesday
January 22, 2008
14,00 – 17,30 Ice Dancing – Compulsory Dance
18,30 – 19,00 OPENING CEREMONY
19,15 – 22,15 Pairs – Short Program

Wednesday
January 23, 2008
12,15 – 17,30 Men – Short Program
19,00 – 22,20 Pairs – Free Program
Followed by Pairs – Victory Ceremony

Thursday
January 24, 2008
13,30 – 17,30 Ice Dancing – Original Dance
18,30 – 22,30 Men – Free Skating
Followed by Men – Victory Ceremony

Friday
Januray 25, 2008
11,30 – 17,30 Ladies – Short Program
18,30 – 22,30 Ice Dancing – Free Dance
Followed by Ice Dancing – Victory Ceremony

Saturday
January 26, 2008
13,00 – 16,50 Ladies – Free Skating
Followed by Ladies – Victory Ceremony

Sunday
January 27, 2008
15,00 – 17,30 Gala

an interview with Brian Joubert about European championship
http://www.lematin.ch/pages/home/sports/divers/sports_divers__1?contenu=357914
First he comes back on the past medals.....
What is new:
- he is taking dance classes (tango, hip hop) and works also with a french woman ice dancer.
- he said that he improved in artistics with Browning and Browning's wife who is a ballet dancer
- he skates 3 to 5 hours a day (me: only??). Every day, he completes 50 jumps. He says that he doesn't take more energy to do quad than triple.
- he knows that Lambiel will obtain more points in artistic matter ,but there is no significant difference in steps, fluidity on the ice, and Lambiel has often trouble in landing his jumps. He knows the difference is tiny between them.
- he says that it is important to obtain points with the short program, and he will adjust the free program depending on the results in the SP
and "if I am good in technics, nobody will stop me"

Thanks a lot, anne-marie!

It sounds he is very confident now. I'm really looking forward to seeing the battle between Brian and Stephane at Euro!!

ice dancing results for the Yankee Polka
Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder have the lead
http://www.isufs.org/results/ec2008/CAT004RS.HTM

for the men, in the press, this is the nerves war!!!!

Domnina/Shabalin: it is not a yankee polka, and they are dressed not for this kind of dance
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=uu8qnk6qAqY
Isabelle Delobel and Olivier well dressed as a cowboy and a saloon singers, they remember me a ballet by Balanchine "western symphony"
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=hSaGYWCmWQs
Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian well done
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=dxKFu4yrDdw
Khokhlova /Novitsky: I feel disapointed
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=wHdv4QCPZz0

Thank you anne-marie for the links!
I couldn't see all the competition on tv yesterday, so they were usefull for me.
I like Delobel/Schoenfelder's polka very much.

Here you can find Pairs SP results:
http://www.isufs.org/results/ec2008/SEG005.HTM
Aliona SAVCHENKO/Robin SZOLKOWY are in first place.
I think no one can beat them!

Delobel&Schoenfelder was really gorgeous!
I think they are best in compulsory. Their deep edge was

I'm happy that Pairs SP result.
Hold on to free!

Now Men's short are going on

This post isn't exactly about European, but...
I'm watching Men SP on TV and italian commentators mentioned two times Daisuke.
First they said that the best programs of this year are Daisuke's Swan Lake and Stéphane's Flamenco. They said Stéphane looks like Joaquin Cortes (who is a very famous flamenco dancer), while Daisuke's speed in SP is really impressive and with this program he has renewed figure skating.
Then, talking about Sergey Davidov's skating, they said Daisuke is the best in skating skill... with Oda.
I totally agree, also about programs... and at last italian commentators realized Daisuke's quality!

Brian Joubert: 4T step out 3T, 3Lz, 3A fall!
Score: 75.25

Tomas in first?!?!?!?! From the looks of things, he was very on! Good for him! Seems that Brian and Stephane were a bit off (both had falls). The free will be an interesting battle!

stress was certainly intense!
the results look like the short program in Varsovie last year:
1 tomas Verner
2 brian joubert
3 was Van der perren (but Lambiel did not attend the european championships)
now Lambiel is third and van der Perren 4th!!
Anyway, the notes are very low compared to those of the Grand Prix! strange!!

Thank you everyone for the informations and your impression.

I add the detailed score here.
Pl. Name Nation TSS = TES+ PCS+ SS TR PE CH IN Deduction - StN.
1 Tomas VERNER CZE 79.03 41.46 37.57 7.54 7.32 7.61 7.46 7.64 0.00 #35
2 Brian JOUBERT FRA 75.25 39.43 36.82 7.54 7.07 7.39 7.36 7.46 1.00 #27
3 Stephane LAMBIEL SUI 71.78 35.79 36.99 7.46 7.14 7.43 7.39 7.57 1.00 #34
4 Kevin VAN DER PERREN BEL 66.33 34.97 31.36 6.43 6.04 6.36 6.21 6.32 0.00 #29
5 Kristoffer BERNTSSON SWE 65.62 38.37 27.25 5.57 5.18 5.43 5.43 5.64 0.00 #22
6 Sergei VORONOV RUS 64.26 31.12 33.14 6.75 6.43 6.64 6.68 6.64 0.00 #33

It seemed there were rather many failures in jumps. Tomas refered that the ice was hard. Did it effect jumps??

Good for him, Tomas! He might become a new European Champion this time! I love his SP very much.
I'm worried about Brian... His quad was high and good(even though the landing was not perfect) but he still looked so slim. Has he recovered fully??
Stephane... He is an unpredictable guy, so I can't say any now. Anyway I'd love to see wonderful Poeta tonight.

And I was relieved to see Berntsson's suspenders were safe this time!!

glorydave wrote:

I totally agree, also about programs... and at last italian commentators realized Daisuke's quality!

Hahaha. Please say "Grazie" to them for me if you have any chance to see them!!

swandie wrote:

The free will be an interesting battle!

Yes, Yes!!

Quote :

the results look like the short program in Varsovie last year:

yeah I felt that too. really interesting!

I agree with you, miyu
Tomas did clean and facinating program and I enjoyed it very much!
And he got level 4 at Slst
Um... I'm confused that Dai-chan didn't get any lv4 steps except for Nationals, while Tomas receive three times... Dai's hiphop is just incredible!! Tomas's step was really good and match well with music, but his edge was not so deep compare to Dai-chan.. but it's just my opinion
Stephane.. 3A fell, downgraded and 3T-2T...
But he always make us surprise, so I'll expect free skating.
btw, what do you think about his new costume?
Brian's fall was really his air position was very leaned and he immediately slimmed out..
He looked so pale and haggard...

Free skating remain just about 1 hour!!

Ahhh I hope Stephane does well, and Kevin Van Der Perren ( he needs to get third place to keep his funding or so I've heard.)

Also the US National Championships are going on now as well but there doesn't seem to be a topic on it yet.

Ahhh I hope Stephane does well, and Kevin Van Der Perren ( he needs to get third place to keep his funding or so I've heard.)

Also the US National Championships are going on now as well but there doesn't seem to be a topic on it yet.

TOMAS VERNER is the new European Champion!

1 Tomas VERNER CZE 232.67
2 Stephane LAMBIEL SUI 219.63
3 Brian JOUBERT FRA 219.45
4 Sergei VORONOV RUS 210.13
5 Kevin VAN DER PERREN BEL 199.57
6 Adrian SCHULTHEISS SWE 184.94
7 Kristoffer BERNTSSON SWE 182.45
8 Andrei LUTAI RUS 180.46

Here MEN FP results:
http://www.isufs.org/results/ec2008/SEG002.HTM

WOW
Tomas become 2008 Europeans Champion!!!
He did nearly perfect performance.

Stephane and Brian.. just 0.18 points
(It's similar to GPF with Dai-chan... )
Stephane's Flamenco is really stunning. (see that pcs... 80.00!!)
Brian was little shaked but he seems better that yesterday.
And Voronov did clean and great performance despite of injury.
(wow.. His consistency is quite good this season!)

Congratulations everyone!
It was Really intense competition and it's a real tense to see this competition for live!!
I'm expecting 4CC now

Protocol is now up-
SP http://www.isufs.org/results/ec2008/ec08_Men_SP_Scores.pdf
FS http://www.isufs.org/results/ec2008/ec08_Men_FS_Scores.pdf

Ah??? Stephane's scores are up about 6 points!
Maybe because of Zayak's rule, or just a mistake of judge..

Wow... I'm really shocked.

Good for Tomas though! This is a huge win for him... he broke Joubert's long winning streak!

And it seems like Stephane is coming back strongly.

Congratulations Tomas!!!

I'm happy for Tomas!
I think I deserved this gold medal.
He was the only skater competing for a medal, that did a good SP yesterday... and today he did a good job too.
Stèphane's Flamenco is really something special (today he didn't compete against Daisuke, so maybe I apprecieted more his program ). Great combination with 4T-2T-2Lo, but no 3A... only two 2A... His PCS is... WOW!
Joubert did some mistekes in jumps and at the end he seemed to be very tired.

So... CONGRATULATION TOMAS!

Now I don't want to be polemical, but I only would like to better understand some decisions...
When I saw Stèphane SP, I thought his fall on 3A (here he had the deduction) was so similiar to his error on 3A at GPF (there it wasn't considered as a fall)... What do the rules say? Is there someone who can link or post the rule about falls?

Yay Tomas!!!! I'm shocked but happy for him. Only 0.2 points separated him and Stephane. I'm even more excited for worlds now...before this competition, I was thinking that Brian, Stephane, and Daisuke would be on the podium at worlds for sure. Now, Tomas will definitely be considered a contender!

It seems that Brian is still feeling the effects of his illness. Hopefully, he's still doing well. Bad news for Kevin van der Perren...his sponsors might be pulling out since he didn't finish on the podium.

And glorydave, I can't find the exact document but I think the rule is that if a skater's butt touches the ice, it's considered a fall. At the Final, only Stephane's hands touched the ice so he didn't get the deduction. He even commented that it wasn't a fall because his butt didn't hit the ice.

And Verner also put the hand on the ice after the quad, he did a few little mistakes. Interesting choregraphies. Very good on the both programs.
Only Voronov had a beautiful quad yesterday.
Brian had just a tumble when landing the quad and didn't add the triple behind, he put an hand on another jump and put a KNEE on the ice after another one and that was considered as a fall (so a 1 point deduction). Seems not in good condition, the jumps practices were very good, I think that he was afraid to lose)
Lambiel programs are very artistically strong, and he skated them beautifully. BUT, too many technical weakness in his programs.
I am sorry for Van der Perren usually strong in jumps, and also Alban Préaubert (in difficulties since the begining of the season).
In 2 months the world!!

Thank you swandie, also for Stèphane's comment.
I read ISU regulation... it takes me a bit of time, but at least I found the rule I was looking for.

falls -1.0 for every fall (in Pair Skating -1.0 for a fall of one partner and -2.0 for a fall of both partners); for interpretation of this Rule, a fall is defined as loss of control by a Skater with the result that the majority of his/her own body weight is on the ice supported by any other part of the body other than the blades e.g. hand(s), knee(s), back, buttock(s) or any part of the arm.

Now that I exactly know what ISU says , I'm going to watching again the programs trying to understand...

Thanks for the updates everyone!!

I'm so pleased with Tomas' win (is this maybe his first big international, senior-level competition win?). He seems like such a congenial guy and is a very entertaining skater with fabulous jumps. He also likes Daisuke's "Swan Lake" program so that is a big bonus in my book. Congrats to Stephane and Brian (I heard this is his fifth or sixth consecutive podium finish since 2002) as well even though they didn't have their best skates! Worlds should be a real battle and will be really interesting.

The discussion about Stephane's "fall" and what constitutes an actual fall is really interesting (quite enlightening). Let us know what you rediscover/analyze after rewatching the programs, glorydave.

Here are the top five ladies' SP results-

1 Carolina KOSTNER ITA 59.31 31.56 27.75 7.11 6.54 7.00 6.96 7.07 0.00 #38
2 Kiira KORPI FIN 58.60 32.14 26.46 6.68 6.32 6.82 6.57 6.68 0.00 #36
3 Laura LEPISTO FIN 56.96 32.24 24.72 6.29 5.75 6.36 6.14 6.36 0.00 #40
4 Sarah MEIER SUI 56.44 30.16 26.28 6.75 6.14 6.79 6.54 6.64 0.00 #35
5 Julia SEBESTYEN HUN 55.54 30.90 24.64 6.50 5.79 6.32 6.11 6.07 0.00 #32

Here are the FINAL ice dancing results (congrats to all medalists!)-

1 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS
207.14 2 2 1
2 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA
205.92 1 1 2
3 Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI RUS
197.06 3 3 3
4 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA
190.95 4 4 4
5 Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT FRA
185.26 5 6 5
6 Sinead KERR / John KERR GBR
182.06 6 5 6
7 Anna CAPPELLINI / Luca LANOTTE ITA
172.64 10 7 7
8 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI ISR
171.70 7 9 9

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! Tomas!! Congraturations!!!

Thank you swandie and glorydave for letting me know about Stephane's comment and ISU rule.
But please don't think about it too much, glorydave. I'm afraid you can't get a clear answer........ At that day Stephane was bit luckier than Dai-chan. That's all, I think.
Actually I still can't see video of Dai-chan's GPF FP. Because I know how I feel when I see it..........

GO Carolina!! I like her. She is very charming. Her outfit of FP reminds me goldfish. Pretty cute.

Thanks for the information and the results, all.
Congratulation, Tomas and Carolina !

I think that Brian's condition is not well now. I hope he gets well soon.
Joubert said "I'm very disappointed the result of bronze. It is very hard time for me because of illness. Now, I'm thinking of Worlds 2008. I want to win the gold medal, not bronze. But this competition, I was doing everything I could do. I couldn't do much more than I did."

Le Figaro Jan. 26, 2008
http://www.lefigaro.fr/sport/2008/01/26/02001-20080126ARTFIG00079-brian-joubert-toujours-pret-a-se-battre.php