World Championships 2007

At the 2007 World Figure Skating Championships, Daisuke performed the skate of his life in front of his home country Japan and ended up winning the silver medal!!
He is a first silver medalist in Japan.

http://www.worlds2007.jp/index.htm

Total Score : 237.95
Score Short Program : 74.51
Music: Concert for Violin and Orchestra by P. I. Tchaikovski

Score Free Program : 163.44
Music: Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber

I was there & it was very exciting indeed. A lot of speculation & tension in all the skating disciplines but especially in the Mens' comp.

Very special to see in person Daisuke win his Silver Medal.
He did a great job & performed his programs & the Gala beautifully.

I really enjoyed soaking up what Japanese culture I could while I was there & also the atmosphere of the rink, Japanese skating fans, & the competition.

Did anyone else in this forum attend the comp. in person?

Hello, Yukisnowflake.
You went to the compettition? Wow It's wonderful!
When you were at the rink, I was at home sittng in front of my computer, & listening British Eurosport's Live Audio. I could hear Dai-chan was crying at kiss & cry.
Would you mind to tell me a littel bit more about his freeskating, 6minutes practice, and victory ceremony?
I'm sorry If I'm not polite enough, and I'm afraid my English is something strange.

Morizo wrote:

Hello, Yukisnowflake.
You went to the compettition? Wow It's wonderful!
When you were at the rink, I was at home sittng in front of my computer, & listening British Eurosport's Live Audio. I could hear Dai-chan was crying at kiss & cry.
Would you mind to tell me a littel bit more about his freeskating, 6minutes practice, and victory ceremony?
I'm sorry If I'm not polite enough, and I'm afraid my English is something strange.

Hello Morizo:

You are polite & your English is right (not strange).

I'm sorry you did not attend the comp. in person. Have you not seen the comp. on tv? Do you watch 'youtube' on the net? I'm sure you could see his performance there.

Daisuke did justice to N. Morozov's choreography.
What I'm most impressed about Daisuke is his strong, powerful & convincing presence on the ice. And he does it with such artistry & style.

Yes, he did cry in the K'N'C. Very moving & dramatic moment for him & all the JPNZ fans.

I had a very good seat @ the comp. I was in the 1st row on the 2nd tier right behind & to the left of the judges. I was right above where the 'flower retrievers' were located. I could see below me all the flowers & gifts being gathered into bags & being labelled for the skaters.
I can testify, that indeed, all the gifts went to the skaters.

Also, because of the good seat I had, I was privledged that more often than not the the skaters did most of their jumps or highlighted moves right in front of me.

I must admit, that when I think back to the beginning of the 06-07 Sk. season & remember especially the 06 Sk. Canada comp. (a comp. I also attended in person) & saw the disasterous skates of Daisuke, S. Lambiel, J. Weir etc. I was worried for Daisuke & doubted @ the time that he would have ended up with a medal @ 07 Worlds Tokyo let alone a Silver.

So to be in Tokyo & personally witness his triumphet Silver @ Worlds was even more dramatic & special.

I hope this info is useful to you.
I look forward to learning & sharing with you & the ofher forum members in the future.

yukisnowflake

Yukisnowflake, Thank you very much for answering my request.
Yes, I've seen the competition on TV, but it wasn't Live broadcast. That time, we had one or two(I'm not sure) TV stations which broadcasted live in my country.(Pay TV & satellite TV), and I couldn't watch both of them.
I'm glad to here from you about the Tokyo Worlds '07.
People say watching competition live is much more exciting than TV, and I didn't realize he was powerful & strong in freeskating when I just watched it on TV. If I were there, my body would be shaking with fear & I'm sure I would have difficulty in breathing.(joking) So I was lucky not to be there.(joking)

At the Skate Canada, Yes, his freeskating was a disaster. But when I saw you(audience) were doing standing ovation after his SP, I was really happy for that.
Recently I've started to collect his past performances(competitions)recorded on video. When I saw them(2002-March 05), I recognized he(at SC '06) did the same mistakes as he did several times in the past. For me, it was shocking(too many jumping mistakes), but I guess fans who's been supporting him for a long time must have surprised his dramatic change since NHK '06.
Again, thank you very much for your reply, and sorry for my bad English.
Morizo.

Morizo:

Yes, attending a comp. in person is much more exciting & dramatic.
I suggest you go to one if you can.

Since Japan is a 'rising' presence in recent years, it was even more exciting to attend a live comp. in Japan.
Very enthusiastic Japanese fans = an even better ambience in the rink.

Yes, what you observed re: Daisukes' sk. programs & the audience reaction @ 06 Sk. Can. is correct. We were so sure after his short program that he wouldn't have any trouble in his long program, but his mistakes & jumping troubles in his LP, truly shocked the audience.

But it was the same for S. Lambiel & J. Weir too.
So in the end Daisuke, Stephane & Johnny were lucky to be on the podium
@ the end of the comp. The rest of the Mens' field had similar performances (good SP & troubled LP) except for Vaughn Chipeur (Can.) whose SP & LP were superb.

I was really happy & proud of Vaughn Chipeur especially because he was really good & consistant @ that comp. but also because earlier in the year
@ 06 Can. Nationals in Jan. in Ottawa he had a 'wardrobe maflfunction' in his SP there (his pants came undone & I noticed it immediately cause it happened right in front of me but it wasn't till he got to the opposite end of the rink that he noticed) & he had to stop his SP to repair the problem.
He skated his LP there trouble free in the end.
His 'wardrobe malfuntion' SP wasn't shown on tv.
I mention this so you see one can witness all kinds of different 'behind the scenes' moments if you are there in person. Lots of precious moments & memories you can take home with you.
No telling what incidents can happen to endear a skater in one's heart.

Enjoy the skating season.