World Figure Skating Championships 2008

Many thanks for the information and links, DTFF members!!
I will go to see Worlds today after the work!! I'd like to share my feeling about Daisuke with you!!

About Ladie's single, I heard the news that Miki will withdraw from the free program. I can't believe it and it makes me so sad.
Poor Miki.

Oh no! That's too bad for Miki! Maybe her shoulder started to act up again or something. I hope she's ok.

Yu-Na, Mao and Yukari are the last 3 in the free skate. I hope Yu-Na can move up!

The Ladies just finished... I didn't get to watch ( It'll be on tv in the US Saturday I think ), but I'm really disappointed.

1 Mao ASADA JPN
185.56 2 2
2 Carolina KOSTNER ITA
184.68 1 3
3 Yu-Na KIM KOR
183.23 5 1
4 Yukari NAKANO JPN
177.40 3 4
5 Joannie ROCHETTE CAN
174.12 6 5

And the US ladies...

7 Kimmie MEISSNER USA
149.74 9 12
10 Beatrisa LIANG USA
145.29 10 13
16 Ashley WAGNER USA
137.40 11 15

Good for Mao, though it seems like it was a splat fest overall.... it's a shame Yu-Na didn't have a great short or she probably would have won overall.

I'm rather disappointed in the US ladies. Next year there will only be two spots for Worlds in the ladies event as far as the US is concerned.

And poor Miki fell on two jumps after started her program, then talked to the judges and decided not to finish the freeskate... waiting on details but she must have been injured. In a picture on the icenetwork main page she had her hand on her shoulder while speaking to the judges.

Yes, Shatterpoint, the ladies free skate will be shown on Saturday. I was going to wait until then to find out the results but here I am. I will try to stay away for the men because I want that to be a surprise. According to Brian Joubert, he, Daisuke, and Stephane are the only contenders for gold.

These numbers confuse me! Kimmie placed 12th in the free and moved up??!?!?! Interesting! But yea, only 2 spots for LA. Three wasn't even enough with the amount of talented up and comers (Caroline Zhang, Mirai Nagasu, Rachel Flatt, etc) we have! How will we deal with 2?

Mao did what Miki did last year! She didn't win either portion of the competition but still took the title! Yay Mao! I'm glad Yu-Na made podium too! It kind of takes the sting out of what's happening over in ice dancing although I'm still holding out hope that Tanith and Ben will come back and make it to the podium.

I was hoping Yukari would stay in a podium spot but that's ok. At least she placed better than the last 2 times.

Poor Miki. This has just not been her year! I hope her shoulder surgery will help.

I glad that Mao win. I think it's a good sign for Dai-chan because Daisuke and Mao always take a same place

Salamandra wrote:

I glad that Mao win. I think it's a good sign for Dai-chan because Daisuke and Mao always take a same place

Hi Salamandra! That's a very interesting thought....and it's actually true too! Could be a sign!

swandie wrote:

Yes, Shatterpoint, the ladies free skate will be shown on Saturday. I was going to wait until then to find out the results but here I am. I will try to stay away for the men because I want that to be a surprise. According to Brian Joubert, he, Daisuke, and Stephane are the only contenders for gold.

These numbers confuse me! Kimmie placed 12th in the free and moved up??!?!?! Interesting! But yea, only 2 spots for LA. Three wasn't even enough with the amount of talented up and comers (Caroline Zhang, Mirai Nagasu, Rachel Flatt, etc) we have! How will we deal with 2?

Mao did what Miki did last year! She didn't win either portion of the competition but still took the title! Yay Mao! I'm glad Yu-Na made podium too! It kind of takes the sting out of what's happening over in ice dancing although I'm still holding out hope that Tanith and Ben will come back and make it to the podium.

I was hoping Yukari would stay in a podium spot but that's ok. At least she placed better than the last 2 times.

Poor Miki. This has just not been her year! I hope her shoulder surgery will help.

I'll also be avoiding any skating message boards or websites starting tomorrow... I wanna watch the men without knowing what happens first.

Hopefullly next year Yu-Na will be in good health, no injuries at all. I'd love to see her win Worlds.

An article on what happened with Miki.

http://web.icenetwork.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080320&content_id=46217&vkey=ice_news

Thanks for the article, Shatterpoint! Reading that was just heartbreaking! I hope she is ok. I would hate to see her quit but if she does, I hope she'll be happy in whatever she does.

http://www.trt.gov.tr/wwwtrt/TvAkis.aspx?gunler=2&kanal=3&akistur=8&tdgun=3

This link has been posted on several other skating forums... it's supposed to be a live feed for all the rest of Worlds I think, so I'm gonna get up in a few hours and see if I could catch the short program, just thought I'd share it with you guys in case it DOES actually work.

Hi everyone! There weren't any spacial news about Dai-chan today so far.
Maybe it's late to say but have a good flight Leode!!

Congratulations to all of the medalists of ladies. Mao could finally get a gold in major competition after GPF Tokyo! Great!!
Poor Miki.... I'm not happy with icenetwork's article. I don't think she will quit her amatueur career right now. Actually she refused to sign the withdrawal document when Nikolai prepared it. She really really wanted to compete....

See you later!!!

GO DAI-CHAN!!!

Hi everyone and thank you all for information!
I haven't already seen ladies competition. I'm happy for Carolina , but I can't say anything if I don't see the programs...
I'm so sad for Miki! I hope we can see her competing again...

...but now I'm so excited for Men Competition that I can't think to anything else...

GO DAISUKE!!!

Only few minutes...

Ack! Third place! It's tight at the top for the moment! Good luck for tomorrow Daisuke!!!!!

That's ok! Daisuke is third, after Weir and Buttle, less than 2 points from first place.
Usually Weir and Buttle are not so strong in FP... But also Verner isn't so distant...

Daisuke did a good job, only hands down on his 3A.

Here's result:
1 Jeffrey BUTTLE CAN 82.10 44.07 38.03 7.71 7.46 7.61 7.54 7.71 0.00 #41
2 Johnny WEIR USA 80.79 42.64 38.15 7.79 7.43 7.71 7.54 7.68 0.00 #40
3 Daisuke TAKAHASHI JPN 80.40 41.15 39.25 7.86 7.64 7.79 7.89 8.07 0.00 #42
4 Tomas VERNER CZE 79.87 41.44 38.43 7.82 7.43 7.71 7.68 7.79 0.00 #37
5 Stephane LAMBIEL SUI 79.12 40.57 38.55 7.82 7.54 7.61 7.79 7.79 0.00 #39
6 Brian JOUBERT FRA 77.75 41.14 38.61 7.86 7.43 7.82 7.68 7.82 2.00 #43

http://static.sportresult.com/sports/figureskating/live/results/wc2008/SEG001.HTM

Wow... I was so nervous today...

GO DAI-CHAN!
YOU CAN DO IT!

I can't understand
why Joubert had a second point of deduction (he had of course a beautiful 3A, quad-triple combination and nice steps)
why Daisuke is only 3rd behind Weir and Buttle he has largely beaten before??? even with his mistake, his program was so strong and the best of all

Hi!! Thank you for posting the result, glorydave!

Oooooooo. I'm exhausted. What a exciting cpmpetition!!!

glorydave wrote:

That's ok! Daisuke is third, after Weir and Buttle, less than 2 points from first place.

Yes! His performance was good enough to go to the top tomorrow and I think the 3rd place is good for him. He will be able to be aggressive to skate tomorrow.

Momoko wrote:

Good luck for tomorrow Daisuke!!!!!

Yes! Yes! Yes!!!!!


Here is FP starting order.
-Warm-Up Group 3-
13 Kristoffer BERNTSSON SWE 10 69.02
14 Sergei DAVYDOV BLR 12 68.19
15 Kevin VAN DER PERREN BEL 9 70.24
16 Patrick CHAN CAN 7 72.81
17 Takahiko KOZUKA JPN 8 70.91
18 Stephen CARRIERE USA 11 68.20
-Warm-Up Group 4-
19 Tomas VERNER CZE 4 79.87
20 Johnny WEIR USA 2 80.79
21 Daisuke TAKAHASHI JPN 3 80.40
22 Stephane LAMBIEL SUI 5 79.12
23 Brian JOUBERT FRA 6 77.75
24 Jeffrey BUTTLE CAN 1 82.10

Good?? Uhhhhh......

GO DAI-CHAN!!!

anne-marie wrote:

I can't understand
why Joubert had a second point of deduction (he had of course a beautiful 3A, quad-triple combination and nice steps)

Hi anne-marie!
I don't understand the second point of deduction for Brian, but italian commentators said it could be for a problem with music or time, but they didn't know exactly...

anne-marie wrote:

why Daisuke is only 3rd behind Weir and Buttle he has largely beaten before??? even with his mistake, his program was so strong and the best of all

I haven't seen pdf score, but maybe Daisuke had -2 for his 3A, while he usually has positive GOE... He lost 3 or 4 points for the hands down...

On K&C Daisuke didn't look worried, so I'm confident for tomorrow.

Thank you miyu for tomorrow starting order!

Here you can find some Dai's photo of SP:
http://www.daylife.com/search/photos/all/1?q=DAISUKE+TAKAHASHI

certainly judges have to explain the second point of deduction :
but I used a chronometer and the time from the first step to the end on the last note of the music was exactly 2'50! and lyrics (words) are not authorized but vocals without words????
a mystery!!!

Other photos:
http://web.icenetwork.com/gen/photogallery/year_2008/month_03/day_21/cf46257.html Look at Stephane picture!
http://it.eurosport.yahoo.com/21032008/1/immagine/japan-s-daisuke-takahashi-performs-his-short-program-on-the.html
http://it.eurosport.yahoo.com/080321/46/vagu.html
http://it.eurosport.yahoo.com/21032008/1/immagine/japan-s-daisuke-takahashi-reacts-after-his-short-program-on.html

Articles:
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/figureskating/news/story?id=3305431

Hi, thanks so much everyone for the results, starting order, news, etc. The pictures are quite nice too.

It seems that there were a lot of nice performances today from the guys.

Here is Daisuke's SP video! I haven't had time to find any other videos yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxD6WvCiyQI

It's funny that he stuck his tongue out at the end of the performance in displeasure. The crowd is quite loud, appreciative here too.

I am both nervous and hopeful for tomorrow.

I just heard that the French team is trying to appeal Brian's deduction for the music/vocal issue. I don't know if this will work though. It's really strange/interesting indeed.

it is refused! and it is unfair.
because there are no words but voice sounds.. and overall he skated this program at the Skate Canada, European championship and no judge complained about it. More, there is a judge before each competition who checks every program regarding the rules !!!

You're right, anne-marie. This is very unfair to Brian. I hope he skates his best tomorrow to make up for this!

ISU article about Day 4 with quote from Daisuke-
http://www.isuskating.sportcentric.com/vsite/vcontent/content/transnews/0,10869,4844-128590-19728-18885-283677-3787-4771-layout160-129898-news-item,00.html

Edit- Wow, there is another bigger shock. Stephane threatened to withdraw from the LP because he felt the judges marked his scores unfairly (downgraded the triple in his 4-3 to a double). This was according to his coach.

Some sad quotes from Stephane (thanks to Ximena on goldenskate.com)-

Quote :

"Until now, I have never complained about my marks, but here I have to question the objectivity of the judges"

Quote :

"I don't understand why the judges do not reward taking risks (talking about his in-between elements and that very few skaters do a quad). I have the impression that I always need to do more than the rest to get the same results, and that makes me feel bad!"

I hope that Stephane doesn't give up for tomorrow. I think the problems with objectvity and consistency in judging can apply to many different skaters- the judges are not just singling out or only targeting Stephane (I hope he knows this).

On another note, congrats to Delobel and Schoenfelder (of France) for finally winning a Worlds medal, a gold one at that! Congrats to Virtue & Moir and Khokhlova and Novitski as well! I do feel disappointed for Tanith and Ben though.

Yeah, I agree with you, anne-marie. It's very naughty. I hope Brian will be able to manage to fourcus on tonight's performance anyhow.... And Stephane too. I checked the video of his SP. It looks he fully rotated on 3T.

Last night I was soooo excited with every performance. All of the skaters did great jobs. At the end of SP I totally burned myself out. What a wonderful competition!!!

Yes, Dai-chan made a mistake but except that he was wonderful. Especially his Cist and Slst were excellnt!!! He perfectly captured the hot music and looked to enjoy during the steps. And I was happy to see him smiling at K&C. I hope he enjoy his skating tonight too!!
Besides Dai-chan, I was moved by Jeffrey's performance most. Very elegant and refreshing.



There weren't much news about today either.
http://www.asahi.com/sports/spo/TKY200803220111.html
Dai-chan has changed his skating shoes which he used at 4CC just before Worlds because the shoes became not fitting well. He said "I might have become defensive. I want to do my best as Asada has done."

http://www.sanspo.com/sokuho/080321/sokuho093.html
"I regret the failure of 3A. But the judges gave me a good score. Perhaps they gave me a hope toward FP."

http://sports.yahoo.co.jp/news/20080322-00000035-spn-spo.html
"I jumped too high to land where I expected. The score was such high even though I failed. Tomorrow will be a chance."


My heart might stop when Dai-chan starts to skate tonight.......
Dai-chan, you are super!!!! Believe yourself and enjoy your own performance!!!

GO DAI-CHAN!!!

Do you all think, that Daisuke has still a chance of the Gold?
I mean, the other favorites are so near, just 2 points

As Daisuke did the 3 Axel, i was like My heart stopped for a moment.
He has to skate before Lambiel and Joubert today...

Do you all agree with me, if i say, the judges are very strange this year?