by Fran Buhman
Friday, February 28, 1997
Practice Session Notes
There were two practice sessions held today for the men. The first practice session was at 11:30 a.m., including everyone but Elvis Stojko. Todd's long program music was played ("Independence Day"). Since it was "competition day," Todd didn't do a complete runthrough, but portions of the free skate. Based on the practice, it looks like he's put back the Triple Flip/ Triple Toe in place of the Triple Lutz/Triple Toe. He did a couple Triple Flip/Triple Toes and Triple Axel/Triple Toes. After that, he worked a bit on the short program choreography, concentrating on doing lutzes. During the remainder of the session, he worked on the quad. He did several Triple Toes working up to the quad, then landed the quad, although his free leg was very low to the ice (not two-footed, but low). (Such a jump would count in competition.)
The afternoon session consisted only of Todd and Elvis. The session started at 4:00 p.m. Todd did a choreographic runthrough of the short program, concentrating more on footwork than jumps. This close to the competition, it's wiser to do conservative runthroughs to conserve energy rather than expend too much energy doing complete runthroughs. Both he and Elvis left the practice session early.
After the short program, Todd is now in third place. His performance, which was almost perfect, was marred by a fall on the Triple Lutz, from which he recovered quickly and finished the program. Todd was the only man in the competition to land the Triple Axel/Triple Toe, which contributed to his third place position. Todd still has a chance to win the competition if he wins the free skate.
Standings after the Short Program: 1st - Elvis Stojko; 2nd - Alexei Urmanov (clean skate, a little tentative coming out of his jumps); 3rd - Todd; 4th Ilia Kulik (landed a Triple Axel/Double Toe, his spins traveled); 5th - Dmitri Dmitrenko; 6th - Alexei Yagudin.
Todd's Short Program Scores (3rd Place)
Tech: 5.3, 5.3, 5.4, 5.4, 5.4, 5.4, 5.4
Pres: 5.8, 5.8, 5.8, 5.8, 5.7, 5.8, 5.8
Todd's presentation scores were ahead of Elvis's, except for one judge; the French judge scored him ahead of both Elvis and Alexei Urmanov.
The partial draw order for the free skate - Todd is skating fifth, after Elvis.
