Thursday, March 26, 1998

Todd is not expected to reach Minneapolis until tomorrow, but your reporter on the scene has arrived, scoped out the area and is ready to bring you accounts of the men's competition at the 1998 World Championships as it unfolds.

Practice sessions began today, but on the whole everything was fairly quiet, with few of the competitors (and none of the really major ones) in evidence. There are 42 men entered in the competition, currently divided into 6 practice groups with 7 men in each group. After the qualifying rounds on Sunday, the field will be cut down to 30. Draws for the qualifying rounds will take place on Saturday at 7 pm.

Todd is in Practice Group 6, along with fellow American Michael Weiss, Swiss skater Patrick Meier (!), David Liu from Chinese Taipei, Evgeny Pliuta and Viacheslav Zagorodniuk of the Ukraine, and Roman Skornyakov of Uzbekistan. For the two practice sessions held today, the only skaters from Group 6 present were Pliuta (both sessions, working like mad on his quad lutz) and Skornyakov (first session only).

Although Todd is not expected in town until tomorrow, there is a strong possibility that he will arrive in time to attend one if not both of tomorrow's sessions. Group 6 is scheduled to take the ice for a free skate session in the Parade South rink at 2:10 pm. A short program session is scheduled for the Target Center at 6:30 pm.

Friday, March 27, 1998

First, the Todd news. Todd arrived in Minneapolis at approximately 8 pm this evening, looking fit and ready to go. As has been widely reported in the media, he has indeed gone back to First Knight for his long program. He will, however, have a new costume for it. I have no idea as yet exactly what the new costume looks like, but I'm told it's color is navy blue. He is sticking with Les Miz as his short program. He was of course too late for either of his scheduled practice sessions today, but does plan to attend the ones scheduled for tomorrow. The first will be a free skate session at 1:15 in the Target Center; the second will be a short program session at 4:25 at the Parade North rink. Draws for the skate order for the qualifying rounds will take place tomorrow evening at 7 p.m.

Todd's Competitors: The men's freeskate practices at the Parade South rink today began with Group No. 2, fully attended and featuring the Canadians (Jeff Langdon and Emanuel Sandhu), as well as Laurent Tobel (France), Michael Tyllesen (Denmark), Margus Hernits (Estonia), Markus Leminen (Finland, but coached by Canada's Doug Leigh), and Vakhtang Murvanidze of Georgia. Jeff (a confessed huge favorite of this reporter) had an encouragingly strong run-through - not flawless, but boding well for his chances at this competition. This was my first view of the much heralded Sandhu and I admit I was rather impressed. His spins and spirals are to die for and his triple axel impressive, but he could definitely use both greater speed and a lot more polish and he seems to have definite problems with his non-axel edge jumps (loops and sals). A real diamond in the rough with a ton-load of promise. Tyllesen was a joy to watch as always, even when having jump problems, as was the case today. Murvanidze I found to be as interesting as ever, but seems to have made little progress in the jump consistency department over the last year. As for Tobel, Hernits and Leminen - well, I found them to be about as interesting as usual - which is to say, not very much. Same old same old for all three.

Group 3 followed and I must confess my report here is second hand, since a practice session for Abitbol/Bernadis (my favorite pair team) caused your erstwhile faithful reporter to flee the men's practice for the rink next door. Group 3 consisted of the Germans (Sven Meyer and Andrejs Vlascenko - aka "Valshrinko" as the name was butchered by the announcer), as well as Steven Cousins (Great Britain), Szabolcs Vidrai (Hungary), Panagiotis Markouizos (Greece! a real first here!) and Derek Hay Wai Leung from Hong Kong. Michael Shmerkin (Israel) was scheduled for this group, but was not in attendance at this session. Items of note: Cousins came out on to the ice, spent about 10 minutes talking to his coach, then abruptly left, having done very little in the way of skating, and looking very unhappy. No idea what the story is here. Vlascenko had a fairly strong partial run-through, hitting both triple axels (although the second featured a slight step out). Meyer had a more or less up and down session.

Group 4 consisted of the Japanese (Takeshi Honda and Yamato Tamura), Gilberto Viadana (Italy), Patrick Schmit (Luxembourg), Ricardo Olavarrieta (Mexico), and Sergueis Telenkov (Latvia). Yuri Litvinov (Kazakstan), also scheduled for this group, was not in attendance. Not surprisingly, the Japanese were the high points of this group. Honda evidenced a few jump problems (of the doubling variety), but on the whole looked fairly strong during his typical-Galina type run-through, landing an absolutely gorgeous triple axel in the process. Equally impressive was his team-mate Tamura - a wonderful skater, so light on his feet, with wonderful presentation skills and a triple flip/triple toe combo that never ceases to amaze me (in that the second jump always seems to gain in momentum rather than the reverse). In other words, the guy has everything except a triple axel (and I suspect that will come). Meanwhile, Viadana looks better than I've ever seen him, having some really interesting choreography and a musicality I've not seen from him before (or at least had never before noticed). The guy bears watching. Telenkov is completely new to me, but has some nice qualities about him. And once again, Olavarrieta, who has been around for a long time and without whom it wouldn't seem like a Worlds, continues to improve each year although I suspect he's still fated not to make it out of qualifying. Meanwhile, Patrick Schmit is *still* the ugliest jumper on the planet.

Group 5 featured Aleksei Yagudin, as well as Robert Grzegorczyk (Poland), Daniel Peinado (Spain), Juraj Sviatko (Slovak Republic), Kyu-Hyun Lee (Republic of Korea) and a new Romanian (named Gheorghe Chiper) who suddenly popped up without advanced notice and in place of Cornel Gheorghe who was in the practice sessions yesterday. I have no idea what is going on here, whether Cornel withdrew of his own accord or was pulled by his Federation. The Federation apparently wanted to send Chiper in the first place (because of Cornel's poor performance at the Olympics) but was overruled by the Romanian Government after Cornel wrote them a letter of complaint. So what happened in the interim? Ah, well. The new Romanian is, in the opinion of this reporter, absolutely no adequate substitute for Cornel. Ilia Kulik is also scheduled for this group, but was not in attendance at this session. Yagudin was, not surprisingly, the major focus of interest and he did not disappoint. He is looking simply fabulous and may prove to be Todd's strongest competition.

Group 6, Todd's group, consisted at this session exclusively of Patrick Meier and no one but Patrick. Your reporter was not exactly crushed by this development and the chance to concentrate on Patrick without distractions. The big news is that he apparently has developed what is a new combination for him - a triple lutz/double loop, as he landed a nice example of this during this session. It was actually a good lutz day for Patrick, but not a very good triple axel one, although he did manage to land a beauty before the session concluded.

Group 1 consists of the Azerbaijanis (Igor Pashkevitch and Sergei Rylov), as well as Edgar Grigoryan (Armenia), Anthony Liu (Australia), Ivan Dinev (Bulgaria) Zhengzin Guo (China) and Radek Horak (Czech Republic). Your reporter was forced to miss this session in order to get to the Target Center in time for the start of Group 2's short program practice.

Over at the Target Center, Jeff Langdon had a flawless run-through of his short program (albeit with triple axel/double toe), but he looked simply fabulous. Sandhu started his run-through with a strong triple axel/triple toe, but then doubled his lutz and it was kind of downhill from there. But his spins are in a class with Neil Wilson's (albeit without Neil's speed!). Tyllesen continued having jump problems.

Shmerkin was once again a no-show for Group 3. Steven Cousins also failed to appear, really making one wonder what is going on with him. Vlascenko didn't look as strong as he had in the earlier session.

Your reporter mostly missed Group 4, as did everyone else, since the whole building was cleared for half an hour (the bulk of the session) for reasons having to do with the poor organization so far evidenced at this event and too tiresome to go into in detail here. From the little she was able to see, the Japanese both looked very good.

Yagudin was again the main point of interest in Group 5 (having another very strong session) and Kulik was again a no-show. Rumors were flying that Kulik was in fact going to withdraw from the competition so as to turn pro. Adding the proverbial fuel to the rumor fire, Plushenko was present today to watch all the men's practices and is thus definitely standing by. I have since learned that Kulik has indeed withdrawn, after having supposedly reinjured his back yesterday in practice (presumably in Marlboro, 'cause it sure wasn't here). I find this most peculiar, as the rumors around the rink mentioned absolutely nothing about an injury. Very odd, if you ask me.

Patrick had a bit of company from his fellow Group 6ers this time, being joined at this second session by Pliuta, Skornyakov, and David Liu (making his first appearance in at this competition). Patrick continued to have axel problems before landing a nice one of the triple variety; Pliuta (who skates with astonishing speed) continued working without success on that quad lutz, but was also having as many problems as Patrick with that pesky triple axel. Liu was as interesting as usual and was greeted with a strong response from the audience.

Saturday, March 28, 1998

Todd had two practice sessions today, the first a free skate practice in the Target Center at 1:15 pm and the other a short program practice at 4:25 pm in the Parade North rink. In the first session, Todd's music was played second, so he didn't have much time to warm up, but during that warm-up he landed a gorgeous triple axel within the first five minutes after taking the ice. He fell on another attempt shortly thereafter, but recovered to land a triple axel/triple toe prior to starting his run-through. The run-through afforded us the first opportunity to see the new First Knight program. It does indeed open with a quad toe (which was tripled in the run-through), followed almost immediately by a triple axel/triple toe. The latter turned into a triple axel solo jump when he was forced to put a hand down on the landing, but after that he went on to land all the rest of his triple jumps (including the triple flip/triple toe combo and the second triple axel - a beauty) to finish strongly and to thunderous applause from spectators. At this first viewing, I didn't see a whole lot of new choreography (other than the quad toe opening), but did note the addition of two Russian split jumps toward the very end of the program (a really effective addition!). After the run-through, he landed a triple axel/triple toe (to make up for the one he'd missed) and shortly thereafter, after a few misfires, landed a gorgeous quad toe. During the course of this session, he also landed a really nice triple lutz/triple toe. On the whole, this was one of the best practice sessions I've seen him have in a very long time.

The short program session turned out to be an all Todd and Patrick session, in that Todd and Patrick were the only Group 6ers to show up (needless to say, a totally hilarious situation for your reporter to find herself in). After landing two really nice triple axels within 10 minutes of taking the ice, followed by a lovely triple axel/triple toe, Todd went on to have a rather uneven run-through in that the triple axel/triple toe combo turned into a badly two-footed solo triple axel; but the rest of the program came off without incident. The more I see this new Les Miz program, the more I really like it. On the whole, I'd have to say this was also a rather good session for Todd.

Todd's Competitors: Steven Cousins was back for the free skate session and after struggling with everything he tried after taking the ice, he went on to have a near flawless run-though, hitting everything but the 2nd triple axel. Andrej Vlascenko had the reverse experience in this session, hitting everything he tried up until the run-through, then missing everything during the run-through. Both Vlascenko and his teammate, Sven Meyer, seem to be working on quad salchows.

Michael Weiss made his first appearance today at the first session. He had an uneven partial run-through in which he tripled his quad lutz, avoided doing both of the triple axels and tripped and fell flat on his face while doing some footwork, but in which he also executed the triple flip/triple toe combination and landed a gorgeous triple lutz.

Patrick Meier had two fairly good practice sessions today, landing at least one triple axel/double toe combo in each and demonstrating what was for him yet another new jump combination - a double toe/triple toe.

Aleksei Yagudin and Evgeni Pluschenko are both looking good, as is Takeshi Honda.

The Qualifying Draw was held this evening at 7 pm. Todd is in Group A, skating next to last - that is, 18th in a field consisting of 19 skaters. Also in this group are Viacheslav Zagorodniuk (3rd), Michael Weiss (5th), Steven Cousins (9th), Emanuel Sandhu (12th), Yamato Tamura (14th) and Jeff Langdon (15th). Group B consists of 20 skaters and includes Takeshi Honda (3rd), Evgeni Plushenko (7th), Patrick Meier (12th), Aleksei Yagudin (13th) and Andrejs Vlascenko (18th). There are now 39 men competing for the 30 spots available in the competition. Todd has a qualifying round practice session tomorrow at 8:30 am in the Parade North rink. Group A's qualifying round begins at 12 noon, with Todd scheduled to take the ice at 2:45 p.m.

Sunday, March 29, 1998

Todd had a qualifying round practice this morning at 8:30 am at the Parade North Rink. It was a fairly good session for him, even though he did seem to be experiencing some minor triple axel problems for a bit. None of these problems were evident, however, when he finally took the ice for his qualifying round performance this afternoon. Prior to the performance, there was a bit of confusion when Armen Asoyan, the skater from Armenia scheduled to skate before Todd, failed to take his place on deck and Todd was led to believe he was to skate in that skater's slot. So Todd took the ice, performed a warm-up double axel jump, then was recalled when the Armenian suddenly appeared as if ready to skate. There was some laughter as Todd was made to appear more than eager to go on. Then the Armenian disappeared again, an announcement was made that he had withdrawn due to injury, and Todd took the ice once again to take his place. As he assumed the opening pose prior to the start of his music, he was greeted by a massive roar of appreciation from a very supportive audience.

None of the initial confusion attending exactly when he would skate interfered with Todd's focus, as the performance that followed proved to be the best free skate he's had all season. Wearing what may have been a temporary costume for the new First Knight program (it looked like the white Close Every Door costume had been dyed dark blue), he opened the program with a tripled Quad, but went on from there to skate a flawless performance, slightly rechoreographed jump-wise to provide maximum additional technical difficulty to compensate for the missed quad. First came a triple axel/triple toe. Since he had now used up all the available triple toes, he proceeded to turn what was supposed to be a solo triple lutz into a triple lutz/double toe and followed with a single triple flip (thus giving himself more technical difficulty than a solo triple lutz and a triple flip/double toe combo would have). A perfect triple loop was followed shortly thereafter by a gorgeous second triple axel, followed in turn by the best triple salchow he's landed all season. Following the two Russian splits, he concluded the program with a double axel followed by his trademark combination spin. By that time the whole arena was on its feet, going nuts. Todd Eldredge was back and back with a vengeance!

The scores and ordinals were as follows:
Technical Merit: 5.8, 5.8, 5.9, 5.8, 5.7, 5.8, 5.8, 5.9, 5.9
Presentation: 5.9, 5.7, 5.9, 5.9, 5.7, 5.9, 5.9, 5.9, 5.5
Ordinals 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

How Todd's Competitors Fared in the Qualifying Rounds: In Group A: Viacheslav Zagorodniuk (making his first appearance at this competition) had one of the best free skates he's had all season, but it was still far from perfect. He opened with a nice triple axel/double toe and followed with a well executed 'tano triple lutz. But then he also fell out of his second triple axel and popped what was no doubt meant to be a triple lutz combination of some sort. With scores ranging from 5.2 to 5.6 for technical merit and from 5.2 to 5.8 for presentation, Zago finished third in the group. Ivan Dinev of Bulgaria followed Zago with a performance that featured two triple axels as well as five other triples, showing a marked improvement over previous years' efforts. With scores ranging from 5.3 to 5.6 for technical merit and from 5.1 to 5.4 for presentation, Dinev finished fourth in the group.

Michael Weiss, skating after Dinev, opened his performance with a badly two footed quad lutz, followed by a triple axel/double toe. He also executed a triple flip/triple toe, a really nice second triple axel, a two-footed triple loop, a triple sal and a closing triple lutz. On the whole, a very nice effort from Mike, although he did seem to run out of steam a bit towards the end of his program. With scores ranging from 5.4 to 5.8 for technical merit and from 5.4 to 5.8 for presentation, Mike finished 2nd in the group.

For a guy skating with a couple of injured ankles, Jeff Langdon turned in a very creditable performance opening with a triple axel/double toe, followed by a triple flip/triple toe. Although his second triple axel was popped and his triple sal/triple loop combo turned into a triple sal/double loop, he also landed a nice triple lutz as well as nice solo triple flip. With scores ranging from 5.2 to 5.7 for technical merit and from 5.0 to 5.7 for presentation, Jeff finished 5th in the group.

In Group B: After opening with a two footed triple axel, Takeshi Honda executed a perfect quad toe (the first of the night). Unfortunately, this was followed by a fall out on a triple lutz attempt, as well as a fall-out on a second triple axel attempt. He did manage about 4 other triples, but it was definitely not one of his better efforts. With technical merit scores ranging from 4.8 to 5.2 and presentation from 4.9 to 5.4, he still managed to finish the round in third place.

Evgeni Pluschenko opened his program with a beautiful quad toe, then went on from there to give a near flawless performance featuring a triple axel/triple toe, a triple flip, a second triple axel, a triple lutz/triple toe, a triple sal and a triple flip. His first reward was a partial standing ovation and the second largest reception of the night from the crowd (Todd having received the largest). His second reward was technical merit scores ranging from 5.7 to 5.9 and presentation scores from 5.5 to 5.9 - which scores ultimately gave him a first place group finish.

Patrick Meier gave a performance this evening that astonished and delighted his enthusiastic, resident fan club. We were hoping that Patrick would qualify and were hoping to see him qualify handily. What we were not expecting was for him to finish as high as 6th in his group, but that is exactly what he did, largely by virtue of landing both a very nice triple axel as well as an equally gorgeous triple lutz. Along the way, he also managed to land a triple loop and a triple flip, although he did double his salchow and his planned double toe/triple toe combination turned into a double toe/double toe. His technical merit scores ranged from 4.7 to 5.3 and his presentation scores from 4.7 to 5.4.

Aleksei Yagudin gave a creditable if not brilliant performance. After starting off with a promising triple axel/triple toe combo, his planned quad/triple toe turned into a triple toe/triple toe, which of course gave him one triple toe too many and the corresponding deduction that that entailed. He also landed a nice second triple axel, as well as a triple lutz, triple salchow, triple loop and triple flip. The applause at the conclusion of his performance was polite, but not terribly enthusiastic. With scores for technical merit ranging from 5.7 to 5.8 (but mostly 5.7's)and for presentation from 5.7 to 5.9, Yagudin finished second in the group.

Monday, March 30, 1998

Following the qualifying rounds yesterday, the men were regrouped, once again by country, into 5 groups of 6 skaters per group, a regrouping that will last until the draw after the short programs. This means that Todd is now in Group 5; however, interestingly enough, his fellow group members have remained the same, namely Michael Weiss, the Ukrainians (Pliuta and Zagorodniuk), Patrick Meier (Switzerland) and Roman Skornyakov from Uzbekistan. Group 5 had one practice session today, a short program session at 12:20 p.m. in the Parade South Rink. Todd and Michael Weiss were the only Group 6ers to attend.

Today Todd seemed to be experiencing a few minor lutz problems. He doubled the lutz during his run through (but did land a gorgeous triple axel/triple toe at the beginning), but then executed a couple of nice ones during the period that followed, eventually working his way up to doing a triple lutz/triple toe. He also did a nice triple flip/triple toe and a triple loop and then spent the rest of the session working on his quad toe (but without success). On the whole, it seemed to be a fairly good practice session for him.

Todd's Competitors: The only major competitor to appear for practice today was Michael Weiss. For his run-through, Michael concentrated strictly on the choreography, choosing to execute none of his jumps. However, he landed some really nice triple axel/triple toe jumps before and after the run-through, and then spent the rest of the session working on *his* quad (he and Todd were in fact doing their quad work at the same time). After several misfires, Michael succeeded in landing his quad lutz, but it was once again with a slight two foot.

Draws for the short program were held this evening and resulted in a very good draw for Todd. Among the 30 competitors, he will be the 24th to skate. Draw order for the main competitors is as follows:

1. Steven Cousins
2. Andrejs Vlascenko
6. Ivan Dinev
9. Viacheslav Zagorodniuk
14. Evgeni Plushenko
16. Aleksei Yagudin
17. Patrick Meier
21. Takeshi Honda
24. Todd Eldredge
27. Michael Weiss
30. Jeff Langdon

Tuesday, March 31, 1998

Todd had two practice sessions today. The first was a short program session at 10:50 am in the Parade South Rink. He did a semi-complete run-though, landing first the triple axel/triple toe, followed by the triple lutz. Then he broke for a few minutes to talk to Richard Callaghan (his coach), before resuming the run-through and taking it to a flawless finish. After spending some time on various triple jumps and triple jump combinations, he resumed quad work and just as the session ended, landed an absolutely gorgeous quad toe loop to thunderous applause from spectators.

This was an excellent practice session for Todd, but the afternoon session was even better. This one was a free skate practice at 2:40 in the Parade North Rink. Todd was a bit late in taking the ice because his music would be the last to play and he didn't want to warm-up for his run-through too soon. After finally taking the ice and while waiting for his music, he worked on various triple jumps and triple jump combos, then did some quad work, giving it several tries before landing one that was clean, but with a very hairy landing. Then, when it finally came time for his run-through, what followed was the best program run-through Todd has had during a competition practice session all season. He opened his program with a very nice quad, followed by a triple axel/double toe, followed shortly thereafter by a triple lutz/triple toe (hairy landing on the second jump, but clean). He had to abort a bit of choreography mid program because Evgeni Pliuta got in his way, but it was not a serious disruption nor did it interfere with spectator enjoyment of a performance that also included a solo triple flip, a really nice triple loop and a gorgeous second triple axel. The only flaw was a doubled salchow, but that was not enough to keep spectators from going nuts at the performance's conclusion.

A few notes on Todd's Competitors: Jeff Langdon had a fairly strong short program run-through this morning in spite of a fall on the triple toe part of his triple axel/triple toe combination. He continues to look very good on the whole. By contrast, his teammate, Emanuel Sandhu, appears to really be struggling. Steven Cousins had a fantastic free skate run-through this afternoon, a performance that featured the execution of both triple axels and which was greeted by a thunderous ovation from spectators - a much better effort than his qualifying performance.

Takeshi Honda landed several nice quads during his afternoon practice (including a quad/double toe), but appears to be struggling with other jumps, particularly the triple axel.M/p>

Michael Weiss continues to look good, while Aleksei Yagudin appeared to be really struggling today. The latter did not appear at the morning session and did not have a particularly good afternoon one - he spent some time working on his quad, but without visible sign of success (but did quite a few nice triple toes!).

Evgeni Plushenko didn't appear at the morning session but had a really good practice in the afternoon. He appears to be having the time of his life at this his first Worlds and his skating is showing that. Quads, triples, no problem.

Wednesday, April 1, 1998

The men's short program competition was held today and it did not go for Todd as we had all hoped that it might. The problem came at once, with his planned triple axel/triple toe combination - he overrotated the axel, falling out of it, and then was only able to tack a double toe onto the end. Although the rest of the program came off flawlessly with one of his better triple lutzes and a nice double axel, the maximum manditory deduction the botched combo earned at the start of his program ultimately left him in fourth place.

Scores and Ordinals were as follows (ordinals tentative pending confirmation):
Technical Merit:5.2, 5.4, 5.4, 5.6, 5.2, 5.5, 5.3, 5.0, 5.3
Presentation: 5.8, 5.9, 5.9, 5.9, 5.6, 5.8, 5.7, 5.5, 5.8
Ordinals 4 4 3 2 5 4 4 6 4

This morning, prior to the competition, Todd had a practice session at the Target Center that ended with the landing of yet another perfect quadruple toe loop.

Todd's Main Competitors: Andrejs Vlascenko somehow managed to overcome the difficulties he's been experiencing in practice to skate a near flawless short program featuring a triple axel/triple toe and a triple lutz, but I think he suffered ultimate placement-wise by skating so early in the competition. He finished in 6th place.

Viacheslav Zagorodniuk had probably the best short program performance he's had all season, landing a triple axel/double toe and triple lutz to finish in 5th place.

Evgeni Plushenko, still enjoying himself and without a care in the world, skated a nearly flawless program with a triple axel (slight 2 foot)/triple toe and a triple lutz. He finished the afternoon in 2nd place.

Aleksei Yagudin also overcame the difficulties he's been experiencing all week, landing a triple axel/triple toe and a triple lutz. Unlike the performance of his Russian teammate, Yagudin's effort seemed labored, but it was good enough to put him in first place at the end of the evening.

Patrick Meier achieved a personal Worlds best by finishing the afternoon in 23rd place, in spite of a fall while attempting his triple axel/double toe combination. His triple lutz, however, was a beauty. This is Patrick's fifth trip to the World Championships and the first time he has made it as far as the free skate portion of the competition without the benefit of the Championships being in his home country (as was the case last year).

Michael Weiss skated a rather conservative performance that featured a triple axel/double toe and a triple lutz, but was good enough for him to finish the afternoon in 3rd place.

Finally, and the highlight of the afternoon for this reporter, Jeff Langdon overcame the handicap of his ankle injuries to skate a flawless short program that featured a triple axel/double toe and a triple flip. And which ended the competition by bringing the proverbial house down. He was severely undermarked (as usual) and finished the afternoon in 8th place.

Skating Order for the Free Skate for Todd and his Main Competitors is as follows: 4. Patrick Meier 17. Jeff Langdon 19. Michael Weiss 20. Viacheslav Zagorodniuk 21. Aleksei Yagudin 22. Andrejs Vlascenko 23. Todd Eldredge 24. Evgeni Pluschenko

Thursday, April 2, 1998

The big news, of course, is that tonight Todd had the free skate performance we've been waiting for all year. During the warm-up he seemed quite focussed and businesslike, and I had reason to hope that a good performance might just happen. But I have to admit that I was unprepared for the rollar coaster ride that was to ensue. For the benefit of the few of you out there who might have missed or have not yet seen this performance, it opened with a quad attempt. Once again so close, but not successfully landed. A triple axel/double toe followed, but this time for some reason I was not terribly worried (unlike at Nationals and in Nagano) when the second jump of this combination turned into a double rather a triple. What I was unprepared for, was the triple lutz/triple toe that followed. This is only the second time Todd has ever landed this combination in Olympic eligible competition (the first occasion having been at Trophee Lalique earlier this season) and it was executed this evening literally right in front of me - one the finest examples of that combination that I have ever seen him do - in other words, just perfect. Then came a really nice triple flip, followed shortly thereafter by an equally nice triple loop. When the moment came for the second triple axel somehow I just knew that this year he was going to do it - and when he did, it was a beauty. When it came time for the final triple - the dreaded and not much practiced salchow - and it turned into a double, I also just knew he'd try it again - and he did, perfectly done, in place of the double axel with which he usually ends the program. The audience pretty much started going nuts with the triple lutz combination and the commotion built from there right through the final moves of the program, with everyone on their feet and yelling like mad before the conclusion of the final scratch spin (a friend of mine was watching the performance alongside Aleksei Yagudin and reported that Yags was cheering Todd on along with everyone else!)

The pro-Todd euphoria continued throughout the medal ceremony and the laps around the rink taken by the medal winners that followed. He was without doubt the star of the night. Because of the fact that he had finished fourth in the short program, he was not in control of his own destiny and, although he did win the free skate portion of the competition, he was not able to win the gold medal (the same situation that Michelle Kwan found herself in at last year's Worlds). However, win or lose this was exactly the performance Todd needed to turn everything around. Needless to say, afterward he was very, very happy. Todd's Scores and Ordinals for the Free Skate:
Technical Merit: 5.8, 5.4, 5.6, 5.8, 5.8, 5.7, 5.8, 5.8, 5.8
Presentation: 5.8, 5.8, 5.8, 5.9, 5.7, 5.8, 5.8, 5.9, 5.9
Ordinals 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Although he may not have been able to land the quad in this competition, he did land three of them this morning in practice, one of which was in combination with a double toe.

Todd's Competitors: Patrick Meier definitely had what was the skate of his life - thus far. Nailing the opening triple axel, followed almost immediately by a triple lutz, gave him the confidence he needed to go on to land a triple lutz/double toe combination, a double toe/triple toe combination, a triple sal and a triple loop. He finished his program to a great reception by the audience and finished the free skate in 17th place.

Jeff Langdon began strongly with a triple axel/double toe combination and then landed a triple flip/triple toe combination that managed to deprive your reporter of at least three of her vocal chords. Unfortunately he suffered a fall on the triple sal/triple loop combo that was to follow and also suffered problems with the second triple axel. However, he fought through to the very end, not giving an inch, and finished his program strongly and to a huge reception from a very appreciative audience. The effort was good enough to allow him to retain his 8th place position.

Michael Weiss had a very disappointing performance. After landing on his knee in a quad lutz attempt, he put a hand down on his triple axel, suffered a slight fall out on his second triple axel (neither ta was thus in combination) and doubled both his second lutz and an intended triple toe. He ended his performance having only landed four clean triples (a triple flip/triple toe, a triple loop and a walley/walley into triple salchow) and dropped from 3rd to finish the competition in 7th place.

Viacheslav Zagorodniuk followed with the skate of his life (and his best performance of the season) and a personal best that was not rewarded by the judges. Although the audience went nuts at the conclusion of his 7 clean triples performance, he received scores that ultimately left him in 4th place (your reporter thought he should have been 2nd in the free skate, a placement that would have earned him a bronze medal.)

Aleksei Yagudin was next with a very disappointing performance that featured a wobbly landed triple axel/triple toe, a popped quad, and a triple flip/popped toe combination. He did land 7 triples, but with a performance that was decidedly lacklustre. It was certainly *not* a performance that should have beaten Zagorodniuk's (and had it *not* beaten Zagorodniuk's, Todd would have won the gold medal). Nor was it really what you would expect of a gold-medal winning performance.

Andrejs Vlascenko also skated a personal best performance, landing six clean triples. He ultimately finished the competition in fifth place.

Skating after Todd, Evgeny Plushenko began his performance basically by falling apart, but recovered enough to earn 4th place marks from the judges and ultimately a third place finish and the bronze medal.