Please don't use the pictures without my written permission.
Okay, now that I am back I will try to remember as much as possible
what I have experienced in Metz, France. First of all, Metz is a beautiful
city, also called "the city of gardens". The most impressive monument there
is definitely the cathedral which was build in the 13th century. The other
girls who were there in Metz with me will agree with me here. The nave
is one of the highest naves in the world (42 metres high). It's so high
that, with the incoming light through the windows up there, it looks unrealistic,
so far away. It's such an impressive cathedral, almost like you get to
see them in the modern impressive-made historic movies. I got goosebumps
standing in there.
But now I'll start with what you are waiting for: The review of the
competition.
I didn't take many notes because I realized that it was almost impossible
to take notes on what the skaters did AND to take pictures. So I decided
to rather take pictures than notes. ;)
Friday, 11th of October 2002
Because my father picked us (me, Kathrin and Kathrin) up one hour later
than expected we arrived in Metz about 30 minutes before the men practice
was about to start. When we entered our hotel (the Novotel) of which we
were hoping that it would be the skaters hotel (I knew the french federation
had made reservations there but we were still a bit uncertain) we read
the name "Miss Berezhnaya" on the message board. At Novotels you can always
leave messages for someone and they will list the name on a board at the
reception desk so that the person knows there's a message left for her/him.
So I knew I had really found the right hotel and I could be sure that my
favorites Elena Berezhnaya & Anton Sikharulidze were really there.
We checked in and immediately went to the arena after that. We arrived
right when the men's practice was about to start. There we met some other
girls whom the one Kathrin had already at some World Stars On Ice shows.
There I also met Els, Tessa and Corine as well as Alessia later on. I am
really sorry that I don't remember much of the practice. It's a bit difficult
to take pictures and realize what six or seven men are doing on the ice
at the same time.
Emanuel Sandhu had problems. Very few of his jumps succeded. Sometimes
he popped a jump and sometimes I had the impression that he simply gave
up shortly before the landing because he didn't really land a jump, rather
plopped down which was very sad to watch. Fréderic Dambier desperately
tried to land a good triple-triple combination. That guy (for me) looks
strange in the air while rotating. Brian Joubert, whom I call the french
Alexei Yagudin, got loud cheers from the audience every time he landed
a jump. I was impressed by Stanick Jeannette. Seems like the change of
coaches has helped him a lot because he had very good jumps. His triple
axel is unbelievably high. The audience roared when he nailed that jump.
My friends and I looked at each other like: What the hell was that?? lol
Ilia Klimkin had, if I recall it correctly, some problems with his flip.
Well, and Alexei Yagudin,...what shall I say? lol For those who want to
know: He had many highlights. His hair was almost blonde. ;) I think he
once had problems with his quad toe-triple toe combination. He put the
hand down. But other than that he nailed his jumps as if it was the easiest
thing to do. He seemed very cool and relaxed. Of course he got, apart from
the french, loud cheers when he was introduced.
After that, the pairs practice started. That was my time but Elena
& Anton did not practise. *sniff* Though I saw Elena standing in the
entrance to the ice talking to Alexei and Tatiana Totmianina. There were
just Totmianina & Marinin and Abitbol & Bernadis in the first group.
Sara once fell while doing backwards crossovers but other than that they
were pretty consistent when they did their side-by-side double axels. Also
their throws were very good. They just don't have the length of Elena &
Anton's and especially the Chinese's throws. It was the same thing with
Totmianina & Marinin's throws. They were all very consistent though.
I know for sure that Tatiana landed all the jumps and throws, I am not
sure about Sara though. I think once she even put the hand down when she
did a single throw axel.
Then the second group took the ice (the chinese couples and an, to
me, unknown french couple). The throws of Pang & Tong and Shen &
Zhao were very well and consistent but I got the impression that the guys
didn't throw their partners with full power. That should be different in
the competition. *yikes*
After the pairs practice me and some friends (Katja, Susanne and Petra) went to the hotel in order to have a short break. I sat down in the lobby to relax a bit when Elena came out of the elevator and she was a bit surprised when I suddenly stood infront of her, congratulating her on her birthday. I got a very quite "Thanks" from her and asked her if she had a minute because I had presents for her up in my room. Then she looked at the bar where someone came out of and I realized that she had a meeting. So, I said:"Well, maybe later." and she left. To me she seemed a little bit "divalike" (a little bit arrogant though arrogant is not the right word. It's too hard). She was very quite and seemed a bit shy. It always makes me feel like: Don't bother the girl. ;-) lol But at least she took the time to listen to me. ;-)
After that we went back to the ice rink for the ladies competition.
The requirements were:
1) Triple toe loop or tiple salchow
2) Combination of triple toe loop or triple
salchow with a double jump. The triple jump had to be different than the
jump
done under 1).
3) Triple loop
4) Combination of 2 triple jumps
5) Quadruple jump or triple axel
There were three stars on the ice surface on which the skaters had to
stand and raise the arm to show they were ready to start. Then they had
one minute for two attempts. After the first try, the time was stopped
and the judges gave their marks. If the skaters completely failed the jump
on both attempts, they were eliminated. Did they succeed (better or worse)
they were qualified. The skaters were given marks by the 5 judges (from
0 = failed to 5 = excellent). The highes possible number of marks was,
of course, 25 points. A skater had to get at least 10 points to reach the
next level. When the skaters had to try the most difficult jump they had
three attempts and unlimited time. They could choose wether to do the second
or third try or not.
I remember that all ladies succeeded until they had to do the first
combination. There, some of them were already eliminated. The rest of the
ladies (like Volchkova, Sebestyen, Robinson) succeeded until they had to
do the triple loop. Volchkova and Robinson failed, Sebestyen failed when
trying the triple-triple combination. (Galina Maniachenko)
During the ladies competition I saw Tatiana & Maxim sitting in
the audience. I went to them in order to get them sign my russian flag.
At the medal ceremony (they didn't have a real podium, they held the
ceremony in the kiss 'n' cry corner) the top three ladies each got a cheque
and the winner got the Trophée Korloff. You have to win it three
times in a row to keep it though. That trophy is very expenisve. It is
made of bronze. The lower part is covered with some blue precious stone
(I don't know what it's called in English), the upper part was covered
with gold. The upper, with gold covered part (which looks like a russian
letter), is also covered on both sides with 1400 diamants. So, you can
imagine how expensive this trophy must be!!
When the ladies skated around the ice rink for their lap of honour
I gave Jennifer Robinson a loud cheer. She recognized that, waved at me
and shouted "Merci" back.
Then there was a short break and they started the first gala of the competition. I just wrote down what the most popular skaters of the competition skated to.
Anne-Sophie Calvez - "May It Be", Lord of the Rings soundtrack
Anne-Sophie wasn't in a very good shape. I think she fell at least
at one jump though the program is beautiful. I also love the music.
Jennifer Robinson - "The Gift"
Oh that is such a beautiful program. Many of us can't see anymore of
all the slow, same style, programs that the ladies have. But this program
is different. I love it. You'll see what I mean when you get to see that
program.
Viktoria Volchkova - Johann Sebastian Bach "Air"
Viktoria has improved a lot. She has a wonderful elegant skating style.
The music suits her very well as well as the costume does. A good combination.
Tatiana Totmianina & Maxim Marinin
They skated some comedian program. Suits them very well I think. The
music was also used by Evgeny Plushenko for his 2000/2001 long program.
Stanick Jeannette
It was absolutely impossible for me to identify the music he used.
It seemed a bit hip hop like to me. Actually I didn't like the costume
very much but he skated very well.
Sara Abitbol & Stéphane Bernadis - Lara Fabien
"Malade"
That's a program I didn't like that much. Do they always have to skate
to heartache like programs? I prefered their "egypt" program.
Brian Joubert
He, too, skated to some french song which I don't know. I don't remember
very much but the program was pretty good.
Xue Shen & Hongbo Zhao - Madame Butterfly
At least my dad, who's loves classical music, told me that it was Madame
Butterfly. Personally I thought that this program didn't fit into a gala.
Also this program didn't have the passion they had while performing their
"Turandot" long program at Nations Cup 2001.
Yulia Sebestyen
She skated to a modern-classical musicpeace. I think I know it but
I couldn't identify it. I liked the music though I don't remember much
of the program.
Elena Berezhnaya & Anton Sikharulidze - Jules Massenet
"Meditation" from the opera "Thais"
They skated last. And how they skated!!! I admit I was a bit afraid
when they were just about to do the throw triple loop. The light in the
arena wasn't the best and none of the skaters before had been flawless.
Elena and Anton skated flawlessly with an incredible passion and elegance.
After they had finished the whole audience immediately stood. We clapped
and cheered and Elena & Anton were obviously very glad about the great
reaction to their gorgeous skating. And I was very happy because I finally
had got to see their olympic meditation costumes live.
During the final round of the gala, Anton waved into Petra's camera which was really cool. She just said: I've got that, I've got that.
After the gala we went back to the hotel. I joined Katja, Susanne and
Petra in the bar but at times I would walk over to the other girls in the
restaurant to "steal" some crisps (chips) after I had been asked if I liked
some of them. lol At about 1 a.m. I went up to our room in order to go
to bed but I stayed up until about 1:30 a.m. until Kathrin and Anja came
up, too.
Saturday, 12th of October
At 7:30 a.m. we stood up in order to get ready for breakfast. At 8:30
we went down to the restaurant where we met the other girls. There were
the chinese couples as well as Ilia Klimkin, Tatiana & Maxim and others
who had breakfast as well. At 9:30 we left for the arena (because practice
started at 10 a.m.) only to find out that none would let us in. We found
some side entrance through which we were able to get into the VIP area
of the arena. A "security" lady saw us and told us to leave but some other
french people as well as myself argued with her in french that the program
said there was practice at 10 a.m. and that we had paid for our passes
and so we would like to watch the practice. I told her that there were
fans who had paid and come from Germany and Holland and other countries
to see their favorite skaters and the practices. But she said that the
practice was not open to the public. I got angry and asked her to give
us our money back because we had simply paid for everything. Still we had
to leave. Upstairs a friend (Els) and I saw some cleaning ladies and I
asked them if there was any way to get into the arena. They said that we
could get into the arena on the opposite side of it. So all the people
who had come to watch the practice (skating and non-skating fans) ran round
to the other side of the arena and found some back entrance where another
lady was standing. I asked her if we could get in and she said:"of course"
and opened the door for us. This way we were able to see the rest of the
men's practice (we had finally managed to get in there when the men's practices
was almost over). Alexei wasn't there and Emanuel kept training until the
last minute.
Then the pairs practice was about to start and I finally got to see
Elena & Anton again and it was sooo funny to watch them. Since they
had not practised the first day I was mostly or rather only paying attention
to them. They were standing with all the other skaters at the corner of
the ice rink and Anton kept carefully "hitting" Elena with his waterbottle.
When Elena kept turning around and looking at him like:"Ey, what are you
doing?" Anton started pulling her ear. lol Then he kept playing around
with his bottle, balancing it on his hand and juggle the bottle. On the
ice Anton was very caring with Elena and he was talking all the time with
Maxim and Tatiana. Everything Elena & Anton did went very well (though
he seemed to keep explaining her what to do better and so on) except for
the throw quadruple salchow on which Elena fell. They just tried it once.
They also tried the lift they had done in the opening of the Nottingham
gala where Elena goes from one lift into the handstand lift while Anton
keeps skating. Then they change the lift again and Elena goes from the
handstand down into the lift they did at Artur Dmitriev's show in St. Petersburg.
I can't describe it though. It went very well and smooth and the people
who watched the practise clapped and cheered very loud. Their throw triple
lutz went very well, too. After practice had ended, Elena immediately left
but Anton stayed and gave autographs. This was my chance. I took my russian
flag and ran to the other side of the ice rink where Anton and all the
skating fans were standing. When I arrived I asked Anton if he could sign
my flag and he was very surprised to see a russian flag. He asked me where
I had got it from and I told him I had bought it in Moscow. Now he was
really curious and he asked me what I had done in Moscow. I told him that
I had been at Russian Nationals and he wanted to know if I had liked it
there and I said that it was, indeed, really cool. Then I wanted to know
if it would be possible to meet at the hotel later because I had some cards
and presents for Elena on her birthday and he said that it wouldn't be
a problem and he would tell Elena and he said:"Thank you so much!". ;-)
After that I went back to the other girls and watched the second group
of the pairs practice. During that group I was able to get a picture of
Stefan Lindemann as well as Viktoria Volchkova. Both were very nice and
Viktoria signed my russian flag. After the pairs practice I and Anja went
to the hotel because I wanted to get the bag with cards and presents for
Elena because I really wanted to give them to her personally. We were sitting
in the lobby for about 20 minutes when we decided to go and Anja suddenly
said:"Anke, there's Anton". I went to him and told him that I had the bag
with presents for Elena with me and if he could give it to her but he said
that I better keep it and give it to her because she would soon be in the
lobby. I said that there were two cards for him (his birthday) in there
as well so he shouldn't open them before and he said he'll find them. Then
I said that there was also a message for him in there and that he would
certainly find that one, too. He laughed and waved with his arm. Then I
asked him to also sign my St. Petersburg travel guide which I had bought
because I am planning to go to St. Petersburg for the GPF as well as doing
some days of sightseeing there. I was nervous and accidentally (believe
me, it happened accidentally!) dropped it. He wanted to pick it up for
me but I was faster. ;) Anton asked me when I had been in St. Petersburg
and I said that I wanted to go there for the GPF. So he replied that I
hadn't been there but wanted to go there and I told him that, when I had
heard at Russian Nationals that the GPF takes place in St. Petersburg,
I had immediately decided to go there. I thanked him for signing my travel
guide and he said:"Merci!". Since I didn't want him to think that I am
French I told him that I am from Germany. ;) lol He laughed, said "oh,
okay" and "see you, bye". Now I was really in a good mood. After about
20 minutes Elena came down. She was very quite but smiled when I gave her
the bag and asked her to sign my flag and the travel guide. After that
Anja and I said good-bye and went back to the arena in order to watch the
men's and pairs competition.
The requirements for the men's competition:
1) Triple flip, triple lutz or a triple loop
2) Combination of a triple flip, triple lutz or triple
loop with a triple jump. The first triple jump of the combination had to
be a
different one than the one
executed under 1)
3) Triple axel
4) Combination of a triple axel with a triple jump
5) Combination of two triple jumps and one double
jump
6) Quadruple jump
7) Combination of a quadruple jump and a triple jump
Well, Stefan was really good in the beginning, he even was the leader after the first jump. But he was eliminated when he tried the triple axel I think. I might be wrong though. Fréderic Dambier was really good. He successfully executed a quadruple salchow. I don't know if he managed to do the quad-triple combination but I don't think so. I think Emanuel and Alexei were the only ones who reached the last level. Both were very good. Emanuel always used both tries for his jumps while Alexei hit his jumps at first try and only did the (I think it was the) triple axel-triple toe a second time in order to get the perfect 25 points and not only 20 points. It was unbelievable how consistent Alexei was who bumped his fists after level 6 and 7 though he was joking a lot before. Every time he raised his hand in order to start he grinned and also laughed a lot doing strange faces. lol Most of the other skaters failed when doing the triple axel.
Final results:
1) Alexei Yagudin 374,5 points
2) Emanuel Sandhu 336,0 points
3) Fréderic Dambier 238,0 points
4) Stanick Jeannette 187,5 points
5) Chengjang Li
128,5 points
6) Brian Joubert
81,0 points
7) Stefan Lindemann 74,5 points
8) Ilia Klimkin
62,0 points
9) Jean Michel Debay 38,0 points
After a short break I saw a group of people standing around someone
in the audience. I immediately figured that that must be Alexei, so I went
there with my camera. It was indeed him, sitting there with Viktoria Volchkova.
All the girls were asking for autographs and I just took two pictures.
After a while Alexei clearly said: "Sorry, I've got to watch now." The
pairs competition was about to start and I completely agreed with him because
I didn't want to miss the pairs competition myself. ;-) So, I left and
the pairs competition started:
All the pairs were pretty consentrated, just Elena & Anton were
taking the competition easy. I thought that this was okay but after some
time I thought that they maybe took it a bit too easy. lol Elena was grinning
a lot while Anton did strange faces. Xue & Hongbo hit every jump while
Pang & Tong had slight problems with Elena & Anton having more
problems. First element they had to do was a side-by-side double axel.The
pairs had slight problems. At their first try Anton had a slightly wobble
landing, the second try was okay. Xue & Hongbo's axels were perfect.
Anton laughed and waved with his hand pretending that that was nothing
and he and Elena could do it better. After the first round, Xue & Hongbo
were leading ahead of Elena & Anton and Pang & Tong. Second element
was the throw triple salchow with which Elena had some problems. When she
landed the salchow at their first try she had a slightly forward landing.
On the second try she had a turn out. Still after every single throw Anton
exchanged high five with Elena. The throws of the Chinese were perfect:
great length and height. Tatiana & Maxims throw was okay but their
throws are way too short as well as their throw triple loop isn't high
enough. After the second level, Pang & Tong were second ahead of Elena
& Anton. The third element they had to do was the throw triple loop.
When Elena & Anton started skating, they played some cool music for
them and Anton started grinning and nodded with his head to the rythm of
the music. Their loop was perfect. But the loops of the Chinese were perfect
as well and although Elena & Anton got the perfect mark of 25 Pang
& Tong were still in second place with Elena & Anton very close
behind them which wouldn't change until the end of the competition. Finally,
after Sara & Stéphane and Tatiana & Maxim had given up after
the last to second level, the last three pairs reached the last level:
the throw triple or quadruple axel. But the pairs had chosen to try the
throw quadruple salchow. Elena & Anton were first. Elena didn't land
the two tries for the throw quadruple salchow. At the second try she even
hurt herself a bit (a scratch on her arm). Again she & Anton exchanged
high fives and he even jokingly "hit" her on her lower back. lol After
that Pang & Tong had to try the throw. They didn't succeed. Then Xue
& Hongbo tried the throw. They used all the three tries they had for
the throw and Xue came close to landing it but still didn't succeed. The
audience gave each pair a standing ovation and they cheered loudly. Then
Xue & Hongbo announced that they would do a fourth try. The audience
went crazy and kept standing when they went for the fourth throw. Still
Xue didn't land it but nobody did mind. After that they did the resurfacing
of the ice before the men's and pairs' medal ceremony.
Final results:
1) Shen & Zhao
220,5 points
2) Pang & Tong
199,5 points
3) Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze 197,5 points
4) Abitbol & Bernadis
171,0 points
5) Totmianina & Marinin
159,5 points
6) Pla & Bonheur
48,0 points
Katja, Susanne, Petra and I went out to the skaters entrance of the
arena and managed to get pictures of Chengjang Li, Yulia Sebestyen and
Galina Maniachenko who wasn't at all in a good mood. After I saw the pairs
standing at the corner of the ice and waiting for the medal ceremony to
start I went down to the boards to watch them. Anton, as always, started
looking around to see who was standing at the boards and when he saw me
he smiled, waved and gave me a wink with his eye. That was something unexpected
for me but I was happy, smiled and waved back. The pairs were standing
there and waiting, waiting, waiting and waiting... After a while Anton
clapped his hands and said:"Let's do it guys. What are we waiting for?"
and I thought: Good question.
Then they started both ceremonies: nothing very memorable here. ;-)
After the ceremonies they asked us to leave the arena, so we waited
at the entrance to be let in again for the second gala of the competition.
All skaters of the first gala skated except for Totmianina & Marinin and Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze which made me a bit sad because I had hoped to see Elena & Anton's new exhibition program "Elvis and Marilyn". The gala started at 9 pm. Sara & Stéphane skated two programs in that competition. They performed their "egypt" program which I like very much. After the program and their encore during which their cute little dog came on the ice, the moderator of the show told the audience that Sara & Stéphane have got engaged. What great news!!! I am happy for them!! Stefan Lindemann skated to some song by Elton John and it suited him very well. Pang & Tong skated a wonderful classical program. They simply have a wondeful natural elegance which promises that, in combination with their amazing techniqual abilities, they will once be top skaters which they almost are. They just don't have the special something that Elena & Anton have, or Salé & Pelletier. Yulia Sebestyen skated to Cher's "Strong enough". I don't remember anything about it and I don't like Cher at all. Emanuel skated an incredible program to Prince's "Purple Rain". That program was just WoW!! Incredible. At the end of the gala Alexei Yagudin performed his new short program to Safri Duo's "Played-A-Live". That's my favorite music peace of them and the program is... amazing... he's so fast and I've never seen such individual step sequences. It's totally different from what he has done so far. The only thing I don't like that much is his costume. When he was introduced the people stood and the girls started screaming. They kept screaming throughout his program and I thought it was just like at a boygroup concert although I've never been at one. He also did an encore.
After the gala my friends and I went to the hotel to perhaps meet some
skaters. When I came back down from our room I saw some people standing
there, among them were Alexei and Maxim. I heard Alexei say:"I'll be right
back." and he left. Then I suddenly remembered that I was still collecting
all the russian skaters' autographs on my russian flag which I had up in
my room. I rushed to the elevator when my friends said I should better
take the stairs which I did and I bumped into Alexei and Maxim. Maxim greeted
me with "Privet" which I didn't really recognize at first and he said :"Hey,
privet" a little louder which I finally recognized and I turned around
and greeted back. When I came back down into the lobby Alexei and Maxim
were about to leave. I went to Alexei and asked him to sign my flag, so
he asked me to hold it and he signed it. After that Alexei and Maxim went
for a walk and Dina, Kathrin, Kathrin and Dushi left to find a bar where
they could have a drink because the hotel bar was already closed. Katja,
Susanne, Petra and I stayed because they still wanted to meet Sara &
Stéphane. They both came and we were able to take pictures of Sara.
After that they left and I stayed a bit in the lobby, having a nice conversation
with a swedish fan. At about 2 am I went to bed and at 9 am the next morning
we went down for breakfast. I thought that the skaters had certainly left
because Elena & Anton f.ex. had to leave at 5:30 in the morning and
Alexei at 7:40 but there were still some skaters: The chinese pairs, Viktoria
and Tatiana & Maxim. After breakfast we stayed in the lobby until 11
am when my father came to pick us up. He had enjoyed the competition very
much as well as the galas. It was a great weekend although it was way too
short. I was glad that I had got to meet most of my favorite skaters. Skating
is a wonderful sport and I hope it'll be that forever.
My Top Jump pictures:
Practice
Men
Brian Joubert
Stefan Lindemann
Chengjang Li
Emanuel Sandhu
Alexei Yagudin
Competition
Ladies
Galina Maniachenko
Jennifer Robinson
Yulia Sebestyen
Viktoria Volchkova
Men
Stanick Jeannette
Brian Joubert
Ilia Klimkin
Stefan Lindemann
Chengjang Li
Emanuel Sandhu
Alexei Yagudin
Gala
Ladies
Anne-Sophie Calvez
Jennifer Robinson
Yulia Sebestyen
Viktoria Volchkova
Men
Brian Joubert
Emanuel Sandhu
Alexei Yagudin
Off-ice
(Abitbol & Bernadis,
Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze,
Stefan Lindemann,
Chengjang Li,
Galina Maniachenko,
Jennifer Robinson,
Yulia Sebestyen
Viktoria Volchkova
Alexei Yagudin)
My pictures of Elena & Anton are also available at Traci's site. Klick on "Top Jump competition".