20-year-old Javier Fernandez of Spain thrilled the crowd at Skate Canada yesterday evening when he landed a quad and a slew of triples early and charmed his way through the rest of his short program, threatening to preempt the long-expected showdown between defending champion Patrick Chan and 2-time silver medallist Daisuke Takahashi. Chan's program wasn't perfectly executed, but he got within a point or so of Fernandez by nearly landing a quad himself, so the pressure was firmly on Takahashi's shoulders when he took to the ice. You couldn't tell it, though, by the way he skated--I'd say it was the best early-season short program of his career.
Take a look for yourself! Here's Fernandez:
And Takahashi:
Let's see how the new Brian Orser protege handles going last in the free skate tonight, right after Chan and Takahashi get to lay down their challenges!
[Update 1 (10/30/11, 9:56 am): Here's Chan's short program:
Thought he caught a bit of a break from the judges myself.]
2 comments:
Were you that impressed with Daisuke? He seemed disinterested and listless, and I guess him being in his own world may have been part of the choreography, but I dunno.
I don't think I've seen a less engaging program from him,
ever.
I don't know where I'd rank this program against his previous ones right now. My favorite is probably still Cyberswan, but given all the tweaks he puts into his programs over the course of a season, I'm reserving judgment on this one until all is said and done. I will say that I appreciate him coming out with a new program every year, unlike some he competes against *cough* Chan *cough*.
What I was impressed with was how he responded to the pressure of skating last when two previous competitors had landed quads. Too bad he couldn't do as well in the free skate with music and a program that I think is even better.
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