European Championships 2012

Hey guys,
a few minutes ago I read on Twitter that Plushenko finally arrived in Sheffield so I thought we should start the thread now.

The event overview (starting orders will be added soon):
http://www.isuresults.com/events/fsevent00011317.htm

Schedule:
Monday, January 23: Preliminary Round Ice Dance, Preliminary Round Men (this will be interesting already because Plushy has to skate there)

Tuesday, January 24: Preliminary Round Ladies

Wednesday, January 25: Pairs Short Program, Short Dance

Thursday, January 26: Men Short Program, Pairs Free Skating

Friday, January 27: Ladies Short Program, Free Dance

Saturday, January 28: Men Free Skating, Ladies Free Skating

Sunday, January 29: Exhibition Gala


The TV braodcast (at least eurosport) leaves a lot to be desired:

January 26, 9pm - 10pm: Pairs Free Skate (taped)

January 27, 9pm - 10:15pm: Free Dance (taped)

January 28, 2:45 pm - 4pm: Men Free Skating (LIVE)

January 28, 9pm - 10:15pm: Ladies Free Skating (taped)

January 29, 2:45pm - 4pm: Exhibition Gala (LIVE)

(all time specifications are in UTC ± 0 which means the Sheffield/London/UK time )


Well, I think the competition will be more interesting than last year. In pairs Savchenko/Szolkowy's rivals are growing. In addition Aliona is injured at her right thigh so it's not even clear whether they will start or not. (I personally would be devastated if they would withdraw because I'm german and I love them really much and I wanna see a great Pina once again).
Of course the men will be exciting with Javier Fernandez, Florent Amodio, Evgeni Plushenko, Brain Joubert, Arthur Gachinski, Thomas Verner, Michal Brezina etc... I'm rooting for Javier (forget about his coach) but I'm quite sure that Plushy will win this (even though he says his knee is hurting when he does quads). But well he's a legend and I'm so excited that can see him (hopefully) in Nizza at worlds so I wouldn't mind if he would win his seventh European title!
And about the ladies I have nothing to say... It will be like every year; disappointing. With a victory of Carolina I think. Without Mao or at Euros at least Liza or Adelina the ladies competitions have nothing unique.

I'm really excited about Europeans (every discipline except the ladies) and I would love to see Javi win (and I like his coach ), although I think Plushy has this one in the bag, same with Carolina.

I'm rooting for Volosozhar/Trankov in pairs, Nathalie and Fabian in dance and for Javier in mens. i don't really care about the ladies since it's obvious that Caro will get a huge score (no matter what-imo) and I think Alena will also be gifted especially in pcs . I'd like to see Elene Gedevanishvili on the podium.

My take on Eurosport broadcasting is this . Thank god, TV Slovenia will broadcast the last group in pairs live! Although I HATE the comentator.

josling wrote:

And about the ladies I have nothing to say... It will be like every year; disappointing. With a victory of Carolina I think. Without Mao or at Euros at least Liza or Adelina the ladies competitions have nothing unique.

Polina K. won the qualifying round with a seven triple skate including a 3-3, so maybe the ladies event will be interesting after all...

Alena and Robin officially WD from Euros.

Quote :

Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy (GER) have withdrawn from the ISU European Figure Skating Championships 2012. The couple decided to withdraw following the morning practice citing injury.
“Aliona aggravated her injury when doing a pair spins in training. She is in pain and unable to perform all elements”, said German team doctor Stefan Pfrengle.
“It was a very difficult decision for us. The risk is too high to aggravate the injury further”, says coach Ingo Steuer.
We hope you will join us to wish Aliona a speedy recovery.

https://www.facebook.com/isufigureskating

polosatik wrote:

Alena and Robin officially WD from Euros.

Quote :

Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy (GER) have withdrawn from the ISU European Figure Skating Championships 2012. The couple decided to withdraw following the morning practice citing injury.
“Aliona aggravated her injury when doing a pair spins in training. She is in pain and unable to perform all elements”, said German team doctor Stefan Pfrengle.
“It was a very difficult decision for us. The risk is too high to aggravate the injury further”, says coach Ingo Steuer.
We hope you will join us to wish Aliona a speedy recovery.

https://www.facebook.com/isufigureskating

Yep, that's really sad I was so hoping for a perfect Pina... but well, she'll be fit in Nice and than they will blow all others away

If someone is searching for a live stream for Europeans this one is a good option: http://livetv.ru/en/allupcomingsports/18/

polosatik wrote:

Alena and Robin officially WD from Euros.

Quote :

Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy (GER) have withdrawn from the ISU European Figure Skating Championships 2012. The couple decided to withdraw following the morning practice citing injury.
“Aliona aggravated her injury when doing a pair spins in training. She is in pain and unable to perform all elements”, said German team doctor Stefan Pfrengle.
“It was a very difficult decision for us. The risk is too high to aggravate the injury further”, says coach Ingo Steuer.
We hope you will join us to wish Aliona a speedy recovery.

https://www.facebook.com/isufigureskating

That's too bad, I was looking forward to see who will win between the germans and russians. Now, the only way for V/T to not win is if they have a major melt down. But it's better to withdraw now, than to stick it through and Aliona injures herself even more.

josling wrote:

If someone is searching for a live stream for Europeans this one is a good option: http://livetv.ru/en/allupcomingsports/18/

Thank you so much josling! This one works great for me so far and the quality is very good
Glad I will be able to watch some figure skating since Eurosport is not broadcasting much... :/

Russia really has some depth in pairs! Without Yuko/Alexander and the 3 russian couples still took first 3 places at European SP. Absolutely amazing. My favorite were Vera and Yuri. I was literary biting my hand before they landed the side by side 3T. This used to be a weak element for them but now it's beautiful. They must have worked hard.
Tatiana and Maxim were very good but I've seen them skate better.

polosatik wrote:

Alena and Robin officially WD from Euros.

Quote :

Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy (GER) have withdrawn from the ISU European Figure Skating Championships 2012. The couple decided to withdraw following the morning practice citing injury.
“Aliona aggravated her injury when doing a pair spins in training. She is in pain and unable to perform all elements”, said German team doctor Stefan Pfrengle.
“It was a very difficult decision for us. The risk is too high to aggravate the injury further”, says coach Ingo Steuer.
We hope you will join us to wish Aliona a speedy recovery.

https://www.facebook.com/isufigureskating

Oh no:(. I hope they will be ok to compete by worlds. I think it would be as safe a bet as any to say the Russians will sweep the podium in pair this time at Europeans.

Pairs sp result

1 Tatiana VOLOSOZHAR / Maxim TRANKOV
RUS
72.80 1
2 Vera BAZAROVA / Yuri LARIONOV
RUS
66.89 2
3 Ksenia STOLBOVA / Fedor KLIMOV
RUS
58.66 3
4 Stefania BERTON / Ondrej HOTAREK
ITA
54.38 4
5 Maylin HAUSCH / Daniel WENDE
GER
54.03 5
6 Daria POPOVA / Bruno MASSOT
FRA
53.91 6
7 Mari VARTMANN / Aaron VAN CLEAVE
GER
52.00 7
8 Vanessa JAMES / Morgan CIPRES
FRA
51.81 8
9 Stacey KEMP / David KING
GBR
45.75 9

Plushy's injury got worse and he can't jump quad I don't know what he will do, but he won't WD, he said.

oh noo... I'm happy he didn't WD, but I wonder how may it impact his programs...

what kind of injury did plushy get and how severe is it?

ballerinamao wrote:

what kind of injury did plushy get and how severe is it?

He had always some problems with the meniscus in his right knee and it hurts when he jumps; he will have another surgery in summer! In addition there is something at his neck/back I think which he got just in Sheffield at practice (I got this information via GoogleTranslation, so Asya could confirm this better...! )
His wife said this on twitter (https://twitter.com/#!/yanarudkovskaya/status/162262885165309956): "I am very upset with Zhenya's health, in his place I'd been withdraw, but he made ​​a different decision! God gave him strength, my tears roll down"
In this YT channel you can see some practice videos and his Qualification round: https://www.youtube.com/user/lotus1065
Beside the 4T he is in great form! His 3A and 3A-3T are perfect and I think he could still win without a quad! He landed also 3A-1Lo-3S sequence in practice at Sheffield.
I'm very excited to see how he's doing in the SP today. It will be hard because he's starting in the first group and his competitors aren't sleeping... but well, let's hope the best for him and his health...!

Live Streams

Россия 2 / Rossiya 2
http://tvsport24.info/tv_social_online.php?channel=49
http://tvsport24.info/tv_social_online.php?channel=182
http://kaban.tv/rossiya-2-online
http://video.212.ua/ru/russia_channel_2_online
http://nashgorod.pnz.ru/index2_69.html
http://www.belsmi.narod.ru/tv_rtr-2.htm
http://en.pro-tv.net/1257-rossia-2.html
(delayed):
http://tvali.eu/index.php?action=sat&channel=913
http://onlinetvi.com/pl/eurosport-online/
http://www.allsport-live.ru/eng/tv.php?channel=12033
(Pay channel): http://tvteka.com/live/rossiya2

SportBox (only for Russia!) - (Moscow time)
17:00 Мужчины. Короткая программа (видео):
http://news.sportbox.ru/Vidy_sporta/Fig ... -programma

Estonian ETV2 (local time)
17.00-19.15 (maybe delayed) Live Stream (open for all): http://otse.err.ee/etv2/

Ukraine - channel Перший национальний (УТ-1)
schedule: http://1tv.com.ua/uk/tv
LS for Ukraine: http://1tv.com.ua/uk/live
LS for others: http://tvsport24.info/tv_social_online.php?channel=7
http://air-tv.ru/load/country/ukraine/ut_1/58-1-0-104
http://onlinetv.ukrhome.net/see/ut1/

Czech channel ČT4 (local time)
16:00-18:15 LS maybe only for Czech:
http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/1018 ... -britanie/
http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/1 ... 294020003/

Finland - YLE TV2
schedule and LS (only for Finland!): viewtopic.php?f=15&p=64980#p64980

Latvian LT7 (local time)
schedule and LS (only for Latvia!): http://www.ltv7.lv/raidijumi/430/EC-dai ... empionatu/

RAI Sport 2 (only for Italia!):
http://www.rai.tv/dl/RaiTV/dirette/Publ ... iSport%202

Spain - Teledeporte
schedule: http://teledeporte.es/programacion/miercoles.php
LS only for Spain!: http://www.rtve.es/deportes/patinaje/directo/

ISU official pay channel: http://livemanager.eurovision.edgesuite ... index.html
(countries where can be watched: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=304&start=280#p64902)

"Unknown" channels (links appear few hours before start):
http://www.hahasport.com/c-11.html
http://livetv.ru/en/allupcomingsports/18/
http://www.stream2watch.me/figure-skating

("Rossiya-2") - 3 days free russian TV's - WebTV (guide):
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=38#p3621

(source: Plushenko's fan forum which I just joined to have more informations )

Also eurosport France is braodcasting the whole Europeans live. So to all the French people here: Lucky youuuu!

josling wrote:

Also eurosport France is braodcasting the whole Europeans live. So to all the French people here: Lucky youuuu!

Thanks for the info about Plushy, and for the links!

This is really unfair, why can't eurosport international broadcast skating instead of tennis?! Lucky French figure skating fans!

Plushy SP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlbjjdQxifY&feature=channel_video_title

His jumps looked great, but no 4T. Hope he brings it tomorrow, he will need it. I liked it more than I did at nationals. He is always entertaining. I believe he will remain top 3 at the end of the day

I've just seen Zhenya's lp. He is a LEGEND, that was amazing!

zarinaballerina wrote:

I've just seen Zhenya's lp. He is a LEGEND, that was amazing!

OMG, it gave the chills!!!! I think this is one of the best programs I've ever seen from him. WOW!
Here is a vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ngQgDVwqP8

btw, I was also really impressed by Gachinksi! Mishin's students rocked today!

And now Plushy will have a surgery again, it's so impressive what he does with all that pain and injuries...
Although if I'm very selfish and his health is more important I would love to see this program live in Nice at worlds but

edit: I really had to smile when I watched this winner interview! he IS a legend and no one in the figure skating world will ever forget him....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8O-GX07TZk

Plushy is a boss. I may not like him, but he is a boss.

That guy from german Eurosport says Carolina Kostner is in better shape than Mao Asada and can beat her at the worlds!
That i really cant and dont want to believe

Haidogirl wrote:

That guy from german Eurosport says Carolina Kostner is in better shape than Mao Asada and can beat her at the worlds!
That i really cant and dont want to believe

Lol... well of course Carolina can beat Mao at Worlds. If Mao messes up. If Mao is clean, even a clean Carolina Kostner doesn't stand a chance with her watered-down programs and sloppy spins. You can't really compare them right now because they haven't skated in the same event so far this season and while she did very good, Mao did not have the strongest Nationals, for obvious reasons. But on paper, Mao wipes the floor with Carolina and has been receiving higher PCS all through the GP events even though she wasn't perfect. After the SP, I feel Carolina might lead if she nails her 3T-3T and Mao goes for the same content she had in the GP, but it stops there. Mao's free is a lot more technically challenging even sans 3A and 3-3...

That guy should have waited until after 4CC to make prediction about CaroK's chances of beating Mao. As it stands, if Mao does awesome there, he will look like an idiot.

I have a feeling Mao will be going for a 3A though... I hope she can get it rotated by then because URs might be what would open the door for Carolina. Same goes for the 3F-3L. I don't know if she plans to try it this season, but it is a risk.

Well, the commentators from french Eurosport said that Carolina's jump content is junior, and that she won't have much of a chance if she skates like that at worlds. So I guess everyone has different opinions.

Like chiyori said, we won't know in what shape Mao is until 4cc. Nats was a month ago, which is a relatively long time in figure skating. (and of course, given the unusual circumstances at the time, it's difficult to judge how prepared Mao is relying on her performances there)

Anyway I found the ladies at Euro to be underwhelming. I like Carolina and Ksenia's short programs, and I like the russian girl. (the one other than Ksenia and Alena, can't remember her name. I saw her for the first time and she was a nice surprise) That's about it.
Men was a different story though. Congrats to all three medalists!!!!

Haidogirl wrote:

That guy from german Eurosport says Carolina Kostner is in better shape than Mao Asada and can beat her at the worlds!
That i really cant and dont want to believe

I was just about to post that! I mean WHAT THE HELL!
Hendryk Schamberger (the "expert" ) said that Carolina won the GPF so there's no one who she hasn't beaten so far in this season (no word about the fact that Mao wasn't competing there!) and that Mao is "definitely" (his word choice) not Caro's strongest competitor at the moment. Well, he was also the one who always said that Yu-Na Kim is the best skater in the world ever etc. etc.
Our commentators are on the same level as our single skaters right now. The 10th place in russian or japanese nationals would easily win the German Nationals but well, that another topic.

The Germans also said that the level of the Ladies at Euros was one of the highest ever! I mean of course without 3F or 3Lz the level is really really high...

Quote :

Anyway I found the ladies at Euro to be underwhelming. I like Carolina and Ksenia's short programs, and I like the russian girl. (the one other than Ksenia and Alena, can't remember her name. I saw her for the first time and she was a nice surprise) That's about it.

From wiki, the 3rd Russian representative is Polina Korobeynikova. She's 15y/o, and placed 3rd in the 2011 JGPF, and 7th in the Russian nationals. She was sent to Euros since the other skaters above her were age ineligible, and it seems she did her job well, considering that it was her senior debut. She was 12th in the SP but 2nd in the FS. She seems to have a neat technique [no hammer toe though I'm not sure if she lips, a broken ankle lutz, and a decent axel] and can stand on her own as a skater.

what were the final results?