by Laura Fawcett
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| Emanuel Sandhu of Canada Photo by Michelle Wojdyla |
Men's Qualifying Group B Results
Men's Qualifying Group B Photos
(3/22/04) — U.S. men stand in seventh and 10th place after the first of two men's qualifying rounds Monday morning at the 2004 World Figure Skating Championships in Dortmund, Germany.
The first qualifying round was clearly the stronger of the two despite not having World champion Evgeny Plushenko in the mix. Besides U.S. champion Johnny Weir and U.S. bronze medalist Matt Savoie, qualifying round B boasted skaters such as European champion Brian Joubert, Grand Prix Final champion Emanuel Sandhu, World Junior champion Andrei Griazev and Chinese national champion Chengjiang Li.
Many eyes were focused on Weir, however, who is skating in his first-ever World Championships. The 19-year-old had a solid, if tentative skate to finish seventh overall. Weir lacked the smoothness and sparkle he had at the U.S. Championships, and his coach, Priscilla Hill, attributed that to a combination of fatigue and nerves. Weir was up at 5:15 a.m. this morning to make a 6:30 a.m. practice session.
"The bottom line is he was nervous," Hill said. "He's certainly tired from not being used to the schedule, but some of the tiredness goes in to nerves. He had to fight out there today."
Weir did just that, landing seven triples in his program to "Dr. Zhivago." He opened with a triple Axel-triple toe and included another triple Axel and a triple Lutz-triple toe. He doubled his last jump, a planned triple loop. Both Weir and Hill were rightfully proud of his performance.
"That's seven triples in my first long program at Worlds," Weir said. "I think that's good."
Weir has been skating well all week and landing quads in practice. However, he said that Hill told him not to try the quad shortly before he skated. He hopes to have it in Thursday's free skate.
"I'm just not feeling 100 percent today," Weir said. "I've never competed this early before, except maybe in small competitions when I was younger."
Hill was happy with Weir's performance despite its imperfections. She knows that the first trip to Worlds for any skater can be a daunting challenge.
"He's been a true sportsman through this whole thing," Hill said. "I know what he's capable of ... It's a whole new experience. This is probably the most tentative I've seen him all week. He has to work through the whole process (of being at Worlds). Once he does, it will be great."
Matt Savoie is skating in his second World Championships, but he's also dealing with the lingering effects of a knee injury for which he had surgery last April. After the surgery, Savoie was off the ice until June and didn't start doing triples until September. Savoie said the knee has "felt better," and he is receiving a number of treatments from U.S. team doctors to work through any pain he experiences.
"The knee is at about 90-95 percent," he said. "I can do everything, and nothing bad will happen if I push it."
Savoie, a summa cum laude graduate of Bradley University, is currently taking a full load of courses at the University of Illinois. He's working toward his master's degree in urban planning.
He started off well in his program to "Ragtime," the same program he skated last season. He opened with a triple Axel-double toe combination and moved on to a triple Lutz and triple Salchow. However he fell on his solo triple Axel which came out of a spread eagle into a hydroblade, and then popped the following planned triple loop.
"I was leaning and my left side got pulled behind," said Savoie of the triple Axel. "I couldn't save it."
Savoie came in without any expectations about where he would place. He missed his first Grand Prix event due to injury in the fall and then finished ninth at the NHK Trophy. He was third at the U.S. Championships.
"This season hasn't necessarily given me anything to support any loftier expectations," he said.
Sandhu finished first in the group, just ahead of Joubert. The Grand Prix Final champion opened with a quad toe-double Axel combination but fell on the following triple Axel. He went on to land six more clean triples, including a triple Axel-triple toe and another triple-triple combination.
"I'm more than proud of this program," Sandhu said. "After the fall on the triple Axel at the beginning I pulled myself together. Now I am in first position and am very happy with that. That's the nature of sport, that's the nature of the level I am skating now. At the end I really had to fight, but because of my condition I could do the last triple-triples."
Joubert also had a nice quad toe to open his program. He landed seven triples overall.
"I planned to do just one quad today," Joubert said. "I just wanted to be in the top three in qualifying. One quad was the minimum though. And if you want a medal, you need two. I wanted to do the same as at Europeans. I wanted to save strength and I didn't want to give everything ... There was no triple-triple combination and no quad-triple. I held back a little."
Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland is in third after landing seven clean triples and a quad toe. He put a hand down on his opening triple Axel.
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