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Plushenko takes Mens Short with new personal best score
26.01.2010 by
Plushenko (RUS) takes Men’s Short with new personal best score
Olympic Champion Evgeni Plushenko of Russia took the Men’s Short Program and set a new record score on the way. France’s Brian Joubert and Yannick Ponsero are following in second and third in what was an exciting competition.
Plushenko, who skated first of the top contenders, nailed a quad-triple toeloop combination, a big triple Axel and a triple Lutz out of footwork to „Concierto de Aranjuez“. He showed also solid spins and footwork to post a new personal best of 91.30 points (51.10 element score/40.20 program component score). He beat his own record of 90.66 points that dates back to the 2006 Olympic Winter Games. “I think it was the best performance of the season. I did the quad-triple, and that was really important. For some reason the quad wasn’t so consistent in practice here. I had a few inner doubts. The jumps are, after all, the most important thing in Men’s figure skating, in my opinion. But I told myself just to go out and do it, I pushed myself. Today I beat my personal best score, but I won’t be euphoric. Tomorrow is another whole day, an important day”, the five-time European Champion commented.
Joubert skated last of the 37 men and landed a quad-double toeloop, a triple Axel, a triple Lutz and produced fast step sequences in his dynamic routine to “Rise” by Safri Duo to earn 88.55 points (47.80/40.75), a new personal best for the defending European Champion. “It wasn’t easy for me to skate last, especially after the kind of program that Evgeni Plushenko did. I felt the pressure and I was nervous”, Joubert admitted. “I’m a little disappointed because I did a quad-double toeloop combination instead of a quad-triple. This morning in practice I didn’t feel very good, but this was at the practice rink. I felt good during the six minutes warm up and the quad went really well. My program today reflects my training. I’ve worked on the footwork and the spins, and it paid off”, Joubert explained.
Ponsero’s elegant Spanished themed program to “La Corrida” included a quadruple-double toeloop combination, a triple Axel and triple Salchow. He posted a personal best of 82.40 points (46.00/36.40).
“I did a good job today. Now I have to stay focused for tomorrow. I plan to do one quad and a clean program”, Ponsero said.
Michal Brezina (CZE) sits in fourth after a clean program with 79.60 points. 2006 Olympic silver medalist Stéphane Lambiel (SUI) stumbled out on his quadruple toeloop to finish fifth at 77.75 points. Alban Préaubert (FRA) rounds up the top six (76.37 points).
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