Apologies to Monica for starting my own thread, but I think it might be easier for readers to find that there is something new (well, at least a report from a different person) this way....
Sorry I didn't post last night, I got back to my hotel at 11 PM and had to go right to bed. Because I would wake up early this morning no matter what time I go to bed!
Got to the rink yesterday shortly after 7 am, in time to see Tanith and Ben's CD practice. Met Nancy at 7.30 to hang the banner. It's in a row between the lower and upper bowls, judges' side. We had to fold it and only display the Johnny's Angels portion and not the "We Love You" because it would have hung down too far (blocking views) and would have probably been removed by security. But it looks great where it is.
It was really hard for me to decide whether to go to Johnny's practice yesterday morning, or watch Evan and Stephane in qualifying, as they were exactly at the same time. Since I already knew what was going on with Johnny, I decided to watch the qualifying and hope for a practice report, which I got later from Nancy. Evan's fall on his quad attempt was really hard - right on his hip - right in front of where I was sitting - I was truly scared for him to be seriously injured. But after the second fall, he seemed to get a second wind, and did really well. It was my humble impression that he was held up a bit in the marks. Stephane was terrific - got a full standing ovation - I think that the audience was really ready to see a good, clean (almost) skate at last! Sandhu was a disaster, it was like he wasn't even trying, and it seemed like the pressure really got to Sawyer (I hadn't seen him miss a thing in practices) - and no one else was very interesting.
I enjoyed the pairs SP (no time for commentary right now, maybe later). I also met Chigako and Kyoko and another friend of theirs from Japan (sorry I have forgotten her name) right before Johnny's qualifying. Very happy to meet Japanese Angels, even if we had to struggle a little with our communication - not much, really!
I took photos during Johnny's warm-up to try to be a little less nervous. Sorry, I won't be able to post mine, as you all probably know, until I get home next week. But he had a great warm-up, just doing jumps, all were landed beautifully. I don't believe he tried a quad in warm-up.
His qualifying skate was absolutely magical! Beautiful expression, emotion, and passion from beginning to end! Starting with his gorgeous triple-axel/triple-toe, then his quad attempt - at that point I started to cry. The tears did dry up with the two doubled jumps, but it was still mesmerizing. The arena was absolutely SILENT during the entire program - just the kind of skater Johnny is. He appeared happy and relieved when he got off the ice. I was soooooooooo happy and relieved myself! I'm sorry I couldn't share the information about his back spasm until it was made public, I'm sure you all understand, but for those of us there who knew what was going on, well, I think we were all just praying it wouldn't be a total disaster. Instead, what Johnny accomplished was truly a MIRACLE!
As for the others in that round, the judging placements were correct. Buttle landed more jumps, and the rest was quite good. For me, when he falls it really disrupts any magic he gets going. Brian hasn't skated that well in a long time. And Oda was amazing - perfectly clean skate.
Hopefully, the SP won't be too hard on Johnny, and he can just get better and better......
Kristina
Sorry I didn't post last night, I got back to my hotel at 11 PM and had to go right to bed. Because I would wake up early this morning no matter what time I go to bed!
Got to the rink yesterday shortly after 7 am, in time to see Tanith and Ben's CD practice. Met Nancy at 7.30 to hang the banner. It's in a row between the lower and upper bowls, judges' side. We had to fold it and only display the Johnny's Angels portion and not the "We Love You" because it would have hung down too far (blocking views) and would have probably been removed by security. But it looks great where it is.
It was really hard for me to decide whether to go to Johnny's practice yesterday morning, or watch Evan and Stephane in qualifying, as they were exactly at the same time. Since I already knew what was going on with Johnny, I decided to watch the qualifying and hope for a practice report, which I got later from Nancy. Evan's fall on his quad attempt was really hard - right on his hip - right in front of where I was sitting - I was truly scared for him to be seriously injured. But after the second fall, he seemed to get a second wind, and did really well. It was my humble impression that he was held up a bit in the marks. Stephane was terrific - got a full standing ovation - I think that the audience was really ready to see a good, clean (almost) skate at last! Sandhu was a disaster, it was like he wasn't even trying, and it seemed like the pressure really got to Sawyer (I hadn't seen him miss a thing in practices) - and no one else was very interesting.
I enjoyed the pairs SP (no time for commentary right now, maybe later). I also met Chigako and Kyoko and another friend of theirs from Japan (sorry I have forgotten her name) right before Johnny's qualifying. Very happy to meet Japanese Angels, even if we had to struggle a little with our communication - not much, really!
I took photos during Johnny's warm-up to try to be a little less nervous. Sorry, I won't be able to post mine, as you all probably know, until I get home next week. But he had a great warm-up, just doing jumps, all were landed beautifully. I don't believe he tried a quad in warm-up.
His qualifying skate was absolutely magical! Beautiful expression, emotion, and passion from beginning to end! Starting with his gorgeous triple-axel/triple-toe, then his quad attempt - at that point I started to cry. The tears did dry up with the two doubled jumps, but it was still mesmerizing. The arena was absolutely SILENT during the entire program - just the kind of skater Johnny is. He appeared happy and relieved when he got off the ice. I was soooooooooo happy and relieved myself! I'm sorry I couldn't share the information about his back spasm until it was made public, I'm sure you all understand, but for those of us there who knew what was going on, well, I think we were all just praying it wouldn't be a total disaster. Instead, what Johnny accomplished was truly a MIRACLE!
As for the others in that round, the judging placements were correct. Buttle landed more jumps, and the rest was quite good. For me, when he falls it really disrupts any magic he gets going. Brian hasn't skated that well in a long time. And Oda was amazing - perfectly clean skate.
Hopefully, the SP won't be too hard on Johnny, and he can just get better and better......
Kristina
