European Figure Skating Championships

Tuesday

The competition on Tuesday started with the Compulsory Dances - unfortunately we were still on the train when the athletes skated the first one, the Ravensburger Waltz - but I got this nice picture from Betty & Cry who were already there. With a lot of disappointment we learnt from some messages on our mobile phones that Barbara and Maurizio had lost this first dance to Marina and Gwendal. Anyway, we were still hopeful for the rest of the competition.
As I said, we got to the Patinoire de Malley just in time to see the second compulsory dance Barbara and Maurizio had to perform: the Blues; it was really a questions of minutes: as soon as I walked through the door which led to our section,the marks for some couple were being read, and I saw someone pass on the ice right below us, waiting to take its place in the center of the arena... it was Maurizio! We didn't even have the time to get to our seats before their music started to play - so we had to watch them from behind the shoulders of the doormen, and we managed to join our friends only to hear their marks.
Barbara was looking gorgeous, with billions of sparkles on her top and a lovely, light black skirt - and Maurizio was dressed to the part too, all in black with lots of sparkles to match. Their Blues was very, very good and at the end of the competition they we re perfectly paired with the French, having won this second dance after losing the first one.

After the end of the compulsory dances, we went right outside the arena and headed towards the "village", with just a little stop in the middle because we bumped into Barbara who, despite being assaulted by some autographs hunters, still found the time to chat a little with us... She seemed very energetic and with the right kind of determination - still angry for what had happened in Kitchener and willing to claim back what should have been theirs, so really, really focused... She was on her way to the official draw for the starting order of the original dance, so we crossed our fingers and let her go. At the Village we started to look at the souvenirs, merchandising, etc., bought the usual pin of the championship, and I also found on sale those little pendants I had always seen advertised on Patinage, with the shape of a little skate... needless to say that I immediately went and bought one - and various other girls did the same! I also took another little souvenir - a keyring in the shape of a blade guard, in the exact color as the ones I use for my skates (now it is hanging from one of the zips of my skating bag, and reminds me also of another thing: that I must be careful with my lovely little cats - Michelle has mistaken it for one of her toys and now you can clearly see the marks of her teeth on it! sigh!). Giovanna was immediately happy to stop Sergei and Galit, who were passing by - and since at least half of our group was there, a lot of us took a photo with them... They were very nice & friendly, so we talked a little to them, got some promotional cards, I even ended up petting his white dog (which of course reminded me of Olivia Candeloro's white dog which I had played with at Euros '98 in Milan) and talking to Sergei about her (not Olivia - Sergei's dog is female). You can see my picture here on the left - wow, from my face you can definitely see that I still was quite sick!
The next competition (the Men's Short Program) was going to start only at 18.30, so we decided to go and check what was going on at the practice rink - ladies were and the ice, and definitely some lower ranked ones - it was soo boring that soon we decided to get back to the main arena and patiently wait.

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At least if I have to judge by the notes I dictated to my recorder, I was not really impressed by the men's event - at least by all that came before the last group of competitors. I spent some time looking around the arena and noticing all the banners that we had put up... a good dozen for Babi and Mauri, plus some for the other Italians and of course for our foreign favorites too...

The tribunes were still a little empty, and the public pretty quiet; the only ones making a lot of noise cheering were us and some French on the other side of the rink, which kept singing some very annoying silly songs... sigh.
The ice arena itself wqas not a great sight, too... not a lot of tribunes, quite high on the ice, and it was not even completely closed!! In most places instead of the side walls they had pust just TENTS!! Like a circus! No wonder we were freezing - I had never had to keep my coat on in an arena!! I remember in Gelsenkirchen last november to have problems with our "cheering" sweatshirts - they were too hot!! Now I just wished I had mine in my backpack - instead of in my bag at the hotel!
Back to the competition: in the lower ranked groups there was not a lot to see... we appreciated the young Swiss Lambiel (I'm really looking forward his free), and had quite a good laugh when someone (could it be Vlaschenko? There's too much noise on my tape! I'm not sure of what I dictated!) skated his short to the music of last year's free program of Chait/Sakhnovsky (and Ina/Zimmerman as well) - "Variations on a theme from Paganini" - and Gio didn't recognize it! She is the most fervent Sakhnovsky fan I know, and she mistaked that piece of music for Lobacheva/Averbukh's last year's free. Of course we were teasing her about this, menacing to go back and tell it to Serghei ^_^ - especially after she had made us listen to "1492 - The conquest of paradise" at least 1492 times, this summer while going to Courmayeur!
Finally the last group came on the ice for the warm-up; the starting order was:
Alexei Yagudin ^_^
(I've been a fan since Euros'98, when I almost made him fell with his pizza tray at the arena's restaurant)
Ivan Dinev
Brian Joubert
Alexander Abt ^_^ (Melly please stop teasing me - I'm not drooling!)
Dmitri Dmitrenko
Ilia Klimkin
I was really curious to see Yagudin's new short, as I had read very good news about it. He had really lost some weight from last season, as Barbara has told us after seeing him in the US when she and Maurizio went to work with Tatiana Tarasova in the summer... the costume was really nice, quite classy: black trousers and a black and white top, with a design of black branches with lots of sparkles all around... his theme was "Winter". His short program was definitely the highlight of the evening - if not of the whole week. I absolutely loved it! The choreography was perfect with the music, and he was skating at his best - there was not the slightest movement out of place, he had a total control of every limb everytime - what I didin't like about Plushenko's short in Gelsen (and later at the Olympics) - he's very good, but sometimes he seems to have his arms and legs flying around without a specific reason, like he doesn't control them... I can really say I am extremely happy of having been here to see this live, because it is something I'll remember for a lot of time.
Brian Joubert didn't impressed me a lot, but he has still time to grow and mature... the most annoying thing were the French fans who kept making too much noise during the program (ehi, I would love to hear the music, not you who are singing something I can't even understand - it looked like drunk football fans cheering, not skating lovers!).
Abt skated a good program - I love his skating and his style, but this program is not exceptional . but at least he skated it clean. He got some good marks, of course lower than Yagudin's. Funny to notice that just a few seconds before he started, Tatiana Tarasova appeared at the door, and took place a couple of rows below us and even if she was out of place (the section reserved for athletes and coaches was actually the one on our right) no one dared to tell her anything!
Right after Abt it was the turn of Dmitrenko, who produced one of the worst things I've ever seen happen on the ice... he had an awful costume, mostly flesh coloured with leaves, flowers and feathers all around, and the theme must have been something like "the garden of Eden", with some pretty terrible music... I am still trying to erase this from my memory!
After the end of the competition we managed to catch the official bus again, and went straight to the hotel to unpack our bags and rest; we have been told that at the Movempick there was some movement, but we were to tired to stay there... it would be for another day.
We still managed to get a photo from someone - mysteriously when we walked in the hall we bumped into Alexei Tikhonov (waiting for someone? or what?) and managed to have him pose for a pic. From my face in it you can really see how much I needed to take a shower and go to bed - and that's exactly what I did, after overcoming the initial shock of opening the worst suitcase I'd ever packed.

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Wednesday