Live play-by-play coverage: Skate America men's short programhttp://www.examiner.com/figure-skating- ... rt-programTakahiko Kozuka JPN (World silver medalist) - walley into quad toe (downgrade? two-foot, hand down, fall, all kinds of issues), triple axel (hand down), triple lutz-triple toe, he likes to pick out-of-the-box-ish music but there's always something very reserved about the way he skates anyway - TES 34.33, PCS 37.36, FALL -1.00, TOTAL 70.69
Michal Brezina CZE - triple axel (well done!), triple flip-triple toe, steps into triple lutz (nice!), great fly on that flying sit, kind of a wonky final combo spin to end, but this should get him into first by a good number of points without a problem, upper 70s? - TES 42.05, PCS 37.03, TOTAL 79.08
Samuel Contesti ITA - hams it up before the opening pose - triple lutz (slippery fall), triple axel (step out), double flip, this is gonna be a low score for Contesti, unfortunately, finishes a bit after the music with a slow spin - TES 24.27, PCS 32.25, FALL -1.00, TOTAL 55.52
Kevin Van Der Perren BEL - Another Feeling Begins?! (oh, that was just the ... beginning) - triple axel (great height, smooth landing), triple flip-triple toe (slow on the landing but clean), steps into triple loop, these spins really leave a lot to be desired ..., good solid skate with the powerful jumps that you'd expect from KVDP - TES 37.76, PCS 32.33, TOTAL 70.09
Florent Amodio FRA (European champ) - Summertime/Jumpin Jack - triple flip, easy triple axel, double lutz (errant tap on the toe, wild jump with no combo!), great interesting step sequence, the pacing of the program is a bit uneven with the tempo change, not sure how I think about the program yet - TES 27.32, PCS 35.14, TOTAL 62.46 Ouch
Second/final group on the ice for warmup - Amodio, Van Der Perren, Contesti, Brezina, Kozuka. Kozuka "enjoys surfing the internet"?? They could've gotten a better bio of interests than that, right? Maybe he got that red costume on the internet .... One quad so far (Murakami did the quad sal, but Razzano popped his quad toe into a double), but three, maybe four in this group?
Richard Dornbush USA (U.S. silver medalist) - triple lutz-triple toe (sharp), triple axel, a little back-of-the-blade slide, steps into triple flip, he's really got a nice command of his choreography, strong spins, great first skate for that program! - TES 35.74, PCS 34.29, TOTAL 70.03
Armin Mahbanoozadeh USA (reigning bronze medalist) - triple flip-triple toe (great flow out), powers into triple axel (hand down, good save - thought he was going down with that lean forward), spread eagle/steps into triple lutz, pretty solid short for Armin_hammer even with the hand down (but what is it about doing a donut spin to Jimmy Page that feels a little off?) - TES 33.72, PCS 30.82, TOTAL 64.54
Denis Ten KAZ - triple axel (very light and strong), triple flip-triple toe, steps into triple lutz (fall - just a bit off axis), lyrical, flowing step sequence to end with a touch of head-rolling involved, really too bad about that lutz - TES 35.11, PCS 33.27, FALL -1.00, TOTAL 67.38
Daisuke Murakami JPN - The Feeling Begins - quad sal-double toe (looked clean!), triple axel (a little scratchy on the toe but clean), steps into triple flip, good stretch at the start of the flying camel but really didn't take advantage of the buildnig up of the music at the end (and wasn't that the same end pose that Meissner had in her Feeling Begins short?), pretty solid overall - TES 39.91, PCS 30.76, TOTAL 70.67
Douglas Razzano USA (Finlandia silver medalist) - Rach 2 - still not too sure about music transition from movement 2 to movement 3 - triple axel (just held on), double toe (supposed to have been a quad), triple toe-triple toe, the whole thing just felt tentative and cautious - TES 30.62, PCS 30.07, TOTAL 60.09
Brezina easily takes short program at Skate America, Kozuka secondhttp://www.examiner.com/figure-skating- ... uka-secondThe Grand Prix Series kicked off today with the men’s short program at the 2011 Hilton HHonors Skate America, and it was a surprisingly inconsistent showing for a couple of the favorites. Former World junior silver medalist Michal Brezina was the one who emerged unscathed and ran away with the short program by almost nine points ahead of everyone else.
Brezina had a clean short program, opting to continue with the program he skated last year for this season. He landed a solid triple axel on his way to a 79.08 and puts himself in prime position to win the first Grand Prix title of his career.
In second is World silver medalist Takahiko Kozuka. He looked shaky in his short program, falling on his underrotated quad toe, putting his hand down on his triple axel, and later had the backend of his triple lutz-triple toe combination called underrotated. His score of 70.69 puts him at the front of a group of four men who are within half a point of each other. Japan’s Daisuke Murakami is in third after landing a quad salchow-double toe.
But the skater who stole the show was U.S. silver medalist Richard Dornbush, who strong short program put him in fifth, though many would likely argue that he should have been as high as second. His jumps were strong, though his triple axel was called underrotated, and his musicality was evident, earning him a score of 70.03.
Reigning bronze medalist Armin Mahbanoozadeh had to put his hand down on an underrotated triple axel and is in seventh. European champion Florent Amodio is in a surprise eighth after an uneven short and will most likely take him out of contention for the title. He is currently almost eight points off the podium with a 62.46. The third American entry, Finlandia Trophy silver medalist Douglas Razzano, is in ninth.
------------
Recap of the men's and dance shorts by AP:http://www.universalsports.com/news-blo ... 62720.htmlDavis and White sizzle in Latin short dance to lead at Skate America: http://www.examiner.com/figure-skating- ... te-america---------------------------------------
PHOTOS2011 Skate America - Men's short program photos:
http://www.examiner.com/figure-skating- ... os-picturehttp://www.universalsports.com/photos/g ... rt+program2011 Skate America: Ice dancing:
http://www.universalsports.com/photos/g ... ce+dancing