2003 World Figure Skating Championships

25 March

Men, Short Program

Silvio Smalun (GER), 2003 National Champion
My Federation had asked me to take out the quad (toeloop) to play it safe.
I had to reconstruct my program, and I think this threw me off. My second
mark wasn’t bad.

Andrejs Vlascenko (GER), 2003 National bronze medalist
After I missed the combination I tried to concentrate on my presentation.
It was too bad that I missed the jump (triple Axel/triple toe loop) as I
have been landing it in training. Normally I do not have a problem with the
Axel, it is my favorite jump.  I think I wanted it too much and thought too
much about it. I am hoping to continue until next year when the world
championships will be in Dortmund (Germany).

Stanick Jeannette (FRA), 2001 & 2003 European bronze medalist
It was a difficult beginning. The Qualifying yesterday was a catastrophe.
Now I feel stronger mentally, and I want to pull out a good long program.
I’m not competing for a placement anymore, but I want to confirm my third
place finish at Europeans. I want to end the season on a positive note.
Qualifying was an accident, but that is sport. You have to accept it and to
move on.

Brian Joubert (FRA), 2003 European silver medalist
With my performance in Qualifying, I ruined my chances for a medal and a good
placement. But I’m very pleased to have done a good short program like this.
This makes me very happy and gives me motivation for the free program. (On the
mistake on the triple Axel) This is really too bad, the triple Axel itself was
very good, but I lacked confidence, and I let go. If not for that, it would
have been great. Now we have to wait, but I hope to move up a couple of spots.


Ilia Klimkin (RUS), 2003 Grand Prix Final silver medalist
What happened? I don’t know. I wasn’t too nervous.

Chengjiang Li (CHN), 2001 Four Continents Champion
It was very nice!  I place a very high value on this competition, so when my
performance was very good, I was very excited at the end of the program. I
have a lot of confidence for my free program, too!

Jeffrey Buttle (CAN), 2002 Four Continents Champion
I attempted the quad in the qualifying and tripled it so I was pretty
determined in the short (program).  This was by far the best short program
of the season.  I recovered from my slight mistake on the quad and completed
the rest of my jumps.  My goal was to make sure I got a quad done, to have it
here was fantastic.  The audience was great, so enthusiastic; I could feed off
the energy so easily. I felt very comfortable out there.

Emanuel Sandhu (CAN), 2003 National Champion
I’m glad it’s over; I’m ready to go on to the next part.  It was on the
fence, I fought for everything and did everything.  (On the quad)  It was the
worst one I’ve done here this week.  It was not my usual quad. I didn’t
really hear the crowd during the program but once it was over it was really
quite nice.

Min Zhang (CHN), 2003 Four Continents silver medalist
I was very nervous. Therefore I had technical problems. For the free skating,
I want to nail all my elements and do my very best.

Evgeni Plushenko (RUS), 2003 European & 2001 World Champion
There was nothing wrong with my triple Axel, I just lacked confidence on it.
I didn’t touch down, so it was technically clean, only the execution wasn’t
too good. The battle will continue the day after tomorrow, and so far
everything is going according to plan. If I feel good I might present a
little surprise in the free skating. Which one? You’ll see!

Ryan Jahnke (USA), 2003 National bronze medalist
(Feeling pressure skating in last group)  I pretty much focused on keeping
things simple, I had the same game plan as yesterday in the qualifying round
and I didn’t focus on the other skaters.  (Reason for fall on triple Axel)
That’s a hard question, fundamentally I didn’t feel right on top of it, I
kind of zoned out for a second. (Combination jump landed close to the boards)
It wasn’t a conscious thought but I knew where I was.  I didn’t land the
first jump perfectly but I wanted to get off the
second triple.

Takeshi Honda (JPN), 2003 Four Continents Champion
Before the competition, I had hard time to wear my skating boots because my
(left) foot was swelling.  Because of that, my quad jump was not perfect.
However, I felt confident on my triple Axel.  (On the free skating,)  I am
not going to hold back. I will jump three quad jumps. I will do my best. I
want to do my own gold medal performance for the audience!

Stephane Lambiel (SUI), 2003 National Champion
Too bad!

Coach Peter Gruetter: His warm up wasn’t going too well. I think that caused
the problems. But that’s sport. We hope to come back strong in the free skate.

Timothy Goebel (USA), 2002 World silver & Olympic bronze medalist
Timothy Goebel felt sick and was unable to comment.

Coach Frank Carroll: Timothy is battling flu like symptoms.

Michael Weiss (USA), 2000 World bronze medalist
The fall on the triple Lutz was a dumb, silly mistake. I hit the quad-triple
on one foot, I hit the triple Axel. All the hard stuff was there. The triple
Lutz is very easy for me. I attempt quad Lutzes in practice, but that’s the
way it is. I’m pumped for the free skate.