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| | Saturday, February 12 Weiss leads after shabby men's short program | ||||||
CLEVELAND--The only attempted quadruple jump was flawed, and so was the competition.
The men's short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships was hyped as a high-flying, aerial circus. Instead, it looked more like amateur hour at the local rink.
Defending champion Michael Weiss avoided disaster on an easy jump and is the leader heading into the final over local jumping sensation Timothy Goebel and teenager Matt Savoie following Thursday night's ragged performances.
"For me to go out and have a good warmup, save the combo like that and be in first place was pretty good for me," said Weiss, who nearly touched the ice on his second jump, a triple axel, double toe loop combination.
The entire evening wasn't even pretty good. Neither Weiss nor Goebel was in top form and were outskated by the 19-year-old Savoie, who went last, but scored the highest technical marks. Each got three first-place votes, leaving Saturday night's free skate wide open. Last year's runner-up, Trifun Zivanovic, was fourth. Weiss, bothered in recent months by a stress fracture in his left ankle, played it safe from the start. He planned a quad toe loop on his first jump, but changed it to a triple toe. "I was just getting into it and I was pretty close to the boards, and that got me out of my rhythm a little bit," he said. "I've done it before in that spot, but it threw me off. I didn't get the height I wanted, and I instinctively opened up." On his next jump, Weiss got crooked in the air on a triple axel and followed it with a double toe instead of his planned triple."The axel was good," Weiss said. "I fought through it." Weiss finished the routine like a champion, skating with precision and power. He knew he had avoided a small disaster, and although he wondered why one judge would give him a 5.0 for required elements, Weiss was pleased to have the lead. "It's always tough to come back and defend," said last year's bronze medalist at the world championships. "But I have a lot of confidence in myself." Fired up by a hometown crowd cheering even his simplest spins in warmups, Goebel was hoping to become the first skater to land a four-rotation jump at nationals.Goebel, who in 1998 became the first skater to land a quadruple salchow in competition, made four turns on his first jump, but stepped out of the landing. "I was a little hesitant going into it, and I just held back," said Goebel, who has three quads planned for his free skate. "If I had just gone barreling into it like I do in practice, I would have been fine." If Goebel would have landed it, there's no telling how the Gund Arena crowd would have reacted. They had little reason to get out of their seats, saving their only standing ovation for Shepherd Clark, who withdrew during his routine because of a back injury. "I've never had that much applause going onto the ice, and it pumped me up," said Goebel, who estimated he had a couple hundred friends on hand. By the time Savoie finished, he had won over a few fans himself. Skating to an orchestral version of the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black," Goebel was cleaner in the air than Goebel, Cleveland's Jumping Jack Flash. Savoie's triple axel, triple flip-triple toe combination and triple lutz were the most precise jumps of the night. And once the Peoria, Ill., native stuck his early jumps, he gained confidence. "I'm pleased that I skated well for me," he said.Earlier Thursday, Naomi Lang and Peter Tchernyshev repeated as ice dancing champions. Jamie Silverstein and Justin Pekarek, who skated as juniors last year, finished second.
Two-time defending U.S. champion Michelle Kwan skates today in the women's short program.
| ALSO SEE Weiss is a champion in role of underdog Zivanovic still on the outside AUDIO/VIDEO  Michael Weiss wins NationalsRealVideo: 56.6  | ||||||
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