Report from Judit:
Friday practice:
When I arrived at the practice rink he was already there warming up in the ballet room. Luckily,
the room has a glass room so I could see what he was doing..God bless the architect of the rink!
Gosh, Evgeni just exudes elegance and he has such a presence that I had trouble taking my eyes
off him. He was stretching and then went through the moves of his short program which was a joy
to watch. Then he did some jumps as well, and I was amazed how much elevation he gets even off
the ice. He seemed pretty relaxed and in a good mood as far as I could see from that distance. Then
the previous group finished their practice and it was Evgeni's turn to take the ice. He was in a group
with Ilia Klimkin and another guy whose name I can't recall. At first he did some breathtakingly high
double axels then triples with incredible ease. He then went on to practice his quad toe but it didn't
work for him this evening, and he seemed a bit frustrated by that. He didn't let it effect the rest of
his skating though,all his other jumps, Lutz, flip, loop were simply foot perfect, absolutely spot on.
He is such a consummate pro.
I couldn't tell from his movements that he is carrying an injury, but once he bent down and nursed
his knees for a while.My heart stopped for a moment, I thought he was going to get off the ice straight
away and withdraw from the competition...But he went on practicing. He was blowing his nose quite a
lot during practice, so I guess he must have a cold as well as the knee problem, poor guy.
Then they put on his flamenco music and he went through the jumps and did the straight line
step sequence which is absolutely stunning...He then did some more jumps and when the practice
was over, he bowed to the audience (there were quite a lot of people watching, some Russians too)
and left the ice.
When he came out of the dressing room, he posed for a picture with a little girl then went out and left
Mishin to sort out a car to take them back to the hotel. Mishin couldn't find a driver at first and asked
some girls who were just hanging around in the reception area whether they could give them a lift...
Saturday morning practice:
This morning was my first time in the main arena. Only people with weekly passes are
allowed in but you can only sit in certain sectors. I had a bit of an argument with the
security guard about why can't I sit wherever I like but in the end I had a pretty good seat
in the 2nd row on the right hand side (if you look at the rink from where the judges sit).
This time, there were 4 other guys in his group, a Slovakian guy, Klimkin and Griazev (who
didn't show up yesterday evening), and Sergei Davidov who missed yesterday's
practice as well. But I have to say I didn't pay much attention to the others...
Evgeni was wearing black T-shirt and tracksuit trousers again. I think this was his first time
practicing in the main rink, so he was just feeling the ice at first, then started doing some
one-foot jumps,half loops, then proceeded to single Axels then doubles and then triples.
I am happy to report that his triple Axel is looking very good indeed. He did not miss one!
His only fall was on the triple A-triple loop combination.
This time they played his music for the free program but he took it very easy, he
skated through it without doing any of the jumps or the step sequences. I think
he just wanted to practice some of the connecting moves in between jumps and
steps sequences and maybe try out some variations on some of the arm movements.
When his music was over he went on practice the quad and this time it worked OK.
He even did a gorgeous 4-3-2. Then he went through all the other jumps but doubled
out on the Salchow. That was the only time that he smiled,
I think Mishin must have said something about the missed Salchow to him.
Anyway, he turned around and did 2 beautiful rock solid triple Salchows.
All the other jumps were in fine working order too. He did blow his nose
again quite a lot, and also towards the end he bent down and held his knees
for a while which is an alarming sight. But other than that, there was absolutely
NO SIGN of his injury. The guy's consistency is absolutely staggering!
And the way he moves...There is poetry and harmony and music in his every
single move. He is simply a joy to watch.
Sunday evening's practice:
I got to the main rink 30 minutes before Evgeni's practice was scheduled to start, and the first thing I did was to look for a sign of Evgeni. And sure enough, there he was, warming up on the opposite side of the rink from me. I was cursing myself because I forgot to bring my binoculars with me, so I didn't really see much of Evgeni.
Then the practice got under way and this time he started on the serious stuff almost straight away.
He only did one double axel and one triple axel then started practicing triple axel combos. Here's what he did (do I need to add, everything was crystal clean?): 3axel-3toe-2toe (!!!) ;
3axel-3 loop (this one really BREATHTAKING); 3axel-half loop-3 flip.
Then he did an unbelievable 4toe-3toe-3loop in "my" corner (obviously, I must have a very good effect on him ;-). He only struggled with the quads that he did in the corner farthest from me- which proves my point - his landings weren't THAT great there and he ALMOST put his hand down once. He seemed more relaxed today than yesterday, there was no bending down, no knee massaging and he shared a joke with Ilia Klimkin too, when Ilia's music started Evgeni did some funny moves to it and then he smiled at Ilia and Ilia didn't take offence, he smiled back has such a great sense of humour!!!
He'll skate to his St. Petersburg 300 music tomorrow, as we all know it's now a tradition for him to use last year's program in the qualification. He didn't do the quads when he did the run-through with the music, but he did a beautiful triple axel out of nowhere as if it was nothing and did the solo jumps (Lutz, Loop,Salchow, Flip- all brilliant& rock solid of course), and he went through some of the connecting moves. When he came to the slow part, the beautiful music and him moving to it (or should I say LIVING it?) got a bit too much for me (in a good sense of course :lol ) and I started to cry, I was so overwhelmed by the experience. I've seen this program on TV and loved it; but I have to say that seeing it on TV doesn't even come close to seeing it live.
Monday practice:
This morning Evgeny had a practice at the practice rink, and again I got there early so that I could follow his every move while he is warming up, through the glass wall of the ballet room. As I walked up the stairs I almost bumped into Mishin who was coming down..I almost said "hello" to him but in the end I didn't, so I just smiled and he smiled back and gave me a little wink.
When the practice started I moved close to where Mishin was standing by the rink, so that I can have a closer look at Evgeni when he comes to talk to Mishin. I was sitting above Mishin's head.
I have to say that this morning Evgeni struggled with his quad, had to put a hand down once and overrotated it another time. Other than practicing the quads, he didn't do a lot of jumps, apart from a few double axels and a triple axel/triple toe combo (beautiful). I think he deliberately took it easy. He seemed very serious all the way through the practice, but in the ballet room he had a bit of a fooling around with Vakthang Murvanidze (they pretended to be boxing with each other). He finished practice earlier than the other guys.
