Grand Prix Final

Report from Yulya, who visited GPF: February 27: When we just came Zhenya did some exercises in the hall, on the floor. On the practice (on ice) Zhenya wasn’t in the best mood. It seemed to be "not his day". Then he said he even didn’t want to go to the ice. So he skated a bit, periodically coming to Mishin, did some jumps and left the ice. February 28: He was very serious and concentrated on the practice. An iron men. It must be because it was a very hard day. Need to skate two programs. But he skated them perfectly. Both Adagio and Carmen. When Fumie Suguri was in kiss-n-cry people began to scream as they saw Zhenya standing off-ice: "Zhenya! Zhenya!" He waved his hand and left. Funny, but it was the same the next day. People asked him to wave his hand, but he didn’t, he just stood smiling and hanging his head. Also he chattered with Mishin, Zhulin and little Zhulin’s daughter. Sadly from my place I didn’t saw it, girls told me. They say it was very nice. March 1: On the practice Zhenya seemed more relaxed. Smiling once while talking to Mishin and when someone came to them, they chattered and he smiled again. His girl-friend Yuliana also has been on the practice. She watched it till the end, even when only Abt has been on ice. And suddenly Zhenya fell at the warm up. He skated further and began to massage his knee... Call me alarmist but we were in panic! I was SO afraid for him, I wasn’t able to watch normally another skaters. I just sat and prayed for him. Zhenya skated the last his "St. Petersburg 300". Well, what can I say, it was TERRIFIC, STUNNING, FANTASTIC! We saw a genius, we saw a masterpiece! Sure one of his best performance ever! He skated with SUCH confidence and calm. He did his 4-3-3 as if it was something not so difficult. One. Two. Three. The audience was WILD! (Could it be another way??) I waved with my banner like mad. He seemed very happy at the victory ceremony too. Well, it’s natural. On the evening in the hotel we saw TV and they showed Zhenya putting his skates on and his right leg was really bandaged beneath the knee. March 2: Sadly we couldn’t get to the practice, so we stayed near Ledovy Palace on the street. Wow! Familiar blonde head! Yeah, that our boy himself! His parents arrived and he came out to meet him. They all came in but he said something like "I need to go to the hotel" and indeed in a minute he came out with his bag on wheels, came to his black Mercedes, drove, but at the Ledovy corner another car didn’t let him go and he began to signal till it gave the road. We chuckled. "Give the road to the King!" He skated Sex Bomb at the exhibition. Well I was happy to see it live (because I never did), but it wasn’t something extraordinary. Then Tatmyanina and Marinin skated, but Zhenya dressed for another program. And he came the last like a cherry on the cake. He skated with the original song from "Criminal St. Petersburg" ("Town which doesn’t exist"), so there was the difference as the composer changed the music for him, for his free skate. But the costume was the same. Frankly I love his free skate better, skating with that song seemed to me very good but less expressive. Of course the audience screamed and applaud a lot! At the end of exhibitions all participants were standing on ice in form of a "300".