FIGURE SKATING: Nations Cup: Men

Nations Cup Gelsenkirchen, Germany November 09 - 12, 2000 Televised December 3, 2000 on ABC

The headliners at Nation's Cup were Evgeny Plushenko, the reigning Russian and European Champion, and Timothy Goebel, who was fresh off an upset win at Skate America over the reigning World Champion Alexei Yagudin.

Plushenko was making his debut in the Grand Prix series at the Nation's Cup. Plushenko had matured much since last year, putting on muscle and looking less like an adolescent. Everyone had been talking about how different he looked in comparison to last year. Plushenko had something to prove at this event. Last year, Plushenko dominated the Grand Prix series and won the Grand Prix Finals (Alexei Yagudin had withdrawn due to injury). Plushenko even upset Yagudin at the Europeans last year for the European title. However, he bombed at the Worlds, and finished fourth, while Yagudin won his third straight world title. This year, Plushenko's goal was to win all the events, and especially the Worlds. He would begin the road to the World Championships at this event.

The standings after the short program were not surprising: Plushenko in first place, skating a clean short program; Timothy Goebel in second, also skating cleanly; Chen-Jiang Li of China in third place, Alexander Abt of Russia in fourth, Emanuel Sandhu of Canada in fifth, and Ivan Dinev of Bulgaria in sixth.

First to skate in the long program was Alexander Abt, skating to music from the movie "Gladiator." It may have sounded familiar - this is also Alexei Yagudin's music for the long program this year. However, Abt was mostly using different sections of the soundtrack than Yagudin. Elvis Stojko of Canada is also using this music in his long program (it must be a great soundtrack!), but he was injured and not at this competition.

Abt two-footed his opening quad, but did a nice triple axel - triple toe combination. Abt followed that with another triple axel, but doubled his next lutz. Fatigue seemed to be setting in, as Abt had a more difficult time landing the rest of his jumps - a triple loop and triple salchow, and triple flip. Abt did not have quite enough footwork, or maybe his footwork just paled in comparison to the footwork that Yagudin has in his Gladiator program. However, his spins were quite well done, well centered with nice positions.

Chenjiang Li skated next, to music from "Blue Man." Coming off a poor showing at Skate Canada, he was trying to get it back at Nations Cup. Li pitched forward on his quad and touched a hand to the ice, but did a beautiful triple axel - triple toe combination. Li had a very weak death drop into a sit spin, nearly falling out of the spin, but managing to hang on. He landed a second triple axel, and his program was actually loaded with a lot of jumps at the end - triple lutz, salchow, loop, toe loop. Although Li's ending combination spin was slow and weak, he skated much better than he had a Skate Canada. Li was in placed in first over Alexander Abt.

Timothy Goebel took the ice, but he would have to be spectacular, and Plushenko would have to really crash, to win the Nations Cup. Goebel had three quads planned, just like he did at Skate America. His first quad salchow was clean, done in combination with a triple toe loop. However, Goebel fell on his second quad, a toe loop. He did rebound to land his third quad, a salchow, but with the fall on the triple toe, he had almost no chance of beating Plushenko. Goebel also stumbled on his triple axel - triple toe combination, stepping out of the triple toe and putting his hands down. Goebel barely squeaked out his second triple axel.

Goebel's improvements in his presentation are evident; his choreography flows more in between elements, and his footwork is more complicated, but when Goebel started making mistakes, the weakness in his posture, spins, and general stroking ability became more apparent. Still, with two quads and six other triples completed, Goebel was in first place with Plushenko skating next.

And so, the favorite stepped out onto the ice. The first apparent change was Plushenko's costume - it was much more mature than the costumes he wore last year. Plushenko also had gold colored gloves on, and it made his costuming look strangely similar to his training mate and 1994 Olympic Gold Medalist, Alexei Urmanov.

Plushenko's music was set to music from "Once Upon a Time in America." Plushenko opened with his trademark quad toe - triple toe - double loop (4-3-2) combination. He immediately followed with a second quad toe loop. The rest of his program was full of triples…and a fair amount of plain standing still and posing. Plushenko did a triple axel - triple toe loop, and smoked a bit on an imaginary cigar. His hand movements looked almost exactly like the trademark hand movements of his training mate Urmanov. Plushenko has one great advantage in men's skating - his back is so flexible he can do a Biellman spin, which is usually something only some very flexible ladies can do. Plushenko even does a spiral in the Biellman position, with his leg pulled up behind his back to his head. However, this spiral is done on the flat of the blade; if Plushenko could do this spiral on a deeper edge, it would be even more impressive.

The only mistake Plushenko made was putting his hand down in a triple loop. It didn't mar his performance at all; however, the program seemed to end very abruptly, and did not build to an exciting, climactic ending. At this performance, the music and choreography worked, but should Plushenko start making major mistakes, the program and choreography would fall apart, just as his program at last year's World Championships fell apart.

Nevertheless, at Nations Cup, Plushenko was undoubtedly in first place, with only one skater left.

Ivan Dinev, in fourth place going into the long program, was shaken as he took the ice. During the warm up, Dinev fell on a quad and his right blade snapped off his boot!! Luckily, there was a figure skating exhibit right in the lobby of the arena and Dinev ran out and got a spare blade. The blade was actually a different shape and size from his left blade. How would he manage to skate like this?

Dinev did. He tripled his quad toe loop, but landed a very nice triple axel - triple toe combination. He continued to skate cleanly, landing the rest of his triple jumps and expressing the choreography quite well. The romantic and grand style of the music suited him quite well. Even with this personal triumph, Dinev received quite low marks, perhaps because he had no quad. He was unhappy with his marks, and finished in fifth place.

Plushenko was the undisputed winner. This was, however, his non-scoring event. His scoring events are the Cup of Russia and the NHK Trophy. Goebel earned nine points to add to the twelve points he earned at Skate America, which pretty much secures him a spot at the Grand Prix Finals in January in Tokyo, Japan.