Patrick Chan came into the free skate in 1st place with a score of 98.37 and started his long program with a strong quad toe-triple toe combo, leaving the crowd breathless. But slowly the program began to unravel as he made mistake after mistake.
By the end of the program it seemed uncertain if he would be able to defend his World title, but then came the scores. The scores from his short program gave him a 6.81 lead and with two quads in his long it was just enough to squeak out another World title, despite his falls.
Chan acknowledged that his quad and his lead in the short program is what saved him. It’s never exciting to see the champion not have a clean skate and he seemed disappointed as well. Hopefully he will come back stronger next year and earn the title the way he envisioned it.
Denis Ten pulled off two amazing programs during the World Championships earning himself the silver medal, which is the very first World Championship medal for Kazakhstan. Ten had great energy and landed his jumps effortlessly, including a quad.
Javier Fernandez, also made history winning the very first medal ever for Spain at the World Championships, a bronze. He struggled quite a bit in his long program, but still managed to land a quad toe and a quad salchow.
In his World Championship debut, Max Aaron jumped his way into 7th place. Though there is room for growth, this skater is full of potential. Ross Miner finished a disappointing 14th, but it was just enough to earn the United States two spots on the Men’s Figure Skating Olympic Team.
Brian Joubert, landed two quads and six triple jumps, but his final triple flip was not counted due to his over-repeating the jump and there were questions about whether his jumps were fully rotated as well.
The men’s competition at the 2013 World Championships puts a few things into perspective: 1. It has been said, “You cannot win the competition with the short program, but you can certainly lose it.” 2. No matter how many quads you do, if you are missing the full revolutions and the quality is not there, you will not be rewarded for them. 3. Finally, you can win a championship on a wing and a prayer, take it from Chan.
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