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France's Joubert leads Buttle going into free skate
| Source: |
Vancouver Sun |
| Date: |
March 21, 2007 |
| Author: |
Cam Cole |
TOKYO -- There is no deduction for bludgeoning the judges with a
theme, so France's Brian Joubert didn't get docked for having "007"
sequined in silver on the black back of his white dinner jacket. As if
the panel possibly could have failed to guess, from all the mimed
gun-pointing, shadow-boxing and car-driving, that he was giving them a
triple helping of James Bond.
But subtlety notwithstanding, what Joubert did have, alone among the
contenders, was the Quad-triple toe loop combination in his short
program Tuesday at the ISU world figure skating championships -- and
enough of everything else to absorb Jeff Buttle's best shot and head
into today's free skate with nearly a four-point lead over the plucky
Canadian.
"It was a great combination, and we will do it again tomorrow," said
the 22-year-old from Poitiers, France. Buttle was amazing, again, in
what is becoming routine for him in Asia.
"Obviously, with the jumps being there today, I was able to sell it
just that bit more," he said, after his marks came up a personal-best
79.90. "I've been skating really well all week and it's been getting
better and better and I want to keep it going in that direction."
It wasn't only that the boyish 25-year-old from Smooth Rock Falls,
Ont., skated clean, with just the hint of a wobble on the landing of
his final triple, the Lutz. But he wrung every ounce of speed and
interpretation out of his program, and the judges were sufficiently
impressed to award him a gigantic 8-1/2-point lead over his nearest
pursuer, which (at the time) was his 21-year-old Barrie, Ont.,
clubmate Chris Mabee.
"I didn't even know how Chris skated, but when my marks came up and I
saw he was second, I thought, 'Hey, this is sweet. It's like
[nationals in] Halifax," said Buttle, whose combination was a less
difficult triple flip-triple toe.
But once Joubert skated, the jig was up.
The two-time world silver medalist and reigning European champ - who
spent a week in Toronto last summer, at the suggestion of the French
federation, sponging up all the advice and assistance four-time king
Kurt Browning could offer - landed the gold-standard combination and
looks poised now to take his career to the next level.
And if he does, says Browning, he will be awfully tough to catch
before the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
"You know what, it's not necessarily a bad idea when you're in a
foreign country to put 007 on your back, just to make sure the
audience gets your theme," said Browning, who's here as an ESPN
commentator. "And just in case the sequins in front throw off your
balance."
Joubert, though, is anything but a joke.
"He spent six or seven days with me in the summer. We hardly knew each
other. He had never seen me skate until I threw in a tape, in my
living room," said Browning. "Never seen me skate. And I said, 'You
mean you've never seen me skate live?' And he said, 'Non, I never see
you skate at all.' And I'm like, 'What are you doing in my living room
if you know nothing about me?'
"And that sort of sums him up in a way. He's very calm, it's not a big
deal, and he doesn't work more into the batter than is already there.
So he steps on the ice without a lot of clutter, and he's a hell of an
athlete - and he strong here [in the head], too. We just need to make
him a little more versatile as a figure skater, and work on that
second set of marks.
"I said to him this summer, 'You're the king of the jumpers right now,
unless [Olympic champ Evgeny] Plushenko comes back. You're the king.
Those other guys are not going to be able to improve to your level,
but you can improve. So in the next three years, you can get better,
whereas those other guys -- they're not going to get a whole lot
better.'"
With two-time defending world champion Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland
falling on his combination, and two-time bronze winner Evan Lysacek of
the U.S. doing the same, it's now Joubert's title to win ... with Buttle
breathing down his neck if he should stumble in the free skate.
The battle for third, occupied at the moment by Japan's Daisuke
Takahashi -- nine points back of Joubert, nearly 5-1/2 behind Buttle
-- is very close, with just a little over three points separating
Takahashi, Americans Johnny Weir and Lysacek, Lambiel and Tillsonburg,
Ont.'s Mabee.
It includes, despite his 11th-place standing after falling on his
triple Axel, Vancouver's Emanuel Sandhu, who skated last in the
whopping field of 42 men and took his coach Joanne McLeod's advice to
downgrade his Quad-triple combination to an easier flip-toe, which he
landed.
"It was an odd night, and I didn't think it was worth the risk, when
you have to wait such a long time [after warmup], and it's such a
quick-twitch jump" said McLeod. "So drawing last was the first part of
the thought, seeing how [the Quad] was going [in practice] was the
second part, and then the third thing was, what is everyone else
doing? To me, it wasn't worth the risk. I made the call after Lambiel
skated, and I thought he was smart listening to me on that call, and
not going with his ego. And you know, you want [to land] the Axel, but
he took it on, he didn't pop it."
"The thing is, you look at the points, and it's not so much the
placement, because third to 11th is like four or five points -- and
that's one triple jump in the long program," Sandhu said. "So I think
I'm looking more at that than getting disappointed with the placement.
The points are really close, so there is a chance for a medal, still."
Mabee has a realistic shot, if he skates well and things break right
for him, and that's a stunning development. He hit all four planned
triple jumps -- Axel, Lutz-toe combination and flip -- and, once he
got the final one in, was able to relax and sell a lively program set
to a blues guitar solo.
"For Chris, that was an awesome world debut, to go out and do what
he's capable of. I think what we want to do is keep him in that calm
state now. He's feeling very confident and he's got nothing to lose,"
said Mabee's Mariposa club coach Lee Barkell, who was a busy man
Wednesday, as Buttle's co-coach, plus guiding Nobunari Oda of Japan,
who's 14th.
"Feels pretty good, I can't lie," said Mabee, who earned his best-ever
international score, 71.33, to stand No. 1 at that point in the day --
and he was still first with three-quarters of the field in the books.
"I just went out and had a blast. It's what I've been doing in
practice, so it was great to put it out there in competition,
especially the most important one of the year."
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