2003 ISU Grand Prix Final

1 March

Men, Free Program B

Min Zhang (CHN), 2003 Four Continents silver medallist
I survived this competition by saving energy and relying on my reserves. I was able to focus on my quads. I was a last minute replacement, and I wasn’t prepared. I had to take another skater’s music to have a second program.

Chengjiang Li (CHN), 2003 Four Continents bronze medalist
It wasn’t too bad. I fought through the whole program.

Brian Joubert (FRA), 2003 European silver medallists
I’m quite happy with my program tonight. It’s not bad for my first Grand Prix Final. I did a mistake on the triple Lutz, but it doesn’t matter so much. Each competition that I enter, I learn from. Here, I learned how to deal with the stress and the difficulties of my program.

Alexander Abt (RUS), 2002 European silver medalist
Coach Elena Tchaikovskaya: Sasha tried to do the maximum. He went for everything and he tried hard. But he isn’t yet in top shape after the injury. He had to miss Europeans and he didn’t have an international even since the Bofrost Cup in November. Now he will go back to the USA and prepare for Worlds. Of course, he is disappointed now, but he will fight back. Life goes on. The most important competition of the year is still to come.

Ilia Klimkin (RUS), 1999 World Junior Champion
It’s a new program, I’ve just completed it a few weeks ago. It’s not quite ready yet. The steps and spins were fine but I still missed some jumps. It’s the story about a man who is the devil. I felt sick during all the competition, so it was hard to manage. I have to finish this program and to improve my jumps for Worlds.

Evgeni Plushenko (RUS), 2002 Olympic silver medallist
The best thing today was to do the quad-triple-triple combination again. I felt calm and confident out there. It was great to skate at home. I think I never had so many 6.0s before. Now there are two weeks left to prepare for Worlds. I will train hard for it. I hope to do the combination again and maybe another quad.