Nightmares in Nice

Just when we thought it was safe to back on the ice rink, World Championships came along and brought us a whole load of drama. And when I say a whole load, I mean a whole load. A drama fest, drama a go go, drama-rama.  It all kicked off in the pairs short program.
The first incident came in Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov's routine when during one of their signature big lifts Alexander seemed to catch his foot or something and went down, dropping Yuko on the way. It was hugely uncharacteristic for them as in lifts Alexander is normally so reliable and consistent, so you can't help  but feel terrible for him. Then after that during Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov's routine, firstly Yuri stumbled on the landing of their side by side jumps. They pulled it together and seemed to have got past it and then at the end of the routine they're going fo rtheir freeze frame pose, Yuri grabs Vera, then stumbles backwards, it almost looks like he's going to hold it out but no, they go tumbling to the floor in a heap. Poor old Yuri had the most hilarious expression of sheer bewilderment on his face but Vera had a face like thunder, she seriously looked FUMING. Incredibly, they didn't lose marks for it, seemingly because they fell after the routine had ended and the music had stopped. So that was a HUGE stroke of luck for them. At this point I couldn't believe that two Russian pairs had made such uncharcteristic mistakes. But we weren't all done there. Oh no. It was time for Trankov. Surely, I thought to myself, Maxim and Tatiana can step up and save the day. And at first it seemed like they would. Everything was going so well. Then during the death spiral Maxim suddenly falls backwards onto the ice taking Tatiana with him. There are sharp intakes of breath, groans, jaws dropping, no one can actually beleive their eyes. ALL THREE of the top Russian teams made really weird, unusual mistakes out of nowhere. Unfortunately this is a thing that happens in ice skating, its a very unpredictable sport, no matter how many times you practice something sometimes you can just snag something on the ice or not quite hit an edge right and then there's absolutley nothing you can do. That's why you feel so terrible for them because its rarely ever their fault on these things. So that's pretty much blown the field right open. A word also for one of the best performances of the day by Stefania Berton and Ondrej Hotarek. Their musicality is so good that my dad, the biggest figure skating skeptic ever, was moved to declare them the 'routine that went the best with the music' and was the best to watch. Its true their interpretation skills are brilliant, and she's just so beautiful its almost unreal.