The Golden West Championships figure skating competition takes place this weekend in California and below are some of the interesting developments.
Although world champion Patrick Chan was competing the free skate, U.S. National silver medalist Richard Dornbush edged him out in that portion of the competition, 141.27 to 139.96, and Dornbush reportedly landed a quadruple toe loop. Chan did not land a quad or a triple axel. I'm not reading too much into Chan's performance since the competition was obviously just a chance for him to try out his new free skate, but I do think it's great that Dornbush landed a quad, as I think he'll need one to jump to the next level competitively, and recent articles hadn't exactly sounded like he has the quad nailed down. Dornbush easily won the entire competition (having competed in both short program and free skate).
After the short program, Caroline Zhang has a nice lead over the field of lesser known ladies skaters.
Unseen Skaters Online has been posting scores so be sure to check it out.
In other news, Russia had a test skate yesterday, in which skaters presented programs to the country's officials and judges, and who showed up but our favorite Uber-medalist Evgeny Plushenko. Video! Plushenko did not land a quad but he landed a triple axel...and then another one...and then another one. That's three more than Patrick Chan! ZING! Not sure why he chose to do so many but maybe it's the best jump he has right now. Plushenko is only a few months removed from knee surgery, and he looked pretty good, considering. He had a quick bit of footwork in the middle of the program and...used his arms a lot, as he does.