1998 Worlds Men's Short | Yagudin leads, Eldredge stumbles out of contention for gold

Описание: Australian/American coverage (commentator: Peter Carruthers)
Selected performances (groups 3 and 4) from the men's short program, 1998 World Figure Skating Championships, marked (^) below:
Final Place Skater Country SP^ FS
1. Alexei Yagudin RUS 1^ 2 ("Ziganotchka/Russian gypsy music")
2. Todd Eldredge USA 4^ 1 ("Les Miserables")
3. Evgeni Plushenko RUS 2^ 4 ("Paso Doble/Spanish Medley")
6. Michael Weiss USA 3^ 7 ("Baghdad/Mario takes a Walk" - by Jesse Cook)
8. Jeffrey Langdon CAN 8^ 8 ("Let there be Drums")
9. Evgeny Pliuta UKR 9^ 10 ("Waltz no. 7" - by Chopin)
10. Szabolcs Vidrai HUN 12^ 9 ("Riabinouchka/Russian folk music")
11. Takeshi Honda JPN 11^ 11 ("Two-Minute Warning" - by Ernie Albert)
12. Zhengxin Guo CHN 14^ 12 ("Riverdance")
15. Michael Shmerkin ISR 10^ 19 ("Hava Nagila")
19. Markus Leminen FIN 13^ 20 ("Shine on you crazy diamond/Money" - by Pink Floyd)
Алексей Ягудин, Евгений Плющенко, 本田 武史, 郭政新
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[excerpts from U.S. Skating Magazine - by M. Friedlander] Of the contenders, 15-year-old Evgeni Plushenko — a last minute replacement for Ilia Kulik — skated first in the short, and as usual, missed nothing. The lanky young Russian had been landing quads and triple Axels all week as if no one ever told him he could fall.
Yagudin came through as well. He lacked the crowd connection of some of his fellow competitors, but his much improved choreography and flawless triple Axel-triple toe combination landed him in first place in the short.
Eldredge had come off a difficult season, plagued by injuries and Nagano Winter Games disappointment. He arrived in Minneapolis with renewed determination and competitive fire — and something to prove to the world and to himself.
"It would mean a lot to win here," he said before the event. "I just want to go out and have fun and enjoy the performance."
Unfortunately, that did not happen in the short program. A stumble on the combination jump virtually put him out of the running for gold.
"My triple Axel was too wild, too big and out of control," he said. "Maybe I tried too hard."
He ended up in fourth place, with his fate out of his hands.
Ironically, it was fellow teammate Weiss who virtually took Eldredge out of gold-medal contention by placing third, just ahead of Eldredge, in a 5-4 split. Skating last, Weiss completed all elements in a powerful, high-energy short program that put him in a great position for a medal.
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[from Ice Skating International] The second Canadian skater, Jeffrey Langdon, skated last and did a bang-up job. He skated clean with triple Axel - double toe loop and triple flip. After the performance he said, "It was one of my best short programs all year and it was great to do it here. I think it was an advantage to skate last. You have to think positive whenever you skate. There has been energy in this building all afternoon and I wanted to give them the show they were waiting for. The American crowd is great and there are so many Canadians - it is fabulous."
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special thanks to Kim!