Crystal Skate

The results of the men's short programme were quite surprising. Not only did half the world gasp in surprise at Yuzuru Hanyu's score, but they were also amazed by Daisuke Murakami's astonishing debuting performance. Still, all hope is not lost for any of the skaters trying to get to the final as Murakami cannot qualify. Who will most certainly qualify though is Takahito Mura. Let's see who joins him. It's hard to watch Joshua Farris 's free skate. He entirely loses his focus after the fall on the quad Toeloop, so the only good jump is the triple Axel from the very beginning. This is one of those moments when the feel of the music ( Schindler's List ) matches the skater's own state of mind for all the wrong reasons. His score: 111.53 . Overall: 169.88 . Ross Miner from the USA Photograph: Atsushi Tomura/Getty Images Asia Ross Miner  fares better despite not being able to jump a quad either. His song is Romanza  by Andrea Boccelli, which gives him ...

Last time we saw Yuzuru Hanyu, he got our attention for all the wrong reasons. Let's hope this time skating in his home country helps him get over the nasty incident in China, because if it doesn't, his own countryman, Takahito Mura, will hurry to snatch the lead from him. Jeremy Ten 's start of the competition is not pristine. He struggles with the triple Axel and falls on the triple Flip. His score: 65.81 . South Korea's Jim Seo Kim Photograph: Kevin Lee/Getty Images Asia From the hairdo to the name, Daisuke Murakami  is a look-alike of his more famous countryman, Daisuke Takahashi. His style though is not as well defined as Takahashi's, but he is perfect technically, and his future looks good. He gets 79.68  points. Whenever Ivan Righini  skates, we have a show on our hands. His Michael Jackson routine always gets the crowd going and rightly so. On a technical level though, he has a hand down on the triple Axel and one of the spins. His score: 70.27 ....

Unexpected shifts of places are not uncommon in the men's competition, but they can still be shocking when they happen. So we're off with Machida, Abbott and Brown leading. Let's see how they, and other top contenders, do: It always baffles me that Russian young skaters, like Adian Pitkeev , choose extremely intense music to skate on instead of going for something that might be fun. The result is that they don't project towards the audience, but are rather closed on themselves, like they're focusing too hard to follow the choreography. Technically, he falls on the quad. His score: 135.94 . Overall: 212.07 . From left to right: Brown, Machida, Nguyen Photograph: Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images North America Denis Ten  has stepped into a new musical territory with songs from New Impossibilities,  a musical project filled with Arabian rhythms. I'm sure this program will be a masterpiece by the end of the season, but right now, it looks as if he's not p...

There are 12 men competing at Skate America in the individual event. Three of them are looking to reinforce their worth, two hope they can redeem themselves and the rest are just here to gain some experience. Let's see how the best of them pull through: Artur Gachinski  still can't land his quads, which is just painful to watch because artistically, he's as good as ever. He's got Tatiana Tarasova on his side now so maybe she can fix him. His music is Cry Me a River  by Michael Buble. He gets 75.71  points. Nam Nguyen  seems to be having the time of his life here. His music choice, Sinnerman  by Nina Simone, is an incredibly tricky song to skate on because of the rapid changes in rhythm, but he never struggles with it. His ease reminds me of Patrick Chan in his earlier days. His score: 73.71 . Representing Russia's younger generation of skaters, Adian Pitkeev  skates on Rachmaninoff. He manages alright with only a minor mistake on his quad, but artis...

Chicago is less than a week away from hosting the 2014 Skate America and so it is time for me to start blogging again. Skate America will open the Grand Prix Series and as such it is the first truly important competition of the season. 2014/2015 will undoubtedly be the season a new generation of champions emerges, as many Olympic and World title holders have withdrawn from competitive ice. However, with the standards of the sport getting higher each year, it's become a lot less easy to predict who will climb the steps of the podiums. But before we get to the medal predictions, there's one thing we've got to mention first. This season is the first time we are able to hear lyrics in all the events. To that, I can only say it is high time that the ISU allowed it. The words are making it less difficult for skaters to tell a story, especially those who don't have a partner to share the storytelling with. They also help the public understand a routine a lot better and thu...