Crystal Skate

If Javier Fernandez and Sergei Voronov can keep up the pace they set themselves at yesterday, this final is going to be a battle of epic proportions. On third and fourth, Kozuka and Brezina are also fresh off their best performances this season and it would be a welcome change to see them continue in the same way. Ivan Righini  has excellent taste in music. After a Michael Jackson routine, today he skates to the music of another icon, Frank Sinatra. The ladies in the audience are more than enchanted, but the judges won't be pleased with his elements. His score: 125.33 . Overall: 195.07 . Artur Gachinski is still in a dry-spell Photograph: Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images Europe Stephen Carriere  is so expressive you get the impression he's not looking at the audience or the judges or the rink, but that he's living inside the story he's telling. Unluckily, there are so many errors from him today. He gets 129.04  points. Overall: 201.24 . Hallelujah  is a difficult...

Last time we saw Javier Fernandez, he was slightly short of his best performance. Let's hope this event will give him the opportunity to prove Skate Canada was just bad luck. And what about Max Aaron and Jason Brown? They are fresh from their minor victories, but it's hard to say if they can keep it up in Moscow in front of the array of talented competitors they must face. Moris Kvitelashvili  makes for a wonderful Lestat from Interview with a Vampire . He's funny, looks like a young Dracula and is just accurate enough technically to leave us with a good impression. He falls on the triple Axel though. His score: 62.24 . Misha Ge impresses once more Photograph: Kevin Lee/Getty Images Asia The soundtrack of W.E.  is growing in popularity among skaters. Jeremy Ten  joins the group of skaters who have used it, and his version might be the first that sticks with me. You can see all the elements of the tempestuous love story and many fabulous jumps. He gets 73.91  ...

There are many skaters who could climb the men's podium at this year's Skate Canada. Unfortunately for the hosts, none of them are actually Canadian. Instead, we've got athletes from Europe and Asia ready to battle it out, metaphorically of course, for their first Grand Prix medals of the season. Let's see who gives it their best in the short programme. Although Liam Firus 's routine isn't exactly fascinating, it is a decent start to the competition. He can't control the landing of the triple Axel and falls, but the rest of the jumps are quite strong. His score: 64.94 . Andrei Rogozine  brings back a song we haven't heard in a while: Mozart's Lacrimosa , this time with lyrics. The Canadian interprets it with that dramatic fierceness you'd expect from a Canadian-trained Russian-born skater. He is here as Kevin Reynolds' substitution, but with a programme as good as this, he's already overcome that status. He gets 70.95  points. S...

Skate Canada, held in the Orchard City, aka Kelowna, British Columbia, is going to be a treat this year because none of the former gold medalists are competing. Even more, except for Julia Lipnitskaia, all of them have either withdrawn or broken up. That means that winning is anyone's game. Vanessa James/Morgan Cipres, France's top pair Photograph: Atsushi Tomura/Getty Images Asia This might not be good news for the hosts, who are used to keep the men's gold in Canada thanks to Patrick Chan. With him "taking a break" and Kevin Reynolds having had to withdraw due to skates problems, it is likely that they won't even have a skater on the podium. But the Canadians are such fans of figure skating that I'm sure they won't let their disappointment shine through. Instead, you can bet they'll cheer their hats off for every and any of these four favourite contenders: Javier Fernandez, Takahiko Kozuka, Michal Brezina and Konstantin Menshov. Canada do...