And Malinin bounced back. He earned a WR 238.24 in the FP...and of note that in this Grand Prix Finals event, the 6th place competitor earned 242.19 combined (not even 4 points higher).
Dang.
Liu fell 8 minutes in, a hard fall it seems which prevented the race from going on. The three skaters (Lorello Bosker and Trebouta ) will get a rerun tonight.
As the Netherlands and Italy already have two guys in qualifying spots this is not a disaster for them. But Trebouta will now start another 10000 with 15 laps in the legs, alone in his pair, aiming for 12'49 to qualify. We'll never know what he would have done in those last laps but he was on pace to at least approach this time.
I only kinda know Wayne Gretzky by name, don't think I ever heard or saw him really do anything, but man, for someone called 'The Great One' that sure was an underwhelming performance by him
Pronounced half the countries like he had never even heard of them (which I assume is correct), and made it seem as though reading a card with a grand total of 4 countries on it was super difficult. Shaquille O'Neal and Aaron Judge at least clearly practiced the names in their pot. The full 'Islamic Republic of Iran' by Shaq for example, I feel like Gretzky would just have said 'I R Iran' and thought the I and R were a typo.
This is such an annoying thing at events like this. Like that guy who came on the podium with a speech in Spanish. I mean, no blame at all if you don't speak English, there's no real shame in that and that's fine, but if you don't....then don't go on a global stage and give a speech even if you're asked to, unless someone is there translating sentence by sentence.
I Was in London in June 2010, when Mexico faced South Africa at Soccer City Stadium
I will be in Hargeisa in June 2026, when Mexico will face South Africa at Estadio Azteca