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Speaking about travel destinations, lately I've been really wanting to visit San Francisco. However, if that's gonna happen, it would require a lot of courage and planning.

There's a cool anecdote about Judy going around Omaha. At the pre-competition press conference they asked her: "Who do you think will win the Finals?". She answered: "Me!"

Not sure. I'm following it on FEItv, which has replay service. It's not free however (subscription is 7 EUR for one month; 36 EUR for one year). I don't know who are the other broadcasters.

Great competition in the second half! That's it for me today, sadly I can't quite watch today the jumping opener starting at 2:00 AM Central European Time. But I'll make sure I'll watch other rounds live. Analysis of the second half. Perry-Glass & Dublet - Very clean, but not always spectacular. She finishes 7th with 73% Peters & Rosamunde - Few spectacular moments and many, many mistakes. He is in 8th place with 72% Reynolds & Vancouver - They just never stop improving. 5th place! Who knows, podium on Saturday is not impossible! Oatley & Du Soleil - Very expressive trot. One of their best performances of the season. She finishes 10th with 71%. Williamson & Dejavu - Another sad story... Dejavu appeared to be quite strong today so they made a lot of mistakes. Moreover, as soon as Wendi ended her performance and relaxed, Dejavu jumped. Commentators said something like: "I can't imagine how long these 6 minutes felt to Wendi. She had to work incredibly hard to keep him calm..." Anyway, they initially got 63%, but then got eliminated so they also won't compete in freestyle... Merkulova & Mister X - Not their best, but okay. They finish 9th. Graves & Verdades - All superlatives. 2nd place with 79% Werth & Weihegold - One bigger mistake, but mostly amazing. Winner with 82% It's interesting to see first two horses being completely differently built. Weihegold is very small, like some tiny dancer. Verdades is on the other hand like a powerful gymnast. Thumbs up for great commentating from John Kyle and Canadian rider Karen Pavicic today.

They will be reallocated to the final qualification event however, not the WCh.

Esbrat/Novoselov get 18 points. If a counting pair fails to qualify for free skate they get 18 points by default.

First 8 have gone in dressage Grand Prix, it's time for judging break. Here are some of my impressions. Manfredi - Very, very nice performance. Some mistakes in canter tour unfortunately dropped her by 1-2%, but she was very happy. Gal - Very correct work, though sometimes tense. No big mistakes. Krinke-Susmelj - Something weird happened in the first half-pass. No big mistakes after that, but not quite their very best. Karasiova - I can't believe I saw this nightmare. I guess pressure ate her inside, as this was her very first competition with Arlekino outside of Russian-speaking country. She basically didn't even try to perform first piaffe, probably got 0s from all judges for both piaffe and transitions. Other two piaffes were quite bad, but at least she tried to perform them. What a shame, despite all this they showed good talent... Marcari Oliva - Struggled with transitions and walks, but overall a decent showing. Interestingly, he got the biggest cheer from the crowd. Hester - No mistakes, he is the leader. He makes it look easy, but I think a bit overscored. Extended trots were very conservative. Tofte Olesen - Similar to Manfredi. Very nice, but mistakes dropped her a bit. Pitty, so close to 70%. Witte-Vrees - Was right on-par with Hester in the first half, but then some mistakes started, dropping her down. The worst part for Karasiova is that she failed to reach 60%. Everyone qualifies for freestyle at the WC Finals, but provided that they have at least 60%. So she travelled half the World for this nightmare.

Things about to kick off eh. Results can be followed here by the way.

Looks like the situation is pretty much set. The only change from yesterday is that France gains one quota while USA loses one. Nice gift for the second French pair that finished second to last.

Men's OQ standings 3 quotas - 2 quotas - 1 quota - miss out because get 1+1 free..

Yuzuru Hanyu finishes his performance and the crowd throws 1000 toys in the rink. What a way to waste your money, a toy he will never even look at.

24 quotas are on offer. But they are assigned to nations by special rules, not athletes. So finishing in top 24 does not guarantee anything,

qualified for free skate. Good chance for their first ever Winter Olympic qualification!

Well, I enjoyed Vrdoljak's performance, even though he won't be placed too high by the end. But hey, he was in the lead for a moment after being second to start. Altogether, we had a successful comeback to the World stage after being absent for a long while

It's cumulative. In the first two rounds everybody starts from 0 and they get points for their finishing places (1st gets 38 pts, 2nd 36 pts, 3rd 35 pts, ... , 37th 1 pt). Points will be summed and converted into starting penalties for the third and final round.

One day to go... Here's one long distance traveler. Few more behind the scenes shots...

Well, keep in mind that the standard has been raised tremendously lot in the past 4 years. At the 2013 World only top 3 pairs got 70+ in short program. Today 11 pairs went above 70.

It's 18th, and no. Even though they should have 2, they can't have 2 because the max quota was already reached.

Not that likely for USA. Even though Denney/Frazier finished 20th, they will still get 18 points instead of 20... That's the rule, if some counting pair/single skater does not qualify for free skate, the nation gets 18 points, no matter what the position was. Also, if counting pair/skater qualifies for free skate, the nation can get max 16 points...

Pairs Olympic qualification standings after short program - 16 quotas on offer. 3 quotas - 2 quotas - 1 quota - Even though qualified for free skate (top 16), none of them gets Olympic qualification provisionally (and that's very unlikely to change after free skate). Meanwhile, and get two quotas even though their second pairs didn't even qualify for the free skate. Long live the loving relationship between ISU and rich big nations!

It's possible, but unlikely. Probably their best hope is that US girls currently in top 10 drop 2 places combined (for example finish 6th and 8th). Also, they will need either Kostner or Tursynbaeva to be kicked out of top 10 by either Japanese or US skater that is currently outside of top 10 (Bell, Hongo, Mihara). Other possibility is that both and get kicked out of top 10 by Japanese and/or US skaters.

goes into second. At this rate they might finish in top 10 and actually qualify two pairs.

Simply awesome

What a great skate for Petranović/Souza Kordeiru Much better than at Europeans! Of course, they won't make free skate in this company, but it is very nice nevertheless!

Spoke too soon. just missed out on free skate after some of the skaters later on excelled. Anyway, this is the standings for Olympic qualification after short program 3 quotas - 2 quotas - 1 quota - Kazakhstan is currently the biggest troll. They have 2 quotas since their sole skater here (Tursynbaeva) is currently in 10th place. Just enough to have two skaters provisionally, even though the level of other Kazakhs is much, much lower...