It's that time of the year again...

This is what I don't get about Figure Skating... It seems you need to be a big name to get the big points.

When Kristoffer Berntssen took to the ice today in the 2008 European Figure Skating Championships, not many people gave him a shot. He put on a blistering performance however that was easily the best one of the 30 odd performances we'd already seen. Including Brian Joubert's.

Yet Berntssen ended up in fifth place on the leader board. The commentators on Eurosport didn't like it and neither did I. Ok so he has a certain lack of performance in his routine - he's stuck somewhere between dramatic and graceful and badly needs to lean one way or the other because the middle ground just looks... wafty - but that was still the best routine we had seen.

Now I know you Joubert fans go a little nuts when I diss him (why?) but you know as well as I do that he did not perform to his best today. He's been ill with gastritis (or gastroitis or gastroentoritis or some such shit) and quite clearly, he had only just recovered. He spent alot of his routine floundering around on the ice and looked generally exhausted throughout. And yet Joubert finished second in the rankings ahead of Lambiel who was far more impressive both in technique and performance. How can that be justified?

It didn't exactly look like anyone in the male short program particularly wanted the victory today, so perhaps it doesn't matter. But thank goodness for Tomas Verner who came out with an incredible performance that reminded me why I had just spent four hours watching men skate around in tight fitting clothes. (What, I need an excuse?)