SP (7): "Istanbul". Tripped on his toe pick as he was setting up his lutz combination and quickly substituted a double axel instead, tried the combination again and only got off a single lutz/single toe, triple flip. He was flying through his circular footwork and did beautiful, unusual spins, including a back-to-front spin combination with a layback position.
FS (5): "Romeo & Juliet". Triple flip, triple lutz/triple toe, fell on triple axel, circular step, clockwise single axel into counterclockwise double axel (in practice this was doubles in both directions), spin combination, fell out of triple salchow, spirals into a triple toe with a fall, triple lutz, more spirals, layback spin, straightline step, double loop, triple loop.
Wow wow wow. I cannot say enough good things about this skater. Tremendous flexibility and extension, and his jumps look very strong. I saw him land a couple triple axels in practice even if he didn't do one in his program -- he was the only one of the juniors even attempting it this year. Even more amazing, in practice I also saw him do a complete set of double jumps in his reverse direction, and he was also working on a reverse direction triple lutz.
I think that Rohene's mistakes in this competition were probably due to inexperience; he hasn't competed at Nationals since 1997. While waiting to start his short program he was goofing around with the audience and I kind of thought he just lost focus. I also did wonder about the amount of practice time he was spending on elements that were not in his program, like the reverse-direction jumps and some of his bendy moves.
Review by Sandra Loosemore
To understand "Skating Terms"