Yuzuru Hanyu: 2016 Worlds Short Program

The 2016 Worlds Short Program event!!  I took a few moments to appreciate that I was sitting in the home of the Boston Bruins.  The banners that hung from the rafters reminded me that there was a lot of history in Boston, and even though I’m not a Bruins fan, it was cool to see the Bobby Orr banner.  Alex Shibutani posted that he got to meet Zdenek Chara while in Boston, that would have been super cool!!

My seats were decent, lower bowl, just off center ice, but a bit higher up in row 13.  So, the pictures on this photo diary entry are not as close up as the practice photos but I thought I would share them anyways.  Any picture of Yuzu is a good picture of Yuzu!!

I maxed out the zoom and did the best I could.  I did not take any pictures during the actual short program because I wanted to fully concentrate on Yuzu’s program.  So here are my Yuzu moments before and after his short program.  The excitement was building!!

Pensive Yuzu.  Taking a moment to really focus on the task coming up!

 

Oops, wardrobe malfunction!!  You could hear the entire crowd whispering about this as soon as Yuzu took his warm up jacket off.

Yuzu thanking the ice as the warm up was over, the wardrobe malfunction still evident.

After that moment, I put my camera down.  I wanted to watch Yuzu’s short program without interruption and with my full concentration.

Boy, what a treat!!  The last competitive performance of Chopin.  What a way to retire the program!  Pure joy!!  It was awesome to see Yuzu just “let go” of the emotion!!

Loved Yuzu’s reaction!!  After a very stressful lead up to this program, and with all of the expectations of Japan, and the world on his shoulders, he delivered a beautiful short program!!  A subtle #1 with his right hand finger tells a great story!

Thank you Yuzu!!

Fantastic reaction in the Kiss and Cry area.  I was about 180 feet away from Yuzu so this was the best shot I could get but when I zoom in the photo, it’s a wonderful moment and super cute!  Such pure joy!!

As Yuzu leaves, he is holding Poohs little paw.  Does it get any cuter than this?

While Yuzu’s clean short program didn’t break his existing world record, it set up for an exciting Free program final!!  Such an exciting night and I will always remember celebrating in the streets afterwards!!

If you have missed any of the previous 2016 Worlds photo diary entries or my regular blog entries, here is the link to the rest of my blog entries:

https://sportymags.wordpress.com/

 

Up next: The last of the 2016 Worlds photo diary: Long Program and Medal Ceremony!!

Go Yuzu Go!!!  Doki Doki!!