Chantastic!

Patrick Chan blew away the field today in the men's short programme. The canadian's score set a new IJS record, beating that of Evgeni Plushenko from the 2010 Europeans. The best of the rest were the Japanese men followed by mini-Plushenko, Artur Gachinski of Russia who hit a clean 4T-3T combination.

What is eye opening is the generosity of the programme component scores for Chan's programme. While his skating skills and artistry have earned Patrick acclaim, it's the first time I've seen the judges give out anything near a 'perfect 10' in any area! Perhaps someone had a word in the judges ears that it's ok to reward the world's best skaters for being the world's best skaters.

Barring major falls/disaster. Patrick has his first world title partially sewn up. (I hope I don't eat my words.)
What do you think? Was Chan over-marked? Are you happy to see higher scores being rewarded?

Also in the pairs event, Olympic silver medallists Pang & Tong hold a narrow lead over pre-competition favourites Savchenko & Szolkowy.  The Russians are 3rd, 4th and 5th with (surprisingly) the most experienced team, Kavaguti & Smirnov behind after a freak fall from him on their combination spin. An impressive worlds debut from Japanese pair Takahashi & Tran, who sit in 6th (It feels as if they've been around for ages now but this is their senior worlds debut.)