Flash-back...

Just for interest, here's a look back at the last time the World Figure Skating Championships were held in Moscow, 2005.

• The 'new' scoring system was still very new, 2005 was the first Worlds without a perfect 6.
• This was the last time we saw Michelle Kwan in competition. 
• 2005 also had qualifying rounds. All singles skaters competed in one of two qualifying groups and their qualifying score counted (a little bit) to the final result.  These were done away with for the 2007 worlds but now appear to be back again in 2011 as a way of weeding out the lower ranked skaters and producing a smaller field for the main competition. 
• In the ladies - Irina Slutskaya swept the competition, winning the qualifying short, and free programmes. Silver went to the error-prone Sasha Cohen and bronze to the youngster Carolina Kostner. 
• Michelle Kwan was 4th and off the podium for the first time since 1994! Eventual 2006 Olympic Champ Shizuka Arakawa finished in 9th place.
• In the men's event there were 3 first-time medallists.l, Stephane Lambiel, Jeffrey Buttle and Evan Lysacek, with Johnny Weir just outside in 4th. 
• Eventual 2006 Olympic Champ Evgeni Pluchenko was 1st in his qualifying group but finished 5th in the short programme and withdrew due to injury.
• Russian pair Totmianina & Marinin won their second consecutive world title, ahead of team-mates Petrova & Tikhonov, back in the time when Russian pairs were completely dominent. The chinese power house was on the way up, with Zhang & Zhang 3rd and Pang & Tong 4th.
• The Ice Dance Podium was the only one to completely match that of the 2006 olympics.
  1. Navka & Kostomarov (RUS) , 2.Belbin & Agosto (USA), 3. Grushina & Goncharov (UKR)
• Competitors in 2005 who are still in the mix in 2011 include;
  Ladies - Miki Ando (6th in 2005), Cynthia Phaneuf (20th), Jenna McCorkell (22nd) & Elena Glebova (17th in qualifying group),
  Mens- Brian Joubert (6th, ), Kevin Van Der Perren (8th), Daisuke Takahashi (15th),
  Pairs - Pang & Tong (4th), Savchenko & Svolkowy (6th),
  and Dance - Pechalat & Bourzat (19th)

Here are the full starting orders and results from 2005 and 2011