Pairs FS Review

I will take care of the OD tonight after Ladies. There was only enough time to do one report, and I chose pairs. Let me know if there are questions.


I missed Aganina and Knyazev unfortunately. Their score was 78.19 for the FS and 123.60 for the competition.

Li/Xu (CHN) Chinese Music
Began with a throw 3R—split 3Twist with major 2foot landing—lift—spiral sequence—BODS—throw 3T—1 hand star lift with 1 hand dismount—sbs 2A—lift in which she is parallel to the ice between his legs before he lifts her, and then goes to 1-hand when lift is up—combination spin; she was bad, eventually fell out, and stopped—circular steps—slow pairs spin—FIDS. Nice powerful skate other than the spins. Technical: 54.13; Components: 37.79; Total: 91.91/138.87.

Brien/Beckingham (AUS) “The Masque of Zorro”
Begin with a nice pairs spin—a very small split 2 twist—2 hand lift—sbs 2A, odd technique, but landed—combination spin that was nice in speed and synchronization—throw 2R shaky—FODS—another 2 handed lift—spread eagle into FIDS—spiral sequence—2T-2R sequence—scary lift with weak positions and very bad edges by him—strightline steps—throw 2s. Seemed to be very proud of their performance. Technical: 38.80; Components: 27.77; Total: 66.57/101.51.

Langlois/Hay (CAN) “Concerto de Aranjuez”
Throw 3R with a bad skid out—split 2 twist—sbs 3S (she fell)—1 handed star lift—BIDS—combination spin—straightline steps—sbs 2A (she had trouble) 2T sequence—throw 3S (hands down)—spiral into lift—spiral sequence—another lift (can’t remember it and didn’t take notes)—FIDS with interesting entry where he skates around with her in position—pair spin to close. Technical: 47.45; Components: 45.79; Deductions: -1.00; Total: 92.24/143.22.

Orscher/Lucash (USA) Samson and Delilah
Garrett has been strugling with a groin injury that occurred in the SP at Nationals. He has pain on the reach for his 3T. Split 2 twist to open—3T (he fell)—HUGE throw 3F—2A (!!)—lift that has several changes in position—spiral sequence—BODS—another lift—combination spin—throw 3S (hands down) NOTE: Their throws are too big for her to maintain good position in the landings. They need to work on making them travel distance rather than height.—lift with a nice exit—straightline steps—FIDS—pairs spin to close. Nice effort for them! Technical: 48.50; Components: 48.63; Deductions: -1.00; Total: 96.13/145.90.

Putnam/Wirtz (CAN) Tchakovski’s Piano Concerto #1
Split 2 twist to start—lift with interesting exit—3S-2T sequence—(Peter Tchernychev left out a big WOO at that point)—pairs spin—BODS—2L—throw 3R (and down)—throw 3S—1 hand lift—straightline footwork—pairs spin with her on her toe the entire time—spiral sequence—ugly platter lift—combination spin to close. Technical: 53.16; Components: 47.29; Total: 100.45/149.56.

Hinzmann/Parchem (USA) Esperanza and “Once Upon a Time in Mexico”
Split 2 twist—throw 3R (Marcy very happy)—3T—lift—throw 3S—2T-2T sequence—FIDS—straightline footwork—lift—BODS—another lift in which Marcy lost body tension, so they had to abort—spriral in which Aaron was no where near the level of Marcy. There is a definite difference in skill level here—pair spin (Aaron’s positions were really ugly). I think that they could have won bronze had the end spin been better. Ugh! Not a good sign that they placed behind Canada #5!!! Technical: 49.81; Components: 48.05; Total: 97.86/148.90.

Wakamatsu/Fecteau (CAN) LaRevancho and Quartertango (?)
Throw 3R (hands down)—split 2 twist—3T-2T (he singled the 2nd one)—2a (she put a hand down)—lift—FIDS—carry lift with nice edge control—throw 3S—pair spin with nice positions—combination spin that was pleasant—straightline steps—1 hand upside down split lift. Utako is a beautiful pairs skater! I hope that they stick around for another year. Technical: 53.18; Components: 49.95; Total: 103.13/156.93.

Inoue/Baldwin (USA) Shostakovich
3T (he doubled of course!)—split 2 twist—2A-2A sequence (!!!)—throw 3R (Shaky)—FIDS—1 hand lift—nice pairs spin—throw 3A (belly flop crash! She was ½ turn short)—lift—BODS—straightline steps—beautifully synchronized fast combination spin with COP-friendly edges (!!!)—spiral sequence—nice lift to close. The double axels had different entry angles such that Rena was out of John’s view. They were perfect. I think that John pays too much attention to Rena on the 3T. If he would concentrate more, he could land it! Technical: 60.67; Components: 51.71; Deductions: -1.00; Total: 111.38/168.89.


Final Standings:
1 Rena INOUE / John BALDWIN USA 168.89 1 1
2 Utako WAKAMATSU / Jean-Sebastien FECTEAU CAN 156.93 2 2
3 Elizabeth PUTNAM / Sean WIRTZ CAN 149.56 6 3
4 Marcy HINZMANN / Aaron PARCHEM USA 148.90 3 4
5 Katie ORSCHER / Garrett LUCASH USA 145.90 5 5
6 Anabelle LANGLOIS / Cody HAY CAN 143.22 4 6
7 Jiaqi LI / Jiankun XU CHN 138.87 7 7
8 Marina AGANINA / Artem KNYAZEV UZB 123.60 8 8
9 Emma BRIEN / Stuart BECKINGHAM AUS 101.51 9 9

From what I've read so far about the competition - yours and other's posts - it sounds like it wasn't the best-skated event. Nevertheless, many seemed very puzzled by I/B's win (in the freeskate portion) with a number of very big errors. From what I gather so far P/W pretty much deserved to win the free, as W/F had a number of errors of their own....I'd love to know what you thought of the judging here.

Very nice to see two Canadian pairs on the podium, no matter what the order! We'll wait for the scoresheets to see if the 3A was ratified or not.

Can't imagine what happened to L&H? Not surprised that P&W are on the podium since they impressed me very much at Skate America.

Joe

Joesitz said:

Can't imagine what happened to L&H? Not surprised that P&W are on the podium since they impressed me very much at Skate America.

Joe

Click to expand...

Langlois and Hay were fine, but Annabelle missed the singles elements, while Cody was not as strong as other teams on the pairs elements. Give them another year...

Wow. Of the top six, three were US and three were Canadian teams, with two Candian teams on the podium. Whatever the judging, a good day for the North Americans.

Still, I too would be curious to hear EWalker's opinion on the judging here--for all the disciplines.

I also think we need a special "THANKS!" emoticon for posters such as EWalker. For now will just have to do.

Rgirl

For pairs, the judging was quite fair. Why would it not be? There wasn't much on the line here with the roster. L&H aren'y my cup of tea. I don't see long term potential there. But P&W are even less appealing IMHO. I think that their closeness in size is going to be difficult to overcome.

There are several reasons I&B score well, even with problems, against a weak field like this was:

1. Level 4 side by side spins-they are perhaps the best in the world in this category. This isn't hype-they get highest total score, next closest is O&S) Even The changes of edge as well as the rotations are perfectly matched and fast. Actually the spin is the highlight of their LP and in some ways more impressive than the throw 3A.

If you remember that none of the Chinese pairs come anywhere close to doing this level of spin and that T&M and PetTikhs chose to do a lower level, you'll realize the level of the achievement.

2. Gorgeous unison on the footwork, including going from unison to mirror unison to unison and back, done with great speed.
3. All 3 lifts are level four, going almost the entire length of the rink, 2 done one hand up and down for good measure.
4. Level 3 spiral...and John can actually get his leg up.
5. Even if Rena falls on the throw 3A, it is done after the 2 minute mark and is worth 8.33 base -3 for bad GOE and -1 for the fall- it's still 4.33, a bout the same as a throw 3S. Plus since they have landed it once in competition and a number of times in exhibitions, no one doubts that they can do it.
6. A back outside death spiral, done at level 4 (the extra rotation, hard entry, 2 revolutions, plus a change of pivot)
7. The sbs 2a/2a sequence is generally spot on and in unison even though the second one is done blind where John can't see Rena. A 2a/2a sequence is worth exactly the same points as a 3t2t combination, Paul Wylie to the contrary.

Finally, their speed is far superior to Putnam and Wirtz.

I might wish that John and Rena had skated as well as they did at Nationals, but I'm thrilled to hear that John landed the 3t in the SP!!

Just to make it clear why they won:

TES
O&S at Euros 58.38 (base 60.5)
PetTikh at Euros 61.09 (base 57.0)
S&S at Euros 62.96 (base 59.5)
T&M at Euros 63.66 (base 57.5)

I&B at 4C's 60.67 (base 61.1)
P&W at 4C's 53.16 (base 53.1)

Notice that even with the 3T downgraded that I&B still had a higher base mark than any of the top 4 pairs at Euros and had a higher tech score than O&S, finishing with approximately the same total score as O&S. (O&S get ridiculously high PCS, IMO)