Pairs Event

Short Program results are up: http://www.isufs.org/results/jgpmex2008/SEG005.HTM

1 Ksenia KRASILNIKOVA / Konstantin BEZMATERNIKH RUS 50.90
2 Anastasia MARTIUSHEVA / Alexei ROGONOV RUS 50.12
3 Ekaterina SHEREMETIEVA / Mikhail KUZNETSOV RUS 49.89
4 Yue ZHANG / Lei WANG CHN 47.75
5 Narumi TAKAHASHI / Mervin TRAN JPN 45.67
6 Duo CHENG / Yu GAO CHN 42.97
7 Kirsten MOORE-TOWERS / Andrew EVANS CAN 41.64
8 Sara JONES / Jeremy SANDOR CAN 40.13
9 Molly AARON / Daniyel COHEN USA 39.79
10 Brynn CARMAN / Chris KNIERIM USA 38.99
11 Brittany CHASE / Andrew SPEROFF USA 38.84

Wow, the three U.S. teams did not fare well at all. I'm a little surprised since two of them (Carmen/Knierim, Chase/Speroff) have the same coach as Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker.

Not surprising to see the three Russians and the Chinese team on top, but I'd thought Chase/Speroff and Carman/Knierim would be right up there after their performances during the summer comps!

What happened to the Sappenfield touch? C/K in the 30s for the score. They have their work cut out not just for the LP but for the next Assignment.

Nice to see Japan with a competitive Pairs.

Takahashi/Tran are a delightful team. I enjoyed them a lot at Junior Worlds. There's a lot to work on, but their style is charming. They got a PB by two points so they must have done something well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMmEWkycm18

Joesitz said:

What happened to the Sappenfield touch? C/K in the 30s for the score. They have their work cut out not just for the LP but for the next Assignment.

Click to expand...

I cannot be sure since the protocols aren't out, but my guess is that they got dinged for illegal elements, which are automatic 2-point deductions, such as a lift for too many rotations or a flying camel spin ending in a Bielmann position (only 2 cases I know of).

Kypma

Or they had two falls.

Maybe the Colorado altitude training will serve the US teams better when it comes to the free skate. They're in "nothing to lose" positions now, so hopefully they just let it all hang out:agree:

Sappenfield announced that Brynn Carman had a growth spurt so they would not be doing a quad twist last summer. Perhaps that's affected their skating.

Which of course doesn't explain Chase & Speroff.

I hope they do a great job in the LP and jump up many places!

It was reported on FSU that Carman and Knierim had a fall on their death spiral and that Chase/Speroff had two falls. It looks like Chase/Speroff may have had limited training the last couple of weeks based on the post and their website. Keep in mind that this is both teams first JGP and there were bound to be nerves etc., Especially if they lost valuable training time right before the competition. Hopefully both of these teams can pull up in the freeskate.

Of coure, it aint over till it's over, but if they do not improve in the LP, I don't see how they can make the Finals.

For reference, these are their scores from summer competitions:

Indy Challenge:
80.46 Brynn CARMAN / Chris KNIERIM
76.28 Brittany CHASE / Andrew SPEROFF

Broadmoor Open:
Carman/Knierim 80.83
Chase/Speroff 75.87


For comparison, these are the personal bests of some of the other teams in the competitions:

95.48 Krasilnikova/Bezmaternikh 2007 CoR
84.20 Sheremetieva/Kuznetsov 2008 World Juniors
81.85 Zhang/Wang 2007 JGP Tallinn
72.37 Takahashi/Tran 2007 JGP Tallinn

Moore Towers/Evans scored 66.91 at Liberty. Martuisheva/Rogonov scored a total of 144,03 at Russian Junior Nats which is likely inflated, but they beat Sheremetieva/Kuznetsov, who medaled at the JGPF and Khodkova/Sliusarenko, who qualified. I can't find scores for the other teams.

So, I think they can pull up if they skate well. Around 5th-6th place would be my guess. They could still make the final, though - Butler/Jacobsen did last year with a 4th and 5th place finish.

To no one's surprise...Russian sweep.

LP results:

1 Ekaterina SHEREMETIEVA / Mikhail KUZNETSOV RUS 82.05 39.84 43.21 5.63 5.19 5.47 5.44 5.28 1.00 #11
2 Ksenia KRASILNIKOVA / Konstantin BEZMATERNIKH RUS 81.94 41.49 41.45 5.50 4.97 5.16 5.34 4.94 1.00 #9
3 Anastasia MARTIUSHEVA / Alexei ROGONOV RUS 81.66 40.24 41.42 5.31 4.97 5.13 5.31 5.16 0.00 #8
4 Narumi TAKAHASHI / Mervin TRAN JPN 74.45 37.06 38.39 4.97 4.56 4.81 4.84 4.81 1.00 #5
5 Brittany CHASE / Andrew SPEROFF USA 73.98 36.92 37.06 4.66 4.28 4.72 4.75 4.75 0.00 #2
6 Brynn CARMAN / Chris KNIERIM USA 73.62 39.11 34.51 4.44 4.03 4.22 4.50 4.38 0.00 #3
7 Molly AARON / Daniyel COHEN USA 73.03 39.69 33.34 4.38 3.91 4.16 4.25 4.13 0.00 #1
8 Yue ZHANG / Lei WANG CHN 71.16 33.78 39.38 5.25 4.72 4.84 4.97 4.84 2.00 #10
9 Duo CHENG / Yu GAO CHN 71.14 37.72 34.42 4.66 4.06 4.38 4.22 4.19 1.00 #6
10 Kirsten MOORE-TOWERS / Andrew EVANS CAN 67.86 33.45 35.41 4.66 4.25 4.38 4.50 4.34 1.00 #7
11 Sara JONES / Jeremy SANDOR CAN 59.28 27.56 31.72 4.13 3.84 3.81 4.13 3.91 0.00 #4

Final results:
1 Ksenia KRASILNIKOVA / Konstantin BEZMATERNIKH RUS 132.84 1 2
2 Ekaterina SHEREMETIEVA / Mikhail KUZNETSOV RUS 131.94 3 1
3 Anastasia MARTIUSHEVA / Alexei ROGONOV RUS 131.78 2 3
4 Narumi TAKAHASHI / Mervin TRAN JPN 120.12 5 4
5 Yue ZHANG / Lei WANG CHN 118.91 4 8
6 Duo CHENG / Yu GAO CHN 114.11 6 9
7 Brittany CHASE / Andrew SPEROFF USA 112.82 11 5
8 Molly AARON / Daniyel COHEN USA112.82 9 7
9 Brynn CARMAN / Chris KNIERIM USA 112.61 10 6
10 Kirsten MOORE-TOWERS / Andrew EVANS CAN 109.50 7 10
11 Sara JONES / Jeremy SANDOR 99.41 8 11

Delighted that Sheremetieva/Kuznetsov won the LP. Loved this team at JW and they're quite unique and stylish (much more so than K/B), so I love that they were rewarded in the PCS. I wish they hadn't doubled their throw triple loop, they probably would've won!

Great result for Takahashi/Tran...new PB and a possible trip to the JGPF if they do well in their next assignment. When was the last time we saw a competitive JPN pair?

Finally, decent LPs from the Americans. Disappointing for the Chinese and Canadians, however.

Russian sweep. The Fed wants this discipline back!

What happened to China? (way up there in the SP)

Japan is going to make a splash in Pairs within the next couple of years.

The Americans fought back from the depths. Chase and Speroff over Carmann/Knieram. Surpise for me.

When Sappenfield announced that Brynn had a growth spurt this summer, I was quite concerned. I hope that she and Chris will be able to come back strong later this year.

And congratulations to Chase and Speroff for doing a good LP with so little training due to her injury!

And I'm thrilled about the Japanese couple, Takahashi and Tran. It's been so long since Japan had a decent pair...back to Rena Inoue & Tomoaki Koyama at the 1992 Olympics.

And of course, Hooray for the Russians! They certainly own the pairs discipline still!

A little bit of redemption for the Americans in the long progam. All three were very close in score. Chase/Speroff edged out Carman and Knierim in the long with higher PCS scores. Too bad they were so far down in the short, both of these teams could have been in the top six if they had skated better short programs.