Pairs LP

Missed Takahashi/Tran

Castelli/Shnapir - missed the beginning, but they landed both sets of SBS jumps and one of the throws. I think they fell on the Th3S. Good presentation, though it felt a bit long by the end. New PB.

Imaikina & Novoselov - Good technical couple. SBS 3 Salchows, Th3Salchoow (good), TH3Loop (excellent), 2A+2A sequence. A bit of trouble with the spins. Need to work on their presentation a lot, though!

Ozerova & Enbert withdrew.

Crash in the warmup between Rogonov & Zhang

SBS may broadcast the second group live...

Zhang & Wang - "Coppelia" I feel like I've seen this 10 times already. Side by side 3T+2T, a little off unison in the second jump. Th3Loop good. 2Twist, good catch. They do NOTHING with the music. Lift ok. 2A far apart. Spins in unison but far apart. Step sequence. Ugh, I hate this program. It is totally lacking in transition or any relation to the music whatsoever. Death spiral. Even Imaikina & Novoselov who were soooo dry, had more musical interpretation. Spirals and SE - first transitions in their program. Th3Salchow good. Lift but not much extension. Pair spin. Great skate. Will probably medal. Hate this program. Meh. :blah:

M&T - lovely program to the Nutcracker! Very evocative of the Nutcracker ballet. Some errors: she stepped out of the first 2A in the sequence, 1Lz and had a small stumble in the step sequence. Should have the highest PCS by far.

FPl. Name Nat. Points SP FS
1 Lubov ILIUSHECHKINA / Nodari MAISURADZE RUS
149.38 1 1
2 Yue ZHANG / Lei WANG CHN
137.92 4 3
3 Ksenia KRASILNIKOVA / Konstantin BEZMATERNIKH RUS
137.22 2 5
4 Anastasia MARTIUSHEVA / Alexei ROGONOV RUS
137.03 3 4
5 Sabina IMAIKINA / Andrei NOVOSELOV RUS
134.91 5 2
6 Marissa CASTELLI / Simon SHNAPIR USA
126.40 6 6
7 Narumi TAKAHASHI / Mervin TRAN JPN
106.04 8 7

Pl. Name Nation TSS
= TES
+ PCS
+ SS TR PE CH IN Deduction
- StN.
1 Lubov ILIUSHECHKINA / Nodari MAISURADZE RUS 92.50 45.82 47.68 6.20 5.85 5.80 6.10 5.85 1.00 #8
2 Sabina IMAIKINA / Andrei NOVOSELOV RUS 88.87 47.91 40.96 5.35 4.95 5.15 5.20 4.95 0.00 #4
3 Yue ZHANG / Lei WANG CHN 87.70 46.34 41.36 5.45 4.90 5.25 5.20 5.05 0.00 #5
4 Anastasia MARTIUSHEVA / Alexei ROGONOV RUS 86.43 41.07 45.36 5.70 5.55 5.65 5.80 5.65 0.00 #6
5 Ksenia KRASILNIKOVA / Konstantin BEZMATERNIKH RUS 85.68 42.48 43.20 5.65 5.20 5.35 5.65 5.15 0.00 #7
6 Marissa CASTELLI / Simon SHNAPIR USA 81.56 41.68 40.88 5.20 4.90 5.05 5.30 5.10 1.00 #3
7 Narumi TAKAHASHI / Mervin TRAN JPN 71.80 35.36 37.44 4.85 4.60 4.60 4.90 4.45 1.00 #1

for all the skaters!!

Absolutely heartbroken for M&R! Their program is so lovely and they ended up just .19 out of the podium.

My final thoughts....poor competition for some but all the pairs have potential.

Illiushechkina & Maisuradze are in another stratosphere compared to the other pairs. Can't wait to see what they do in the future. Martiusheva & Rogonov are not too far behind in presentation. When it comes to artistry, these two teams are way, way ahead of the game.

Z&W are the typical Chinese pair with the big tricks but no artistry. Their program is completely empty. I am not a fan.

I&N are like K& used to be: very, very strong technically (even more so than K&B were) but with weak presentation. However, unlike Z&W, they made more efforts to interpret the music and their program had transitions. As for K&B, I am not sure if her height will allow them to keep skating together. They have talent - but I think they need to find a new coaching team.

I hope to see more of C&S in the future because they are very enjoyable.

T&T are very young with good basics and haven't been together long, so I wouldn't be surprised to see them here in the future.

Z&W had a hard time this summer, the girl has grown some weight and the boy didn't have good strength like Hao Zhang. So their future may be not so light as others, sigh...

Of course typical Chinese pairs have big throws, but none of them has weak twists and lifts. But Z&W's twists and lifts are their weak point... So even in the technical part, Z&W can not even with others...