Since I've been concentrating on photography this time (everything, but FD can be found at http://photo.fsonline.ru/main.php?g2_itemId=17426, I'll add FD later today or tomorrow), I did not keep any notes at all, so I could only share some general impressions from the competition.
Pairs
It was great to see Mukhortova-Trankov doing what as well might be their first clean competition ever. Could not have picked up a better place and time to do it if they tried, the first major event of the Olympic year and with reigning World Champions in attendance... I still think that Love Story is far from ideal choice for them (not to mention with OG in Canada I cannot imagine it going well with the local public), but apparently it is the music that Maria has always dreamed about and this year Vasiliev has decided to grant her her wish. Seems that it worked, cannot wait for Skate Canada to see if they keep it up. And major kudos for them for 'fixing' their triple twist. It used to be quite bad, but now it almost as good as Chinese.
Speaking of 3Tw, I don't see any progress in Dube-Davison's one, not even close to clear catch, and their Th3Lz was MIA: both at the warm up and in the performance it was the same 'hopeless' doublefooted landing... Having said that their new LP is really "the way they were" then they won bronze at Worlds. Soft, lyrical with decent amount of transitions... Just lovely. I'm not that certain about their SP, though (what's up with dozens of "Requiem for a dream"s during the Olympic year? There is your optimism, people?).
Speaking of 3Tw, what's up with Savchenko-Szolkowy's one? The quality has really deteriorated, the catch was not clear at all in the SP and they only did double in the LP (they did it at Nebelhorn as well). Did not prevents them from getting a couple +2 GOE in SP, though... I like the way they carry the clown theme throughout their SP, but I'm not as impressed with their LP. Of course, that was definitely not the performance to judge the program, but it seems to be quite monotonous without the benifit of being enchanting like their L'Oiseaux was. And is it just me or could one really hear the lyrics in the last few seconds? It seems they were as puzzled about possible reasons for the disaster. I've seen missed death spirals several times, but I guess it was the first time I saw anyone fall on the spiral. It was odd how she fell in absolutely the same way both times, may be there is an injury or there was something wrong with the blade.
Can anyone tell me with whom Inoue-Baldwin are working now? I kind of lost of the track on them in the past couple of years, but they (well, her) were really great in Paris. Th3A was absolutely clean and effortless, but even without it, it was amazing. I don't think I've ever seen her skating with so much passion, power and precision. Made me wonder who thought that putting him in front is a good choice for step sequences? She is just soo much better... I wish they could go to Olympics, because other than McLaughlin-Brubaker, I don't really remember any other US team being great. Costelli-Shnapir were good enough, but nothing really stood out about them.
Both French couples were Ok, but Bonheur's footwork during lifts is still scary. Chinese couple have the elements, but not much of anything else.
Pairs
It was great to see Mukhortova-Trankov doing what as well might be their first clean competition ever. Could not have picked up a better place and time to do it if they tried, the first major event of the Olympic year and with reigning World Champions in attendance... I still think that Love Story is far from ideal choice for them (not to mention with OG in Canada I cannot imagine it going well with the local public), but apparently it is the music that Maria has always dreamed about and this year Vasiliev has decided to grant her her wish. Seems that it worked, cannot wait for Skate Canada to see if they keep it up. And major kudos for them for 'fixing' their triple twist. It used to be quite bad, but now it almost as good as Chinese.
Speaking of 3Tw, I don't see any progress in Dube-Davison's one, not even close to clear catch, and their Th3Lz was MIA: both at the warm up and in the performance it was the same 'hopeless' doublefooted landing... Having said that their new LP is really "the way they were" then they won bronze at Worlds. Soft, lyrical with decent amount of transitions... Just lovely. I'm not that certain about their SP, though (what's up with dozens of "Requiem for a dream"s during the Olympic year? There is your optimism, people?).
Speaking of 3Tw, what's up with Savchenko-Szolkowy's one? The quality has really deteriorated, the catch was not clear at all in the SP and they only did double in the LP (they did it at Nebelhorn as well). Did not prevents them from getting a couple +2 GOE in SP, though... I like the way they carry the clown theme throughout their SP, but I'm not as impressed with their LP. Of course, that was definitely not the performance to judge the program, but it seems to be quite monotonous without the benifit of being enchanting like their L'Oiseaux was. And is it just me or could one really hear the lyrics in the last few seconds? It seems they were as puzzled about possible reasons for the disaster. I've seen missed death spirals several times, but I guess it was the first time I saw anyone fall on the spiral. It was odd how she fell in absolutely the same way both times, may be there is an injury or there was something wrong with the blade.
Can anyone tell me with whom Inoue-Baldwin are working now? I kind of lost of the track on them in the past couple of years, but they (well, her) were really great in Paris. Th3A was absolutely clean and effortless, but even without it, it was amazing. I don't think I've ever seen her skating with so much passion, power and precision. Made me wonder who thought that putting him in front is a good choice for step sequences? She is just soo much better... I wish they could go to Olympics, because other than McLaughlin-Brubaker, I don't really remember any other US team being great. Costelli-Shnapir were good enough, but nothing really stood out about them.
Both French couples were Ok, but Bonheur's footwork during lifts is still scary. Chinese couple have the elements, but not much of anything else.
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