Pairs Short Program

**schiele** · 01-19-2010, 03:21 PM

My gosh, K&S were just superrrbbbbbbbbbbb!!!! I absolutely love them!! Seperating S&S and K&S only 0.2 points!!!!!

**Alex** · 01-19-2010, 03:41 PM

Wow, just wow! The top 3 pairs are in the best condition of their careers. I cannot wait for the LP.

**jcoates** · 01-19-2010, 03:50 PM

Kavaguti/Smirnov RUS
Big score! 73.92. She really has improved her line. That's the lightest I can remember seeing them skate. Lots of speed, though a tad slow at the end of the sbs spins. Clean on all elements

Volosozhar/Morozov UKR
Solid technical outing. They finally gave that SP some energy. 67.60

Kemp/King GBR
Silly error on sbs spins; he fell out of the landing on the flying camel. Still doing only double flips for sbs jumps and a double twist.. Nice throw 3 loop though. 45.26

Savchenko/Szolkowy GER
Excellent skate. Everything clean. She looks so happy. The clown makeup has been toned down. They said in an interview that they are training less to keep her strength up but the quality is high. She feels better. 74.12. The look a little surprised the marks weren't a bit higher.

Surprisingly K/S had higher TES, but S/S's PCS pulled them ahead. Robin noted in the post skate interview that they apparently got a couple of lower levels than they were expecting.

Final Group
Segejeva/Glebov EST
Very pleasant skate from the Estonian team. The crowd is going nuts. Nice twist. She hung onto the landing of the throw 3 loop. They were slightly out of sync on the sbs 2a (jumping and landing at different times). They look delighted. 47.60

Mukhortova/Trankov RUS
Clean skate. Excellent speed, good line, especially her. This program really works for them. (Another possibe kiss at the end?

) 73.54. Very close race for gold heading into the FS.

The top teams have really shown up in good form. Vancouver could be a ton of fun if the North American teams skate well along with the Chinese and Europeans.

Della Monica/Kocon ITA
Very heavy music, they had trouble matching it's intensity. She fell on sbs 3 sal. Solid throw 3 sal. 2 twist. She looks disappointed. 52.64

Canac/Coia FRA
hand down (her) on sbs 3 sal. She fell out of the of the throw 3 sal.

**Trewyn** · 01-19-2010, 03:58 PM

Savchenko/Szolkowy were amazing!! It was so moving!! 'Send in the clowns' is a brilliant program! I was also surprised the marks weren't higher. The artistic mark should have been through the roof

.

Mukhortova/Trankov had very clean technical elements (at least to my untrained eye), but they didn't have the magic S/S had; still; it was good!

**DesertRoad** · 01-19-2010, 03:59 PM

Any moment now, Volosozhar is going to have a chest-burster like in Alien:

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/...tydHD/610x.jpg

Morosov's outfit is so wrong it's... wrong:

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/...BlbFg/610x.jpg

**3T3T** · 01-19-2010, 04:01 PM

Very good night of pair skating. Thought M/T were excellent, I would have had them first. They went for it from the beginning, it had speed, attack, flow. Loved the step sequence and spins.

Enjoyed K/S but I am not too keen of the vocals, I think it detracts from the programme. S/S have got over their recent illness, I think they expected a bigget score. At least it is close between all three going into the free. Go Masha and Max.

Good technichal performance by V/M but it lacked a little. Did anyone see the Russian No. 3's B/L? I'm guessing they had an error or two.

Enjoyed the Swiss, Italian, Estonian and both French programmes. Watching on Eurosport, didn't see all performances (only last 3 groups)

**Hsuhs** · 01-19-2010, 04:09 PM

Oh yeah, indeed, Happy Birthday Aliona ! :birthday:

The top 4 did very well today

**Lucky Star** · 01-19-2010, 04:13 PM

Originally Posted by 3T3T

Good technichal performance by V/M but it lacked a little. Did anyone see the Russian No. 3's B/L? I'm guessing they had an error or two.

Her landing after 3T wasn't clean and trow 3Lo was on two foot, but I liked them anyway.
Top 3 pairs were amazing!

Loooove them all and hope that we will see very interesting LP!

**Dodhiyel** · 01-19-2010, 04:17 PM

Loved the top three. I hope they all can keep up the good work in the FS. It's a pleasure to see such quality. My favorite was K&S, for the sheer beauty of it. They have grace, and good chemistry on the ice. It works, totally.

I think V&M's costumes work against them.

It's good to see such fine work in European pairs.

**demarinis5** · 01-19-2010, 06:57 PM

http://web.icenetwork.com/news/artic...&vkey=ice_news

Article from IN on Pairs SP. Maria and Max were not happy with their scores and they were vocal about it. Apparently they got lower levels on their death spiral and footwork and they don't understand why.

**Dodhiyel** · 01-19-2010, 08:48 PM

Thanks for the article link, demarinis5.

It must be hard to get lower levels or lower GOE's when you do exactly the same thing you've done before, hard to understand, and hard to bear. The very specificity of the CoP regarding the elements makes inconsistency of judging stand out more than it did with the 6.0 system. I think that can be very discouraging to an athlete; I hope they are able to shrug it off and just keep on doing their best, and let the chips fall where they may. It's the athletes that make the sport so great to watch, after all.

**jcoates** · 01-19-2010, 09:53 PM

I'm getting the sense that the callers are getting tougher at this event than they were on the GP. That can be good and bad. It may eliminate some reputation judging, notice the closeness between the Germans and the Russians. But it may also create confusion among skaters about where they really stand.

We'll see if this applies in the other disciplines as the week goes on.