Pairs Free Skate

[Mrs. P]

RESULTS:
1 Aliona SAVCHENKO / Robin SZOLKOWY GER
210.72 1 1
2 Qing PANG / Jian TONG
CHN
189.93 2 2
3 Wenjing SUI / Cong HAN
CHN
179.04 4 3
4 Lubov ILIUSHECHKINA / Nodari MAISURADZE
RUS
177.44 5 4
5 Vera BAZAROVA / Yuri LARIONOV
RUS
176.80 3 5
6 Kirsten MOORE-TOWERS / Dylan MOSCOVITCH
CAN
169.57 6 6

S/S breaks the 200+ mark and we have two Chinese teams on the GPF podium for the fifth year in a row. Tough break for B/L, but nice skate for I/M. And I'm so good experience for M-T/M who didn't even expect to be here.

[museksk8r]

WOW! MASSIVE SCORE for Aliona and Robin! 136.32 for the LP and 210.72 overall!
Pang and Tong had the lowest TES of all the teams, but their PCS salvaged them the silver.

Current Overall Standing

Pl. Name Nation Points SP FS
1 Aliona SAVCHENKO / Robin SZOLKOWY
GER
210.72 1 1
2 Qing PANG / Jian TONG
CHN
189.93 2 2
3 Wenjing SUI / Cong HAN
CHN
179.04 4 3
4 Lubov ILIUSHECHKINA / Nodari MAISURADZE
RUS
177.44 5 4
5 Vera BAZAROVA / Yuri LARIONOV
RUS
176.80 3 5
6 Kirsten MOORE-TOWERS / Dylan MOSCOVITCH
CAN
169.57 6 6


Segment Result Details

Pl. Name Nation TSS
= TES
+ PCS
+ SS TR PE CH IN Ded.
- StN.
1 Aliona SAVCHENKO / Robin SZOLKOWY GER 136.32 67.48 68.84 8.57 8.21 8.57 8.79 8.89 0.00 #6
2 Qing PANG / Jian TONG CHN 121.30 55.20 66.10 8.29 7.82 8.25 8.39 8.57 0.00 #5
3 Wenjing SUI / Cong HAN CHN 117.55 63.28 55.27 6.71 6.57 7.11 7.11 7.04 1.00 #3
4 Lubov ILIUSHECHKINA / Nodari MAISURADZE RUS 117.38 60.99 56.39 6.96 6.89 7.18 7.21 7.00 0.00 #2
5 Vera BAZAROVA / Yuri LARIONOV RUS 112.94 57.40 57.54 7.36 6.96 7.11 7.39 7.14 2.00 #4
6 Kirsten MOORE-TOWERS / Dylan MOSCOVITCH CAN 110.84 59.21 52.63 6.61 6.46 6.57 6.68 6.57 1.00 #1

[Mirunna]

I believe I/M should have been 3rd. I feel they were underscored.

[museksk8r]

I believe I/M should have been 3rd. I feel they were underscored.

I completely agree with you. The young Chinese have all the hype around them though. Judges sometimes get swept away by hype factor.

[Mirunna]

I find it strange that S/H got a big score at CoC for an error filled program, at Skate America they were much better and yet their scores really dropped(they placed behind M-T/M) and here, again in China, their scores go up suddenly, despite their mistakes. They are talented, I agree, but so are I/M who really outperformed them today. Anyway, HUGE score for the germans. It's the third time in a row they skate a clean LP. Never happened before! I'm very happy for them

[gmyers]

It turns out I/M were robbed of a medal! Severely!

[UnChosen]

MT/M: Pretty nice skate other than the one fall. However, something about them irks me and I can't put my finger on it.

B/L: They looks so disappointed at the end. That double splat really hurt their entire performance after...their music choice made it even more obvious

I/M: The music put me to sleep...but nice skate. Lower level and a relative front loaded programs really hurt them, like every other time they skated this season. I don't know why they have the death spiral (level 1) and the spiral sequence at the end when they could've moved them to the front and replace them with their twist lift and another lift. It shouldn't affect their choreography that much.

S/H: Technically stacked like it had never been stacked before. Their base point is nearly 5 points higher than even S/S or about 2 points if S/S did a 3S instead of a 2S. I give their choreographer credit for knowing how to work the system . The fact that their music doesn't put me to sleep doesn't hurt either.

P/T: Better, but still way off. Qing really need to get her solo jumps in order. Their throw jumps are also less snappy in comparison to last season. And of course, they messed up one of their spins...again.

S/S: At this rate, they can't be touched at Worlds either. The music cut is really weird though.

[evangeline]

Hurray for Aliona and Robin! They were great, and definitely the odds-on favourites for the world title this season. I'm still sort of meh about their LP this year but the basic quality of this pair is currently unmatched.


I too would've given the bronze to I/M, but man, S/H really know how to work the CoP.


About M-T/M--I like their enthusiasm, but they seem so unpolished and their programs are kind of empty...sort of like a junior team. Never understood why they were getting so much PCS during the Grand Prix series.

[pangtongfan]

I agree I/M were robbed of a medal. S/H got some nice home cooking.

[oleada]

Aliona and Robin - wow! I love them, and admit, I can't be unbiased about them, but they were heads and shoulders above everyone else.

The situation at Russian Nationals will be really interesting. I thought B/L would be a lock for sure, but now it's far from certain. Soooo happy for I/M! They needed a FS like this.

P/T haven't landed a single clean side by side jump all season in the FS. I think they are really getting behind technically...all the other teams tried two SBS triples or something harder than a 3LoTh or both....and they didn't. Their lifts are weak compared to the other teams and their throws and twist don't look as big this year. I honestly don't think there's anything that special about hteir skating, but I've never been a fan.

[blue_idealist]

Aliona and Robin - wow! I love them, and admit, I can't be unbiased about them, but they were heads and shoulders above everyone else.

The situation at Russian Nationals will be really interesting. I thought B/L would be a lock for sure, but now it's far from certain. Soooo happy for I/M! They needed a FS like this.

P/T haven't landed a single clean side by side jump all season in the FS. I think they are really getting behind technically...all the other teams tried two SBS triples or something harder than a 3LoTh or both....and they didn't. Their lifts are weak compared to the other teams and their throws and twist don't look as big this year. I honestly don't think there's anything that special about hteir skating, but I've never been a fan.

Yeah, Russian Nationals will be interesting, especially with Gerboldt and Enbert in the mix too. I thought B & L were the distinct Russian #2 for awhile, but I & M could take over that spot.

I agree with you about Pang and Tong. I really enjoyed them at the Olympics last year, but they seem lackluster this season (as they did in some other seasons, too). I did like their SP.

[chillyfranz]

Pang/TOng are very good but not realy enough to win here .For Russian Nationals, Gerboldt/Enbert have a nice package with the presentation skills still getting better. Give them the time. I'm excited to see what V/T will bring and Honestly though I would bank on Kavaguti/Smirnov for the win

[oleada]

G/E are very good for the time they've been together, and in any other country, they'd be on the podium or winning, but I don't think their elements and skating skills are as strong as B/L or I/M.

[oleada]

Sorry for the back-to-back posts, but watching the JGPF and the GPF (right now on UniSports), it has been really striking to see how inelegant and lacking in carriage the Canadian pairs ladies are....Moore-Towers looks really rough and unrefined comparing her to Iliuschekina who skates right after. I wish Skate Canada would encourage more ballet training among their pairs. I've never been a fan of Dubè and Davison, but I've found myself missing them, because they are so much more polished than the teams currently competing.

Sui/Han are cute and charismatic, but I hope they work on their basic skating. Very impressive elements. But I get the feeling that it's a child skating out there, which isn't really all that enjoyable to me. Or even fair to the other teams, when you consider it.

[zizi]

I believe I/M should have been 3rd. I feel they were underscored.

ITA!
Besides, P/T's PCS were too much overscored! I don't believe they can get so high scores in any other countries except home court,considering so many mistakes and so bad performance. The gap with S/S shouldn't have just been two scores!