Ice Challenge in Graz, Austria (November 1-6, 2011)

[dorispulaski]

Poapst & Knierim won the pairs:

1 Andrea POAPST / Chris KNIERIM USA 143.14 1 1
2 Mari VARTMANN / Aaron VAN CLEAVE GER 138.24 2 2
3 Danielle MONTALBANO / Evgeni KRASNOPOLSKY ISR 130.95 3 3
4 Tatyana NOVIK / Andrey NOVOSELOV RUS 125.75 4 4
5 Evgenia TARASOVA / Egor CHUDIN RUS 121.24 5 5
6 Elizabeta MAKAROVA / Leri KENCHADZE BUL 101.21 6 6

and the LP

1 Andrea POAPST / Chris KNIERIM USA 91.42 44.65 49.77 6.29 6.07 6.11 6.32 6.32 3.00 #5
2 Mari VARTMANN / Aaron VAN CLEAVE GER 91.38 45.62 46.76 6.00 5.71 5.86 5.86 5.79 1.00 #6
3 Danielle MONTALBANO / Evgeni KRASNOPOLSKY ISR 85.81 44.74 41.07 5.25 4.93 5.21 5.14 5.14 0.00 #4
4 Tatyana NOVIK / Andrey NOVOSELOV RUS 81.81 42.92 39.89 5.25 4.75 4.93 5.00 5.00 1.00 #2
5 Evgenia TARASOVA / Egor CHUDIN RUS 77.46 42.21 37.25 4.96 4.54 4.68 4.64 4.46 2.00 #1
6 Elizabeta MAKAROVA / Leri KENCHADZE BUL 65.75 33.37 33.38 4.36 4.00 4.25 4.18 4.07 1.00 #3

but with 3 deductions for falls

[fairly4]

congratulations to all medalist , good job

[fairly4]

congratualtions to caroline zhang for winner the ladies, natalia popova for winng the fs
good job caroline zhang with a 99, and natalia with a 102.
forgot their total score.

congratualtions- to g KRIENGKRAIRUT / Logan GIULIETTI-SCHMITT USA for winning

cannuscia/lorello for coming in 2nd,.

good luck stephane,

[snowflake]

1 Caroline ZHANG USA 152.72 1 2
2 Natalia POPOVA UKR 149.81 2 1
3 Linnea MELLGREN SWE 136.58 3 3
4 Lena MARROCCO FRA 127.80 5 4
5 Kerstin FRANK AUT 121.61 6 5
6 Fleur MAXWELL LUX 120.52 4 7
7 Patricia GLESCIC SLO 114.34 11 6
8 Dasa GRM SLO 110.93 7 10
9 Juulia TURKKILA FIN 108.97 12 8
10 Nika CERIC SLO 106.87 15 9
11 Carol BRESSANUTTI ITA 105.86 10 11
12 Chelsea Rose CHIAPPAHUN 101.87 16 12
13 Cecilia TÖRN FIN 101.30 9 16
14 Anine RABE NOR 98.36 14 15
15 Sera VÄISTÖ FIN 98.05 18 13
16 Eliska BREZINOVA CZE 97.77 8 17
17 Camilla GJERSEM NOR 97.73 17 14
18 Nastasiya LOBACHEVSKAYA CZE 89.43 13 21
19 Ines WOHLMUTH AUT 84.42 20 18
20 Victoria KAFOL AUT 84.06 19 19
21 Christina GRILL AUT 79.26 21 20
WD Belinda SCHÖNBERGER AUT
WD Linda-Sophia PRÖLSZ GER
WD Aleksandra KAMIENIECKI POL
WD Monika SIMANCIKOVA SVK
WD Erika VITEKOVA SVK

Congrats to the medalists!
Nice to see Popova and Mellgren better their personal bests A LOT! (30 resp 24 points)

New grip with a bed in K&C for exhausted skaters

[snowflake]

Men final result:

1 Stephen CARRIERE USA 215.20 1 1
2 Misha GE UZB 199.12 2 2
3 Viktor PFEIFER AUT 188.87 4 3
4 Ivan BARIEV RUS 181.09 3 5
5 Martin RAPPE GER 181.06 5 4
6 Kim LUCINE MON 176.21 6 6
7 Ari-Pekka NURMENKARI FIN 159.49 8 7
8 Justus STRID DEN 156.74 10 8
9 Stéphane WALKER SUI 154.66 7 9
10 Patrick MYZYK POL 143.52 12 11
11 Severin KIEFER AUT 140.00 13 12
12 Saverio GIACOMELLI ITA 139.22 17 10
13 Jason THOMPSON GBR 138.61 9 13
14 Manol ATANASSOV BUL 133.17 14 14
15 Daniel KING GBR 130.31 11 17
16 Carlo RÖTHLISBERGER SUI 126.38 18 15
17 Saulius AMBRULEVICIUS LTU 122.48 16 18
18 Mario Rafael IONIAN AUT 122.47 15 19
19 Kamil BIALAS POL 121.11 22 16
20 Jakub STROBL SVK 118.35 19 20
21 Marko MARTON HUN 114.78 20 21
22 Samuli TYYSKÄ FIN 109.06 23 22
23 Mitchell CHAPMAN AUS 101.60 21 23
WD Ondrej SPIEGL SWE
WD Dimitry IGNATENKO UKR

Well done Carriere, Ge and Pfeiffer. Very good score for Carriere I think

[demarinis5]

Congrats to Stephen and Caroline and the other medalists!

[merrywidow]

Stephen could really mix things up at Nationals in January. Great score for him. Congratulations to all the medalists.

[PolymerBob]

Stephen could really mix things up at Nationals in January. Great score for him. Congratulations to all the medalists.

If Caroline can get her triple - triple consistent, she could make the world team.
Of course, national inflation does not apply to Caroline, so she would have to be the best girl there just to get the silver.

[burntBREAD]

If Caroline can get her triple - triple consistent, she could make the world team.
Of course, national inflation does not apply to Caroline, so she would have to be the best girl there just to get the silver.

I think Caroline needs to get all her jumps consistent (her loop is perfectly fine now) before she looks at a triple-triple. Bring back the salchow and the toe, work on the consistency of the flip (in particular she seems to struggle with the 2nd flip in the LP).

[krenseby]

If Caroline can get her triple - triple consistent, she could make the world team.
Of course, national inflation does not apply to Caroline, so she would have to be the best girl there just to get the silver.

Actually, for the sake of honesty, I think we have to say that Caroline would need a lot more than just getting her jumps consistent to have a podium finish or even make the top five at nationals. Her LP as is, isn' t exciting enough; it doesn' t give her a chance to be emotional or lyrical. There are not enough transitions in it or wow moves to get her noticed by the judges. It's a very bare-bones LP. Caroline's team needs to look at what Alissa is doing. Alissa manages to be smooth, fluid, and expressive; her movements are elegant and artistic. In Caroline' s LP, her movement doesn' t seem to express much; it's just technical execution as it stands. Of course, I am aware that she has been focused mostly on the technical aspects like jumps and stroking lately. But fludity and expressiveness, transitions, wow moves, and musicality are required to finish at the top at Nationals and her LP is missing all that to a large extent. But actually, I am very happy that both Ashley and Alissa understand how important all of those aspects of figure skating are. That' s why their scores won' t plummet down into the depths if they underrotate or step out of some jumps. (Also, my apologies if I' ve been heaping too much praise on Alissa. There's also lots to nitpick about her, but she does manage to do some things right.)

[LeCygne]

^ I'd have to agree with the above. With only two Worlds spots and Alissa, Mirai, Ashley, Rachael, not to mention Agnes and Christina, all battling for those two spots, I think it's safe to say there's pretty much no way Caroline will make the world team. It doesn't matter if she lands 7 triples including a 3-3; the skating skills, speed, and expression are just not there. It's been a problem all her career. The growth spurt wasn't the cause of any of that, rather the growth spurt just took away the only thing she had: consistency. Now not only does she not have consistency, she still doesn't have the basics and PCS because she never had the chance to develop them. It'll be a while before Caroline can become a real contender again, if at all.

[krenseby]

^ I'd have to agree with the above. With only two Worlds spots and Alissa, Mirai, Ashley, Rachael, not to mention Agnes and Christina, all battling for those two spots, I think it's safe to say there's pretty much no way Caroline will make the world team. It doesn't matter if she lands 7 triples including a 3-3; the skating skills, speed, and expression are just not there. It's been a problem all her career. The growth spurt wasn't the cause of any of that, rather the growth spurt just took away the only thing she had: consistency. Now not only does she not have consistency, she still doesn't have the basics and PCS because she never had the chance to develop them. It'll be a while before Caroline can become a real contender again, if at all.

While I agree with you about speed having been a constant and long-term problem for her, I think her expression used to be better and she used to have more transitions and wow moves. But all of those have been neglected due to a focus on jump technique and increasing speed. Since figure skating is not just about jumping, I totally agree with you that an LP full of perfect jumps from her wouldn' t be enough to get her on the podium.

Actually, this reminds me of a sad fact about some American skaters; they tend to forget that figure skating is not just jumping. I mean look at Rachael Flatt. While working with Tom, she developed into a jump machine, nothing more and nothing less. Of course, she has understood that she needs to do something about her speed, choreography, and expression; the East of Eden SP was an attempt to improve all those aspects of her skating, but she needed to start working on them earlier.

The person who did start working on them earlier and is now reaping the benefits is Ashley Wagner. Ashley chose the right coaches that helped make her skating beautiful. While she was working with Priscilla Hill, I started to notice that she was beginning to skate more like a refined lady. And now that she has switched to John Nicks, her movement on the ice and gestures are even more appealing and elegant. Now as for Rachael Flatt and Caroline Zhang, neither had a primary coach like Hill or Nicks that could teach them to skate beautifully.


BTW, found some videos of the gala performances at the Ice Challenge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHKlwl1Qpis Stephen Carriere

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K16YBn-WlWk Misha Ge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xIli0Xw2L4Lynn Kriengkrairut and Logan Giulietti-Schmitt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Aecuk3wfy Natalia Popova

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTRnkUtT8YECaroline Zhang

[PolymerBob]

Thanks for the videos. Stephen did 4 triple axels in a row.

Now as for Rachael Flatt and Caroline Zhang, neither had a primary coach like Hill or Nicks that could teach them to skate beautifully.

At about 30 seconds, listen to how Michelle describes Caroline's skating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr6uqF2Gu6I

[krenseby]

Thanks for the videos. Stephen did 4 triple axels in a row.



At about 30 seconds, listen to how Michelle describes Caroline's skating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr6uqF2Gu6I

That's because this is an exhibition event and Caroline is always great in exhibitions. BTW, I also enjoyed Misha Ge's number. He was really having a good time.

[LeCygne]

That's because this is an exhibition event and Caroline is always great in exhibitions.

Not to mention it's a televised event where Michelle was an announcer. What was she supposed to say, "Here now is the slow, labored skating of Caroline Zhang?"