Pairs FS

[koatcue]

I hate it when people write that someone wins because of being Russian/Japanese and so on...=/

[skateflower]

Female pair skaters used to be much closer in height to the male partners before twists ans throws became core pair elements. Babilonia and Gardner were virtually the same height once the finished puberty. So were Starbuck and Shelley and the Protopopovs. The difference is the Hao is a beast. He can manage the physical strain those more modern pair elements impose. In fact their unison, death spiral and quality of position in lifts have clearly improved. I never liked them much pre-injury, but I have to give them credit for the obvious work they've put into improving their presentation and on ice projection.

You're absolutely wrong to say they've improved unision, death spirals and lifts, etc. On the contrary, all of their elements prior to Dan's continuend growth spurt were 1st rate. Unfortunately, the quality has declined substantially since then. Even Han Zhang is a beast, it is still very very difficult to lift a girl who's 5'7!!!

[sky_fly20]

VoloszharTrankov announced in presser they will not be at Russian nats. They wish to take time to heal from injuries (her leg, his groin)

twitter.com/LynnRutherford

Amazing isn't it.
they could have won if they didn't had the injuries and they still placed 2nd.

[lavender]

Didn't V/T skate clean and still came in 2nd?

[jcoates]

You're absolutely wrong to say they've improved unision, death spirals and lifts, etc. On the contrary, all of their elements prior to Dan's continuend growth spurt were 1st rate. Unfortunately, the quality has declined substantially since then. Even Han Zhang is a beast, it is still very very difficult to lift a girl who's 5'7!!!

My apologies. I never meant to offend your obviously superior sensibilities about pair skating. I obviously know nothing about what I'm talking about and neither does Peter Carruthers who agrees with me. We will defer to you henceforth.

Back to the real world, her line in her descent into the death spiral remains unbroken at the waist throughout and the speed is fairly continuous throughout the move. A real rarity among today's relatively poor basic positions in death spirals. Also, her height is not the real issue. It's her height relative to him and also her weight that matters most in lifting. He remains five inches taller than Dan and is significantly heavier than her. So maintain that she is not too tall to skate pairs and certainly not too tall for him. Also note that I never said lifting her would be easy, but rather that his size and strength enabled him to continue to perform the explosive pair moves apart from lifting. Pair lifts have been manageable for teams of far closer proportions for decades. However, massive twists and throws are enabled either by size differences or by the strength of the male partner (also note that their height difference is only slightly less than the other great Chinese pairs but the size difference is far greater).

[ImaginaryPogue]

I don't think I've ever seen jcoates use sarcasm before.

[pangtongfan]

Didn't V/T skate clean and still came in 2nd?

Depends what you define as clean. I thought they had 2 minor mistakes.

[demarinis5]

Congrats to Robin and Aliona, V/T and K/S. All three teams skated beautifully. Very nicely skated program by Z/Z not as good as the other teams
but I think that they have improved quite a bit. All and all great skating from the pairs.

[Tonichelle]

I don't think I've ever seen jcoates use sarcasm before.

I have. He's actually a wizard at it. Bow to the master.

[Mirunna]

Could someone explain to me why K/S scored 8.36 for CH while V/T scored 9.00 for CH?(with S/S scoring 9.07, just 0.07 over V/T). And the scores for transitions too. Thank you

[mousepotato]

Could someone explain to me why K/S scored 8.36 for CH while V/T scored 9.00 for CH?(with S/S scoring 9.07, just 0.07 over V/T). And the scores for transitions too. Thank you

I'm not even sure the judges can.

K/S chor. is far more superior to V/T. They never stop skating from start to finish with wonderful interpretation. V/T's program is is not as good once you take out the elements. Not enough space between S/S and V/T on that PCS.

[Bartek]

Could someone explain to me why K/S scored 8.36 for CH while V/T scored 9.00 for CH?(with S/S scoring 9.07, just 0.07 over V/T). And the scores for transitions too. Thank you

V/T have the judges momentum right now. K/S unfortunately has lost some of it recently. They can have superior choreography (in fact they have) to V/T's but they aren't russian number one team anymore so they can't be given higher PCS :(. This is how it works.

[Florian]

So Florian was wrong in saying that Trankov has a small woman and Szolkowy has a bigger one. The ratio is exactly the same. They are proportional. He/she was wrong about the Zhangs as well.

I didn't say they're taller, just "bigger" as a general impression while watching it. S/S just seem physically quite equal and harmonic to me, more than the others. And even if the ratio in height may be the same, it surely isn't in weight and regarding the "Hebelverhältnis", don't know how you say it in English, "leverage ratio"?

[pangtongfan]

I feel bad for V/T losing by such a close margin, but probably objectively speaking the PCS gap between them and S/S should have been more than it was. I just wish there was a way to give V/T more than 1.5 points gain in the triple twist, the two teams are on another planet from each other in that move.

[silver.blades]

I thought that V/T had done enough overall to win, but the margin is so small that I can't really complain. S/S program is a masterpiece. By far one of the great pairs programs. Individually and element for element the Russians are the better team. She is particular is absolutely stunning. Live she is the fastest skater out there. Her positions are to die for, impeccable stretch and line and control. V/T's twist is one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen. The only criticism I have for them other than getting better programs is softer landing on the throws. She comes down with a loud thud that you can hear through the arena. Although when the throws are that high I suppose a softer landing might be difficult.