- Joined
- Feb 22, 2016
It's telling that only an olympic season is important enough to have a good start to set yourself apart from competitors, as Ilinykh said.
Not taking into account i/K weren't exactly ready at the test skates 2013 ...Russian couples should look prepared at test skates if they ever want to cacth up again; others manage to do this - what is Russian ID doing during the summer break??
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I would not look too much into test summer skates whether from this season or some from the past. Meanwhile I am more concerned about steady downfall of Ilinykh / Zhiganshin instead of expected progress. They were better in first starts of 2014 / 2015 when they just teamed up than in whatever serious event this season, they even managed to qualify for GPF. Don't let numbers deceive you like by those in Tallinn Challenger that have big asterisk to them. Rules, requirements, GOE scales all changed from that point. Compare fast & sharp Cup of Russia Pasodoble SD from 2014 - they started that year from mindblowing performance with Bollywood Free Dance from Skate America and that contrast is painful - you don't need to be expert to tell that. I know that Elena was out of shape (bad excuse anyway) but there's no progress from technical point of view if you compare this season to their previous ones.
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Russian couples should look prepared at test skates if they ever want to cacth up again; others manage to do this - what is Russian ID doing during the summer break??




But I happen to like Carreira and Ponomarenko together. I think they will go very far.