Petrova&Tikhonov withdraw, complete turmoil awaits Russian Nationals
I am surprised this has not been covered on this board. According to SkateFans:
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/SkateFans/message/176384
Petrova&Tikhonov dropped a bombshell by withdrawing from Russian Nationals. It's not because they are sick, but because Russian officials&their coach don't want P&T to 'disgrace' themselves.
Money quotes:
For fans who are interested in pairs, this is going to be very interesting...
I am not a big fan of P&T's skating, but they are really nice people. The treatment they received is just absurd. But they should not regret or feel bad. I am so glad they are now getting the popularity and love they truly deserved long time ago. I am wishing them all the best in their new skating career.
Although technically they are not as competent as shen&zhao and TT&MM, I believe P&T will have a very successful pro career in Russia. They have amazing and very innovative lifts, those are always excellent tricks for skating shows.
I watched one segment of their exhibition program at 'Red Square', it's really really good. By comparison, TT&MM's program is just so boring, no original move, no chemistry at all.
I am surprised this has not been covered on this board. According to SkateFans:
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/SkateFans/message/176384
Petrova&Tikhonov dropped a bombshell by withdrawing from Russian Nationals. It's not because they are sick, but because Russian officials&their coach don't want P&T to 'disgrace' themselves.
Money quotes:
Petrova-Tikhonov withdrew. There has been no statement from them.
However, after GPF Piseev announced that "we should expect
nothing from them at Europeans or worlds". Translation: whatever little support they were getting just turned into anti-support.Following the GPF fiasco, they went to Kiev - skated a show
there, did 3 shows in Moscow, then went to Kazan for a rink opening and were the headliners there. When I saw the Kazan article, I thought - maybe these guys are just going to quit. Quite possibly, they are now more popular than Totmianina/Marinin. Probably, they are getting more work as show skaters than they might have dreamed possible.... GPF was only on cable TV, so the general public has not been "let down" by them. It's irrelevant to their entertainment future.
In a Sovetski Sport article (reasonable newspaper) the reporter
went to 3 practices - Moskvina (Kawaguchi-Smirnov), Velikova (Obertas-Slavnov) and Vasiliev (Mukhortkina-Trankov). Ludmilla Velikova said she was going to tell Pet-Tikh to quit amateur skating before nationals so as not to humiliate themselves.http://www.sovsport.ru/imgNews/2006/...PDF-246452.pdf
Kawaguchi-Smirnov withdrew.
She has a cast - some sort of injury to her heel, but they are
still training. Nikolai Velikov is still bitter that he put them together and
Moskvina wooed them to herself... (Soviet Sport article. )
Mukhortina-Trankov are competing.
They started the season with Velikovs. Then they went to Moskvina. She got fed up with them. Oksana Kazakova started training them, but mostly was in Moscow taping "Dancing on Ice" and Moskvina "helped out".
At some point, Artur Dmitriev became their coach. Since December 5, Oleg Vasiliev has started coaching them. He makes them do 5 laps for each minute they are late to practice. (Soviet Sport article. )
Obertas-Slavnov are competing.
Obertas freaked out about having a reporter on practice. Velikova asked reporter to leave, explaining Obertas is a psychological mess and they are not ready for the competition. Nikolai Velikov blames Tamara Moskvina for the psychological damage.... (Soviet Sport article. )
For fans who are interested in pairs, this is going to be very interesting...
I am not a big fan of P&T's skating, but they are really nice people. The treatment they received is just absurd. But they should not regret or feel bad. I am so glad they are now getting the popularity and love they truly deserved long time ago. I am wishing them all the best in their new skating career.
Although technically they are not as competent as shen&zhao and TT&MM, I believe P&T will have a very successful pro career in Russia. They have amazing and very innovative lifts, those are always excellent tricks for skating shows.
I watched one segment of their exhibition program at 'Red Square', it's really really good. By comparison, TT&MM's program is just so boring, no original move, no chemistry at all.
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