2017 CS Ice Star of Minsk Free Dance

[lavoix]

I thought S/K looked pretty good in the free dance, much better than I thought and much better if you compare their performance with the short dance.

However, given how things are going, I definitely don't see them making the Olympics.

 

[madison]

I really liked Tiff and John. They have this soft flow and freshness
Hope they'll make the European team

 

[MarieM]

In all fairness, S/K look rather out of sorts. Nikita made two obvious mistakes, at least, so probably his injury hasn't fully resolved itself. They looked very ragged even worse than their test skates, and that makes absolutely no sense.

Well just compare with Zahorski&Guerreiro. With only four months with Kustarova, they have regained fitness. They are back on track. Coaches are working them, and it shows.

S&Katsalapov were good in the test skates. Since then, they have deteriorated. Like last season with Bobrova. Not one team in the Zhulin camp ever achieve any improvements. As the season goes, so goes their fitness.
Add to that HE has a huge problem. Throwing your partner like he did in the SD isn't professional. It's criminal.

Durnev politiking them won't work if they don't put the work and are trained properly. Since both Denis Samohin and Oleg Volkov left that team, there is no coach to train those teams as is obvious when you watch how all the teams that leave them thrive anywhere else.

Take Sara and Kiril. They have good programs, but don't get the levels. They need to switch asap or can say goodbye to the olys.

 

[Marta25]

Well just compare with Zahorski&Guerreiro. With only four months with Kustarova, they have regained fitness. They are back on track. Coaches are working them, and it shows.

S&Katsalapov were good in the test skates. Since then, they have deteriorated. Like last season with Bobrova. Not one team in the Zhulin camp ever achieve any improvements. As the season goes, so goes their fitness.
Add to that HE has a huge problem. Throwing your partner like he did in the SD isn't professional. It's criminal.

Durnev politiking them won't work if they don't put the work and are trained properly. Since both Denis Samohin and Oleg Volkov left that team, there is no coach to train those teams as is obvious when you watch how all the teams that leave them thrive anywhere else.

Take Sara and Kiril. They have good programs, but don't get the levels. They need to switch asap or can say goodbye to the olys.

Zahorski/Guerreiro look better prepared than last season. Kustarova gets a lot of criticism, but at this point I think the coaching change was a good decision. As #1 at the rink they get much more attention and it shows, IMO.

S/K`s performance really surprised me. They looked good in the Russian Cup competition they skated. S/B had a not so great challenger too and made significant improvements until their first GP. S/K now have two weeks to work on their programs, let`s wait and see how they will skate in Japan.

 

[La Rhumba]

Much better FD videos from our friends Team JJ. :agree:

C/L

https://youtu.be/UuHLTyo2yLs

S/K

https://youtu.be/80667MPjHVg

 

[rain]

Capellini/Lanotte's program is charming, once again, and I love their first two lifts, but they have never done the work on their basic skating and remain rather slow compared to the top teams in the world. Will be interesting to see where they figure into the mix.

Sinitsina/Katsalapov are a bit of a disaster. The SD, of course, was terrible. But the FD is nothing to write home about either. It's boring as all get out to start with (could the choreography be any more generic?) and they were sloppy and slow performing it. I can't see them making the Russian Olympic team at this point. They don't remotely look like a top 10 team in the world right now.

 

[gmyers]

There is no way s/k even make it to Russian nationals. The team is over and finished.

 

[gmyers]

Zahorski/Guerreiro look better prepared than last season. Kustarova gets a lot of criticism, but at this point I think the coaching change was a good decision. As #1 at the rink they get much more attention and it shows, IMO.

S/K`s performance really surprised me. They looked good in the Russian Cup competition they skated. S/B had a not so great challenger too and made significant improvements until their first GP. S/K now have two weeks to work on their programs, let`s wait and see how they will skate in Japan.

S/k were not good they just amazingly and astonishingly completed all technical elements attempted. Now they didn’t even do that.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

Only Zhang is an Olympic medalist so katsalapov can be likedned to him but I feel he’s like a trainer of young Chinese women in pairs rather than a real contender.

The current Olympic bronze and gold medalists is now an extreme disastrous failure! Why should he continue? There’s now opportunity costs. Russian fed needs to ban him now. Retire him like they did sokolova. Just get rid of him.

The pairs silver medalist from last season's GPF, and 4th at Worlds, last season isn't a real contender?

Re: Nikita. This is his livelihood. He should retire on his terms, not because he's not an OGM contender which no Russian is anyways. And if he's getting more GP and national medals and better placements than other Russian teams then he should keep going. People said D/R should retire and "are done" after poor results last season.... And they just beat Savchenko/Massot.

 

[gmyers]

The pairs silver medalist from last season's GPF, and 4th at Worlds, last season isn't a real contender?

Re: Nikita. This is his livelihood. He should retire on his terms, not because he's not an OGM contender which no Russian is anyways. And if he's getting more GP and national medals and better placements than other Russian teams then he should keep going. People said D/R should retire and "are done" after poor results last season.... And they just beat Savchenko/Massot.

The problem is katsalapov is not competing on his own terms. He is taking money from other teams and preventing others from getting spots at nationals and being coached by zhulin- for some reason considered an honor! You brought up zhang and katsalapov is not zhang! He’s not going to gpf and he’s not 4th at worlds. Katsalapov is a total disaster with a huge failure of a partnership. Even went he went to worlds he was not 4th but ninth. You say Russia should keep Katsalapov employed as an competitive ice dancer but he should be fired like sokolova was. Russia is not United States or Canada when it comes to figure skating. You get employed by the state! He’s a bad employee who needs to be fired and replaced. It’s not a free system where you pay your own way and compete until you feel like stopping.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

If he is taking money from other teams, those other teams are more than welcome to try to get better and do better than him and Sinitsina.

We get it. You dislike the guy. You had some exceedingly high expectation of him and Sinitsina. But if he's competing better than others and his competitors aren't taking the steps necessary to beat him then that's on them.

Btw I would love to know who your favourite dance team is, or who you think the most promising one is... because one can only hope they will one day be bad enough to win a Grand Prix silver.

 

[gmyers]

If he is taking money from other teams, those other teams are more than welcome to try to get better and do better than him and Sinitsina.

We get it. You dislike the guy. You had some exceedingly high expectation of him and Sinitsina. But if he's competing better than others and his competitors aren't taking the steps necessary to beat him then that's on them.

Btw I would love to know who your favourite dance team is, or who you think the most promising one is... because one can only hope they will one day be bad enough to win a Grand Prix silver.

I didn’t have any expectations for katsalapov! Lol! He’s hopeless. Being an Olympic bronze medalist gave him he money to train with zueva and then zhulin but it’s all wasted. It should go to others.

what is a gp silver in the history of Russian ice dance? It’s nothing. Olympic silver was failure. I would like s/s ans l/d and s/b to do well but why aren’t they being coached by dubreuil, krylova, spiliband, zueva, Fusar poli, so the issue is any favorite of mine can never be successful!