Feel like my favorites Mukhortova/Evgenyev can't catch a break with these early start orders. Their skating skills and body movements are superb, that's my favorite SP of the season... and they skate clean and can never make the final group, sigh. I do acknowledge they could have more amplitude on their elements and bigger jumps, but their in between skating is really so much better than Khab/Knyazhuk and others.
Kostornaya is just wonderful. I can't believe how well they already skate. She looks really comfortable and fluid skating with a partner. It's very impressive. They just need to work on twist and levels. It's only their second ever competition. She needs to look at Osokina as an example, already doing so well after switching. The bronze medal position at Nationals is open. I don't think they'll be anywhere near this year, but by next year, with the sbs 3flip and throw 3flip, I wouldn't count them out.
I only discovered Zhdanova/Babaev-Smirnov last week but already love them... how amazing if they could get a bronze here.
In general, I am glad that Russian ice dancers remember that the 80s also happened in places other than the US and Great Britain and those other countries made some pretty good songs too (I imagine that's not the case in ISU competitions, but I have not watched).
I'm almost 3:00 p.m.
