If this trend goes on, I/Z will be lucky to be in top 3 at nationals (and will probably have to fight till death with S/K and B/S at Euros for a place on the world team considering there are only two spots). They are too prone to mistakes lately, what is happening to them? Missed on a medal at Europeans, mistakes at worlds which cost them a place in top 6 (and maybe different GP assignments), mistakes at Mordovian with the twizzles, sub-par showing in China in FD and now this. So sad!
Elena Ilinykh & Ruslan Zhiganshin
- Thread starter OrdinaryDreamer
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- Feb 17, 2010
I don`t know if they are headcases, but they are way too talented and have too much of IT to skate like this. We don`t know how they skate in training, maybe they struggle to translate what they do there to the competition. They just have to find a way to become more consistent, because the sky is the limit for them and they can`t keep on throwing away these chances like they are doing since Euro`s.
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They lost about 7.5 on the twizzles, plus 1 for the fall, and 1 in PCS compared to China. So a clean skate would have been about 63/64. The thing that is concerning me is the PCS; it's behind what B/S & S/K are getting, you'd normally expect a boost for them skating at home & they didn't get it, even in TR which shouldn't be affected by the fall. SS was a point behind S/K, & barely ahead of M/K. The judges don't like the dance & I'm worried that if they don't do something about it the pendulum is going to swing away from them completely.
P/E & IT, definitely, but TR, SS, CC? That's been low in China as well.
I'm not expecting much of a comeback tomorrow either, because they'll be screwed starting from the 1st group.
P/E & IT, definitely, but TR, SS, CC? That's been low in China as well.
I'm not expecting much of a comeback tomorrow either, because they'll be screwed starting from the 1st group.
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- Joined
- Dec 21, 2011
Right but unfortunately, as we've seen time and time again, judges always score all the PCS categories within .25 or .5 at most points of one another even when to do so is ridiculous and strains the bounds of credulity. All the PCs would have gone up if he hadn't fallen, even though that's not how it's supposed to be.
This year the impression I get is that they seem more insecure. I didn't even watch the dance, too nervous and I had this feeling it was not going to be good. Why do I jinx them? :noshake: I agree that being the 2nd time internationally the PCS are lower than usual it seems they are really sending them a message and it's up to them to decide. But let's face it, many good teams have had hard skates and even falls (like in 2014 I/K at Europeans and Worlds and ended up medaling at Olympics, or even verybody writing S/K off after the disaster at NHK and now performing much better) and have managed to win competitions again and they may be suffering from sophomore slump. This will be for sure a good opportunity to improve! :agree:
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- Apr 18, 2014
I agree. I think they are going to be very lucky to be even on the Euros team now. They look woefully unprepared.
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- Apr 18, 2014
And I agree with Idontsk8. This is a message. They won't get the PCS unless they skate clean.
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- Feb 17, 2010
I think they put a lot of expectations and pressure on themselves. Especially with Ruslan I have the feeling as if he doesn`t want to let her down, because so many people think he isn`t worthy of her. At least they can now go into the FD without any pressure.
Lol that's a load of ****, they still have the 3rd highest score of all the Russian couples by some way, and apart from the fall they skated with good speed & power today. The issue is with the program, not the skating.
Yeah, but I think it doesn't help - you know you have to do the change of edge into the 2nd set, he's struggled with it before, so you're a little tenser preparing for it, upper body isn't relaxed and so the weight's in the wrong place and then the errors come.
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- Feb 17, 2010
I think with the twizzles they probably would have had a TES of 31, which isn`t too bad. The good news is that their coaching team changed their combi lift after they struggled with it in China, so my hope is that they will do the same with the twizzles. The more difficult sequence is just not worth it, even when done cleanly.
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2011
I think this is overly pessimistic. If they blow a program at Nationals their season is over, no use denying that, but it's not like if their season ends early this year they can't come back strong next year and if they do skate clean and gain momentum then they're still going to get dumped. The Russian Fed isn't stupid and doesn't pick favorites in a stupid way. They pick favorites based on who is most likely to medal. If who is most likely to medal changes, it's bye bye prior favorite. I/'Z can definitely come back from this, be it this year, or next year, or even the year after that. Now they do need to figure out how to go clean before they can do that, sure, and that's the issue, sure. But to act like they are doomed FOREVER is ridiculous.
Dumped for who? Clean Stepanova & clean Monko at their GPs are 3 points behind cleanish I/Z in CoC the SD, and neither of those teams are any more reliable than I/Z. Even the apparent new saviours of Russia S/K have only done 1 clean competition ever, and they ****** up their twizzles and partial steps today. Worlds team will be hard, but if they are left off the Euros team they may as well quit completely because the whole sport will be a complete joke.
Yeah, this is the issue. They skated the SD so well at test skates. They got great levels here; two level 3s and 2 level 4s. But then you have one mistake that negates all of that! I guess it's good that the mistake doesn't ruin the rest of the program, but really can't we just have a performance with no mistakes to start with...
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- Feb 17, 2010
None of the Russian teams perform the way they need to be competitive with C/B,W/P and C/L. Clean M/K and S/B can`t even come close to a mediocre I/Z, let alone if they are clean. I think the door is open for I/Z at least for the Euro`s team.
C/B first two GP seasons were bad, G/P first Worlds was with a 18th place a total disaster, S/K`s first season was awful. They all got a second chance from the judges. We should wait how this year is going to turn out, before giving up on I/Z. TBH, even if they don`t qualify for Euros, I won`t give up on them, because I 100% believe in them.
C/B first two GP seasons were bad, G/P first Worlds was with a 18th place a total disaster, S/K`s first season was awful. They all got a second chance from the judges. We should wait how this year is going to turn out, before giving up on I/Z. TBH, even if they don`t qualify for Euros, I won`t give up on them, because I 100% believe in them.
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