Pairs Short Program - Notes & Results

[Doggygirl]

Spoiled gal that I am...

...couldn't help but watch these video clips posted on FSuniverse.com.

http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12834&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

Registration required.

Clips of the top four pairs. Choppy at times, and small on the screen, but my personal first taste of visual action! My DH is working to see if we can view these in a larger format. (it was about 3" X 5" max on a large computer screen - well, maybe smaller as I think my recipe cards are bigger LOL) and only the top 4. I'm sure that this view is nothing like it is live - I've come to realize that speed in particular can never be fully evaluated on the small or large screen.

This is looking like an exciting competition!

I hope I haven't violated anything with what I've posted. If I've crossed any lines, please let me know as that is not my intent.

Happy Hunting!

DG

 

[thvudragon]

From what I heard, S&Z had some problems on the spins too. So it wasn't the matter of just one element. it did sound like a few pairs deserved to be placed higher than S&Z. I hope they show the top 10 pairs on Thurs. night.

Despite being easy, S&Z's sbs spins had best synchronization of the top 4. I felt S&Z's program was very strong, even with the fall. They were on the beat and did everything fairly well. Their spins were the best they've ever been. I actually thought they should have been above PangTong.

I can see no way how LangArch should be above S&Z though. Langois and Archetto don't bother doing any linking steps, transitions, or choreo. They telegraph all of their elements terribley, unlike S&Z of which there is no telegraphing. It's very clear to me. Langois and Archetto, despite being clean, are rightfully eighth.

TV

 

[VIETgrlTerifa]

Despite being easy, S&Z's sbs spins had best synchronization of the top 4. I felt S&Z's program was very strong, even with the fall. They were on the beat and did everything fairly well. Their spins were the best they've ever been. I actually thought they should have been above PangTong.

I can see no way how LangArch should be above S&Z though. Langois and Archetto don't bother doing any linking steps, transitions, or choreo. They telegraph all of their elements terribley, unlike S&Z of which there is no telegraphing. It's very clear to me. Langois and Archetto, despite being clean, are rightfully eighth.

TV

ITA with you. I thought I was the only one who didn't think S/Z's performance was as bad as people were were saying it was.

 

[mzheng]

Count me as another one S&Z's SP was not as bad as ppl made it to be. As for sbs spin I agree with what TV said.

 

[bleuchick]

just watching the pairs short now...

first to skate - Shen & Zhao - first off, if there is one thing that I love is their speed and explosiveness...particularly during the throw...BUT... this time around the "explosiveness" took away from the split twist. Rather than doing the split twist where the man sets the woman down gently such that the elements appears effortless, it was rough and crushy on landing. Other than the problem with the twist, their throw was remarkable due to their power. The spins were okay in the begining but in the "slow motion" part, you see them out of syn at the end(he finished rotating earlier than she did). They were heavily penalized in the technical marks. They received 5.1-5.6.

2nd to skate - L&A - this is a great program and this time around they skated it as cleanly as possible. They still have problems here and there but I do agree with Paul that they sold the program and deserve better presentation marks, imo.

- Pang/Tong (1st 5.9 OF THE NIGHT)- according to Paul they are more responsive to music and not as powerful as Shen/Zhao. Interesting way to describe them. For the first time, I felt drawn in their program!!!

- P/T - okay, I have always had a soft spot for this team after they won the worlds 2000 by fluke and couldn't deliver thereafter. So I am rooting for them to do well in this world. By the way, he is looking a wee bit HOT with the open baby blue satin silky smooth shirt ...okay...ahh...where was I?

 

[SusanBeth]

S&Z I've watched the clip, I hope he wasn't injured. It looked like a ''very hard on the knee'' type fall. It seemed to take him a long time to recover. The rest of the program was high quality though.

I didn't think T&M were all that good. What's the deal with their Death Spiral? They had this awkward bent knee entrance. In fact, they looked as if they were being so cautious, they were afraid to move. I hope they loosen up a bit for the long.

 

[bleuchick]

F/R(GER) - **Awesome dancy death spiral from the new German pair** though it is a bit on the side of exhibition. Still nice pair to look out for!

 

[PatC]

Quote:

I didn't think T&M were all that good. What's the deal with their Death Spiral? They had this awkward bent knee entrance. In fact, they looked as if they were being so cautious, they were afraid to move. I hope they loosen up a bit for the long.


Me:
They always do their ds like that. Someone told them that once upon a time there were ice sharks. So ever since, they've been scared to death to get to close to the ice. Just in case..............

 

[show 42]

Sad to see my favs, Shen and Zhao are in fourth......but they could move up........but delighted to see that my other favorite pair, Pang and Tong are in third...... 42

 

[Tonichelle]

then I must be skating's dumbest fan... L/A's SP is so much more exciting than the rest.

For anybody who has not seen it yet, it would not be a bad idea just to be a little bit more patient. Seeing is believing.

uh huh... unless ABC starts showing everything I won't be seeing the SPs on TV anytime soon.

 

[SusanBeth]

They always do their ds like that. Someone told them that once upon a time there were ice sharks. So ever since, they've been scared to death to get to close to the ice. Just in case..............

I knew there had to be a logical explanation for it.

 

[Vash01]

"...Well, I only saw the top 4, and I think there are ppl who are exaggerating about S/Z's performance at other places. They weren't nearly as bad as some people were making them out to be. Ever since Worlds 2003, there have been a bunch of people who feels that S/Z should be torn down. IMO, they were better than Pang/Tong. T/M and Pet.Tikh, on the other hand, rocked!!"

If you have seen only top 4, you don't know the full picture. Several other pairs skated clean and they did not have the big deduction. I am not trying to tear them down, just commenting on the fact that they did not skate well at all in this competition. The judges should have marked them based on this competition.

 

[VIETgrlTerifa]

Well, the thing is, I wouldn't go as far as to say that they didn't skate that well at all in this competition. Zhao messed up on his triple toe and it did distract, but I thought everything else was great. Even with the fall, I felt they were better than Pang and Tong.

 

[Kateri]

You know, I actually enjoyed Zhang/Zhang's routine most!
While I don't actually think they should have placed much higher, it just flowed, and worked all together, with no obvious flaws, and lovely elements.

Looking forward to the free!

kateri.

 

[diver chick]

I loved Zhang/Zhangs program too. As much as I loved the classical elegance of P/T the Zhangs skated theirs really well and certainly seem to have matured a lot in the last couple of seasons with regards to their presentation. It was definitely one of the stand out programs of the night for me. As was the Poles I just love the traditional style these two have and when they skate well, like last night, it is wonderful to watch IMO.

 

[Antilles]

I think L&A should have been a little higher. They were a bit tentative with his hand, but it was a good program. Too bad for S&Z. I think Z&Z should have been higher. Petrova&Tikhonov are really looking quite good this season. I was also really please with Z&S.

Anyone else find Paul Martini's explanation of good lifts weird? The important points he mentioned were that lifts should have changes of position and cover the full ice surface. The first S&P lift they showed as a "good" example was appropriate, but the second "good" one he showed to demonstrate this was theit two handed table-top lift with no changes of position. This confused me. Also, if they wanted to show not so good lifts, I would not have chosen Petrova&Tikhonov. That was a decent tift. There are plenty worse out there.

 

[antmanb]

You know, I actually enjoyed Zhang/Zhang's routine most!
While I don't actually think they should have placed much higher, it just flowed, and worked all together, with no obvious flaws, and lovely elements.

Looking forward to the free!

kateri.

I agree - i wouldn't have wanted to be a judge at this competition because i disagreed with a lot of it after watching it all on TV but then couldn't really decide what i would have done differently. Maybe its a case of you really have to see it live to tell but i thought Pang & Tong looked really rough around the edges and didn't seem to really finish any move off before rushing to teh next, the British Eurosport commentators noted that technically on the back sit part of the side by side spins she was spinning on the wrong edge and they were therefore doing different spins (in addition to the fact they were never once in unision) and thought they should have been last of the chinese pairs with Zhang & Zhang first of the chinese pairs since they seem to have really good presentation (at least on tv) and fantastic elements. S&Z looked like the wind was knocked out of their sales when he missed the triple toe and while the rest of the program was good i think their presentation was not up as high as it usually is.

I thought the two russians are exactly where they should be and was dissapointed that Obertas & Slavnov are not higher since i though thtye were better than 7th - i like their split double twist better than any of the pairs (Z&Z while impressive doesn't look quite as nice because of how open she is in order to not over-rotate the double). Zagorska & Suidek i also thought were fantastic and was dissapointed that they weren't higher also.

Ant

 

[rain]

Well, now that I've seen the whole thing I thought I'd comment further. I stand by my earlier comment that Langlois and Archetto got shafted. Actually, I thought everyone from 5th to 8th should have finished ahead of Shen and Zhao. All said teams skated clean. Shen and Zhao's fall was big and really disrupted the program as it took a long time for him to get back into it and on a night of such great skating they were majorly held up.


My impression of the whole night was that it was all about name recognition after the judges were thrown into a quandry by first, the mistake of the world champs, and second, the clean skates of so many others. L&A's shaft, if you will, came from a couple of things.....first, they got buried for skating early (I can't wait for COP), and they also got buried because the judges hadn't yet decided how much they were going to hold up S/Z.


I thought the Zhangs were another majorly undermarked team, while Petrova and Tikhonov and Totmianina and Marinin were both overmarked, particularly T/M. Zagorska and Suidek were also overmarked IMO.


In other words I thought the whole thing was screwed up, LOL. But I was most disappointed for L&A who I thought should have been in a position to challenge the podium after the short.

 

[Matt]

I don't think S&Z's programme was that terrible either. The only mistake I could see (I downoladed it from Julia at somebodyelseslife.com--so much for me being unspoiled, lol!) was Zhao's fall on the 3t, and even that looked like his blade just slipped out. ITA that S&Z had the best sync of the top 4 in spins (P&T ok, but the Russians out of sync? That's inexcusable, guys). I hope S&Z can get it back in the FP, b/c their FP to the "Nutcracker" is amazing

I'm going off clips, and I haven't found one of L&A, but it doesn't sound like they had any major problems, so I'm curious to see what the deal is.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

S&Z in 4th place will have to pull a Sarah Hughes to win gold. I don't think that scenario will happen again even if S&Z win the LP.
I can't imagine the three teams above them having a melddown, and you know how to figure the 6.0 system.

Joe