Ozerova and Enbert (Russia) - Rough. Messy sbs triples. Fall on the throw triple flip. Missed a lift at the end of the program...just ran out of steam.
Moore-Towers and Moscovitch (Canada) - Amazzing attack and energy. Nothing was easy but it was terribly exciting. Held on to everything and brought crowd to their feet.
Yankowskas and Coughlin (USA) - Great start but came undone a little bit half-way through. The Colorado skaters are dealing with tough news of a friends death so a little uneasiness is understandable.
Denney and Barrett (USA) - In Caydee and Jeremy fashion put down an amazing free skate that was near perfect.
Langlois and Hay (Canada) - Anabelle was a fighter although there were some two foots and hand downs...still a good performance. Grand Canyon Suite is pretty piece of music.
Dube and Davison (Canada) - Uneasy from the start. Lots of little mistakes and balance checks. Botched berth at Grand Prix Final.
Mukhortova and Trankov (Russia) - Super solid, similar to Paris. Lost a boot strap and had to stop and fix but picked back up and skated great. I love Cinema Paradiso...even if it's folded in with Love Story.
Savchenko and Szolkowy (Germany) - New Out of Africa program is beyond beautiful. New record score after a stunning free skate. Just beautiful...this is easily the program to beat this season.
Jeremy Ten (Canada) - Missed opening axel but then rallied. Mid program began falling on jumps again. Kind of up and down performance. Some lovely moments here...Queen Symphony a great music selection.
Kevin Van der Perren (Belgium) - Looks like he hates skating. After an awesome 3-3-3 program came undone. Slow, no energy, cursing in the Kiss and Cry...not good. Needs to find a way to love skating again.
Stephen Carriere (USA) - Much better. Stepped out of opening triple axel but landed second and was fine from that point on. Needs a little more connection to the music but improved from Beijing.
Joey Russell (Canada) - Lot's of energy. Some jump issues including a jumping pass he never even took off from but good spunk. One for the future.
Armin Mahbanoozadeh (USA) - Fell on opening axel but then rocked out the rest. He's an amazing skater and looked outstanding here. Went behind Carriere...kind of confused about that.
Samuel Contesti (Italy) - So much fun to watch but had a few jump errors. Still, he's a joy to watch.
Patrick Chan (Canada) - Started off beautifully but then came undone. Fell on second triple axel, lutz, and a third jump (salchow?), also doubled a loop. Ended up behind Contesti. Eeeek!
Michal Brezina (Czech Republic) - Opened with a huge triple axel that was hard for him to hang on to. A few little jump issues kept the program from sizzling like it did in Nagano but not terrible.
Alban Preaubert (France) - Put on a jump clinic and delighted the crowd in the process. Only guy on the night to skate 100% clean.
Denis Ten (Kazakstan) - Lacked the excitement of the short and had too many jump issues. Lost his placement...what a shame.
Daisuke Takahashi (Japan) - Solid. Seemed to be better conditioned here than in Nagano. Great choreography...will be tough to beat.
Jeremy Abbott (USA) - Opened up with huge quad! Hung on to triple axel (little turned out) but went on to hit just about everything else, gorgeous skating...and the WIN!
Jenna McCorkell (Great Britain) - Messy triples including a fall on the lutz. Lacked spark. She and her husband (Kevin Van der Perren) didn't have great skates today.
Akiko Suzuki (Japan) - Some jump problems but had good attack. Shame she didn't repeat what she accomplished in Beijing. Will have to wait and see if it's enough.
Caroline Zhang (USA) - Slllllooooooowwwwww. Fell on both triple flips and lacked expression. Shame...she looked dejected.
Amelie Lacoste (Canada) - Lacked content. Coupled with some jump mistakes kept her from really being a player here. Surprised she was even in the final group.
Cynthia Phaneuf (Canada) - Ouch...literally, 4 falls. Tears of sadness in the kiss and cry...heartbreaking.
Laura Lepisto (Finland) - Clever choreography but lots of jump errors. So far an underwhelming evening.
Mirai Nagasu (USA) - Looked like she was determined to rotate those jumps...almost to the detrement of her choreography. Improved from Beijing but still needs some more attention to expression and overall flow.
Alissa Czisny (USA) - Started off great. Fell on her second lutz and second loop but impressed with her spiral sequence and final spin. Despite the mistakes was still a lovely program.
Joannie Rochette (Canada) - Lots of little jump errors...program never really took off. Still easily won, although she wasn't close to matching her performance from the short. Win bought her a ticket to Tokyo for Grand Prix Final.
FD is tomorrow and will post comments then.
UPDATE:
Hubbell and Hubbell (USA) - They seem very free on the ice with this program. You get the idea they like it. Couple places where Keiffer had to struggle a bit for balance and he had issues with one of his twizzles but fun to watch.
Bobrova and Soloviev (Russia) - Beautiful flow and great music choice with Adagio by Il Divo.
Samuelson and Bates (USA) - Solid but a little slow...lacked that instant pop they usually have especially on their extensions. Showed up in the score when they went behind (BEHIND I say) the Russians.
Weaver and Poje (Canada) - Gorgeous! Besides a slight unison issue on their twizzles
Pechalat and Bourzat (France) - Good dance. They do themes well (Time this time...no pun intended). Lost some energy at the end. Speaking of the end...it takes to long. It's one of those programs that refuses to end.
Virtue and Moir (Canada) - Masterful. While I'm not a huge fan of this music (for me it's all kind of one level) for a free dance they manage to weave a gorgeous picture out of it. The lifts in this program, I think, are the finest in the world. They set the new high score this season with a big ole 204.38. Sheesh!
5 comments:
i didn't read your post yet, since i haven't been able to watch all the FSs yet, BUT, "out of africa", OMG!?!?!
that new program is going to make the olympics pairs competition MUCH more interesting, because now the germans have developed that emotional element they didn't before, and it puts them more on par with shen/zhao.
if both teams skate perfectly the house will come down...it will be SO exciting, and i can't imagine how the pieces will fall, as far as placement.
Glad that Takahashi is somewhat back. Hopefully he can get his stamina up by the Olympics. Very happy to see Abbot skated somewhat clean. If he skates clean in both long and short, he probably has the best chance of getting a bronze at the Olympics among US men. Disappointed at Ten for skating poorly. But he's still young so hopefully he'll keep improving and we'll see him skating for a medal at 2014.
Very happy to see Weir, Abbot, Lysacek to be in the Grand Prix final. Along with Joubert, Takahashi, and Oda, this group looks like a precursor to the Olympic competition (of course we're missing Plushy but it's good enough). I'm sure everyone, even Lysacek, will be pulling out a quad next month in Japan. Can't wait to see who lands it when it really counts! My prediction: Joubert, Oda, then Abbot.
i haven't been able to find this online anywhere...but, when is the last time the US had THREE men at the GP final!? this is a BIG DEAL, eh? i'm ecstatic. it seems it must be at least a decade?
Loved the Out OF Africa skate by the German team. They really sold it.
I really love the new long program for Savchenko & Szolkowy, but I still feel like there's some extra little something that Shen & Zhao have that no one else does. It might just be that their my personal sentimental favorites after all of these years. I just don't know.
As far as the men's competition goes, I'd say Alban was the big surprise for me. I don't know when (if ever) I've seen him have such a clean skate. I'm happy that Jeremy won, but my personal preference would have been Takahashi, had he skated cleanly. Abott gets so much hype from so many places that I think it has turned me against him. :(
Women: I feel like Czisny is Sasha Cohen, part deux. Short programs that make me go "oooh" and free skates that make me go "argh, no," mixed with that special something that makes me not even care about the long program "argh no" moments. If only she could put together 2 completely clean programs back to back...
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