The Nitpick

Grrrrrrrrrr....the Free Dance results at Cup of China were "redonk!"

I found the judges to be impertinent and devoid of all ability to actually "see" what was happening on the ice.

Take a look:



Then this hot mess took the ice...



Now I'm all for Walpurgis Night. Faust is greatly under-used in skating. But this dance was terrible. It lumbered across the ice at a snails pace. Ekaterina gave us her ususal poor posture. Don't get me started about the last 30 seconds or so when it went to complete s%*t! I watched it again to make sure I was giving them a fair shake...it was more painful the second time through.

Let's rewind the the Short Dance where I actually agreed that the Russians out skated team "Shibby." Maia and Alex have many things, but steamy sex appeal in a Rhumba isn't one of them (and now we have one of those weird brother/sister awkward moments). While I don't think I would have had the Russians like 7 or 8 points ahead...I would have given them the lead.

But what a load of crap that the judges not only handed the Russians the title...they marked them as skating better in the free...what?!?!?!?!?! C'mon, really? I realize figure skating is subjective and everybody has to have an opinion...but this is blatant ridiculousness. Put all feelings about style and music aside and just look at the skills and the skating. In short, the Russians weren't even close to being able to keep up with the skating abilities that Shibby displayed. And to even show their incompetence more...the judges didn't even make it close, but called it as a 7+ point blowout resulting in this disaster of a score:



I was pissed...still am! I think what pissed me off the most is that the Russians took their win in stride...they didn't even looked shocked. Not even a "Hey Babe, we just demolished a team that's clearly better than us, isn't that awesome?!?!" from Dimitri. If you just beat the World Bronze Medalists...wouldn't you be 'slightly' more excited?

And the sad part is, we'll never know which of the judges on the panel either don't know how to judge or are passing off favors...their anonymous. Didn't Beyoncé sing, "What goes around, comes back around..."

Revisiting Russian Nationals

Ah Saransk...

City of few hotels, cheap taxis, and adjoining rivers...how interesting thou are. Even more interesting is the fact that last month the city played host to the Russian National Championships.

If you look at the results I don't think there is a whole lot that one wouldn't expect. The men's winner, Konstantin Menshov, reeled off two quads in a Plushenkoesque Michael Jackson free skate that brought modest applause from the audience at the end. My favorite part is the 45 seconds or so you spend in an Aviary...



In pairs, new champions were crowned when newly formed team of Volosozhar and Trankov threw done a very solid program to Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. The two sets of side-by-side triple jumps were super impressive. This team can't compete internationally just yet but when they do they'll be top contenders.



For ice dance, Bobrova and Soloviev have solitified themselves as the top Russian team moving forward. I'm not sure they are quite yet ready to be considered top contenders yet (although they did place 4th at the Grand Prix Final), they are certainly a team to watch going forward (as are the gazillion Russian Junior Teams). Russia barely hit the ice dance podium in 2010...lots of work to do before 2014 when the Olympics are in Russia.



Finally the ladies, where young Adelina Sotnikova jumped her little butt off on her way to a win. She's only 14 so we wont see her at Europeans or Worlds but there is a spark here! In other news, Ksenia Makarova finished 5th...wamp wamp.



Someone did a nice job of organizing the full results on Wikipedia...take a peak.

Next Post: Back to B.C.

Bland Weekend in Moscow

In General, I was very BLAH about Rostelecom Cup this past weekend. Very little actually got my blood pumping. I felt the ladies competition was boring. Miki Ando skated a clean but safe program to win. Akiko skated a pretty program peppered with little errors for the silver, and Ashley Wagner nabbed the bronze after a better but still not amazing free. Half the dancers didn't even compete leaving a field of medalists nobody would have predicted. The men failed to excite with Tomas winning with his less than spectacular MJ Medley (The choreo Hugo...the choreo!). We learned that Chan is beatable, he just has to fall like 3 or more times. And Jeremy may have missed his shot at Beijing with just a bronze.

The only thing that DID excite me about Rostelecom Cup was Kavaguti and Smirnov's Free Skate. GUSH! It's a thing of beauty and they skated it brilliantly. Tamara Moskvina has really put something special together there. Not sure on the outfits (Sasha's in particular) but the skating gets an A+.

How did I do fantasy wise...don't ask. The Men's and Dance events killed me! But somehow I keep moving up the overall standings...156th overall...meh!

Later this week a Grand Prix Final Crunch pre Trophy Eric Bompard.

Also, bare with me...my work schedule has become haphazard so blogging and working has become...interesting. But...I'm still committed!