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Europeans 2002 - Pairs Long Program
After an uneventful train ride and bringing my luggage to the hotel, we arrived at the rink in Lausanne just a couple of hours before the pairs long program. We had enough time to watch some men's practices, but nothing too exciting happened.
Abbreviations:t=toeloop, l=loop, s=salchow, f=flip, z=lutz, a=axel, sbs=side by side
Pairs long program
Krasiltseva & Znachov from Armenia were the first pair to skate. They had a very bad skate, first of all their music was way too fast for their skating speed, a rather bad choice. Also she looked as if she didn't really have a clue what she was doing. Additionally they screwed most of their elements, so this wasn't the best start into the competition. As far as I remember, their short program went and looked a lot better.
Next to skate were Jelena Sirokhvatova and Jurijs Salmanovs from Latvia. They screwed up about every possible element, including a fall on a spiral. Their presentation was nothing special.
Rennik & Saks from Estonia were by far the weakest skaters in the whole field, they had problems with all their elements, did a really awful twist, their spins were really bad too and while the music was nice, they also lacked in the presentation area. She has pretty good line and extension though!
Geurassimenko & Futas from Slovakia were next, having problems with the throw 3s, she then fell on the 2a and doubled her toeloop. Also their program didn't really have any ending pose, they and the music just suddenly stopped. They skated to orientalic sounding music and had mediocre presentation.
Bestandigova & Bestandig from Slovakia have always been one of my favorite lower ranked team, because they always have very creative programs with interesting choreography. Unfortunately they didn't skate well at this years Europeans, they had mistakes on their jumps and throws and had a problem with the ending of one of their lifts. Still the presentation was good as always, their long program had an orientalic theme.
The Italian pair Cobisi & da Pra had chosen a rather boring music for their long program, while their lifts looked quite nice, they had some technical problems with the other elements too.
Kautz & Jeschke from Germany had a quite nice choreographed long program, romantic for a change and it suited them pretty well. She nearly fell on the landing of the 3-twist, she slid between his feet and he was holding her there, skating forward towards the rinkside while trying to get her up again. They looked as if they were going to bump into the rinkside, but he managed to drag her up just in time. He then fell on his 3t, while she fell on the throw-3l and later stumbled out of the 2a. Somehow they managed to move up from 9th to 8th place with this performance and qualified for the Olympics!
The third Russian pair Borzenkova & Chuvilyaev were next and did the first technically good skate of the whole evening, a very good performance, the only mistake was her stumbling out of one of their sbs jumps. The presentation was a little pale though.
Shklover & Mintals, the other Estonian pair, had a mediocre skate with some errors, ok presentation and some good lifts.
Berankova & Dlabola from the Czech Republic were one of my favorites in this competition, I already had been very impressed with their playful short program. The long program was romantic and suited their soft and harmonic style very well. They had good expression. Unfortunately they didn't have the best skate either, she struggled with her jumps. I've never noticed this pair before, but this year they have two very good programs and a wonderful quality to their skating. They were the only pair at this Europeans who's skating really had something special for me.
The next pair to skate were Sfikas & Seabrook from Britain. I had never heard of them before this competition and had been pleasantly surprised with their short program on TV. Their long program didn't look as good though, a boring choreography and many mistakes, no highlights, except for them falling on their first sbs jumps in perfect unison.
Leray and Osseland from France were next. They have one basic problem, her height! She's tall for a pair skater, there's not much height difference at all and for this team it is a major problem, because he just isn't able to lift her properly. Their lifts look really scary, she's up in the air for about a second and often comes down early. In this long program, their jumps weren't working either, she fell on the sbs 3t and struggled with other jumps too. Their presentation isn't bad though.
Chuvaeva & Palamarchuk's program had a lack of presentation, they just did one element after another and had some mistakes.
The Polish pair Zagorska & Siudek was next, started with sbs 3t's that were clean, although she struggled with the landing. Same for the 2a - 2t, she struggled, but held on to the landing. Very good throw-2a (rumors say they are working on the throw-3a), good lifts with good entries and exits, a cool entry in the death spiral. They looked fast and zestful. The presentation was ok, but nothing special. But a clean program for them, except for the little wobbles on her jumps.
Abitbol & Bernadis from France were next. Started with clean sbs 3t, she then singled her 2a. Their lifts look quite good. Their presentation consists mainly of acting, meaning they are standing in one place, doing lots of acting, then they do some elements, then some acting again, and so on. The presentation/choreography isn't really connected to the actual skating, but rather seems to be aimed at distracting from their skating, what has always bothered me about them.
Totmianina & Marinin the leaders after the short program, came out wearing great costumes, in blue with some violet. He stumbled out of the sbs 3s, the 3t-2t was good though. They have some interesting exits from lifts and pretty good unison. They still have to work on their presentation that still is a little pale. I always tend to like their short programs a lot better so far, since they don't seem to be able to capture my attention for over 4 minutes. They were clearly the best and were deserved winners.
Petrova & Tikhonov from Russia were the last pair to skate. They started with great 2a, I'm not exactly sure about their sbs 3t's, his might have been a double. Sbs 3t, he saved his landing. They looked faster at the beginning than earlier in the season at Nations Cup. I really like their interesting lift exits. Good 2a. Their presentation could be better too, but I think the actual choreography of their programs is better than Totmianina & Marinin. They were getting slower towards the end and she stumbled out of the throw-3l.
The French fans were cheering really loud for Abitbol & Bernadis during the medal ceremony, the reaction to the 2 Russian pairs wasn't really that loud, so Steffi and I gave both of them a raving standing ovation to make up for it a little ;-)
Final Standings Pairs
Sarah Jentgens & Mirko Müller from Germany had withdrawn after the short program, because Sarah got ill.
After the ending of the long program I got to meet some people I had only know over the internet so far, which was nice! I and some friends then went into the inner city of Lausanne, because we wanted to have a drink. We soon figured out that Wednesday isn't exactly the best day for that, since the whole town looked kind of deserted. We finally found a little pub that was still open, but we were like nearly the only guests and were thrown out after only like 1 hour, because they wanted to close. We decided we better would go to the hotel bar at the skater's hotel from now on.
