You are here: Home / Skating / Reports / Euros 2005 / Tuesday, 25th

Tuesday, the 25th: CD and Pairs SP

We didn’t watch any practices on Tuesday morning, even though we might have caught some men before the CD started, but I can’t say I remember anything in particular. My notes about the CD consist of the word “CDance“, LOL. The CD was nice overall, I just never feel inspired to write anything about it. The atmosphere was pretty bizarre, because they let about 1 million school classes (very young children, some looked like 1st grade or so) into the rink and they created a weird atmosphere. Sometimes, especially at the beginning, they were totally over-enthusiastic, then later they lost interest and some teams hardly got any applause at all. And nobody ever clapped when the teams were announced onto the ice, which was kind of irritating. Any team who ended the CD with a lift of course got a huge ovation, LOL. I like watching the Golden Waltz, it’s my favorite of the Waltz CD’s. I didn’t quite understand all of the points, like I’m not sure why Grushina & Goncharov got so many points in comparison to the other top teams, since they looked much slower and had less flow than the others, but then maybe they executed all the steps extra well. I also was surprised that the Kerr’s were so high and Gudina & Beletski so low, but then it’s CD’s, LOL.

The opening was kind of short, I think there were some children with country flags, then Marcella di Trovato (she’s certainly the child from another country I’ve seen the most often, I’ve seen her on show tapes for the last 3 years and now live too, but she’s very talented) with a nice number and Bessedin & Polishuk did their “Hockey Player vs. Figure Skater” program. I’m not their biggest fan, but I had not seen this program live yet and I like the idea of it, so it was nice. A friend had told us that Fusar Poli & Margaglio had been practicing for the opening the day before, but they were not skating. Well I think they have a new exhibition to “Killing me softly” where they use a rope, which I probably wouldn’t like and I bet they’re out of shape, so it’s probably for the better they did not skate anyway, LOL. I’m sure they had plenty to do that week anyway, with Maurizio being caller and choreographing the finale for the exhibition and Barbara coaching Aureli & Vaturi.

Pairs SP:

Bestandigova and Bestandig skated to a music called “Xmas in Sarajevo”. She screwed up their sbs-3toeloop attempt and also stepped out of the throw-3salchow. Their music sounded nice, but they did not have enough in-betweens in the choreography and they were kind of slow.

Boguslavska & Brovenko wore black and red costumes and skated to “Carmen”. Their throw-3salchow attempt actually looked good, but she fell late on it anyway. They had a good sbs spin, but finished far behind their music and at least one of them had problems with the sbs-2axel. The spins were definitely the strongest point in their skating.

Pla & Bonheur wore dark red costumes and skated to music from “Tausendundeine Nacht” (no idea how it’s called in English). They also had a couple of problems, one of them (or both?) but the hand down on the sbs-3toeloop, she stepped out of a good-looking throw attempt and their sbs spin was out of synch. I don’t really remember how I liked the program.

Shapiro & Akolzin were a big positive surprise in the SP, I don’t think I’ve seen them skate so well yet :) (even though they did not seem to have a coach with them at that competition at all). They managed both the throw-3salchow (I remember when they first competed, their attempt still looked totally hopeless) and sbs-2axel without problems. Their pairs spin was lacking flow and they got slower towards the end of the program, but they finished in time of the music. Overall it was a very good skate for them and of course also a very good result. Their music was “Luna de Paris” and they wore yellow costumes.

Petrova & Tikhonov were next with their Tango SP. He doubled their sbs-3toeloop attempt and then they surprisingly completely screwed up their sbs spin, it already was out of synch on the entry and got worse and worse and then they also got scarily close together at the end, from our seating position it looked like they nearly crashed into each other. Even their pairs spin looked a bit wobbly too, it was most definitely not their day. Of course they had skated with much more speed and command than all the other pairs so far.

Obertas & Slavnov skated their Russian Gypsy SP and had a very good skate :) The only thing you could possibly call a mistake, was that their sbs spin was a little bit out of synch at one point in the middle, but overall it was a great skate for them and the program is really entertaining.

I didn’t really note down anything about Totmianina & Marinin, because there is no reason to, they were pretty much perfect :) Their “Ave Maria” SP is so beautiful and they are just so smooth and soft over the ice.

Sawchenko & Szolkowy had new costumes for their SP, a much darker blue than the old ones. Their skate was not perfect, but still pretty good, she jjust saved the landing of the throw (it was maybe a bit 2footed and had a short run-out) and their sbs spin was out of synch, but the rest was very good, they had great unison on the sbs jump and I just love their spirals, they are impressive.

Beloglazova & Bekh skated to “Vabanque”, I think it was the same program as last year. They didn’t have a good skate, they had fall on the sbs-jump and the throw-3salchow and a minor problem on the sbs spin. I think they look good together as a pair, because they are both tall with long limbs.

Handke & Wende skated their SP to “Tango Jalousie” and they nailed both their throw-3loop and the sbs-3toeloop. Their sbs spin was maybe a bit out of synch and the lift didn’t cover much ice. They do need to improve their speed and flow in the future, but it was a very good performance and a lovely program. We learned that week that they have changed coaches are now with Knut Schubert in Berlin (he coaches Kierkgaard & Jeschke, theoretically that is :P and used to coach Schwarz & Müller for example).

Voloshozar & Morozov skated to “Sabre Dance”, cool music. Their sbs-3toeloop was clean, but their throw was 2footed. They did an impressively high 2twist and had good transitions.

Spassova & Todorov’s music was listed as “Renaissance Music” and it including that song “Drunken Sailor” (I actually have no idea if that’s the title of the song, but I found it very funny, because it’s one of those songs that we used to sing at elementary school all the time when I was a little child, LOL). It inspired Steffi and me to exchange our childhood school singing memories and we figured out that all schools in our state most definitely must have had the same songbooks :D Unfortunately Spassova & Todorov had a bad skate here, they fell on the 2twist and she fell on their throw-2 jump. They did sbs-2flips as sbs jump. They don’t try any triple jumps or throws (and I’m not sure she’ll ever become a good jumper, since her jumps are low and she has a pretty bad legwrap too), but they had a very cute program and style and their pairs skills are really very good for their level (they were also rewarded by the judges).

Rennik & Saks were another very positive surprise, Steffi and I were especially eek when they landed a completely effortless looking throw-3salchow. Really cool that they learned that now and it looked pretty consistent over the event too. They still do only sbs-2toeloops and their 2twist is very low. However it was very good for their standard and they also got a big ovation from the audience, who proceeded to later boo their marks, which was kind of funny. I doubt Rennik & Saks ever got such a good reaction before, but then of course they did skate better than ever before. Their music was “Red Hot” by Vanessa Mae.