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Nations Cup 2002 - Pairs Short Program

Steffi and I had made it to the rink in time for the pairs SP (very unusually without any organizational problems *eek*). We were a bit early and saw the last group of the ladies practice and also greeted Marianna (our roommate) and Silvia from Italy. I didn't take any notes on the ladies short and I don't think anything interesting happened.

The competition was started off by Zagorska & Siudek from Poland, who skated their short program to "Lord of the Rings" and were wearing dark-blue costumes with yellow and red stripes. They completed sbs-3T's (she put her hand down) and a throw-3L, then a lift with good ice coverage. They seemed relatively slow in this part of the competition, also the sbs spins were rather slow. The pairs spin was better than the sbs spin. I didn't find the choreography very interesting, a bit boring, due to not many in-betweens and an unemotional presentation. She has a new hairstyle (due to which we haddn't recognized her when we saw her earlier) that suits her much better, her hair is now short and darker blonde with some lightblond streaks.

Nönning & Bleyer wore black and red costumes in a "Spanish" style. They did sbs-3T's (she fell), a 2-Twist with not much height and she fell on the throw-3S. She also screwed up the sbs spin, then they did a nice lift with mediocre ice coverage. The program didn't have much choreography, hardly any in-betweens and they seemed rather tense, not very expressive.

Fitze & Rex wore a black costume with a few white stripes that looked a bit boring. They did clean sbs-3T, a not very high 2-twist with an a bit wobbly landing, a throw-3S that she landed on forward, a good star lift with mediocre ice coverage, sbs spins that were close together, but a bit out of synch. Their speed seemed mediocre. Their program had a nice choreography, with quite some in-betweens and especially Eva was skating with lots of energy and passion (she outshines him a bit). They still look a bit too tense though, concentrating too much on completing all the elements one after the other, so that their skating doesn't look like real pair skating yet, but this should come with more time and experience.

The current World Champions Shen & Zhao were next, he was wearing black pants and a red shirt with a strange black sign on it with puffed sleeves (that must have looked quite strange, because in my notes I have underlined the words "puffed sleeves" AND have put exclamation marks behind it, LOL) They did very good clean sbs-3T's, a throw-3L and one of their usual high 2-Twists. The choreography was ok, but nothing special and there wasn't really much going on between the elements. It was a good skate, but the program didn't grab me at all.

Petrova & Tikhonov wore very nice blue costumes with some silver glitter. They started off with a nice 2-twist, followed by sbs-3T (both put their hand down) and a very nice throw-3S, a lift with a great creative exit. It was a nice fluent program, they seemed to lose a bit of speed towards the end, but overall their speed was better than at this competition last year. It was a very nicely choreographed program, of the programs I had seen so far, it had the best connecting moves and they looked the most "like a pair", it was the most complete program.

Lariviere & Faustino were next, Lenny was wearing a black suit, Jaquinthe a red dress. They started with a throw-3S, but both fell on the SBS-3T and their sbs spin was out of synch. They did a an expressive, jazzy program with some original choreographical ideas, the whole program was very playful and the choreography ended with her slapping his face. Their elements (if performed clean) have a good overall quality and they certainly skate as a pair and have very good presentation skills.

Obertas & Sokolov also were in red (she) and black (he). They did clean sbs-3T's, a nice 2-Twist, a throw-3L and good close sbs spins. They had a nice fluent program and a very soft style that was beautiful to watch. The program was maybe a little bit boring, because it didn't have too many in-betweens and they used some "elevator-music". They were elegant and harmonic with quite good speed, but the program and the music lacked some energy. Still they were my first big "discovery" of the event, I had seen them before on TV once or twice, but then they always were struggling with their jumps and also they didn't seem quite that harmonic yet, but here they really impressed me!

Inoue & Baldwin were next to skate. Since I had read all those things about the horrible state of American pairs skating on the internet, I had expected them to be pretty bad, but they weren't. They wore strange black & blue costumes with some silver metallic applications. They started with a solid 2-Twist, then did sbs-3T (he stumbled out of it), a throw-3S (she saved the landing). Her camel during the sbs spins was weak. Their speed was quite good. They used Spanish music, but the interpretation and choreography wasn't very Spanish. It was an ok skate, with nothing outstanding, there weren't many in-betweens in the choreography and their flow could be better.

Wirtz & Wirtz both wore light grey dresses. They did a very low 2-Twist, sbs-3S (both with problems), a nice spiral section, a lift with mediocre ice coverage. She then fell on the throw-3S, very low death spiral. The program was ok, but it didn't have much choreography. Their speed was not too bad. Their basic skating quality is quite good. They actually looked better than I expected.

In the break after the short program we walked by a middle aged woman who was wearing a pullover saying her name and "Plushenko Fan" written under it. Wow, I definitely need something like this next year as well, LOL!