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Monday, the 22nd: The Long Day

Before the Pairs SP started we got to see the 30 minutes opening ceremony. Overall it was pretty nice, there was some really good stuff in it. I liked the flag opening, where some skaters in white body suits came out, carrying all the flags of the participating countries and did a quite nice choreography with it. The Beier's also got to skate shortly to the official Worlds song "Dreams on Ice". Well we knew the opening ceremony would be choreographed by Daniel Weiss and his wife and his production company and I had already read about there being artists and and stuff, but yet we hardly couldn't believe our eyes when suddenly we notice that figure on the ice and realized it is DEBBIE PARK!! Well she did "the number without skates". Now the next part of the opening ceremony (after some boring speeches) was really nice. They showed some programs of German skaters who had won medals at former championships in Dortmund on the screen inside the rink and always after like a bit of the program a young German skater (I think everything between novice and junior) came out in a similar costume as the skaters had worn then and skated the same program on the ice simultanously (not always with the same jump revolutions ;) ), so you could see the program by the winner on the screen and by the young skater on the ice at the same time. Now that was way cool :) The programs that they re-skated like that (they also showed parts of some other programs by Germans on the screen in between) where by Manfred Schnelldorfer, Jan Hoffman, Kati Witt and Kilius & Bäumler. The girl who emulated Kati Witt did the best job at skating in synch with Kati on the screen btw, I mean they all did a good skate, but that girl was nearly perfectly in synch all the time. For Kilius & Bäumler they did not use kids btw, but it were Nicole Nönnig & Matthias Bleyer who skated the program. It was too funny, because Nicole was wearing a wig (it can only have been a wig, LOL) that looked just like Marika's hair back then :D After the skates, the "original" German skaters always came out on the ice to bow together with their "copies" :) Marika Kilius came out alone (she looks really good and tiffed by the way), because Hans-Jürgen Bäumler wasn't there yet (it was explained why, but I missed it). That part of the opening was a really good idea. Well after that we saw another 2 figures on the ice and nearly fell under our seat ROFL'ing when we recognized it were BESSEDIN & POLISHUK *rofl* (this will probably not seem so funny to anyone who hasn't seen 564577 of Daniel Weiss' shows over the last years :-P). At this point we were seriously worried Laurent Tobel would show up as well :-P B&P did their Swan number, which I btw have seen for the first time back in 1999! EVILLE Steffi remarked that Naomi Lang has a really strange taste...

The Pairs SP was next. Aganina & Knyazev opened the competition. They fell on their throw and had some shaky moments on other elements, but overall it was a solid skate. They only tried sbs 2toeloops. Voloshovar & Kharchenko had a mistake on the sbs-3t, he stepped out. Otherwise it was a good skate to a Tango. Their 2twist is SO high. One of the best in the competition. Lefrancois & Blanchard might have had a slight mistake on the sbs-3t, I couldn't see it well, but otherwise they were clean and very nice. They have such a polished style. Shen & Zhao were surprisingly not flawless, he fell on the sbs-3t. That SP from them has never done very much for me.

Orscher & Lucash unfortunately had a fall on their death spiral, otherwise it was a nice program, with them having a good feeling for their Blues music. Boguslavska & Brovenko screwed up their sbs jump and 2footed the throw. Their 2twist was messy and they need more speed. Langlois & Archetto were clean and had a very good skate. Their sbs spin was a bit slow and sometimes they are lacking flow a bit. Brozovic & Futas did a nice job creating the mood of their music with their choreography, they struggled with their jump and throw though. But they had rather good speed and flow. (Btw, if I write something like L&A could need more flow and then write B&F had rather good speed and flow, it of course can't be interpreted as B&F were better at that than L&A or so, all my comments tend to be in relation to the usual level and my former experiences with the teams...)

Inoue & Baldwin had some problems, he doubled his sbs jump and her landing was a bit iffy, but it was a real fun program with lots of creative elements. Pang & Tong had one of the most beautifully choreographed programs in the field IMO. They were out of synch on their sbs spins. They skated with so much power :) I lurve them! Rennik & Saks did only double throw and sbs jumps. They were a bit anti-climatic after Pang & Tong. My notes about Petrova & Tikhonov say nothing but "clean, super", LOL. In the SP they skated with a lot of power :)

Obertas & Slavnov were a bit out of synch on the end of their sbs spin, other than that they were clean, they are still a bit sloppy at places maybe, but it was a great job for a young new team at their first Worlds together. They are another team with an incredibly high 2twist, wheeeeee. Fitze & Rex did ok, apart from a truely miserable death spiral. I would have liked to tell the wuzrobbing (!) German fans next to us that one could easily classify that death spiral alone as a mistake...I mean had she leaned down any less, she would have been upright... Zhang & Zhang executed their elements very well, except for the pair spin (the sbs spin was fine. Or it was the other way round, my notes don't make perfect sense :-P). Their 2twist of course is HUGE! It was a nice bluesy program.

Shapiro & Akolzin have certainly made a lot of progress since the beginning of the season and also since Europeans, they looked much better than there. They landed their sbs-2axels this time, but she fell on the attempted throw-triple. They have some clear advantages about the lower ranked teams that they beat, especially that they really have decent speed and good flow and they definitely look well matched together. I only wonder if they can get their throws, because right now they are looking quite hopeless. But at least Julia now seems to have gotten the 2axel, which also looked quite hopeless earlier this year. Marcoux & Buntin had one mistake, she fell on the sbs jump. Otherwise they were clean and very energetic. Zagorska & Siudek were clean, but they are still not the most exciting team. All elements were done nicely. Totmianina & Marinin were a bit out of synch on the sbs spins, but other than that clean and it was another one of the really well-choreographed programs :)