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| European Championships 2003 Saturday Practice Sessions Ladies, Men, Pairs |
| Getting up on Saturday morning didn't come easy so when we actually arrived to the main rink, it was the end of the penultimate ladies practice group. All the trainings we have seen and we will see were the ones at the main rink as you cannot enter the practice rink. Only skaters their families and people from federations can. Monika has got a press acreditation and even she cannot! The organization of the event is terrible, unfortunately this has to be said. But ok, well enough whinining here is what we observed. One general comment I have to make is that when you have six skaters in a group you don't notice lots of things so remember that actually skaters landed more elements than I will cover. It was impossible couldn't catch everything! And before you start reading, some explanatory notes: x/x is a jump combination, x...x is a jump sequence. As far as lifts are concerned, I couldn't really tell the difference between the three, therefore I used the term lasso lift for toe overhead lift, step overhead lift and a true lasso lift. However most of these lifts were definitely step overhead lifts. There are very few teams who can actually perform a real lasso. |
| Ladies - Practice Group 6 |
| Julia Sebestyen /HUN/ She did a runthrough of her free program, choreographed by Morozov. Her presentation improved a lot. We came in in the middle but noticed: double salchow, triple lutz (hands down), single flip, triple loop (fall) This doesn't sound good, however she kept on practicing and later landed: triple loop, double flip, triple toe. Then she had some falls and landed a double axel. Did a wobbly camel and started to work on a salchow/loop combination. It actually went very well, especially in comparison to her earlier mistakes. She had four attempts at it and then finished practice: triple salchow/double loop; triple salchow/triple loop (step out); triple salchow/double loop and eventually triple salchow/triple loop (YAY!) Aleksandra Petushko /LAT/ She looks much better than I thought. Her presentation is actually quite nice, her spins are ok and she has a nice axel and sometimes salchow. Shame there's not much more jumpwise. She did an almost complete runthrough of her free program and landed: a lovely double axel, triple salchow (hung on), triple loop (fall), triple toe (bad fall), double axel/double toe, wobbly camel into sit, triple toe (fall), double flip/half loop/double salchow/half loop/double loop Later I noticed her landing a toe and a loop but they were both double-footed. Tugba Karademir /TUR/ She skated around not really doing anything. Hristina Vassilieva /BUL/ It was an absolute nightmare. I haven't seen her land a single clean triple jump. Everything (including the double axel) was underrotated and on two feet. Gintare Vostrevocaite from Lithuania was also in that group but I wasn't paying attention to her and don't remember her landing anything anyway. Diana Poth was in that group as well and she looks completely different now. Doesn't have layers of fake tan anymore and has blonde hair. I actually thought that it is Tamara Dorofejev. Lol. We didn't take attention to her skating either (cause we didn't even now who it is, hehe). |
| Ladies - Practice Group 1 |
| Mojca Kopac /SLO/ She was the first skater to do the runthrough and didn't do a lot. She looked off, skated with a resigned look on her face as her music was played. Started skating her program at the end. Did a circular step sequence, triple toe (foot down) and a beautiful triple salchow. Later I noticed her landing a triple lutz and have to say that her jumps were much higher than ones of any other lady in that group. Asa Persson /SWE/ She was wearing a disgusting pink dress and did a runthrough of her short program which was to some oriental music. This program is just so annoying as she does "egyptian arm movements" every two seconds. The jump content reflected the choreography: double axel, double lutz/double toe, single loop She was really really bad. Everything was doubled, underrotated or stepped out and her jumps were low. I saw her doing numerous attempts at the flip and all were a failure. She landed twice on two-feet and fell twice. Generally she was a quarter rotation short in all of her flip attempts. At the end she did a deathdrop twice and both times touched down with her free foot. Tragedy on ice. How she managed to win Swedish Nationals, I will never now. Sarah Falotico /BEL/ I knew how she bombed at Belgian Nationals so I didn't have high expectations here and unfortunately she lived up to them. Did a runthrough of her free program and it was a disaster: triple lutz (lean and a bad fall), double salchow (double-footed), double flip, single axel, triple toe/double toe, double toe, triple salchow (fall) Then she was working on the lutz a lot but I didn't pay much attention to her after her runthrough was finished and only noticed her stepping out once of it and by that time I noticed that she flutzes horribly! Alisa Drei /FIN/ She was something else. It's the form of her life. Did numerous double axels before her runthrough began (free program). Did only parts of it: triple toe/triple toe (stepped out), double axel/half-loop/triple salchow, triple flip Later I saw her landing a triple salchow and have to admit that weren't looking at her often but what I saw was amazing. She was racing around the rink with huge speed and looked as on as you possibly can. Susanna Poykio /FIN/ Most of the time, naturally, I was looking at graceful Ms Poykio. She was flowing around the rink, did some great spins and had no problems with double axel and triple toeloop, salchow and loop. However Susanna had huge problems with flip and lutz. Most of her attempts were doubles or falls. I have written in my notes: triple lutz (fall), double lutz/double toe and Monika notice many more unsuccesful flip and lutz attempts. Then came the runthrough of her free program. And also then came a big suprise: a perfect triple lutz/double toe (we were shocked!), triple toe/double toe, triple flip (fell out), triple salchow, triple loop After she finished (she didn't skate beginning to end, only did parts), it only got better. Landed triple toe, triple toe/triple toe and another good triple lutz. Nevertheless neither me nor Monika saw a succesful flip attempt. So it's not looking very good. Elina Kettunen /FIN/ didn't appear today but she is also in that practice group. |
| Men - Practice Group 2 |
| After the ice-resurfacing the men started their practice although most of them still didn't arrive in Malmo. Group 2 was the first to go. Aidas Reklys /LTU/ Aidas was one of the skaters who weren't expected to qualify and as most of them looked much better than I expected. He actually landed triple jumps quite consistently and had some difficult, nicely choreographed entries to some of them. Before his runthrough started he did: double axel, spiral entry into double axel, double lutz, triple lutz, double loop, triple loop, spread eagle entry into triple toeloop and again into double toeloop Then his FP runthrough started, during which he did: spiral entry into double axel, single loop, triple lutz (fall), double axel, combination spin which was completely off-centred Afterwards he attempted some more jumps: triple lutz (fall), triple lutz/double toe, double axel, triple toe He left a very good impression and we expected him to have an outside chance to qualify, battling hard with the likes of Domanski. Alexei Kozlov /EST/ Margus Hernits is not around this season and it is nice to see Alexei again. I heard that he had a good skate at Estonian Nationals landing the axel there but he didn't seem to be in a particularly good form today. He was doing lots of jumps during this practice, much more than Reklys. double loop, triple loop, triple salchow, triple toe, triple salchow/triple toe, triple salchow/triple toe/single loop, double flip, triple lip, double loop/triple toe with a bad lean, then I was looking at Reklys while Alexei did lots of loops and salchows and then started to warm the axel up, landing a double and a single before his music began. He did a runthrough of his FP as well which was to... Carmen. Naturally my first reaction was: it should be banned from skating. We had enough! Kozlov did most of his program, landing: double axel, triple lutz, triple flip (just held), triple salchow/double toe, triple loop and triple toe. The spins he did were good but however his presentation and carriage were poor. He did some jumps afterwards and surprised us with a couple of lovely axels! No quad attempts though. triple salchow/triple toe, triple axel, triple axel/triple toe (hand down), triple salchow/half-loop/triple toe, double loop/double toe All the French skaters (Brian Joubert, Stanick Jeanette, Frederic Dambier) were in that group but none of them appeared today. |
| Men - Practice Group 3 |
| Hristo Turlakov /BUL/ I think that it is interesting to mention that Ludmila Mladenova who trained all the Bulgarian skaters has dissapeared from the sport and now all of them have new coaches. Turlakov trains in Austria with Evelyn Rossoukhi-Schneider alongside Clemens Jonas. He is quite tall for a skater (180cm) and because he is so thin he looks as if he was even higher and his skating makes an impression of being a bit clumsy. He was an interesting skater to watch but I was very surprised not to see any quadruple toelopp attempts as he has been doing them in the competition in the past. His practice was ok but he had lots of problems with axel. triple loop, triple loop, triple flip, triple flip/triple toe, triple lutz (foot down), double axel, triple axel (hand down) He skated a runthrough of his free program which was to some nice "meditationish" oriental music. triple axel (foot down)/double toe, triple lutz (nice), triple axel (could have touched with his hand, it looked close), double flip, triple flip, triple salchow, triple loop After he finished his runthrough he worked on the axel and he singled first three attempts before he actually managed to land a triple one with a double toe at the end. Then came a double flip followed by a triple and he was finished. Ivan Dinev /BUL/ Arutunian wasn't here yet and there was a familiar looking bald man with him, who was probably his assistent. Dinen looked very very bad and this was probably due to him still not being fully recovered after breaking his leg in the summer. triple salchow, flying camel which travelled horribly, triple flip, triple flip/single toe/single loop, double axel/single toe His new free program is to Kismet by Bond and after he skated it, although he won't looking good jumpwise, we could easily see how much he improved on all the other elements. The jumps I saw him land in the runthrough were: triple axel/triple toe, triple axel (landed but couldn't hang on to it and fell), triple flip His spins which were his weakest point improved a lot and were much faster. Furthermore he did a fantastic straight line step sequence towards the end. After he finished he managed to land another triple axel and then he started his quad attempts which were a complete disaster. He started with a big double and triple toe combinations with a single toe at the end and from then on it became obvious that he is starting to warm his quad. He did two huge double-footed triple toes and from then it went like this: quad toe (fall), triple toe, 2.5 toe, triple toe He wasn't even close to landing it and it became obvious that it will take more time for him to fully recover and come back to good form. The skaters who were also scheduled for this group but were absent were: Ari-Pekka Nurmenkari /FIN/, Zoltan Toth /HUN/ and Kristoffer Berntsson /SWE/. |
| Men - Practice Group 4 |
| There were four skaters in this group (only Plushenko was missing) and there were lots of things going on which made it impossible to follow all the skaters so I didn't see everything they've done. Stanislav Timchenko /RUS/ Since he was the first skater for whom the music was played, he didn't do any jumps during the runthrough of his program. He did some choreography at the beginning, then straight-line and circular step sequences which were absolutely amazing and a great combination spin. From the word go, you could see the "Russian school" quality. Later on, he started doing some jumps and it wasn't as good. double axel, triple flip (just hung on), some jumps I missed, triple axel (step out), triple axel (foot down), triple flip and from there on he started to attempt his quad and it was obvious that he does not have it yet. triple toe, foot down on triple toe, double toe (double-footed) and then three consecutive falls on the quad toe first being underrotated and two other ones just not held. He gave up and did some nice spins before he finished. Ilia Klimkin /RUS/ The first thing I noticed was his newly bleached hair. Although I still considered him to be looking sexy, I found them quite disgusting. Ok now let’s get back to the skating because I don’t want this text to turn into a Sugar article. As Klimkin was the second to have the music played, he didn’t manage to do much before his runthrough began. He did three double axels and then started his skate to Sunny Boy. It wasn’t a full runthrough but he did most of his free program. quadruple toeloop (with no warming up at all!!!), spin, clockwise camel into camel into triple salchow, nice moves in the field, triple flip, good combination spin, cantilever into triple loop, triple flip and some great spins to finish Later he has been working on the quad salchow and it has rather been a disaster: down on quad salchow, triple salchow and a fall on quad salchow Aramais Grigorian /ARM/ This was absolutely appalling to watch. I don’t know why the federation decided to send him again to Euros. He is a 30-year old man who is a coach and whose skating ability wouldn’t even qualify him to US Novice Nationals. Well you can see for yourself. horrid wobbly camel spin, then again, hand down on camel spin, double axel, single axel, double salchow, triple salchow, triple toe (landed forwards), two double loops, 2.5 loop, double flip He went through his FP, not really doing a lot. double toe/triple loop (just hung on), skated around, some horribly slow steps After his elevator music finished, he made lots of desperate attempts at triple flip but none of them worked. He landed four double flips, the last one on two feet, then singled out and gave up. Before he left the practice he did two double axels, touching down with his hand on the first one. After seeing all that I had absolutely no doubts that he will place last here (and guess what, he did!). Bartosz Domanski /POL/ He is such a mess. Can’t take the pressure at competitions but even in practice he is so inconsistent. Like everything is going very well and next moment he can’t land a thing. This was actually a very good practice for him, and it looked as if he has chances to qualify, but unfortunately it will be all down to his nerves in the end. triple salchow/half-loop/triple salchow, ?a jump?, ?a combination?, triple toe/triple toe, triple lutz, aborted lutz, ?some jumps landed?, double loop, double loop and now something which really shocked us, triple axel, single axel, triple axel, triple axel. All of the axels were perfect and he looked really on. Then he skated parts of his FP to 13th Warrior and of course everything fell into pieces. Sigh… complete mess on the axel, double lutz, flip popped to single, triple salchow/half-loop/triple salchow, triple toe, triple lutz, two spread eagles into double axel. Axel and flip attempt were both so wild that he was lucky not to have hurt himself. He didn’t do much later. foot down on single lutz, triple lutz, triple lip I really wish that Poland had skaters who had much less ability than ones we have now but who could at least be able to land during competitions what they do in practice. |
| Men - Practice Group 5 |
| This was absolutely amazing. Watching this group was probably much more enjoyable than watching the actual competition. The best thing was that only three (two in the end) men turned up so we could focus on them and there certainly was a lot worth looking at! Clemens Jonas /AUT/ He was warming up running around the rink and we were wondering who is that Italian looking sexy bloke with dark curly hair. It turned out to be Mr Jonas who had a somewhat nightmare practice session. At first he almost crashed into Kevin van der Perren. Than he skated around for a long time, not doing anything. The first jump he attempted was the triple loop. He fell down, hit his knee really hard and was lying on the ice holding it. After he managed to get up he just skated around for a bit and decided to finish his practice. Gregor Urbas /SLO/ His hair is a bit longer and it’s blonde now with highlights. At first I was sure that it was a woman and since he has been talking to Kevin van der Perren, I thought that it’s Linda van Troyen! Well we wouldn’t have thought that Gregor can surprise us much more with his skating, than with his looks but he did! In my opinion he is the most improved skater since last season. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. He is in a really amazing form! double flip, easy straight-line step sequence, double axel, triple axel, triple lutz(no speed coming out)/triple toe, triple loop out of three turns While most skaters were practicing their FP’s, Urbas decided to go through his short program to Carmina Burrana. He did just some choreography and a triple axel. triple flip, triple flip (step out), triple flip/single toe, triple flip (no speed again)/triple toe, single flutz, double salchow, Then he landed an under rotated salchow and at first I though that it must have been a triple but it was a quad. He was the last person I was expecting to be landing quads and we were just stunned. quad salchow (under rotated), two popped attempts, quad salchow (under rotated), then he went for the toeloop, triple toe, quad toe (underrotated), fall on quad toe, triple flip (just landed), triple lutz/triple toe, triple flip/triple toe By then it became clear that Urbas is capable of getting a triple toe out of anything even if the landing of the first jump wasn’t good and he had no speed coming out. step out of triple axel, triple axel, triple loop, popped loop, foot down on triple loop, triple loop, triple loop/triple loop (step out), triple lutz, triple flutz/single loop triple flip or lutz/triple loop (step out), good combination spin, good deathdrop, he was done and we were thrilled. Kevin van der Perren /BEL/ He made it worth to get up in the morning for the practice sessions. We got to see all his famous triple/triple/triple combinations. Unfortunately he had lots of problems with triple axel but I assume that it was due to him not having fully recovered after his injury. double axel, poor straight-line step sequence, triple salchow, triple toe, triple loop, triple flip, triple flutz/triple loop (!), ?a combination?, triple axel/triple toe, fall on triple axel, triple axel (step out), triple toe Then he did parts of his free program to The Mask of Zorro choreographed by Nikolai Morozov. fall on quad toe, triple lutz/triple toe, circular step sequence into triple loop, triple flip, rather basic straight-line step sequence, triple salchow, good combination spin and I felt that his spins have improved Kevin worked a little on his quad but it was obvious that he doesn’t have it at the moment. quad toe (underrotated and double-footed), fall on quad toe, triple toe And then he started doing his famous combinations and that was just something else… triple salchow/triple toe/triple loop (step out), triple salchow/triple toe/triple loop, triple toe/triple toe/triple toe (step out)/step/triple toe, triple loop/triple loop/triple loop, triple lutz/triple toe/triple loop (three turn out), triple flutz/triple toe/triple loop (three turn out again), fall on deathdrop (?!!), nice layback and double axel with hands together on the landing to finish Both Germans (Smalun and Lindemann) didn’t appear. Gheorghe Chiper /ROM/ didn’t turn up either. |
| Men - Practice Group 6 |
| Karel Zelenka /ITA/ An angelic looking blonde boy, as if he was from a cheesy boyband, if not for his black t-shirt with “Ice Killer” written on it. You could immediately notice his very good basic skating quality, deep kneebend, and he did some nice spins before his short program music to Quixote by Bond started. He did a complete choreography runthrough of his routine, omitting all the jumps, since he hasn’t starting warming them up yet. easy circular step sequence, nice flying camel, nice straight-line step sequence, great sit spin double axel, double axel, triple salchow, double salchow, triple salchow (hand down), triple salchow, triple loop, triple lutz/single toe, triple lutz/triple toe, triple flip/triple toe (hand down), Then he did a triple toe and Monika joked that he is warming up a quad. Well it actually occurred that he was doing that indeed and we started to talk about how sick it is that all the guys are expected to have it and how it results in so many injuries. In my opinion Karel’s training with his dad isn’t very healthy and making him do thirteen quad attempts when it’s obvious that he isn’t anywhere near landing it is really sick. Especially that every now and then he was going to his dad who was giving him some remarks looking to be very angry. triple toe, triple toe, quad toe (underrotated, fall), quad toe (same story), 1.5 toe, fall on underrotated quad toe again, double toe, quad toe (underrotated and double-footed), double toe, double toe, double toe, quad toe (underrotated and double-footed) Then he started to work on his triple axel and it was a similar story. double axel, triple axel landed forwards on two feet, then again, single axel, fall on underrotated triple axel, single axel, double-footed landing on an underrotated triple axel and a single axel Nevertheless all the jumps up to the lutz looked very consistent and were of a very high quality. Lukas Kuzmiak /SVK/ I was really disappointed when Juraj Sviatko, whom I like a lot, pulled out, and after seeing his substitute I got depressed even more. Kuzmiak is a really horrible skater. His basic skating quality is very bad, he is slouched when he skates. He had the worst carriage out of all men I’ve seen in Malmo. He went through his free program to West Side Story and I couldn’t really notice any choreography in it. triple flip (step out), double-footed triple salchow, triple toe, hung on to triple salchow, hung on to triple flip triple flip, single lutz, triple lutz, triple lutz, double axel, triple toe (three turn out), triple toe, “camel spiral” into double axel, then same move again, single flip, triple flip (three turn out), triple flip All jumps Kuzmiak did land were of a “-3 quality”, just held and with practically no running edge out. Stephane Lambiel /SUI/, Tomas Verner /CZE/ and Neil Wilson /GBR/ are also scheduled to be in that group but they didn’t turn up. |
| Men - Practice Group 1 |
| And so group 1 was the last men practice group today (logical, innit!). It was actually the only group where all the scheduled competitors turned up! Vakhtang Murvanidze /GEO/ I was looking forward to seeing him in practice because I always thought that he is very talented but has problems with taking the pressure. It seems that I was wrong. He just isn’t very consistent with his jumps, which this practice proved. He was the first one to be played his music (FP) and surprised me by actually doing some jumps in his runthrough. He did only small parts of his program. triple loop (hands down then fall), triple lip, doesn’t do anything, triple flutz He did lots of jumping but there were no quad attempts and his triple axel wasn’t very consistent either. triple salchow, triple loop, double axel, triple flip/triple toe, triple lutz, triple lutz/triple toe, triple something/triple toe, double axel, triple axel, triple axel (step out), step out of another triple axel, barely landed triple axel , triple loop, double flip, triple flip (hand down), triple flip Sergei Kotov /ISR/ I see absolutely no difference in the way he looks or skates from last season. And this really is a shame because even if he does the tricks, he will get marked down for very poor basic skating quality, low jumps and being very slow. triple toe, bad fall on triple salchow, triple salchow, double loop, triple loop/turn/double loop (turn), triple flutz/flip He skated to his FP music, which is a selection of pieces by Bond (how original!). double axel/double toe, single lutz, triple flip, triple loop/turn/triple loop (!!!), fall on a triple flutz/flip (you really can’t tell the difference with him), hung on to triple salchow and stepped out of something I missed. At that point we burst into laughter because his program finishes with a diagonal step sequence which he skates to… “Winter”! double axel and he’s done I also noticed him landing a triple flutz, single flip and triple flip/triple loop (fall) I am sure that he did much more jumps but I was mostly focusing on the smallest ISU ranked skater ever so I surely missed a lot. Konstantin Tupikov /UKR/ It’s a shame that Ukraine doesn’t have anyone better than him. I would be very happy to see Vitaly Danilchenko back. Tupikov occurred to be a tall guy with short brown hair and looked very mediocre in this practice. Before his FP music started, he did lots of different jumps two of which were surely triple flips. He skated only small parts of his program (mainly the last part) with good speed and there were some nice steps at the end. The only jump he did was a singled flip. This was a guy I was least interested in so afterwards I only noticed him doing: triple lutz (double-footed with step out), step out of triple lutz, triple loop, and warming the axel, waltz jump, double axel, double axel, triple axel Sergei Davydov /BLR/ He was the skater I was most interested in, in that group and he looked to be in a great form. His quad is still not ready but all the triples were there. Furthermore he has the best lutz I have seen so far here. Deep inside edge. triple loop, double salchow, triple salchow, triple lutz, triple lutz/triple toe, triple lutz/triple toe (step out), triple axel/triple toe and then he started to warm his quad up and he never really got there: triple toe, triple toe, double toe, 3.5 toe, 3.5 toe, 3.5 toe, absolutely hopeless Always half of a turn short and landed forwards on two feet. Thank god that his FP music was played which made him stop. And finally after two seasons of Zorro, he has a new free program to Criminal St. Petersburg. He waited for music to pass and then started at one moment landing a lovely triple lutz/triple toe. Then he stopped, took a long break and did practically the whole last part of his FP. triple lip, triple salchow, triple toe, scratch butterfly Unfortunately later he went back to his quad attempts: triple toe, triple toe, popped to single and he gave up, bowed and left the rink. Sergei Shiliaev /BLR/ A young, blonde boy, which must be thrilled to be here since he hasn’t even done World Juniors or any B-Internationals let alone Euros. Unfortunately his triple axel has deserted him for that occasion. triple salchow, fall on triple toe, triple flip, triple flip, some jumps I missed, double axel, single axel He chose to go through his short program and did most of it, landing: triple lutz/triple toe, a wobbly double axel and a flying camel The rest of his practice was used to work on the axel and it was an absolute disaster. single axel, triple axel (could have been double-footed), double axel, double footed triple axel, down on triple axel, and again a fall on triple axel This concluded the men’s practice for today and after the ice resurfacing, the pairs were next to go. |
| Pairs - Practice Group 2 |
| Maria Geurassimenko/Vladimir Futas /SVK/ I have to admit that I like this couple very much. They only started skating together last season and have made a lot of progress already. I think that they may have a future in front of them. They were the first ones to have the music played and since they weren’t ready with the jumps yet, they did a full choreography runthrough of their SP. Last season they were skating very slowly and there was nothing in between the elements. Now the speed is much better and, although their programs are still rather empty, there is some choreography there. They looked quite solid during this practice. double twist, throw double salchow, fall on throw triple salchow, throw triple salchow, star lift, he landed a solo triple salchow, sbs triple salchows (she might have double-footed hers), two throw double loops and a nice forward inside death spiral to finish Tatiana Chuvaeva/Dmitri Palamarchuk /UKR/ They were all over the place. Tatiana had lots of problems on the jumps and it became evident that he is a much stronger partner. When he was skating with Julia, she at least had the solo jumps during practice but couldn’t cope with the pressure. Tatiana seems to simply have big problems with all the solo elements and the throws as well. They did a full choreography runthrough of their short program, omitting both jumps but doing the spins and a nice death spiral. Then they started to work on jumps and it was an absolute disaster for her. double twist, double twist, star lift, both did solo triple toes, sbs triple toes (she did 2.5), sbs triple toes, throw triple salchow which could have been two-footed, sbs spins and they had huge problems with synchronisation Then they started warming up the axel. He did double axel/step/double toe without a problem while she struggled: single axel, double axel (step out)…double toe. And they couldn’t get them clean together for love nor money. mistimed double axel (she singled)/step/double toe, double axel (she singled again)/step/double toe, then she did it clean but on her own, when they attempted it together again she singled out and he stepped out, at the end she fell on a solo double axel she attempted and you could easily see that she’s not in a good form. Katerina Berankova/Otto Dlabola /CZE/ They were the stars of this group. Naturally I was paying most attention to them, therefore I have most written down about them but still they were doing much more than any other couple around them. Fortunately it seems that the injury is behind them and there is nothing in their skating, which would indicate it. They started by doing lots of solo double loops, toes, flips in a sequence and then performed a star lift. Katerina landed a solo double axel and then a triple toe. Before their music started, they did a COLOSSAL throw triple salchow. Not as long as Chinese ones but surely as high and by far and a way, the biggest one in the competition. They went through parts of their short program, which is called “Heartbeat” and mostly contains the music from the movie “Bandita” (which Zuzana Babiakova used last season in her FP). This is an amazing program, showing that Czechs are still improving. sbs triple toes (he stepped out), held on to throw triple salchow, nice star lift variation, mediocre position on forward inside death spiral and a spiral sequence in which Otto didn’t present any extension really Afterwards they both did some solo double flips and two mediocre double twists. They have improved but they still could use more height. They did their star lift again and then I haven’t been following them for a while since I’ve been focusing on others. I came back to them at the end to notice: double axel (she singled)…double toe, aborted throw triple salchow followed by nice clean one, sbs double axels (she double-footed), good sbs spins, she fell on him on a poor triple twist Tatiana Volosozhar/Petro Kharchenko /UKR/ They went through their program doing only choreography and spins, which were good. It was very nicely constructed but unfortunately their edges are horribly scratchy. They have good spiral moves. She is very stretched and reminds me of Sasha Cohen. They did some elements later on and it became clear that he has huge problems with sbs triple toe. two double-footed double twists, throw triple salchow, she did a double toe, he did three double toes, she did two double axels and he fell on a triple toe attempt all of these jumps were done solo They surely did much more during that practice but since it was the first time I have seen them, I was more focused on the others. |
| Pairs - Practice Group 3 |
| Eva-Maria Fitze/Rico Rex /GER/ If I were Fitze, I would go to Mirko Mueller on my knees, begging him to skate with me. He was looking for a better partner then Jentgens, she wanted to skate pairs, why didn’t they team up? Eva-Maria was and is a great skater and she just wastes herself skating with Rico who is completely hopeless. However dramatic that sounds, there is a huge misbalance between them. She is a much better solo skater than him and to make it even worse, he is very weak on all the pair elements. Their throws are rather low, twist is very bad and lifts are often double-footed. The only thing he is really good at are the side-by-side jumps, on which he get as lot of height. They did an almost complete runthrough of their Safri Duo SP with most of the elements in. sbs triple toes (she just hung on), a low double twist, step out of throw triple salchow, poor death spiral and a decent pair spin Rico occurred to be unable of doing the star lift, which is compulsory in the short this season, cleanly. He was always on two feet during the dismount and didn’t even lift his leg afterwards to pretend that it was clean. star lift (two-footed), two-footed star lift again, throw triple salchow, sbs triple toes Then they started doing side-by-side spins and it was a complete disaster. Fitze didn’t have any problems but Rico was just all over the place. He was getting off-centred all the time and travelled a lot. They did them four times. He blew the first two attempts and by the third time he travelled so much that he almost hit Fitze in the head with his blade during a camel spin! It looked very dangerous. He managed to get it more or less right the fourth time but still it was quite poor. They did two more lifts before they finished. Star lift again on two feet and a lasso which, believe it or not, was clean. Nicole Noennig/Matthias Bleyer /GER/ All I thought about them so far was how hopeless they are and have to strongly disagree. In fact they look much better than Fitze/Rex if not for the fact that she seems unable of landing the sbs triple toe. Nevertheless their pair elements are strong. she did a double toe, sbs triple toes (she fell, he doubled), throw triple salchow Just as their teammates, they did an almost full runthrough of their short program to some Spanish music. sbs triple toes (both fell), double twist, throw triple salchow, star lift with nice twisting dismount, decent pair spin They have a good throw salchow, which is quite high. They went back to practice and I haven’t seen a single clean triple toe from her. sbs triple toes (she fell), sbs triple toes (she put hand down), double twist (she was on inside edge), double twist, poor position on forward inside death spiral, and again, great lasso to one hand with a one hand dismount (!!!) to finish Dorota Zagorska/Mariusz Siudek /POL/ I was very excited to see them live with all their improved technique and have to admit to being quite disappointed. They finally have the loop but it’s not of a very high quality and she still has huge problems with the axel, even in practice. The lifts were amazing as always, though. throw triple salchow (bad position in the air), low double twist, double axel (she just hung on and did a three turn out)…double toe, both did solo double toes, sbs triple toe, throw double loop and a barely landed throw triple loop They chose FP music for their runthrough and did most of their new program to “Exotica”. sbs triple toes, throw triple loop (hands down), double axel…double toe (she fell on axel and aborted toe), good sbs spin, rolling entry into combination star lift, decent back outside death spiral, low triple twist (double-footed), throw triple salchow, spiral sequence, star lift where he goes to spread eagle, another star lift, good forward inside death spiral, good pair spin Later on they were attempting the axel and she still had problems with it. It started to change into a big drama and at one point everyone (Mariusz, coach, physiotherapist) spoken to Dorota and they stood by the boards and looked at her as she was doing it alone (and managed to squeeze it out). So much drama! sbs double axel (she singled and double-footed), she just hung on to a solo double axel, a decent double twist to finish At that time it was getting quite late and we thought that we should go back home, however the temptation of seeing three Russian couples prevailed and we stayed, especially that we were told at the information that there is a bus, which can take us home, going till very late. |
| Pairs - Practice Group 4 |
| Olga Boguslavska/Andrei Brovenko /LAT/ It is the first season together for the couple, which had different partners in the past (looong time ago) and had a long break from elite skating. They lost the SP with Rennik/Saks at Finlandia Trophy and then defeated them on the FP and I was quite surprised because B&B seem to be in a different league. decent lasso (a little laboured), ok sbs spin, they both did two solo double axels and both just held them and then they did a choreography runthrough of their FP some nice choreography at beginning, sbs spin (he wobbles), good back outside death spiral They have a high throw triple salchow and it was very obvious that she is simply chickening out, putting her foot down all the time on the throws which seemed perfect throw triple salchow (double-footed), and again, and again and fourth time she managed to land it on one foot but quickly put the second one down, he did a solo triple toe, sbs double loop…double toe Sarah Abitbol/Stephane Bernardis /FRA/ I haven’t thought about it earlier but as I was watching them live, I could clearly see that Stephane is a hunchback when he skates! From this practice, it seemed that Sarah is far from being in top shape. They were being very cautious didn’t push themselves at all. Before their music was played they did a great forward inside death spiral and then went to go through their “La Strada” SP, doing only two elements: spiral sequence with great ice coverage and a star lift variation with nice dismount where he swings her around his body as in Petrova/Tikhonov’s trademark program ending What was quite surprising, was that they didn’t attempt a single side-by-side double axel or a triple toe. Sarah definitely looked weak on them. good double twist, throw double loop, fall on throw triple loop, he did a solo double toe, throw triple loop, he did a solo double toe again while she did a solo single axel and two solo double toes, sbs double toes, sbs double toes again, two throw double salchows, throw double loop, good pair spin, he did a solo double toe, she did a solo single axel and they finished |
| Pairs - Practice Group 1 |
| Of course Russians didn’t arrive yet so we were just sitting in an empty arena, listening to their three SP pieces as Monika was telling me what do Totmianina and Marinin perform at this moment of music. It was quite surreal really. So well, we headed home after a great day of figure skating! |