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| European Championships 2003 Sunday Practice Sessions Pairs, Ladies |
| The ladies practice groups were full today and it was very difficult to spot what everyone was doing at the same time. So bear in mind that the skaters actually did much more than I managed to put down. And before you start reading, some explanatory notes x/x is a jump combination, x...x is a jump sequence. 2.5jump means that skater landed forwards on two feet, being half a rotation short. As far as lifts are concerned, I couldn't really tell the difference, 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. |
| Pairs - Practice Group 1 |
| Tatiana Totmianina/Maxim Marinin /RUS/ When their music was played they simply ignored it and just did their thing. Looked composed and poised to win gold. solo double toes, she did a solo double toe, he did a solo triple toe, sbs triple toes, solo double salchows, sbs triple salchows, throw double loop, throw triple loop, throw double salchow, throw triple salchow, decent double twist, then again, she crashed on him on a triple twist, star lift with her leg bent, slow lasso lift, back press lift (two-footed), great side-by-side spins and a forward inside death spiral with a good position eventually but it took her long to get down Julia Obertas/Alexei Sokolov /RUS/ Just as Totmianina/Marinin, they chose not to do their runthrough. solo double toes, sbs triple toes, sbs triple toes (she doubled and that was that only mistake made), sbs triple toes (he just held), throw single loop, throw double loop, two throw triple loops, high double twist, decent star lift but lost speed on entry, sbs spins which were slow but done very closely together and well synchronised, then again, carry lift into combination lift and he did a solo double toe before they went off ice Maria Petrova/Alexei Tikhonov /RUS/ They didn’t do a lot but all they did was perfect. There really is nothing I could write about any of these three teams. What they did, speaks for itself. sbs spin, SP opening choreography, star lift with nice twisting dismount, he did a solo double toe/double loop combination :), some solo double toes from both of them, both did two solo triple toes and their came their bluesy SP music and they did small parts of their program sbs triple toes, nice spiral sequence, ok position on forward inside death spiral They did three more elements afterwards and finished. double twist ok, two great throw triple salchows |
| Pairs - Practice Group 2 |
| Katerina Berankova/Otto Dlabola /CZE/ And once again, they looked very good in practice. Injury who? Nevertheless Katerina, a former solo skater, is a much better jumper than Otto and that’s their big problem. His triple toe is not consistent. double twist, star lift, she did a solo double loop, throw triple salchow Just as yesterday, they’ve chosen to do a SP runthrough and this time did the elements they omitted the day before. low double-footed double twist, throw triple salchow, star lift, a spiral sequence on which she has great extension and he doesn’t have any, pair spin Their lifts are very well executed and the positions attained on them are beautiful, however they are of a rather basic technical difficulty. lasso lift, solo double toes, she does a solo triple toe, sbs triple toes, sbs triple toes (he doubles), triple twist (he didn’t catch her), two-footed throw triple toe, throw triple toe, he did a solo triple toe, double axel…double toe, death spiral Tatiana Chuvaeva/Dmitri Palamarchuk /UKR/ Their pair moves look very strong but she was struggling with jumps again. double twist, double twist (very good), two great lasso lifts, their FP music started but they ignored it, sbs triple toes (she doubled), throw double salchow, sbs triple toes (she stepped out), down on throw triple salchow, did the last part of their free program (good star lift and forward inside death spiral), sbs triple toes (she pulled landing of hers), two-footed throw triple salchow, throw triple salchow, she did a solo double axel, sbs single axel, she did a solo double axel again and at the end they managed to do a sbs double axel/step/double toe Maria Geurassimenko/Vladimir Futas /SVK/ Last season they only had side-by-side double axels and now they also have triple salchows. The problem is that they can land them solo but are unable to do that both at the same time. Apart from that issue, they had a very good practice. sbs double axels, double twist, throw double salchow They went through their free program to Quidam from Cirque du Soleil. double axel…double toe, omitted throw loop, basic star lift, sbs double axels (he aborted), pair spin The problem with them is that their lifts are very basic. He just lifts her up and puts her down, there are no fancy take-offs or dismounts. throw triple salchow (although it could have been a loop), throw double loop, three turn out of a throw double loop, throw triple loop (!!!), two group 2 carry lifts And they started to work on the side-by-side salchows: he did a solo double salchow and then a single, she did a solo triple salchow, sbs triple salchows (she fell), sbs triple salchows (he doubled), he hit a solo triple salchows and they finished Tatiana Volosozhar/Petro Kharchenko /UKR/ Pair elements are very good and so is the throw salchow. Unfortunately again, Petro turned out to be unable to land the triple toe. double twist, huge double twist, good star lift, she did a solo double axel and then a double toe Did parts of their Secret Garden SP. good double twist, great throw triple salchow, good spiral sequence and a rather slow pair spin he did a solo double toe while she landed solo triple toe and double axel…double toe, he just hung on to a solo triple toe, sbs triple toes (mistimed and he fell), he stepped out of a solo triple toe and this was the end of their practice. I have to point out that their throw salchow is really high. This was the end of the pairs practice for Sunday and it was the ladies turn next. |
| Ladies - Practice Group 3 |
| Roxana Luca /ROM/ This is her first competition this season, she has withdrawn from many earlier internationals, and although I do not have official information, I suspect that she was injured. I was almost sure about that as her jumping ability seemed to have regressed five years. Probably she hasn't fully recovered yet. Last season she was landing triple lutz and flip in her programs and now she can't even land a double axel and sometimes manages to get a toeloop or a salchow. Roxana seemed very unnerved and angry at herself but I have to say that she has a wonderful coach. They seem to have great contact. 2salchow, axel (?single or double?), 2salchow, 2toe, 3toe, 2salchow, 3salchow, 1.5axel, 1axel Julia Lautowa /AUT/ She skated in her lovely purple FP dress and was complete mess. :p She had no problems with jumps up till the loop but flip and lutz were not consistent at all. camel, 2axel, step out of something, 3lutz (step out), 3lutz (fall), 3lutz (hand down)/2toe, 3flip (fall), 3flip (hung on), 3salchow, 3toe/2toe, 3loop SP Runthrough: 2lutz (step out)/2toe, good serpentine step sequence, 2axel, good spins 3lutz (just held)/2toe, 2 axel Carolina Kostner /ITA/ She is amazing and I had a very good impression after this practice. However I have a feeling that people get way to carried away desribing her skating. She is very fast, hits fantastic jump combinations but she is still a junior skater as far as skating ability is concerned. Kostner has a very bad carriage and posture, weak spins, struggles with spirals and still has a lot to work on. Nevertheless I think that if she will keep improving so fast, she can be one of the gold medal contenders at the next Olympics in 2006. was warming up doing loads of single loops :), 3lutz/2toe, 2axel SP Runthrough: 3loop from three turns, 3lutz/3toe (!), 2axel 3flip/3toe (hand down), 3flip/3toe/2loop (!!!), 2axel/half-loop/3salchow, great one foot serpentine step sequence, great speed, good extension on spirals Vanessa Giunchi /ITA/ I think that she really needs to change her coach. Nothing changed since her most succesful 00/01 season. She has a beautiful toe and salchow but that's pretty much it. Flip is not consistent, lutz simply isn't there and her technique on them seems to be completely wrong, in contrary to her perfectly executed easier jumps. And that's really a shame because Giunchi has a wonderful fluid style of skating and is very strong. FP Runthrough: interesting combination spin, 3salchow, 3toe, fast spins, good spiral sequence 3salchow, 3flip (fall), 3flip, 3flip (step out), 2lutz, 3flip (3turn), 2lutz, 3lutz (fall), 3lutz (double-footed), 3toe/2toe, good extension on spirals Georgina Papavasiliou /GRE/ Pretty brown-haired girl, who is in fact British with Greek roots, and started to represent her "home country" in order to make it to the big championships. Her jumping ability is rather novice but she has some really good qualities about her skating. She has nice choreography and can spin both sides! FP Runthrough: she did a choreography runthrough with no jumps, it was very nice and she was spinning both sides on the combination spin (!), unfortunately her spins generally were quite poor and slow 3salchow...2loop, 3flip (fall), 3toe, 3salchow out of linking steps/choreography Kimena Brog Meier /SUI/ There is nothing special to be said about her. Actually I was quite dissapointed with her skating after having read how many triples she landed at two last Swiss Nationals. It occured that she is still a very junior skater, who still doesn't have a consistent flip and we haven't seen a single lutz attempt. 2axel, 3toe FP Runthrough: 3toe, 3salchow, 3flip (possibly two-footed), 3loop, 3?/2toe |
| Ladies - Practice Group 4 |
| Zuzana Babiakova /SVK/ It definitely is her breakthrough season, she has been invited to two GP events. I remember her landing only toe, sal and loop in the past and I admire her for all the hard work and the progress she has made. I was having high hopes of her placing high in the top ten here and after seeing this practice, these hopes were shattered. fast upright spins, some 2axels, 3toe, bad fall on 3flip, 2axel ? Runthrough (probably SP): 1lutz, 2flip, 2axel 3flip (step out), 3flip Lucie Krausova /CZE/ After she took on to the ice, she fell splat on plain stroking!!! Then a moment later she stumbled and almost fell on plain stroking again! Eeerm... nervous and phased by taking part in a big competition? ;) ? Runthrough: omitted all jumps, did only spins and some easy steps 3flip (hung on), 3salchow, 3lutz (step out), 3flutz (fall), 3lutz/half-loop/2salchow just held alltogether although my notes are not very clear here and the first jump could have been a loop or something else Jenna McCorkell /GBR/ Now I can confirm to everybody the fact that Jenna is a great skater but suffers with nerves. If she skated at her junior GP's like at this practice, she would have easily won them all. I saw two mistakes from her and the rest was perfect. She made a really huge impression on me, went out on ice and majestically hit all her jumps, having also a decent skating quality and being fast. 3loop, 3? (step out), 3lutz, 3salchow/half-loop/3salchow FP Runthrough: 3lutz, 3salchow/half-loop/3salchow, 3flip (hand down&three turn), 2axel, 3loop, 3toe/2toe, 2axel...2flip The only thing which I didn't like was that the inside edge on the lutz was very shallow and although Monika claimed that it still is a lutz, I would be more happy to see a true deep edge on the entry. Karen Venhuizen /NED/ It looks as if her skating regressed five years, and in contrary to Luca, I haven't heard about any injuries Karen suffered. But maybe I am wrong. triple flip (fall) FP Runthrough: 3salchow, 3salchow (just), 3loop (fall), 2salchow, 2toe, choreography looked very poor, she wasn't able to land the 2axel at all Anna Bernauer /LUX/ Her coach was looking really sexy and I had an impression that I've seen him before. And well I was right because it turned out to be Nicolas Osseland, who placed ninth last year in the pairs event, and now has retired, and it looks as if the Luxembourgish federation hired him to train their ladies. Bernauer wasn't as obscure as you can think, her skating was ok, toe and salchow looked good (and that's all she has). What I couldn't understand at all, were her numerous lutz attempts which were all underrotated, cheated and double-footed and it was obvious that she's not able to land it. 2lutz, 3lutz (two-footed), 3lutz (probably two-footed) FP Runthrough: 2salchow, 3toe/2toe, 3lutz (underrotated&double-footed), ok spiral sequence, 3salchow, 2flip/2loop 2axel, 1 axel |
| Ladies - Practice Group ? |
| Daria Timoshenko /AZE/ Just as Julia Soldatova went to skate for Belarus, Timoshenko started to represent Azerbeijan, because she would never make the Russian team. And she looked very similar to Soldatova, with her low jumps and poor landings. Jumps were tiny and there was usual a bad running edge out of them. Everything was "scratched out". 2axel, 2salchow...2loop FP Runthrough: 2loop, 2?, 3flip (underrotated, probably two-footed), 3lutz (underrotated), 3salchow...2loop, 3? (double-footed), three turn out of a just held 3lutz, 3toe, 2axel Olga Vassilieva /EST/ She is in a form of her life! Recent seasons has been pretty tough for her but now it looks that it will be her best start in the Europeans so far. She lost a lot of weight and just finally improved so much, even though she works already and can't spend all her time for training! Her skating looks very smooth and easy and she is perfectly consistent with toe, salchow and loop, sometimes has a flip. I was very impressed. 2axel, hung on to underrotated 3loop, 3loop, three turn out of a 3toe, 3salchow FP Runthrough: 3loop, 3salchow, 3toe, 2flip, 3flip (fall), 3flip, 3lutz (!) Anne Sophie Calvez /FRA/ A great practice for her! Very strong, athletic skater. Shame that she suffers so much with nerves, because she could easily make the top 5 or even medal if she skated like that during the competition. 3toe/3toe, 3salchow, 3loop, 3salchow, stepped out of something, 3lutz (fell out) FP Runthrough - On a Golden Pond: 3toe/3toe (3turn out), 3flutz (step out)/2toe, 3flip, 3salchow (fall), seems the nerves got to her but later she amazed us once more landing: 3lutz/3toe (!) Galina Maniachenko /UKR/ Looks good but she still doesn't have any triple/triple combinations. And she still hasn't fixed her problem. Always, when she makes a jump combination, she doesn't check the landing of the first jump and immediately throws herself into the second one. This doesn't look good and even caused her previously to fall on a double toe. Beautiful skating quality though and if she skates to her full potential, it should win her a medal. 2flip, 3flip, 3flip, 2loop, 3loop, 3lutz/2toe, 3flutz, 3flutz/2toe, 3toe (hand down) FP Runthrough - 2loop, 3lutz/1toe, 3toe, 3loop, 1salchow 2lutz/2toe Elena Liashenko /UKR/ I have admired Liashenko's skating for many years now and the sad thing is that she is not improving at all. She is doing the same jump content for probably around eight years now. No triple/triple combinations of course and still big problems with the loop. Nevertheless she looks very strong with what she has and maybe will finally get bronze again. 2axel, 2toe, 3toe, 3salchow, 2lutz/2toe, popped loop FP Runthrough - Tango: 3lutz/2toe, 3lip, 3toe, 3salchow, 3lutz, 2axel (might've been two-footed) 3flip, 3salchow, 3salchow |
| Ladies - Practice Group 6 |
| Because of reasons unknown to us Aleksandra Petushko /LAT/ was absent this time. Diana Poth /HUN/ She looked surprisingly well. Nevertheless she is still far away from her top form, jumps are low and only managed once to land triple toe/triple toe, which used to be her most consistent trick. 3 flip (foot down), 3lutz FP Runthrough: 3flutz, 3flip, 2loop, 3toe/2toe, 3salchow, 3toe, 2axel, this program has got very little choreography and most of the time it is plain stroking 3loop, 3lutz, 3toe/3toe Tugba Karademir /TUR/ However eville that sounds, I would seriously advise her to lose at least 10 kilos to get in shape. Her skating is really heavy and jumps are of a poor quality. She lives and trains in Canada, with Robert Tebby. She had semi-consistent toe and salchow, the rest didn't really work. A big emphasis on flip is put but she is not yet able to fully rotate it. 3salchow, 3flip(underrotated), 2loop, 2loop, 3loop (step out), 2.5lutz ? Runthrough (probably FP): 3flip (fall), 3toe, 3salchow/2toe, 2loop, 1salchow, 2axel (step out) 3 toe (step out), 3toe...3toe (underrotated), 2axel Julia Sebestyen /HUN/ I don't know what happened yesterday, but today, Julia Sebestyen was back to her real self and to her real form. Jumps were gigantic again and she was practically foot-perfect. two 3loops from 3turns FP Runthrough - Music by Raul di Blasio: huge 3lutz, 3lutz/2loop, 3flip...3toe, 3loop, 2salchow 3salchow/2loop, 2salchow, 3salchow/turn/2loop, 3lutz, 3toe/2loop, 2toe, 3toe/3loop (step out), 2axel, 2loop, loads&loads of 2axels (some singled) Gintare Vostrevocaite /LTU/ She made a big suprise as she was working on the lutz a lot, doing it in the corner where we were sitting, so we could have a close look. Most of the attempts were step outs, but she landed one or two, and she has to get credit since practically all of them were fully rotated. I didn't expect it from her at all. FP Runthrough: 3lutz (!), omitted a jump, 3toe...2toe, 3salchow, 2axel, 2toe 3toe (step out)/2toe, 3toe (fall), 2toe, 2toe, 3toe/2toe, 2flip (foot down) Hristina Vassilieva /BUL/ Today she was in a little better form than yesterday but still was struggling a lot with her jumps. Many double-footed, underrotated landings. Hopefully Arutunian will be able to fix that. double flip FP Runthrough: no jumps, only choreography, no extension on spiral sequence and a spin at the end 3flip (two-footed), 3flip/flutz, 3toe, 2salchow, 2axel, 3salchow |
| Ladies - Practice Group 1 |
| Alisa Drei /FIN/ The Terminator. She is in a form of her life, no doubts. Today's practice proved that yesterday was no fluke. She lands everything but it has to be said that her jumps are not of a very high quality nice they are quite low. Started with a superb upright spin and then came her music. SP Runthrough - Godfly by Shostakovich: she did only steps and choreography, which was really poor 2axel...3salchow, landed a lot of jumps when I was looking at other skaters, 3toe/3toe, 3toe/3toe, 3loop, 3loop, 3lutz, step out of 3flutz, 3salchow, 3flip Elina Kettunen /FIN/ This time she graced the ice with her presence. Unfortunately it wasn't what I was looking for. Kettunen is in a poor form. She lands the jumps but about half of the time they are doubled. 2loop, 2loop, 3loop, 3lutz(turn)/2toe FP Runthrough - Les Miserables: 3lutz/2toe, 2loop, amazing spiral sequence with best ice coverage, 2axel, she is really fast and covers lot of ice! 3loop, 3lip, 3toe, 2flutz, 3lutz, 2salchow, 3salchow, 2lip, 3flip Susanna Poykio /FIN/ Again a hot and cold practice. Me and Monika are big fans of Finnish ladies and at that point we agree that if any of them will medal, it will be Alisa Drei who looks just so well. I don't have much written down, but Monika was paying more attention to Poykio, and again flip and lutz were hot and cold. 2lutz/2toe FP Runthrough - Spellbound Concerto: 2axel, 3lutz/2toe, 3toe/2.5toe, 3salchow, 2loop 3toe, 3toe/3toe (finally!), 3loop Mojca Kopac /SLO/ This time she looked definietely better. She has big, high quality jumps when she does them right, but unfortunately the consistency and form still seem not to be there. 3lutz (hand down), 3lutz/2toe FP Runthrough - Quidam: 3loop, 2lutz, 2axel, 3salchow/turns/2toe (step out), 2lutz Asa Persson /SWE/ Once again it was a complete disaster. She somehow could squeeze toe and salchow out but that was all. Very, very bad form and once again I ask how could she win Nationals, skating like that? 3salchow, fall on 3?, 3toe (just held), just hung on to 3salchow and then fell FP Runthrough: 2axel, omitted jump, 3lutz (fall), ok spiral sequence, 1flip, scratchy landing on 3salchow, 3toe, 3salchow...2toe 2loop Sarah Falotico /BEL/ Another tough practice for her. It looks as the only triple jump, she can rely on, is the toeloop. I would prefer much more if she was doing easier jumps cosistently rather than attempting everything and failing. Most of her pratice is always spent on doing the triple lutz even though it is obvious that she hasn’t mastered it yet. landed lot of jumps at the beginning, 3flip (two-footed), 3flip, 3lutz (underrotated&two-footed)/2toe, 3flutz (hand down), 2flutz, cheated 3flutz (hand down), 1lutz FP Runthrough – Journey Of A Man: 3flutz (underrotated&two-footed), 2.5salchow, 3toe/2toe, 1axel, 1flip, 3toe, 2.5salchow 3salchow, 2axel, 3? (underrotated&double footed) |
| Ladies - Practice Group 2 |
| Sabina Wojtala /POL/ Knowing how fragile she is, it was an interesting strategy. She did more or less everything she should have done and finished very early. Well it’s really sad to see her being able to do all those jumps and then bomb during competition. Especially that her skating quality is good, jumps are huge and she has absolutely amazing spirals. Her programs, this season, choreographed by Elena Tschaikovskaya, are really beautiful. Nevertheless it won't help her much if she will spend most of them, lying on the ice. Great extensions on spirals, 3salchow FP Runthrough – Music by Raul di Blasio: did some choreography, omitted all the jumps and towards the end did 3salchow, 3toe russian split, 2lutz, 3lutz/2toe, 3flip (3turn out), 2axel, 2loop, 2lutz/2toe, something landed, 3toe Anette Dytrt /GER/ I think that Anette can develop to become a very good skater. She has a good skating quality and the jumps are quite consistent, however they still are rather low. Now it’s mainly the case of “becoming senior”, maturing with style and presentation (and getting bigger jumps as well). FP Runthrough: she omitted all the jumps and did just the spins 2axel, 2axel, 2salchow, 3salchow, 2flip with hand in the air, 3?, 3lutz/2toe, 1lutz, down on 3lutz, 3lutz, 3toe Irina Slutskaya /RUS/ Her new hair is red with some blonde bits and they way it's cut is really bad. She looks like a Czech football player. Eeeeek. Her jumping looked quite solid though, so she probably used the time she had and now, finally, she’s back in her usual form. some single axels, 2axel, 3salchow, 2flutz, 3lutz, 3flutz(step out)/2toe, FP Runthrough: 3loop, 2flutz, 3flutz/2loop, 3lutz, 3toe 3flutz/3loop (underrotated), 2loop, 3salchow/3loop (step out) and finished early as well Viktoria Volchkova /RUS/ I didn’t know what to really expect from her after three weeks off ice but she looked to be completely unaffected by it. All the jumps were there, apart from the triple-triple combo. However Vasiliev said that she won’t be attempting it this season anyway, because the most important thing is that she skates clean. And I think that it is a very good decision. 2lutz, 2lutz, 3lutz, 3lutz(step out)/2toe, 3loop, 3salchow, 3toe, 3toe/2toe FP Runthrough – Air/4 Seasons: started late in the music, fall on 3salchow, 3lutz, 3salchow 3toe/2toe, 3toe/3toe (fall), 2axel, 2axel Elena Sokolova /RUS/ This was absolutely amazing. The best we have seen today. Since Alisa Drei was "The Terminator”, Sokolova would have to be called a demi-goddess I guess. I haven’t seen a single mistake!!! Everything was perfect, all the difficult jump combinations were there and I was completely thrilled. Unfortunately there is one big problem with her technique, which has to be pointed out. She lips severely and I haven’t seen a single clean triple flip from her. During this practice group I was mostly focused on her, therefore I managed to do quite detailed notes. 2axel, 2axel, 2axel, 2axel/2toe, 2axel, 2toe, 2toe, 3toe/2toe, 3toe/3toe/2loop, ?/3toe, 3loop, 3loop/3loop (!), 3lutz/3toe, 3lip, wow! FP Runthrough – Notre Dame de Paris: 3lutz/3toe, 3lip, 3lutz…2salchow, 2axel When she finished it, she came out early, just like Slutskaya did. That was the end of the practice and I was in awe after seeing Lena. From now on it was clear that she is a serious gold medal contender. |
| We couldn’t make ourselves wake up at some evil, inhumane morning hour, like 6am, therefore we only came to see two last groups, first of which contained three Russian teams. And it was well worth it! |