 |
| European Championships 2003 Compulsory Dance Tango Romantica |
| At the beginning I have to say that I definietely am not a dance expert. Monika knows much more about the technique and since both of us were following the footwork, we managed to notice different things and after each dance we were reviewing the couple. We tried to prepare to this dance, reading a lot about Tango Romantica and we were holding the pattern with all the steps in front of us during the competition. Unfortunately it was impossible to see a little part of the pattern since it was performed very closes to the boards on our side and we couldn't from where we were sitting. And naturally we could have missed something, I found it impossible to focus on: lines, posture, edges, speed, positions, skating to the beat, etc. at the same time. But we tried to do our best. I was too lazy to get up early in the morning but Monika has been to many dance practice sessions so she more or less knew in what form the skaters are and what can we expect from them. It has to be mentioned that the ice was very hard and a lot of skaters were complaining. That would explain why so many teams seemed scratchy and why this word appears all the time in this review. The judging made us sick. In fact it wasn't that bad since the top couples were placed more or less ok but the rest was just all over the place. We wanted to make sure that we knew what was going on and wanted to talk to Maria Zuchowicz (Polish judge and Chief of the ISU Appeals Comission) afterwards since Monika knows her. Unfortunately she was in a hurry so I only asked her about Faiella/Scali's mistakes. And she agreed and said that they were placed too high. |
| 1. Irina Lobacheva/Ilia Averbukh /RUS/ They skated first so we had no comparison and I didn't think very highly of their performance. But at the end of the night it occured that nobody skated any better. Lobacheva/Averbukh were all over the place in practice. They skated terribly, there was nothing which would indicate that they are the reigning world champions. So when they entered the ice, wearing horrible white and green waltz costumes, we expected the worst. And yes it wasn't perfect. Free legs were very low, I thought that Irina two-footed one twizzle and they could have skated closer together. In some places Irina had a more shallow edge on the exit than on the entry to the element. And I had an impression that they were somewhat slow. These were all the minor, little glitches I noticed but after twenty-one other couples finished, we were both sure that nobody skated better. Lobacheva/Averbukh flowed around the rink executing all the footwork correctly. It was nothing perfect but it was a good skate and when you are at their level a good skate means a lot. Of course you can raise one issue. All the skaters were complaining about the ice. The Russians skated first and Bulgarians last. This could explain why L/A had the best flow and no problems with scratching but I wouldn't go there. Irina and Ilia for the first time this season skated to their potential and in consequence deserved to be on top. 2. Albena Denkova/Maxim Staviyski /BUL/ They looked absolutely superior in the practice. Monika claimed that they have to win the compulsory. Unfortunately, in contrary to Navkomarov, their performance was much worse than their practice sessions. They were very good. Fast, precise on their footwork, smooth, using deep edges, having great lines. They also skated closest together. Unfortunately there were some glitches like getting out of synch during some turns or not-matching free legs spoling the lines. The whole dance wasn't bad at all but they just looked a little off compared to foot-perfect trainings. Therefore the second place is absolutely right. They definietely can do better than that and we are looking forward to seeing their amazing original dance. 3. Tatiana Navka/Roman Kostomarov /RUS/ Both me and Monika are not their biggest and I was just waiting to see their poor technique and Roman messing all the difficult steps. I was waiting, I was waiting... and it didn't happen. I know that they stayed in Russia after the Nationals and have been working with Elena Tshaikovksaya. It payed off. The only things which were wrong with this dance were scratchy edges and one lobe cut short on the second circle. Apart from this it was really very good. They weren't slow, as the usually are, they were actually quite fast. They made very good use of the edges, the footwork was very precise and on the whole, it was a great performance from them. Monika said that they were all over the place in practice, even worse than Nowak/Kolasinski so we were completely shocked after their performance. We never seen them skate so good before. No mistakes, at least we didn't notice any. And even Tatiana and Roman admitted during the press conference that this performance was way better than anything they've done in practice here. The only couple, other than top two, who could have beaten them on this dance were the French. But generally speaking it was a well deserved third place. 4. Elena Grushina/Ruslan Goncharov /UKR/ After watching them in practice, Monika told me that actually they skate the compulsories very well and only start to scratch horribly when they go through their OD. However what they shown in competition was probably their worst skate in this season so far. At the beginning they cautiously scratched their way into the pattern and from then on we could hear "trrr trrr trrr" very easily. They didn't skate as close together as the top three couples. The dance looked unpolished and messy in places. During the first circle they had some problem on her choctaw. During the second one, something happened again in the same place and they lost almost all their speed. She looks stronger than him and her kneebend was very good. Their edges were deep but on the whole, Elena and Ruslan were completely off today. They simply bombed and we were happy not to see them in the top 3 but to be honest, no other top couple had so much problems with their dance and in my opinion, they should be down in seventh (Monika said sixth in front of Germans). I bumped into Tarasova on the corrdor afterwards and as you can imagine, she was furious. 5. Kati Winkler/Rene Lohse /GER/ They were quite fast but didn't look good. Their edges were very shallow, certainly the most shallow out of all the top couples and that was the problem with them. I actually thought that generally the performance was ok and would have them fifth but Monika, because of the poor edges, disagreed and she would have them seventh. We agreed on one thing. Kati and Rene are still far away from their best form. 6. Galit Chait/Sergei Sakhnovsky /ISR/ Platov occured to be a very good coach since the Israelis improved a lot. They attacked the dance with great speed and the first circle was very precise. Unfortunately the second one was much weaker and her edges got completely shallow. I thought that were edging was ok, they certainly improved and disagreed with Monika who claimed that their edges were one of the deepest (or rather his were because she still is much weaker than him). Nevertheless they look much better than last season. Shame that they didn't skate very well. We both agreed that it was better than Grushgons and Monika also thought that it was better than the Germans. 7. Isabelle Delobel/Olivier Schoenfelder /FRA/ Just as most of the skating fans, I thought that their placing first in the CD at Lalique was some kind of a joke. A typical example of the national bias/holding up the home skaters. However after seeing their skate, I can assure all of you that this result could have been just. The injury is behind them now and they showed us all they can. Muriel is a genius, they improved so much. Not so long ago, they were worse than Nowak/Kolasinski but now you can't even compare them. They were very fast and because of that their pattern was bigger than that of most other teams. Their skating was very smooth. They were a little scratchy but their kneebend was great. Edges were quite deep. But no, it wasn't perfect and they still have room to improve. Monika pointed that compared to other things, their lines were poor and I agree. Nevertheless we both thought that this dance was on more or less the same level as Navka/Kostomarov's therefore they should finish 3rd or 4th. I felt really sorry for them. 8. Frederica Faiella/Massimo Scali /ITA/ They are by far and a way my favourite ice dancers and I wanted them to do very well but what happened today just cannot be justified. They simply bombed. Straight from the start the edging wasn't good. A little scratchy and shallow. Then on her choctaw, they had a stumble and both put their free foot down. It looked as if their legs got caught together. In the second circle they messed the pattern completely in many places, inventing their new compulsory dance. It was really a horrible skate and eighth place for that was just a joke. They should be way out of the top ten. 9. Sylwia Nowak/Sebastian Kolasinski /POL/ Their free dances usually aren't good but compulsories are their biggest strength and they proved it here. The dance was very precise and the skating was very soft with a good kneebend. However Sylwia had a problem with one of the choctaws and Monika suspected that they could have been off beat. After the marks came up, the Swedes sitting behind us booed and shouted "scandal!" (as if!). Well I didn't think that it was a scandal at all, since the top seven couples were from the different league. 10. Kristin Fraser/Igor Lukanin /AZE/ They didn't skate well. Certainly much worse than in the practice sessions. The whole dance was executed off beat and it was very slow. The edges were very shallow and when they finished, we were very curious about what the judges will do with them. And when we saw what they did, we almost fell out of our seats... 11. Natalia Gudina/Alexei Beletski /ISR/ They skated very fast but unfortunately you can't say much more positive things about that performance. It was very mediocre. Edging wasn't good and the pattern was not right as the lobes were cut short. We were quite suprised to see them finish rather high. 12. Oksana Domnina/Maxim Shabalin /RUS/ After seeing them skate, I can fully understand why Kulikova/Markov beat that couple in the free dance at Russian Nationals without a problem. Oksana and Maxim have very bad edges. They are scratchy and very rough. She had a problem with one choctaw and you could notice that during the more difficult elements they were going far apart. They dissapointed me as they were supposed to be the "next Russian big thing" and I guess that their placement had more to do with the country name on the back of their jackets than with what they actually did on the ice. 13. Veronika Moravkova/Jiri Prochazka /CZE/ They made our day. I couldn't believe they improved so much. They skated a blinder here. During practice they were very fast but the footwork was really messy. They surprised us so much because the speed was left but the footwork was very well executed. They were faster than Lobacheva/Averbukh and actually had so much speed that they had problems with making the pattern in one corner! So consequently their ice coverage was great. The position of their free legs was good and generally the program was very well skated. Monika said that this program wasn't much worse than Nowak/Kolasinski and I agree with that. This was a top ten performance. 14. Nora Hoffmann/Atilla Elek /HUN/ After they finished skating, we both had an impression that this young couple is the one to look out for in the future. They were a little stiff in the body, however the kneebend was alright. Their edging was ok and they skated close together. I expected them to still look juniorish but they were "more senior" than lot of the older senior teams who competed here. We both had an impression that they definietely outskated their Junior Grand Prix rivals, Domnina and Shabalin. 15. Julia Golovina/Oleg Voiko /UKR/ I didn't notice any mistakes, it was a good skate. However they were a little stiff and what bothered me was that there was hardly any expression in their dance. Furthermore for the couple of that level, the edging could be a little deeper. All in all it was a decent skate and they can be proud of themselves. 16. Pamela O'Connor/Jonathan O'Dougherty /GBR/ There isn't anything special to say about this dance and we could just agree that they had a decent skate. Their edges were shallow but we didn't see any mistakes. They probably skated as good as they can, that was good judging. 17. Roxane Petetin/Mathieu Jost /FRA/ They skated far apart from each other and their edges were very shallow and scratchy. One of the choctaws was two-footed. Therefore we believed that they've been held up in front of the "obscure European couples". 18. Marta Paoletti/Fabrizio Pedrazzini /ITA/ They actually looked quite alright although it is true that he is a much much better skater than she is. Their edges were very shallow however not scratchy. The kneebend was alright but they looked a little off on the second circle. Unfortunately she made two small mistakes. Once she lost her balance (I think it was on a twizzle) and later she tripped. Nevertheless they are looking better than I thought they would be. 19. Tatiana Siniaver/Tornike Tukvadze /GEO/ Very poor dance. Together with the Estonians, they were the slowest out of the field. Probably the most scratchy edges and they had the worse pattern which was cut short on all lobes. Siniaver was holding her partner very tight with a "I can't fall, I can't fall" expression on her face. Elena Tschaikovskaya was with them but she didn't seem to help with their technique. Monika saw them at Europeans last year and she said that they didn't improve at all. Really, the only team worse than the Georgians were the Estonians so I don't know what they are doing in 19th place. 20. Jessica Huot/Juha Valkama /FIN/ Their new coach Dmitri Kazalryga seems to be a bad choice as their skating quality deteriorated a lot from last year. They were certainly better than the Estonians and Georgians, however their dance was just poor. Scratchy edges, everything was wobbly, they shortened the pattern twice, cutting the lobes and she had a stumble at one point. 21. Marina Timofeieva/Evgeni Striganov /EST/ You can't skate much worse than the Estonians did. They were horribly scratchy and very slow. The dance looked messy and she tripped on her twizzle. During the second circle, they were lucky to make it to the end, it got so wobbly. On his choctaw, they had a problem and went far apart. It was really painful to watch. 22. Agnieszka Dulej/Slawomir Janicki /POL/ Their edges were a little scratchy, however they had good, soft kneebend. They skated close together and were quite fast. Nevertheless they are still far away from being good dancers, however I think that it is a couple which has some future. Agnieszka only did 3/4 of her twizzle and on the second circle they went off synch. Nevertheless they were in a different league than obscure Estonians, Georgians and Finns therefore we were really amazed to see them place last. Maybe they did some mistakes we missed cause that would explain it. However more probably the lost with the new system since the marks they got were generally higher than those of their rivals. As if I didn't have enough reasons to hate Cinquanta... |