From Russia With Love - 2012 Off Season

[hanca]

We mustn't forget Riazanova-Tkachenko, who are now with Spilband.

[love_skate2011]

We mustn't forget Riazanova-Tkachenko, who are now with Spilband.

No I didnt but they are so underrated......
I do hope taht the Top 3 rankings in Russia will be in competition between

Sinitsina/Zhiganshin, Ilinykh/Katsalapov and Riazanova/Tkachenko

[Vash01]

No I didnt but they are so underrated......
I do hope taht the Top 3 rankings in Russia will be in competition between

Sinitsina/Zhiganshin, Ilinykh/Katsalapov and Riazanova/Tkachenko

That sounds like a bright future (for 2018) to me.

[love_skate2011]

on another note, apparently Stolbova/Klimov finally now have their triple twist
I would love to see this especially since they have poor form....

[Cherub721]

No I didnt but they are so underrated......
I do hope taht the Top 3 rankings in Russia will be in competition between

Sinitsina/Zhiganshin, Ilinykh/Katsalapov and Riazanova/Tkachenko

I think B&S may fall, but it would be a big shock for them to fall from first all the way to fourth. I do hope the Russian fed doesn't protect them (or I&K) if they falter. The Shibutanis proved that you can come out of nowhere (or juniors) to medal at Worlds, so if S/Z or M/K do well in their GPs, I hope the fed pushes them to the top. I also want to see R/T pushed up if they have improved a lot. Ranking by seniority is so 90s. With that said, I was not that wowed with S/Z the last couple of seasons. Maybe if they stop recycling D/W programs I'll be able to tell whether I like them or not.

[Kasey]

http://www.sport-express.ru/newspape...8_2/?view=page
Apparently V/T have pulled the throw triple flip from their programs.

[ioana]

http://www.sport-express.ru/newspape...8_2/?view=page
Apparently V/T have pulled the throw triple flip from their programs.

So it will be throw 3loop in both the short and long programs? If S/S keep going for the 3axel in the short, that would give them a 2 pt base score advantage....And Max has a thing for pronouncements, i.e. 'blowing someone's head off' if they release their music music information

ETA: Thanks for the article link!

[julieann]

If S/S keep going for the 3axel in the short, that would give them a 2 pt base score advantage

Not to mention their sky high 3FTh

But V/T will make up point with the twist.

[Macassar88]

I have high hopes for bobrova and Soloviev. They are hard workers and showed good improvement already on their SD which I really enjoyed.
As for sinitsina and Zhiganshin I have low expectations for them as long as kustarova and Alexeeva are coaching them. I can see Victoria's posture beginning to get worse already.

[shan]

I have high hopes for bobrova and Soloviev. They are hard workers and showed good improvement already on their SD which I really enjoyed.
As for sinitsina and Zhiganshin I have low expectations for them as long as kustarova and Alexeeva are coaching them. I can see Victoria's posture beginning to get worse already.

[Macassar88]

Eh, I'm not going to throw away B&S's chances over a early fall performance by a junior team. And at least there's more choreography in there than a typical Zueva program. .

And more transitions. I noticed one Choctaw lol

[dots]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjSXgsoppzk&feature=plcp

Oh dear...

Last place finishers... right?

[shan]

I don't understand why they picked that particular style of music for this season's FD. Aside from the fact that it's kind of one-note and dreary, it seems too close in style to the SD blues.

[TAHbKA]

Kulinicheva's interview with Nina Mozer for sport-express.ru: Looking for .11 points'

EK: How did things work out with the guys this seasons?
NM: Everything is fine: we work and heal the injuries. The injuries from last season are not as easy and fast forgotten as we hoped. Fortunately we found a specialist in the USA who can help. We even stayed for longer than planned in the US and only started really working at the end of July in Italy. Prior to that we were busy recovering and choreographing. Now it's work full time. We had 5 SP skates so far, all of them clean. The new SP became the favourite programme for the guys. The LP is more complicated - we are building the complexity all the time, for example moved another element to the 2nd part of the programme. We are in the search for .11 points (what Volosozhar/Trankov lost Savchenko/Szelkowy last year)

EK: Many skaters, mainly the foreigners announce their music at the beginning of the season. You keep it a secret. Isn't it about a time to reveal?
NM: Nope! Maks said he'll bite the head off the one who'll reveal. It's not about me, of course, I don't want to put things on the table yet. The federation saw everything - we had a test skate where we showed the SP and had a run through of the LP. We still haven't finished working on it since we misunderstood the rules changes in the spirals and we have to change things now. Also Maksim's boots broke, so we'll miss the test skates this week. But we'll participate the test skates in Odintsovo.

EK: Maksim mentioned in one of the interviews Nikolai Morozov had a musical piece he dreamed to work with but there were no skaters who could do it justice and he offered that piece to Volosozhar/Trankov. Is that the piece thye are skating to?
NM: No.

EK: Who were you working with on the programmes?
NM: Mainly with Nikolai Morozov, of course. Also with the American Elain Miller on the SP, which made the programme look unusual. Elain came up with a lot of very interesting things. Tanya and Maksim were strangers to her way of working - she choreographs slowly, while they got used to Morozov's speed of work. But it all worked out and there is a special Elain's spirit in the programme. The guys look different skating to it. I think they have changed in general - it's what we aimed for last spring but couldn't quite do. When we joined Nikolai in the USA and started choosing the music we couldn't put the finger on what exactly did we need. While the `Black Swan' was an instant choice this year we only had an idea; to do something new, unexpected.

EK: I.e. you keep experimenting.
NM: Yes. Believe me, the have changed, and yet the SP feels very comfortable for them. When you skate the programme clean 5 times out of 5 it means a lot.
What else? Because of Tanya's hip injury we gave up the throw flip, which caused the injury at the first place. WE decided not to take the risk, skate comfortably.
The lifts are very interesting even though because of the new rules the structure had changed and it was harder working on them. We worked with an amazing team - the USA champions in acrobatics. They showed so many new things. To sum it up - we'll show a lot of new things this year.

EK: Was it a shame to let go such a successful programme as the `Black Swan'?
NM: What makes you think this year's programmes will be any less? I think experimenting, searching for the new style is the right thing to do. It will help us make our minds for the Olympic year. We never use the word `shame'. Yes the `Black Swan' was the favourite programme, but so were the `Romeo and Juliette' and `Carmina Burana'. We love them all! We dream of a lot of things, but, unfortunately, don't have enough time. Changing the programmes 3 times a season is, unfortunately, not an option. The guys remain as creative as they were - that haven't changed, but now they skate more in unison and it's for their benefit. Maksim is a very knowledgeable, interesting person. He knows so much about history and culture. Tanya is equally interesting. We love searching for new things. In NY, for instance, we went to the Broadway shows twice a week. We were blown by the new Jesus Christ Superstar show.

You know what, the most important is to remain healthy. We'll go from there.

EK: Will you show the new programmes in September's test shows or will you just do the exhibition like last year?
NM: We'll do the programmes, since we are participating the international competition (Nebelhorn trophy) right after.

[love_skate2011]

Great draw for D/D first place in SP order....

Davakova's tweet

SP today! Stand not too good number ( meaning the draw? ), but it's all the details

[reut]

Kulinicheva's interview with Nina Mozer for sport-express.ru: Looking for .11 points'
...
EK: Who were you working with on the programmes?
NM: Mainly with Nikolai Morozov, of course. Also with the American Elain Miller on the SP, which made the programme look unusual. Elain came up with a lot of very interesting things.

I think it was actually Lea Ann Miller who worked with them, and the journalist just didn't bother to check the spelling.

[Macassar88]

Thanks for translating!

[rfisher]

I'd drop the 3Flip before I'd risk another injury this close to the Olympics. I do wonder if S/S will bother with the 3A. I would not. If it were the start of a quad cycle, sure, but not this close to the big dance. I don't think the risk would be worth the benefit. Trankov flat out refused to do it because of the risk of injury to Voloszhar.

I'm just hoping both V/T and S/S have stellar seasons this year and next. I will be both elated and depressed that only one of them can win gold. I'd quit watching skating if they tied for Olympic gold because nothing would ever be better. Fortunately or unfortunately as the case may be, the odds of that happening are small.

[Macassar88]

http://www.team-russia2014.ru/article/4930.html
http://www.team-russia2014.ru/article/figur/4932.html

Two articles about Bobrova and Soloviev

[Lis]

So they, V/T, choose to still keep their music choses a secret. What does that add?