Canadian Pairs 2017/2018 Season News and Updates

[ChiquitaBanana]

Agree. I Wonder if it's because of the coaches, the male partners or if it just a false idea circulating between fans?

If I was a pair skater looking for a new Partner, I would prefer a 5'6" girl with good pair experience, than a great Single skater with good jumps, 5'0" but no pair ever. At least, I would gave them equal chances in a try-out.

Ask any male partner which one is easier to lift...

 

[DFO]

Weight doesn't necesseraly goes with height. I used to be a ballet dancer and teacher and my strenght was into lifts. I competed in acrobatic rock'n roll. There is so many other factors than just height when you are evaluating a partner. A tall but thin women with strong abdominal muscles is much more easier to lift than a small girl with no tonus. Confidence, energy, experience, technical strenght all have their values. Being able to be synched with your partner is a must. Everything being said, weight is important, and the taller you are, the more chance there is you weight more. So I understand the reluctancy to go with a tall partner. But the focus should be on weight.

 

[DFO]

Anybody got an idea why the junior and senior pair results are not posted on the Wildrose summer event? And why they completely removed the junior and senior pair listing on the website.There was at least a starting order (even if they were both alone) but that was removed yesterday. I'm asking because I missed the SP junior score (DailyMotion was lagging) and the announcer didn't gave any results for junior and senior in the free. I know, I waited so long the zamboni ride was over...

 

[pointbleu]

Weight doesn't necesseraly goes with height. I used to be a ballet dancer and teacher and my strenght was into lifts. I competed in acrobatic rock'n roll. There is so many other factors than just height when you are evaluating a partner. A tall but thin women with strong abdominal muscles is much more easier to lift than a small girl with no tonus. Confidence, energy, experience, technical strenght all have their values. Being able to be synched with your partner is a must. Everything being said, weight is important, and the taller you are, the more chance there is you weight more. So I understand the reluctancy to go with a tall partner. But the focus should be on weight.

I agree with you that strength is needed. Usually a good pair skater makes most of her way up into the lift. Tall skaters can develop great lines too. But once in the air in a lift, there is a rotation movement and the further you are from the center of axis, the more difficult it gets for the partner to turn fast and efficiently and stability is hard to get. Of course there will always be excellent taller pair girls, but the physics goes to the shorter ones (in reply to the poster who wondered if it was a fan speculation).

 

[happyfan]

Anybody got an idea why the junior and senior pair results are not posted on the Wildrose summer event? And why they completely removed the junior and senior pair listing on the website.There was at least a starting order (even if they were both alone) but that was removed yesterday. I'm asking because I missed the SP junior score (DailyMotion was lagging) and the announcer didn't gave any results for junior and senior in the free. I know, I waited so long the zamboni ride was over...

My understanding is, and I certainty could be wrong, a coach may request the scores and livestream not be posted. When it is a single entry it is often just considered an exhibition for monitoring purposes, so no marks are posted or announced. Only the skaters and coaches receive the results.

 

[Catherine M]

Roster for the JGP in Latvia are up and Choinard & Ostiguy are joining Walsh & Michaud in Riga.

Guess Choinard/Ostiguy's monitoring is going well so Skate Canada didn't want to waste a chance to send them to 2 events. I was pretty impressed with Chloe's single skating at Minto last week--she has double axel, triple toe, triple sal so not really a surprise that they got an assignment if they are doing well with the pair elements in practice to go along with their sbs jumps.

 

[DFO]

Roster for the JGP in Latvia are up and Choinard & Ostiguy are joining Walsh & Michaud in Riga.

Guess Choinard/Ostiguy's monitoring is going well so Skate Canada didn't want to waste a chance to send them to 2 events. I was pretty impressed with Chloe's single skating at Minto last week--she has double axel, triple toe, triple sal so not really a surprise that they got an assignment if they are doing well with the pair elements in practice to go along with their sbs jumps.

Is that usual to send a new pair that haven't done it's first competition yet? Nothing against it, just wondering if it's a special occasion justified by the fact there are so few junior pairs from last year still competing.

 

[Catherine M]

Is that usual to send a new pair that haven't done it's first competition yet? Nothing against it, just wondering if it's a special occasion justified by the fact there are so few junior pairs from last year still competing.

Skaters/teams are always being monitored and the fact that Choinard/Ostiguy train at the main pairs center in Canada probably made it really easy for Skate Canada to see their work, even if it was just practice run throughs.

The deadline for the Latvia event was last week before their first competition so the assignment could be a tentative one with conditions put on it for a certain score this weekend at Quebec summer skate.

And yes, there aren't alot of skaters with international experience skating so I'm not surprised that Skate Canada would want to send out Mathieu with his new partner, especially since this is his last year of juniors, along with Trennt Michaud.

 

[ChiquitaBanana]

Is that usual to send a new pair that haven't done it's first competition yet? Nothing against it, just wondering if it's a special occasion justified by the fact there are so few junior pairs from last year still competing.

The QC section has teamed up with the BC section to hold training camps together. Singles skaters were in BC whereas the ice dancers were in Montreal. Some pairs were at that camp too, so some kind of monitoring has been made by some judges. JGP entries have to be chosen early in the season, so they have to find ways to maximize the selection.

 

[ChiquitaBanana]

Some vids found on Chloe's Facebook account :
Throw triple sal : https://www.facebook.com/TyphanyDaveChoinard/posts/10154374060451792
https://www.facebook.com/TyphanyDaveChoinard/videos/10154263839041792/

3S+3T+C = https://www.facebook.com/chloechoinardfigureskater/videos/660934010768989/

Thrwo triple loop : https://www.facebook.com/TyphanyDaveChoinard/videos/10154263839021792/

The girl is new to pair so she is a quick learner!

https://www.patinage.qc.ca/ressources/documents/athletes/developpement/Equipe_A_2017-2018.pdf : They are on Team A

https://www.patinage.qc.ca/membres/camps-entrainement.php : The Mtl camp was held from June 30-July 2nd.

But as they have not been listed on SC webpage, I guess they will have to show decent performances at QSS.

 

[anna2940$$]

Some vids found on Chloe's Facebook account :
Throw triple sal : https://www.facebook.com/TyphanyDaveChoinard/posts/10154374060451792
https://www.facebook.com/TyphanyDaveChoinard/videos/10154263839041792/

3S+3T+C = https://www.facebook.com/chloechoinardfigureskater/videos/660934010768989/

Thrwo triple loop : https://www.facebook.com/TyphanyDaveChoinard/videos/10154263839021792/

The girl is new to pair so she is a quick learner!

https://www.patinage.qc.ca/ressources/documents/athletes/developpement/Equipe_A_2017-2018.pdf : They are on Team A

https://www.patinage.qc.ca/membres/camps-entrainement.php : The Mtl camp was held from June 30-July 2nd.

But as they have not been listed on SC webpage, I guess they will have to show decent performances at QSS.

I have seen her skate at Minto and other competitions but she is not even close to the performance skills Justine had with Mathieu. Your eyes were always drawn to Justine when they skated as she could perform with her face but when I saw Chloe she doesn't have that. I think this could be risky because if the elements don't happen there isn't much else to give them a score for. I have nothing against either of them and no hard feelings just my option and what I have heard from many people

 

[Catherine M]

I have seen her skate at Minto and other competitions but she is not even close to the performance skills Justine had with Mathieu. Your eyes were always drawn to Justine when they skated as she could perform with her face but when I saw Chloe she doesn't have that. I think this could be risky because if the elements don't happen there isn't much else to give them a score for. I have nothing against either of them and no hard feelings just my option and what I have heard from many people

No skater, especially young ones are exactly alike so just cause Chloe doesn't have that wow factor at 15 doesn't mean she won't end up being a great pairs skater. I can remember a young Meagan Duhamel being pretty blah back in her days with Ryan Arnold.

I think at this point, its important to give all these young pairs skaters a chance to go out and explore themselves both technically and artistically.

I wish all the teams skating at QSS today lots of luck and hopefully they enjoy their weekend.

 

[Sk8mom123]

No skater, especially young ones are exactly alike so just cause Chloe doesn't have that wow factor at 15 doesn't mean she won't end up being a great pairs skater. I can remember a young Meagan Duhamel being pretty blah back in her days with Ryan Arnold.

I think at this point, its important to give all these young pairs skaters a chance to go out and explore themselves both technically and artistically.

I wish all the teams skating at QSS today lots of luck and hopefully they enjoy their weekend.

I totally agree with you. It's a lot for young skaters to learn a new discipline, focus on new elements and focus on performance. These things all come together with mileage. Wishing all the teams success as they compete this weekend.

 

[pointbleu]

I have seen her skate at Minto and other competitions but she is not even close to the performance skills Justine had with Mathieu. Your eyes were always drawn to Justine when they skated as she could perform with her face but when I saw Chloe she doesn't have that. I think this could be risky because if the elements don't happen there isn't much else to give them a score for. I have nothing against either of them and no hard feelings just my option and what I have heard from many people

Of course Chloe is no Justine and nobody asks her to be another person. Justine had been skating pair since a tender age, she was used to skating with another person besides her.
And yes, a new partnership is a learning curve, even most when one of the two partners is new to the discipline. I'd rather see good technical contents as a new pair, knowing they will grow as a pair team and that expression and projection can always be taught, whereas being able to land your SBS triples and throws triples are not Made for every girl trying pair. Just take a look at Evelyn Walsh, she was not so artistic last year and look at how she has improved this year. Look at the Junior World champs, the Aussies, not that big charismatic pair team but they sure get the job done!

Your "friends" (I read their close competitors) are sure right at this stage. Nobody expects them to win everything this year. They might be even more aware of their strengths and weaknesses than anyone else. That is said, with the vids posted here, the basic substance, the play-doh, the mud seems pretty good to sculpt something interesting formthe years to come.

 

[ChiquitaBanana]

I have nothing against either of them and no hard feelings just my option and what I have heard from many people

I hope so... because Canada ia a team and the best each pair performs, the greater the chance to get more JGP spots the year after. Always wish luck on your teammates...

 

[DFO]

Wow! What a great show the Novice pairs gaves us at the CQ d'été. Sad only 3 pairs showed up, the 3 others being currently injured.

Turbide/St-Louis did much better than at Minto (they had a bad SP there), showing some interesting potential (85,37). BTW William St-Louis is new to pair. They did a clean performance, but mostly with basic elements . They are getting better and better.

Pouliot/Simard did a good job in their SP but impressed everybody in their free, shown for the first time. I was expecting them to deliver that kind of performance by the end of the year, not that early. They already got a better score (94,60) than all last year novices but Panetta/Lapointe. Even the best score of Andrew/Knott at the national was 92,91, good enough for the silver medal.

Then Perreaul/Pierro got an overall score of over 100 (100,35) , reaching nearly the score of Panetta Lapointe (100,52) from the same event last year. And it was the first time ever in a summer event some novice pairs did over 100.

The best year of novice pairs was probably 2015 were, in January (year-end) at the National, 4 novice pairs did over 100:
1 Justine Brasseur / Mathieu Ostiguy QC 36.91 74.72 111.63
2 Olivia Boys-Eddy / Mackenzie Boys-Eddy CO 35.74 72.70 108.44
3 Lori-Ann Matte / Thierry Ferland QC 35.52 68.08 103.60
4 Jamie Knoblauch / Nathan O'Brien WO 34.32 67.03 101.35

All those names are still around... or looking for some partnership.

2016 was not bad either:
1 Jamie Knoblauch / Cody Wong WO 40.90 79.00 119.90
2 Katrina Lopez / Kurtis Schreiber AB/NT/NU 34.96 69.85 104.81
3 Hannah Dawson / Daniel Villeneuve EO 38.33 65.17 103.50
4 Tessa Jones / Matthew den Boer BC/YK 33.85 65.17 99.02
Knoblauch/Wong got the best ever score in novice pairs with 119,90. Only 3 pairs got over 100, but Jones/den Boer at 99,02 were real close.

With already 5 pairs over 85 points in the summer events, I guess we are on our way to beat that record with probably 5, 6 or even 7 pairs over 100 at the National. I will remember you my predictions after the National in 5 months.
Camille Perreault / Bryan Pierro : 100,35 CQ
Marine Pouliot / Alexandre Simard : 94,6 Cq d'été
Brooke McIntosh / Brandon Toste : 90,53 Minto
Mackenzie Ripley / Owen Brawley : 86,55 Minto
Veronique Turbide / William St-Louis : 85,37 CQ d'été

And real close:
Sophia O'Brien‐Doerksen / Josh Venema : 84,04 Wildrose

Then don't forget the pre-novice vice champions, Charlie Forest / Nathaniel Foster who should be back.. sometimes. This is a great cohort and most will got many JGP eligible years when they will probably all end-up in junior next year.

It's a good thing for the actual junior that almost all of the novice pars girls are too young to be JGP eligible yet...

My report on junior tomorrow, after the free program. But I could already tell you Panetta/Lapointe are making a strong impression with a second place in the short.

 

[Mary S]

Wow! What a great show the Novice pairs gaves us at the CQ d'été. Sad only 3 pairs showed up, the 3 others being currently injured.

Turbide/St-Louis did much better than at Minto (they had a bad SP there), showing some interesting potential (85,37). BTW William St-Louis is new to pair. They did a clean performance, but mostly with basic elements . They are getting better and better.

Pouliot/Simard did a good job in their SP but impressed everybody in their free, shown for the first time. I was expecting them to deliver that kind of performance by the end of the year, not that early. They already got a better score (94,60) than all last year novices but Panetta/Lapointe. Even the best score of Andrew/Knott at the national was 92,91, good enough for the silver medal.

Then Perreaul/Pierro got an overall score of over 100 (100,35) , reaching nearly the score of Panetta Lapointe (100,52) from the same event last year. And it was the first time ever in a summer event some novice pairs did over 100.

The best year of novice pairs was probably 2015 were, in January (year-end) at the National, 4 novice pairs did over 100:
1 Justine Brasseur / Mathieu Ostiguy QC 36.91 74.72 111.63
2 Olivia Boys-Eddy / Mackenzie Boys-Eddy CO 35.74 72.70 108.44
3 Lori-Ann Matte / Thierry Ferland QC 35.52 68.08 103.60
4 Jamie Knoblauch / Nathan O'Brien WO 34.32 67.03 101.35

All those names are still around... or looking for some partnership.

2016 was not bad either:
1 Jamie Knoblauch / Cody Wong WO 40.90 79.00 119.90
2 Katrina Lopez / Kurtis Schreiber AB/NT/NU 34.96 69.85 104.81
3 Hannah Dawson / Daniel Villeneuve EO 38.33 65.17 103.50
4 Tessa Jones / Matthew den Boer BC/YK 33.85 65.17 99.02
Knoblauch/Wong got the best ever score in novice pairs with 119,90. Only 3 pairs got over 100, but Jones/den Boer at 99,02 were real close.

With already 5 pairs over 85 points in the summer events, I guess we are on our way to beat that record with probably 5, 6 or even 7 pairs over 100 at the National. I will remember you my predictions after the National in 5 months.
Camille Perreault / Bryan Pierro : 100,35 CQ
Marine Pouliot / Alexandre Simard : 94,6 Cq d'été
Brooke McIntosh / Brandon Toste : 90,53 Minto
Mackenzie Ripley / Owen Brawley : 86,55 Minto
Veronique Turbide / William St-Louis : 85,37 CQ d'été

And real close:
Sophia O'Brien‐Doerksen / Josh Venema : 84,04 Wildrose

Then don't forget the pre-novice vice champions, Charlie Forest / Nathaniel Foster who should be back.. sometimes. This is a great cohort and most will got many JGP eligible years when they will probably all end-up in junior next year.

It's a good thing for the actual junior that almost all of the novice pars girls are too young to be JGP eligible yet...

My report on junior tomorrow, after the free program. But I could already tell you Panetta/Lapointe are making a strong impression with a second place in the short.

I don't think you can compare QC event scores to National scores. Everyone knows QC event scores are over inflated.

 

[DFO]

I don't think you can compare QC event scores to National scores. Everyone knows QC event scores are over inflated.

That's probably why Québec skaters got better scores at National than in Québec...

Last year quebec section:
1 Chloe Panetta / Steven Lapointe Les Lames d'Argent/Acton Vale QC 38.39 62.89 101.28
2 Keara Harney / Zachary Freedman Candiac/Ste]Julie QC 24.15 51.41 75.56
3 Danika Levesque / Samir Andjorin Ville]Marie/Laval QC 20.19 42.34 62.53

Last year National:
1 Chloé Panetta / Steven Lapointe QC 41.91 (1) 71.51 (1) 113.42
2 Patricia Andrew / Paxton Knott WO 31.54 (3) 61.37 (2) 92.91
3 Takara Dei / Josh Venema AB/NT/NU 34.34 (2) 57.00 (3) 91.34
4 Keara Harney / Zachary Freedman QC 28.93 (4) 46.08 (4) 75.01
5 Danika Levesque / Samir Andjorin QC 26.89 (5) 40.52 (5) 67.41

 

[4rkidz]

Has Justine Brasseur quit skating now? I liked her in pairs

 

[Mary S]

That's probably why Québec skaters got better scores at National than in Québec...

Last year quebec section:
1 Chloe Panetta / Steven Lapointe Les Lames d'Argent/Acton Vale QC 38.39 62.89 101.28
2 Keara Harney / Zachary Freedman Candiac/Ste]Julie QC 24.15 51.41 75.56
3 Danika Levesque / Samir Andjorin Ville]Marie/Laval QC 20.19 42.34 62.53

Last year National:
1 Chloé Panetta / Steven Lapointe QC 41.91 (1) 71.51 (1) 113.42
2 Patricia Andrew / Paxton Knott WO 31.54 (3) 61.37 (2) 92.91
3 Takara Dei / Josh Venema AB/NT/NU 34.34 (2) 57.00 (3) 91.34
4 Keara Harney / Zachary Freedman QC 28.93 (4) 46.08 (4) 75.01
5 Danika Levesque / Samir Andjorin QC 26.89 (5) 40.52 (5) 67.41

You're comparing a skate where Chloe Panetta & Steven Lapointe at sectionals on their short blew the pairs spin and on their free fell on a throw, blew a lift, touched down on their side by side double/double and even blew their choreographed sequenced (and still scored over 100!) to a skate at nationals in which they were almost flawless (fell on their double/double). Not really a fair comparison.

I can also blindly pull out scores without looking at context and show how Quebec scores are higher - look at the top 5 Novice woman at Quebec Sectionals. Every single one of them scored lower at Nationals:
Rosalie Vincent - Quebec section: 130.63 / Nationals: 111.72
Élodie Adsuar - Quebec section: 124.91 / Nationals: 119.96
Katrine Denis - Quebec section: 123.07 / Nationals: 112.86
Sandrine Bouchard - Quebec section: 119.86 / Nationals: 102.48
Jade Apréa‐Ricard - Quebec section: 116.41 / Nationals: 81.04

I've talked to coaches from across the country and they all tell me that Quebec scores are generally higher and from what I've seen, I tend to agree.

 

[Princess7]

You're comparing a skate where Chloe Panetta & Steven Lapointe at sectionals on their short blew the pairs spin and on their free fell on a throw, blew a lift, touched down on their side by side double/double and even blew their choreographed sequenced (and still scored over 100!) to a skate at nationals in which they were almost flawless (fell on their double/double). Not really a fair comparison.

I can also blindly pull out scores without looking at context and show how Quebec scores are higher - look at the top 5 Novice woman at Quebec Sectionals. Every single one of them scored lower at Nationals:
Rosalie Vincent - Quebec section: 130.63 / Nationals: 111.72
Élodie Adsuar - Quebec section: 124.91 / Nationals: 119.96
Katrine Denis - Quebec section: 123.07 / Nationals: 112.86
Sandrine Bouchard - Quebec section: 119.86 / Nationals: 102.48
Jade Apréa‐Ricard - Quebec section: 116.41 / Nationals: 81.04

I've talked to coaches from across the country and they all tell me that Quebec scores are generally higher and from what I've seen, I tend to agree.

I watched Perreault/Pierro's free today as well as at Minto and both programs were generally the same to me, good jumps, shaky lifts, generally good speed and skating throughout. Yes today was better but not 12 points better and defintely not 8 points better on the second mark alone.

 

[pointbleu]

I don't think you can compare QC event scores to National scores. Everyone knows QC event scores are over inflated.

Sour grapes?

That comment is very funny because there are usually international judges and ROC judges invited at QSS, so that doesn't hold. And lots of Quebec judges do judge at Minto Summer Skate...

What I have found over the years is that callers are harsher in Quebec than at Nationals.

As for the novice scores, have you compared these programs among themselves? Maybe the girls tend to peak at Sectionals and do worse at Nationals? Compare the technical content. Of it is the same, then you can say the PCS were overscored at Sectionals. And don't forget that a clean solid program will alwyas score more in the PCS than a flawed program at Nationals.

 

[barbarafan]

Sour grapes?

That comment is very funny because there are usually international judges and ROC judges invited at QSS, so that doesn't hold. And lots of Quebec judges do judge at Minto Summer Skate...

What I have found over the years is that callers are harsher in Quebec than at Nationals.

As for the novice scores, have you compared these programs among themselves? Maybe the girls tend to peak at Sectionals and do worse at Nationals? Compare the technical content. Of it is the same, then you can say the PCS were overscored at Sectionals. And don't forget that a clean solid program will alwyas score more in the PCS than a flawed program at Nationals.

I looked at the judges names on a few events and there were lots of out of town judges. Challenge last yr was a huge disaster from a mark POV. Some were horribly overmarked but also very good skaters were undermarked....It was a Sat.night Massacre.

 

[Mary S]

Sour grapes?

That comment is very funny because there are usually international judges and ROC judges invited at QSS, so that doesn't hold. And lots of Quebec judges do judge at Minto Summer Skate...

What I have found over the years is that callers are harsher in Quebec than at Nationals.

As for the novice scores, have you compared these programs among themselves? Maybe the girls tend to peak at Sectionals and do worse at Nationals? Compare the technical content. Of it is the same, then you can say the PCS were overscored at Sectionals. And don't forget that a clean solid program will alwyas score more in the PCS than a flawed program at Nationals.

That actually was my point that you can't just blindly pull out scores without any context, without comparing the skates because you can find data to make any point you want. My experience has been different. Over the years I've found Quebec to be easier, especially on the presentation mark, than other provinces. I've also had a number of coaches (even Quebec based coaches) tell me the same. Maybe different events are different but on the ladies side this has been my experience.

 

[DFO]

We finally get to see some new pairs in Junior at the Québec summer event"

1 Lori-Ann Matte / Thierry Ferland St-Romuald / St-Jean/St-Romuald / S CACH/CACH 54.22 (1) 79.60 (3) 133.82
2 Chloe Panetta / Steven Lapointe Les Lames d'Argent/Acton Vale LV/RA 49.26 (2) 81.92 (1) 131.18
3 Chloe Choinard / Mathieu Ostiguy Saint-Léonard/St-Césaire BA/RA 40.68 (5) 80.54 (2) 121.22
4 Gabrielle Levesque / Pier-Alexandre Hudon St.Margarets Bay/La Pocatière NS/EQ 40.48 (6) 68.88 (5) 109.36
5 Katherina Frantz / Nicolas Frantz Boucherville/Boucherville RS/RS 37.20 (7) 70.88 (4) 108.08
6 Gabriella Marvaldi / Daniel Villeneuve SCO Southern New Jersey/SCO South USA/USA 47.08 (3) 47.08
7 Isabella Gamez / Tòn Cónsul Vivar Espagne/Espagne ESP/ESP 41.24 (4) 41.24

Matte/Ferland were doing well until the final 20 seconds were they missed their finale elements. Before that they were clearly the leaders. They are skating for a long time together and it's showing.
Panetta/Lapointe are making a great entrance in junior, with the best score in the free. They also missed a few things and it was also clear that they are working together for a few years.
Choinard/Ostiguy stlll need time together. The points they lost were usually about jump/throw landing. I was surprised they get a better score than Matte/Ferland in the free.
Lévesque/Hudon great lifts bad jumps, but, as Choinard/Ostiguy need more time together.

Marvaldi/Villeneuve withdraw from the free but they did the warmup. It seems like a last minute decision because of an injury. Anybody knows more about that?

 

[Catherine M]

Choinard/Ostiguy stlll need time together. The points they lost were usually about jump/throw landing. I was surprised they get a better score than Matte/Ferland in the free.

I'm not as Choinard/Ostiguy's picked up nearly 7 points for doing a sbs triple toe combo, their double twist was much better than the SP and they got both lifts up. They seemed pleased with their skate too so that's always nice to see.

All three teams that have JGP assignments had their good moments and not so great moments so hopefully as they season progresses we will see better skating from them.

 

[DFO]

That actually was my point that you can't just blindly pull out scores without any context, without comparing the skates because you can find data to make any point you want. My experience has been different. Over the years I've found Quebec to be easier, especially on the presentation mark, than other provinces. I've also had a number of coaches (even Quebec based coaches) tell me the same. Maybe different events are different but on the ladies side this has been my experience.

Let just say you are right. I don't agree, but I agree. What does that change? This is why we have the Challenge and the National at the end of the season were all skaters are competing together with the same judges. In the meantime, those results, as unequal that they may are, are already giving us an indication of what, and who to expect. I didn't say Perreault/Pierro were actually the best novice pairs skaters in Canada. They just did a great performance for their level, much better than at Minto (especially in the SP). Do they got overmarked? Maybe. They were maybe be undermarked, as well as McIntosh/Toste in their SP in Minto (and no, I'm not comparing them, it's just felt they both goth a little too low scores). That is the system. Just look at the scores and deduct whatever you want from the Québec skaters. It's a comparaison, not a deep analysis.

I was disapointed by the pairs in Minto. I liked what I saw in Québec. Doesn't mean anything. The skaters just did better. No matter the points, the show was interesting, especially considering they are only (!) Novices.

Where I would agree is on the fact summer events are awarding encouraging scores while expectations are growing over the season and a much better performance at the end of the year will just have a little more points. What I always heard is the Challenge and the National will allow higher scores. How true that is? It's part because the skaters have more and more experience and are probably getting better, But maybe also a little because this is the end of the season, with only the élite, and it's logic that it should be the place with the higher scores.

I like watching Unseen Skaters Online scoretrackers in the USA. A California and a Florida events may not been fair to compare, but until the end of the season, in vast countries like ours, it's the only way to get tendencies and comparisons.

I'm trying to remain objective and, for now, the numbers are the only references. Other than that and it become subjective. I could tell you wich skaters I like and which one I believe will win at the end of the season. But instead, I will provide numbers and let you decide.... Ok, maybe sometimes, I will also put my 2 cents...

 

[Sylvia]

Marvaldi/Villeneuve withdraw from the free but they did the warmup. It seems like a last minute decision because of an injury. Anybody knows more about that?

I hope they're OK (both skated to the referee before the WD and I couldn't tell if one was injured) - they debuted their Jr. SP in Philadelphia last week and I was looking forward to watching their FS debut on the live stream.

Quebec Senior Pairs SP protocols (this link is cross-posted in the Pairs Discussion Thread 2017-18--"Two Skating as One" thread in the Trash Can because of the many international pairs competing): http://www.patinage.qc.ca/resultats-competitions/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/CQE17_17_DET.pdf

Canadian results:
1 Meagan Duhamel / Eric Radford Saint-Léonard/Saint-Léonard BA/BA 73.98 (John Kerr choreographed this SP with Julie Marcotte):

The official channel uploaded Duhamel Radford SP:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5wrq2f

3 Kirsten Moore-Towers / Michael Marinaro Winter Club of St. Catharines/Point Edward SC ON/ON 64.92
6 Camille Ruest / Drew Wolfe Rimouski/Glencoe EQ/AB/NT/ 51.62
8 Sydney Kolodziej / Maxime Deschamps Saint-Léonard/Vaudreuil BA/SO 49.28
WD Julianne Seguin / Charlie Bilodeau Longueuil/Chambly RS/RS

 

[skatfan]

I like D/R's new short - there's some new breath in their skating. I hope they skate well, however they end up placing.

 

[kittysk8ts]

there's some new breath in their skating.

Great way to describe what I also observed. I also saw a lovely softness to Meagan's skating in particular.