Skate to Milano OWG Qualifier - Beijing CHN - Pairs SP & FS

[Karen-W]

LOL - why were Mark & Ted trying to make it seem like it was going to be close for a guaranteed spot?

 

[tony]

LOL - why were Mark & Ted trying to make it seem like it was going to be close for a guaranteed spot?

Because it was? I mean they beat Ukraine by less than 2 points and im sure subconsciously they are considering Uzbekistan too. Didnt mark mention it vaguely?

 

[Karen-W]

Because it was? I mean they beat Ukraine by less than 2 points.

But it's still out of the top 3 in all likelihood.

 

[tony]

This is a Benoit program and I find myself liking it again!

Falling a bit apart but not enough to shake off an Olympic spot, that may not even be for them in the end.

 

[CantALoop]

I don't hate it as much as the Armenians' FO death spiral, but still, blade grabs in a FODS

 

[Karen-W]

Zhang/Huang - I like these costumes. 3tw - very nice; SBS 3t+1a+2a - messy from her; SBS 3s - he falls; throw 3f - very nice; first lift - good flow; FODS - another ugly, unnecessary leg grab for a level; second lift - very nice; throw 3lo - great; last lift - solid; choreo seq - quite nice; combo spin - pretty decent.

Well, this will certainly earn the spot for China. Hopefully the CFSA sends them to Milano rather than trying to trot out Sui/Han.

 

[skatingguy]

Jiaxuan Zhang/Yihang Huang
Rank after SP: 1
Coach: Yang Ding, Jiayuan Du
Music: O by Coldplay

Triple Twist 3
3T+1A+2A<+SEQ - Jiaxuan two-footed the 3rd jump
3S - Yihang fell
Throw 3F
Hand-to-Hip Lift 3 (4 after review)
Forward Outside Death Spiral 3
Reverse Lasso Lift 4
Throw 3Lo
Axel Lasso Lift 4
Choreo Sequence
Pair Combo Spin 4

So many wonderful qualities for this team. I look forward to seeing them for many years to come.

-1.00 = Falls
124.84 =1st Place
191.52 = 1st Place

 

[Belsornia]

Zhang/Huang seem quite slow but getting the job done despite the jump errors. Great entry to the group 3 lift. I think their SP is a much more interesting programme.

 

[alj5]

Baby Chinese are my new favorite pair.

 

[Karen-W]

FS Results - https://results.isu.org/results/season2526/qogfsk2025/SEG006.htm
Pl. Name Nation TSS= TES+ PCS+ CO PR SK Ded.- StN.
1 Jiaxuan ZHANG / Yihang HUANG CHN 124.84 67.13 58.71 7.46 7.21 7.32 1.00 #11
2 Karina AKOPOVA / Nikita RAKHMANIN ARM 122.99 66.14 56.85 7.07 7.04 7.18 0.00 #9
3 Yuna NAGAOKA / Sumitada MORIGUCHI JPN 115.98 58.46 57.52 7.07 7.04 7.43 0.00 #8
4 Sofiia HOLICHENKO / Artem DARENSKYI UKR 112.24 58.84 53.40 6.57 6.43 7.00 0.00 #6
5 Camille KOVALEV / Pavel KOVALEV FRA 107.30 53.37 54.93 7.00 6.89 6.68 1.00 #10
6 Audrey SHIN / Balazs NAGY USA 104.67 53.69 51.98 6.54 6.36 6.57 1.00 #5
7 Anna VALESI / Martin BIDAR CZE 98.94 49.73 49.21 6.43 5.71 6.29 0.00 #7
8 Julia Sylvia GUNNARSDOTTIR / Manuel PIAZZA ISL 98.94 51.77 48.17 6.00 6.00 6.04 1.00 #3
9 Tae Ok RYOM / Kum Chol HAN PRK 91.35 48.05 43.30 5.29 5.32 5.61 0.00 #1
10 Sophia SCHALLER / Livio MAYR AUT 89.04 48.10 41.94 5.18 5.14 5.39 1.00 #2
11 Isabella GAMEZ / Aleksandr KOROVIN PHI 80.55 42.79 41.76 5.39 4.89 5.36 4.00 #4

Judges Protocols - https://results.isu.org/results/sea...------FNL-000100--_JudgesDetailsperSkater.pdf

Final Results - https://results.isu.org/results/season2526/qogfsk2025/CAT003RS.htm
FPl. Name Nation Points SP FS
1 Jiaxuan ZHANG / Yihang HUANG CHN 191.52 1 1
2 Karina AKOPOVA / Nikita RAKHMANIN ARM 186.84 3 2
3 Yuna NAGAOKA / Sumitada MORIGUCHI JPN 178.66 4 3
4 Camille KOVALEV / Pavel KOVALEV FRA 171.58 2 5
5 Sofiia HOLICHENKO / Artem DARENSKYI UKR 169.41 6 4
6 Audrey SHIN / Balazs NAGY USA 158.66 7 6
7 Anna VALESI / Martin BIDAR CZE 156.11 5 7
8 Julia Sylvia GUNNARSDOTTIR / Manuel PIAZZA ISL 152.03 9 8
9 Sophia SCHALLER / Livio MAYR AUT 139.86 10 10
10 Tae Ok RYOM / Kum Chol HAN PRK 138.30 11 9
11 Isabella GAMEZ / Aleksandr KOROVIN PHI 133.69 8 11

Olympic spots confirmed -
China
Armenia
Japan
1st alternate & likely to be confirmed - France
2nd alternate - Ukraine

 

[victorskid]

Playlist of individual skates: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuiPiC1Hk8eLasapgvM0KZZXb5hYxtt87

 

[skatingguy]

Play-by-play posts have been updated to reflect the protocols, and the skaters names link to the performance video on YouTube.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Oh dear, I fell asleep at 5:45 PM. I still can’t shake this Jetlag over a week. Just waking up.

The Pairs results are interesting, but at least I won the poll I think wait a second we selected the top four correct? I definitely did not put Les Kovs in.

I don’t care what anyone says even Chelsea and Ryan would’ve done higher as already proven. Emily and Spencer definitely would’ve as well. I’m just confused as why they were selected.

Even Katie and Danill would’ve placed top three here.

 

[her grace]

Congrats to the qualifiers!

USFS’s braindead selection decision worked out as expected.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Oh my, manual Piazza is so fine ANL even sat through all of that Maria cr*p

I loves me a man with slicked back hair.

They have really nice lifts and some other elements, but my her jumps need to be improved.

I guess he has Icelandic citizenship if they are competing here?

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Congrats to the qualifiers!

USFS’s braindead selection decision worked out as expected.

I agree, I feel like C/H and M/P both would’ve qualified here.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Do you feel like champs camp performances shouldn’t determine? Especially since they’re not competition simulated?

because I easily feel like those two other teams for sure would’ve qualified

 

[rfisher]

I know many here love Mark's commentary. I hate it. I can't understand half of what he says and it's disruptive.

 

[Wyliefan]

You can't understand a Scottish accent?

 

[her grace]

Do you feel like champs camp performances shouldn’t determine? Especially since they’re not competition simulated?

In a word, no.

A closed-door simulation is not a real competition. Not to mention that I believe in transparency and think that closed-door "oh, they were so much better than you've ever seen and definitely better than the teams that routinely beat them in actual competition" isn't a great look for a fed. A re-ranking competition or BOW (composed of real competitions) makes a lot more sense.

because I easily feel like those two other teams for sure would’ve qualified

We'll never know. But I think either M/P or C/H would have had a fighting chance.

 

[Karen-W]

In a word, no.

A closed-door simulation is not a real competition. Not to mention that I believe in transparency and think that closed-door "oh, they were so much better than you've ever seen and definitely better than the teams that routinely beat them in actual competition" isn't a great look for a fed. A re-ranking competition or BOW (composed of real competitions) makes a lot more sense.

Precisely. Simulated competition cannot and does not replicate an actual, real competition environment and energy. If the USFS wanted to be really transparent then they should have at least provided the scores & protocols, maybe even video too, of the simulated competition. Instead, we've only heard bits & pieces - that ShiNagy "won" and ChanHowe were "rough". All that may be valid, but given what we saw from both teams as well as McBark in a real competition 3 weeks later and what we saw of ShiNagy here this weekend (even worse than what we saw at John Nicks), the USFS is only coming out of this with egg on their face for their decision-making process.

We'll never know. But I think either M/P or C/H would have had a fighting chance.

I'm 100% positive that either McBark or ChanHowe would have earned the 3rd spot, but you're right, we'll never know.

 

[Jammers]

All i will say about this competition is that both C/H and M/P with their scores from John Nicks would have finished 3rd here and qualified the 3rd spot. The US should have a full roster of skaters going to Milan but the USFS Fkd it all up giving the spot here to a new team that was not ready or experienced enough.

 

[clairecloutier]

USFS has a body of work criteria for assignments to major ISU events. I think it’s not unreasonable to wonder why they didn’t apply a similar process to the selection for this event, seeing as it was our first shot for a full Olympic team in decades. The results of this event mattered, in the long run, to everyone involved in U.S. pairs skating.

 

[TanithandBenFan]

All we needed was a 61-65 in the SP and 114-118 in the long. I feel 80% confident that another team could have achieved that.

 

[mtnskater]

I do feel badly for Shin/Nagy. They are a very nervy, newer team. Yes, they have lovely potential. However, I was very worried that they would not hold up to the pressure here. And they didn’t. It’s hard to when you don’t have enough experience as a team successfully dealing with pressure yet. I also find this team hard to watch because they seem incredibly nervous every outing and don’t seem to be having any fun. As a result, I don’t have fun watching them. They don’t really look at each other or interact. Audrey is head down in the K&C so many times. Like others, I sure hope this event hasn’t done permanent damage. I know they have a good coaching team so we will hope for the best they can recover.

The Japanese team is error prone too, but they seem to have fun in their programs while whizzing around the ice, and it made me enjoy them too. And I found myself loving the Chinese team’s “Arrival of the Birds” program. Brought back fond memories of Adam Rippon’s beautiful rendition. She looks very young and juniorish to me. But I’ll look forward to this program this season. And finally, I was absolutely shocked how highly the Kovalevs ranked here. Usually they are my fridge break so I missed their short. Will have to go back and watch

 

[Vagabond]

Really good skate by Gamez/Korovin's standards! It really would cost him nothing to look like he gave a tenth of a ****.

I know that this is a common sentiment on FSU, but I don’t blame him. He has been more her indentured servant than her partner.

 

[Karen-W]

I know that this is a common sentiment on FSU, but I don’t blame him. He has been more her indentured servant than her partner.

At least he got a Philippines passport for the effort. It may not be the most useful of passports to have, but it can't be a bad thing to have another one in addition to his Russian one.

 

[kwanfan1818]

I guess he has Icelandic citizenship if they are competing here?

No, not necessarily. Citizenship is not a requirement for participating at the OQE, and every member who didn't earn a spot in Boston was entitled to a spot in this competition, as long as they didn't make the Free Skate in Boston and they are ISU-eligible.

Many skaters and teams competed knowing that they had a .0001% chance of earning a spot or being one of the top alternates. Many went for the experience, or to see where they fit in a more homogeneous field. It's possible that the ISL team went for the experience, even if they wouldn't be eligible had they earned one, and if hell froze over, they'd have a compelling argument for the Icelandic government.

 

[clairecloutier]

I know that this is a common sentiment on FSU, but I don’t blame him. He has been more her indentured servant than her partner.

He’s the one who took the job. No one’s forcing him to stay in it.

 

[kwanfan1818]

I thought if he broke off the partnership without having another partner before he became a citizen, and he had to go back to Russia, he'd be drafted into the army. Certainly no one has disclosed whether he has a contract and what the terms are.

He may have more leeway now that he has a passport that entitles him to stay/return to the Philippines.