Like most Chinese teams they struggle with jumps having a 2A as their highest but it’s under rotated.
Chen/Wang have lots of potential for only being together less than 3 months and her having visibly little to no pair experience (had clean 3T and 2A,
Guo/Zhang are another sui baby team but they have even worse jumps so they were 4th
Sorry but pairs is much more than just jumps. I disagree that having strong jumps is "good foundation" and "potential" for pairs. Here's my take on the pairs event:
Zhang/Huang were obviously primed (and expected) to take top spot. I will take their scores here with a bucket of salt and would expect some serious deflation when they reach the international stage. Despite bombing the SP with a fall on the throw and downgraded fall on the 2A they still won the SP over a clean Zhang/Feng. Zhang/Feng won the technical score in the SP but Zhang/Huang scored 6 points more in PCS (undeservedly imo) to win the SP despite 2 falls. Zhang/Huang went clean in the FP to take the win by a mile (as expected).
The second spot was always going to be a skate-off between Zhang/Feng, Guo/Zhang and Yang/Deng. Yang/Deng being the more experienced team who went to JWC and JGP in the past two seasons but with lower technical content than the two new baby pairs that are moving up to juniors this year. Yang/Deng went mostly clean besides a few scratchy landings on the throws, but their lower tech content is not holding up anymore against the babies who are going for triple twist + two triple throws + FoDs + SBS 2A. Yang/Deng's strength is in lifts, but the babies can also hit the levels in their lifts even if they are not as strong as Yang/Deng's. Having not secured a JGP spot, Yang/Deng (who are also senior eligible) are expected to compete for the COC host spot at the fifth interclub league competition.
Although none of Zhang/Feng, Guo/Zhang and Yang/Deng went completely clean, Zhang/Feng came away with the JGP slot thanks to fewer mistakes and higher BV. Zhang/Feng have now upgraded their SBS jump in the SP to 2A (they were only doing 2F and 2Lo previously) while Guo/Zhang downgraded theirs (they did SBS 2A in the SP at the NWG but reverted to 2F here because their 2A is almost always <). Zhang/Feng fumbled on their 2A and 3LoTh in the FP but landed an amazing 3FTh which was enough to secure second. Guo/Zhang falling on their 3FTh and missing their combo caused them to end up in fourth (also a really boring new Bolero FP didn't help). Both teams still have their gorgeous FoDs as before.
The biggest news and takeaway from this selection trial is that coach Luan Bo (previously coach of Zhang/Huang, Zhang/Feng, Guo/Zhang etc. a.k.a. the Qiqihar teams) appears to have retired. We kinda saw this coming from the pairs camp that happened earlier in may when she was not listed as the coaching staff of the Qiqihar teams, but the latest development is that her teams have been split into two new camps (most likely combined to be known as the new pairs "national team"). Two camps are headed by Ding Yang (also coach of Peng/Wang) who is now listed as head coach of Zhang/Huang, Zhang/Feng and Wang/Liu; and Guan Jinlin who is listed as head coach of Yang/Deng, Guo/Zhang and Luan/Ge. I am not confident that either of these are strong replacement coach for Luan Bo, Ding is pretty much untested and Guan has a terrible reputation and track record (and also never skated pairs himself). Personally I feel like the technical quality of all the teams in this competition has gone down as compared to their performances from the NWG earlier this year. Everyone is more hesitant and scratchy going into the elements, with less flow and speed than before. This is the most worrying takeaway from this selection trial.
Getting their SBS jumps fully rotated is a problem for almost everyone across the board, so no one was really 'clean' in this department. From the protocols:
Zhang/Huang: 3Tq+2Aq+2T,
Zhang/Feng: 2Aq in both SP and FP
Guo/Zhang: 2A<
Wang/Liu: 2Fq+1Eu+2S
Chen/Wang: 3Tq+1T+2T
Link to videos of the performances (all SP and FP are in the playlist)
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