Practice reports, pics & clips

[TAHbKA]

Sakamoto's music. Love her dress. Don't love the time to say goodbye part. Her gliding is to die for. I think even the kids on the rink are quiet. Mesmirizing
and 1A for some reason. She was landing the 2A from that leaning back with hte lef up 90 degrees just fine. Anyway 3f3t easy as if from nowhere. she is SO fast! Her steps sequence goes faster and covers more ice than Kim who was speeding up with the basic steps in parallel

 

[TAHbKA]

And finally music for Lin-Gracey. Hopefully. At least it's not `the winner takes it all'. It's very muted as if playing through a layer of cotton. No complains, another screeching female in top volume would be annnoying. The jumps are ok and all is nice, just that she is skating after Sakamoto.

 

[TAHbKA]

Pairs practice.
A bit scary to see 4 pairs on the ice when 2 of them are French.
Wessenberg/Strekalin - am not sure whether its a shirt that does not compliment him ,but he looks erm.. wide. Him - had down on a 3t. Think there will be a fight for the last place and Strekalin will be leading it. He seems to be out of breath. He has his wrists and fingers taped. Hope it's a precation and not an injury. It's almost as if they were skating different programmes.

 

[TAHbKA]

Shin/Nagy - an interesting starting pose. He is Hungarian, right? His jumps are above the border in the best Sebestyen style if he is Hungarian. Hers is tiny. A throw 3loop nice.
I think they have labubus on the k&c couch.
A weird music change - it's almost Ochi Chernye from a godfather with what sounds like a Russian army choir. Shin/Nagy are yet another american pair where all is good, not bad quality, totally forgettable and they'll swithc partners next season anyway for no reason

 

[TAHbKA]

Faula/Belle - never heard about them. Did they pair up for the France GP only? Matching black trousers and red-ish shirts. Not a costume. double split twist. Guess they did pair up yesterday. He has a really nice posture for a pairs skater. Sbs 3t clean. She plls her shoulders to the ears. throw 3loop somehow she lands it - she was 45 degrees to the ground. I love the music. Ok, not anymore I don't know what their costumes will look like but if they land all their elements like they did now it may be a nice programme. They are quite slow in the steps, the guy is very energetic and moves nicely, se is too careful, but he is enough to rock for them both. It's much more interesting than Strekalin, frankly.

 

[TAHbKA]

McBeath/Parkman Oh, it's the georgian dude. Should had recognized him by the horrible hair. And being wider than the trousers he is wearing. Split twist slow and low, but ok. sbs 3t ok. Think so far only Strekalin didn't get his 3t clean out of these pairs, which is surprising given there are 2 french pairs. throw 3lz I think - doublefooted.
Frankly in this group Faula/Belle seem to be the most interesting.

 

[TAHbKA]

Love Pavlova/Sviatchenkos's costumes colours. The French and the Canadians are not in the costumes, Miura is very sparkling

 

[TAHbKA]

Somehow these 8 seem to be slower than the previous 8 (minus the Japanese, these two are flying)

 

[TAHbKA]

If I were the organizers I would have had the screens cube a bit higher - Miura is flying high in the split twists!

 

[TAHbKA]

Kovalev throwing Kovalev almost into Sviatchenko (who was almost in the border. Not sure what was the point, did she put too much salt in his soup?)

 

[TAHbKA]

Kovalevs' music. They are skating through, no split twist, no jump. Without the elements the programme is even emptier and about nothing. Miura throw 3lz
Stellato split twist
Kovalevs throw 3loop she falls
Kihara 3s
Miura 2t (on the different sides of the rink, it was not a sbs). I think they are making the JPN cameramen work harder)
Duhamel is here!

 

[TAHbKA]

Pavlova/Sviatchenko's music
ah, it's Jackson.
split twist, throw jump sbs 3t all clean. They skate with such a confidence! If nothing major happens I don't see how the canadians take a silver here. It's not theirs.

 

[TAHbKA]

Stellato/Dechamps music. They are very slow after the Hungarians. sbs 3t he barely lands. Obviously hate the O Fortuna screams all of the sudden. And they cut throught the music, it's even worse. His left wrist is taped (or is it a decoration?) the flip seems to be completely out of place but allows Stellato to do an O face for half a minute after. Skipping the lift.

 

[TAHbKA]

Miura/Kihara (I have no idea how do they understand whose music is it - the French announcer says a lot of interesting things). Their speeding up into the split twist covers more ice than Stellato/Dechamps whole programme.
sms3t very small and low. throw jump nice and big. They are much faster than the Canadians, am not sure whether they are faster than the hungarians, but their programme is much more packed.

 

[Wyliefan]

Shin - don't believe I have ever seen her and don't believe I will - an invisible grey dressm and invisible choreography, an invisible skating and an invisible music. All is nice and lovely as with every Korean skater but then there is Kaori on the ice doing a 2a...

I'll grant you the rest of it, but there ain't nothing invisible about Chopin! Thanks for the detailed reports!

 

[TAHbKA]

Ice dance. WTF Cizeron&Partner are wearing?!?!?!??!?!?!?

 

[TAHbKA]

Fournier/Cizeron seem to be much more in sync during the warm up than most of hte teams (who surely skated for longer together tan these two. i didn't realize Fournier was so much shorter than Papadakis. They look almost like a pair rather than dancers. Am sure there are other teams on the ice, they are jus invisible, am afraid

 

[TAHbKA]

Pate/Bye did their FD. FWIW they seem to be alive by the end of the programme. Caffa and partner are doing something very lively and her costume looks like a squashed strawberry in a spilled ink. Kinda cool.

 

[TAHbKA]

I assume it's the French couple who are not Cizeron and not Caffa. Don't believe I ever nevermind seen them, even heard of them. Thye seem to not know when the spin goes in their music.

 

[TAHbKA]

LFB/Cizeron music. Ah, it's vogue. So she has to be in the underwear, he sleeveless. Well, she has the sleeves. Without having cloths on.
Think it's the first time in my life that I dislike Cizeron's programme. There is nothing special about it, they are slow, they spend a lot of time doing nothing with their legs. It's just... mediocre so far. They skipped a part now back into the programme. ok , now they are speeding up a bit for the lift. Not much though. It's a lot of sexy posing whech am not even sure she is comfortable with, lots of arm moves that look cool on him and not very good from her.

 

[TAHbKA]

Caffa/partner are skating to a very explicit waltz and keep missing the beats very explicitly. He is depicting lots of emotions emotions emotions that are not really there not sure what for, but it looks a bit as if he had a tick and was shaking from time to time
And then Pate/Bye are probably doing parts of their SD and it's even more seazure like

 

[TAHbKA]

Bratti/Somervile - suddenly like hteir programme and skating. Perhaps it's after all the jerks and seazures the other teams had suddenly it's just a dance that flows, with a nice costume, nice music, without too many over the top histeria.

 

[TAHbKA]

Тhe 2nd group are on the ice (at some point the 1st group were bowing while the 2nd starrted their warm up and there were 10 teams at once. That was a lot of fast people).
Love the Italia's costume (Guinard's really, his is just simple and classical). Reed/Ambrulevichus - either I have seen that costume before or they are using the old ones. At least it looks exactly like what they had their whole careers. Fear has a british flag splatted all over her behind, while Davis has erm... am not even sure what is she wearing but it's as vulgar as everything she usually has.
Oh great, Margaglio is sitting next to me. Hope he is not looking at my screen

 

[TAHbKA]

Italians' music.
It's ridiculously beautiful. Was last year's FD on purpose so we'll miss their beautiful programmes and beautiful skating and suddenly a beautiful dress?
They are much faster on one foot than Davis/Smolkin on both. Think I forgot how to breath (and then they stopped the programme and are skating around. Which is still beautiful).

 

[TAHbKA]

Fear/Gibson - the usual stuff. nothing new. It could be their last or two years or 3 years ago programme. I wouldn't be able to tell the difference if they were skaitng without costumes and without music. More of the same...
So guess now it's spice girls with the british flag splatted all over her. Meh...
After the italians while I forgot to breath it's just... Well, Cizeron is the same crap in the SD. It's so damn mediocre. Slow and goes nowhere. and she missed a bit on the twizzle. That endless party is tirining and boring

 

[TAHbKA]

Davis/Smolkin music - am sure I have seen it the first time the lyrics were allowed and some of the russians were doing something rqually tacky - perhaps Simenovich with whoever she was skaitng with at that moment. Instead of being the 90s it's just oldfashioned and vulgar.
They are much faster than I remembered them though

In a way Davis/Smolkin went from looking young seniors to juniors and now to novices.

 

[TAHbKA]

Reed/Ambrulevicus - I hate it that they pick the music that I love Faithless is one of my favourite groups
am sure I have seen the prorgramme and the costume before, but not sure. At any rate, Reed doing fast stuff and Faithless can't possibly be bad (especially not after Davis/Smolkin - dear god, if there is an Indian junior ice dance team they would look ok after that).
Am not sure why they picked the part of music with a lot of lyrics and hardly any double base - there are some really cool bits in that song. Anyway, thanks for bringing Faithless to the ice.
The ending spin to the music is the coolest part of the very cool programme.

Sorry about not writing about the LeGacs - it's the usual circus both the programme and the music.

 

[TAHbKA]

The last practice for today, think am more froen than the ice at this point.
Selevko splatted on his behind, looked painful.

 

[TAHbKA]

Selevko's music.
I love his arms - the flow is beautiful. Am not sure but he looks taller than last year. Perhaps he lost weight thus lookign taller. Economides landing a lame 2A in front of Selevko. Torgashev getting out of Selevvko's way. Selevko popping an axel form a spread eagle. Selevko popping aloop. Torgashev 3f
Selevko landing something, his exit from the jump is gorgeous. Selevko 3/3s Selevko popping a lutz and into a 2A.

 

[TAHbKA]

Was announced it's Tsuboi music and it's silent again. I like that version of the music in the practice. Ok, there is music. Yet another SFAW I guess.
Torgashev is flying across the ice. Torgashev 3A
Tsuboi 4t. Looked easy as if a triple. 4s fall. 3/3t and an annoying music begins. Selevko is landing almost on a straight knee with a great posture, very Victor Pfeifer like, the trouble is that he lands as many jumps as Pfeifer. Which are not much.
Selevko 3f
Tsuboi is still expressing the screaming opera. 3A
Naumov is doubling whatever he tries and seems very frustrated. Selevko 1A. Naumov 3/2t he looks tired. Is he jetlagged?