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

I'm really pulling for Holichenko and Darenskyi to make it. Any sacrificial volunteers from the top group? (Valesi/Bidar don't have citizenship, right? Though I dislike him as a shitty pairs partner, and if he wants to melt down, he can do that anyway?)
 
Nice performance overall! I'll almost forgive them for using overwrought breathy female movie trailer cover music :p
 
Yowza, she was super tilted in the air on that 3S.

Eek, and problems on the Axel lasso lift
 
I don’t see how she can have CZE citizenship already and I don’t know any other pairs in the country so their placement shouldn’t matter all that much.

The most choreography in a program so far, but it all got away once the lift went down. And the Axel Axel axel sequences just need to be written out of the rules for good. They are so ugly and go every which direction.
 
:yikes: Scary lift fail. I guess they left their best in Bergamo.

Anyway, I hope Anna Duskova’s doing well. Shouldn’t she have qualified as a doctor by now?
 
Valesi/Bidar - oh, goodie, they're skating to Notre Dame de Paris... 3tw - nice; SBS 3s - hand down for her on the landing; SBS 2a+1a+2a - messy; first lift - and it comes down before it goes very far; throw 2f - seemed deliberate; throw 3s - hand down from her on a stumbling landing; BODS - okay from overhead; choreo seq - sure; second lift - better; this music tempo is soooooo slow; last lift - very good; combo spin - well, I don't mind the transition timed to the bell chiming.

Underwhelming. Probably will at least move ShiNagy up to 6th.
 
Anna Valesi/Martin Bidar 🇨🇿
Rank after SP: 5
Coach: Ondrej Hotarek
Music: Notre Dame de Paris (soundtrack)

Triple Twist 3
3S< - Anna fell
2A+1A+2Aq+SEQ - Anna made a mess of the 3rd jump
Axel Lasso Lift B - came down shortly after going up
Throw 2F
Throw 3S - on a lean, step out
Back Outside Death Spiral 4
Choreo Sequence
Reverse Lasso Lift 4 (3 after review)
Hand-to-Hip Lift 4
Pair Combo Spin 4

A version of the Davis/White lift in the choreo sequence. The performance was a struggle with the technical elements, but there is something there in the skating that hopefully they will get going.

98.94 = 3rd Place
156.11 = 3rd Place
 
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Mark is talking about Sui/Han and saying it's unclear whether or not they're actually going to compete or not this season. We'd all love to know the answer to that, Mark, lol.
 
Les Kovs - well, so much for keeping it classy with their costumes - yesterday was clearly just an aberration, lol. Actually, to be fair, her dress is nice; but his look is something that needs to be put in the dustbin.
 
honey said:
If Audry and Balazs don’t secure the spot here I have a lot of questions about the future of this team. Do they get blamed for losing a spot and dumpage is coming their way? Do they feel so discouraged that they don’t see the point of continuing? I see either as relatively likely outcomes.

This team does have potential, but they were put into this situation by their federation and now will probably pay the consequences for it.
Click to expand...

ITA. This was a dumb decision on so many levels. The USFS ratcheted up the pressure on an inexperienced team with potential. Now they're left demoralized and with a visible and public failure attached to their names. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Chan and Howe have appeared undertrained and looking like they'd rather be anywhere than on the ice with each other, so I do think the USFS has been "punishing" them.
 
If this team can just get it together even 80% of the way their score is going to be massive. They fly through everything without an ounce of hesitation, but it all borders out of control and not always in the best way.

I don’t know if the latter part of the sequence is even going to count because she didn’t do much of anything on the second jump pass. Nevermind, it was a waltz jump.
 
Nagaoka/Moriguchi - 3tw - bit over his shoulder on the landing; SBS 3lo+a+2a - she two-footed the landing on the Lo & biffed the 2nd jump; SBS 3t - fine; first lift - very nice speed & ice coverage; throw 3lo - two-footed landing - she didn't even really try; combo spin - fine enough; throw 3s - pitched way forward & both hands down on the landing; second lift - strong; BODS - alright; last lift - really nice; choreo seq - has potential to be great but kind of petered out.

Oh, Ted, do shut up. Most of these mistakes were not "small".

So, I've come to the conclusion that this team really only skates well when they're in Japan, otherwise, it's often a hot mess of unrealized potential. Japan doesn't need a 2nd pairs team in Italy any more than the US needs a 3rd pairs team.
 
Yuna Nagaoka/Sumitada Moriguchi 🇯🇵
Rank after SP: 4
Coach: M. Hamada, D. Savin, F. Klmov, S. Evdokimova
Music: Tree of Life Suite by R. Cacciapaglia

Triple Twist 2
3Lo+A+2A+SEQ - Yuna struggling with the loop, forward leaning again today
3T
Axel Lasso Lift 4
Throw 3Lo - two-foot landing
Pair Combo Spin 4
Throw 3S - hands down
Reverse Lasso Lift 4
Back Outside Death Spiral 2
Hand-to-Hand Lift 4
Choreo Sequence

This team has made so much progress in the past two years with their technical elements, but there not quite coming together in competition. Yuna seems to have a bit of a block on the loop jumps in competition, and hopefully they switch to the toeloops because those perfect.

115.98 = 1st Place
178.66 = 1st Place
 
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tony said:
If this team can just get it together even 80% of the way their score is going to be massive. They fly through everything without an ounce of hesitation, but it all borders out of control and not always in the best way.

I don’t know if the latter part of the sequence is even going to count because she didn’t do much of anything on the second jump pass.
Click to expand...
A waltz jump/A is still a jump, no?
 
Hmph. Well, that's enough to get them a trip to the Olympics unless Geynish or Chigirev find a partner fast who can compete this fall.
 
I’m liking this, although why do blade grab choreo and changing edges all the way down the ice to kill the speed into the 3Ts and then barely be able to get them around? Be like every other team and just lose all the choreo.

I really think this team is gonna have a Metelkina and Berulava type of rise in the scores, but with more personality and quite honestly more choreography, too.
 
Akopova/Rakhmanin - 3tw - light & airy; SBS 3t - bit out of synch but fine; throw 3f - good; SBS 3s+2a+2a - messy landing for her on the last 2a; first lift - decent; second lift - also good; well FSTW is going to go nuts over the cultural appropriation, I'm sure; throw 3s - really nice; FODS - ugly blade grab for a level; choreo seq - what's the point? last lift - bit slow on the exit; combo spin - oh, interesting positions in it.

This score is going to be massive and deservedly so.
 
Karina Akopova/Nikita Rakhmann 🇦🇲
Rank after SP: 3
Coach: Fedor Kilmov, Dmitri Savin
Music: Slumdog Millionaires by A.R. Rahman

Triple Twist 3
3T
Throw 3Lz
3S+2A+2A+SEQ - Karina made a mess of the 3rd jump
Reverse Lasso Lift 4
Hand-to-Hip Lift 4
Throw 3S
Forward Outside Death Spiral 3
Choreo Sequence
Axel Lasso Lift 4 (3 after review)
Pair Combo Spin 3 (3V after review)

Their throw technique, particularly on the Lutz, is let's see how high Karina can go, and then she's on her own on the way down. A very strong technical skate, and now we just for them to find a way to up the performance level.

122.99 = 1st Place
186.84 = 1st Place
 
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Some of this choreography is such a step up from what they’ve done before. But more of the same in terms of hot and cold elements. They’ll almost certainly go behind the Japanese and probably have to await Uzbekistan’s decision.
 
Camille Kovalev/Pavel Kovalev 🇫🇷
Rank after SP: 2
Coach: Bruno Massot
Music: Come Together, After Dark, Seven Nation Army

Triple Twist 2
2S
3T<+COMBO - Camille fell
Axel Lasso Lift 4
Back Outside Death Spiral 3
Pair Combo Spin 4
Throw 3F
Reverse Lasso Lift 4
Choreo Sequence
Throw 3S
Hand-to-Hip Lift 4

That was a nice change from the Kovalev's, and I thought they did pretty well considering how they were struggling at the end of last season.

-1.00 = Falls
107.30 = 4th Place
171.58 = 4th Place
 
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Les Kovs - 3tw - bit low but okay; SBS 3s - he doubled; SBS 3t - and she goes down so no combo; first lift - alright; BODS - from overhead I suppose it's fine; combo spin - okay; throw 3f - decent; second lift - also decent; choreo seq - not a throwaway element, decent; throw 3s - landed; last lift - good.

Well, they didn't have enough of a lead from the SP to hold off NagaMori. They'll probably still wind up with a spot since UZB won't be going, plus they'll definitely be there for the TE.
 
It'll be interesting to see if the Kovalevs can hold off the Japanese with flubbing both SBS jump passes
 
I think they've done enough, but even if they didn't qualify here, would the Kovalevs get to go anyway, to make up the French team event?
 
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