Volosozhar & Trankov (RUS) Waltz through the Pairs Short Programg

(12 February 2014)  Two days after winning a gold medal as part of the Team Russia victory in the Team event, Tatiana Volosozhar & Makim Trankov gave a commanding performance in the Pairs Short Program.  They earned a season best and record 84.17 points for their performance to the Waltz for Masquerade, by Aram Khatchaturian.

The team opened with a towering triple twist that was called level 4 and received all 3s from the judges for GoEs, as good as it gets.  They also received six 3's for their closing step sequence, also called level4 as well as a few additional 3s scattered throughout the other elements.  All of the leveled elements achieved level 4.  Their program components scored an average of 9.88, and received a total of nine 10.0s, five of those for Interpretation.  Despite and admitted case of nerves, they skated with speed and control from start to finish.

In the audience, legendary pair skaters Ludmila and Oleg Protopopov were on hand to cheer the team on.  The Protopopovs claimed Olympic gold fifty years ago dethroning the German world champions at the time.  Fifty years later, Volosozhar & Trankov are poised to similarly vanquish their German rivals in the pairs event.

"We were concentrating on the inside," said Volosozhar after their skate, "We were so nervous today but did a good job."  Added Trankov , "It was a nervous moment because we needed to repeat our performance from the other night.  It was good that we managed out emotions.  They were under control."  He described further, "It was a hard skate.  I was quite nervous and there were moments when things seemed easy and I thought I was just flying but I had to contain myself and focus on the elements since it happened before that the emotions took over and we made mistakes."

The Russian's main rivals, Germany's Aliona Savchenko & Robin Szolkowy, skated two teams earlier, in the previous warm-up group to the Russians.  They also skated a season's best but in the end trail the Russians by 4.53 points.  The base value for the Germans was only 0.4 points behind the Russians, but they lost ground in the GoEs.  They also failed to achieve level 4 in two of the elements, their twist at level 3 and their death spiral at level 2, costing them 0.9 points in base value.  Their components averaged 9.05, and they did not receive any marks of 10.0.  To overtake the Russians in the Free Skate, the Germans will need a perfect skate, and some help from the Russians by making some errors.

The Germans changed their short program routine after Europeans, performing here a new routine to music from "The Pink Panther."  The result tonight says it was a good decision.  Savchenko commented "On one hand it was risky to change the short program after Europeans, but we had more fun this time and it was the right choice to do this for sure."  Szolkowy also commented on this saying, "We are happy we changed our program.  It was absolute the right choice.  Maybe we couldn't skate it at 110%, but at least 105%."  In overcoming the four point deficit they must overcome in the free skate Szolkowy said, "Nothing is lost, everything is still open and possible.  We're not in dreamland here.  We are skating last, after that we will know straight away.  It can't be better than that."  On the possibility they will attempt a throw triple Axel, the team was coy, Szolkowy saying, "There is no right answer for that.  Lean back, and maybe there will be a surprise for you."

Third place in the short was taken by Ksenia Stolbova & Fedort Klimov (RUS), who 5.42 points behind the German team.  They skated a technically precise routine to highly rhythmic drum music called "Surrender" by Jesse Cook.  The quirky choreography was cleanly skated and presented a unique contrast to the other teams in the event.  To hold on to third place, the ream will have to fight off Qing Pand & Jian Tong (CHN) and Meagen Duhamel & Eric Radford (CAN) who sit in fourth and fifth place, just a few points back.

Pang & Tong started off with Pang under-rotating her attempt at triple toe loop.  The remainder of the program was skated cleanly, but the error cost the team third place in the short.  Their twist achieved level2, and the remaining leveled elements were achieved level 4.  Their program component scores averaged 8.49, slightly greater than for Stolbova & Klimov.  The 2010 Olympic Silver Medalists have a chance to move up in the Free Skate, but they will have to be at the top of their game.

After their skate, Tong said, "Our score was not high enough because the first element was not performed very well.  But generally speaking we did well." And on their last Olympic experience he dais, "It's out last Olympics and I want to enjoy it and make it more meaningful.  It's time to say goodbye to the ice rink, and I hope we can  happy ending."

Canadians Meagean Duhamel & Eric Radford placed fifth in the short, 3 points behind third place Stolbova & Klimov.  The Canadians had tow minor errors, with Radford poorly landing triple Lutz on the toe, and Duhamel stumbling in their step sequence.  Said Duhamel, "It was very difficult to skate after the hometown team (Stolbova & Klimov).  It sounds like a hockey game out there.  We made some minor mistakes, but I am proud of what we were able to do in that circumstance."  She also remarked, "We want a medal really bad, but for us skating the free skate of a lifetime would be worth more than gold."

The second and third Canadian pair teams competing here ended the short program with Kristin Moore-Towers & Dylan Moscovitch placing sixth and Page Lawrence & Rudi Swiegers placing thirteenth, both making the cut of 16 to the final round free skate.

The lead U.S. team, Marissa Castelli & Simon Shnapir placed ninth with a season best performance of 67.44 points.  Their twist lift only achieved level 1 and their death spiral was called level 3.  The remaining leveled elements were level 4, and their components averaged 7.39 points.  The first half of the routine, to music by Santana was lively and well presented, but their interpretation fell off in the second half.  Coming into the Olympics the team's goal was a top ten finish, and they are currently on track to achieve that goal.  On their performance Shnapir commented, "We felt great.  It's one of the best short programs we've skated this season.  It (the score) is a personal best and a season best.  We're happy with that run-through.  I think we can take a step up from this."

The second U.S. team, Felicia Zhang & Nathan Bartholomay, placed fourteenth in the short program, making the final cut to sixteen.  Skating to the waltz from the musical "Carousel" they gave a season best performance earning 56.90 points.  On triple toe loop Bartholomay was called fro an under-rotation, and on throw triple Lutz, their were a few negative GoEs due to a bit of a rough landing on the toe.  Their components averaged 6.21.

The Pairs event concludes Wednesday with the skating of the Free Skate by the top 16 teams from the Short Program.  The competition begins at 7:45 PM, local time.