Meryl Davis & Charlie White (USA)

Team Standings After Pairs Free Skate

(8 February 2014)  In the second day of the Team Event, which saw the skating of the Short Dance, Ladies Short Program and Pairs Free Skate. Team USA moved up to third place, while Team Russia increased it's lead to 6 points and seems on track to run away with the Gold medal.

 The evening's competition began with the Short Dance where attention was focused on Americans Meryl Davis & Charlie White and Tess Virtue & Scott Moir, the two rivals for the gold medal in the individual event.  Skating last, Davis & While bested their rivals by 3 points in a routine in a routine that was scored with three level 4 elements, and two level three.  They missed one key performance parameter in the Finnstep and were scored level 3 on their mid-line step sequence.  The Canadians also had three level 4 elements and two level 3.  They hit all the key performance parameter, but were scored level 3 on their twizzles and mid-line step sequence.

After their performance Meryl Davis commented, "We're really excited to be back in the hunt for a medal.  Charlie and I were definitely focused on our performance today.  Now that we're done, it's nice to see the U.S. back on top there."

Both teams skated there contrasting routines well, with the Americans skating a lively, flowing, swirling routine, while the Canadians performed an elegant skate that was soft and lite.

2.71 points behind the Canadians, the Russian couple of Ekaterina Bobrova & Dmitri Soloviev placed third, 1.12 points ahead of the French couple Nathalie Pechelat & Fabian Bourzat.  The French team was scored slightly higher in elements but lower in program components.  These two teams are now set up to be the rivals for the bronze medal in the individual event.

Following the Short Dance, the Ladies skated their short programs to complete the competition for the initial round that determined which of the five teams would make the final round.

Canadian Kaetlyn Osmond skated first and gave a season best performance, and placed fifth in the group.  Together with Virtue & Moir their result kept Team Canada in second place to move on to the final round.  Here elements were cleanly skated, but the routine was thin an transitions, and a bit slow.  Three of the other four ladies in the first warm-up group gave season best performances, but not placed high enough to put their teams up into the final round.

Ashley Wagner skated second in the second warm-up group, and gave a technically solid performance that placed her fourth in the segment.  She attempted triple flip - triple toe loop, but had a poor landing on the flip and was under-rotated on the toe loop.  She placed double Axel and triple loop in the second half of the program, and both were well executed.  She was the only lady to execute two jump elements in the second half.  Afterwards she complained that she thought her marks were too low, but given the error on the jump combination, and the indifferent artistic performance, her marks seems about right to us, and her placement what it deserved to be.

Wagner was followed by Julia Lipnitskaya.  She skated a strong program with lovely interpretation, landing a clean triple Lutz - triple toe loop, as fell as triple flip and double Axel.  She was clearly the best of the group, and will go into the individual event a contender for a medal.

On her performance she said, "I did what I wanted to do on the ice today.  Of course there was a bit of worry but, thank God, I coped well with everything I had to do,  I knew I had to be calm, I had to do it all for the team. ... I've never seen anything like the atmosphere out there today.  Thre wasn't any silence for a single second.  That kind of support made me so happy."  She added, " My coach told me to try to listen to the music all the way through, and after the jumps it was so loud, but thank God I could hear a bit.  And I could hear all the shouts of 'Julia' and 'Russia' and they really helped me.

Japan's Mao Asada led off with triple Axel which was downgraded, and on which she fell.  She followed with a clean triple flip, and later int he program landed triple loop - double loop.  It was a nicely interpreted routing that was scored in the eights for components and earned her a third place finish.

Last to skate was Carolina Kostner, who gave a mature, lovely performance to Schubert's "Ave Maria."  It was a classy routine that was well executed.  She scored 2.06 points behind Lipnitskaya, but earned the highest Program Component score of the ladies.  Kostner's strong result pulled team Italy up into the top five to make the final round.

Following a break to conduct the draw and prepare for the start pof the fina round, the evening's competition continued with the first segment of the final round, the Pairs Free Skate.  Teams are allowed to make substitutions in the final round segments, and both Russia and Canada chose to make substitutions in the Pairs Free Skate.

In the first warm-up group of two teams, Americans Marissa Castelli & Simon Shnapir  Their James Bond themed program was skated moderately well, and included an attempt a throw quad Salchow.  Castelli stepped out of the landing.  Later on the routine she also fell on a triple Salchow solo jump.  Their skating is much improved since last season, reflected in higher program component marks this season, but the team is still a work in progress and not in the same league as the big kids.  The U.S. had closed to within five points of the Canadians in the standings after the short programs, but after the Pairs Free Skate, their fourth place finish, put the U.S. seven points behind the Canadians, probably putting the silver medal beyond the reach of the Americans.

In the second warm-up group, the Italian team of Stefania Berton & Ondreij Hotarek gave a darkly interpreted performance to music from "Dracula."  The teams twist lift was level 1 and marginally executed, and Berton fell on a solo triple Salchow.  The Team Italy ended the night in fourth place, three points behind the Americans.

Canadians Moore-Towers & Moscovitch skated a nearly clean program, the only significant error Moor-Towers putting hands down and stepping gout of solo triple Salchow.  It was a technically strong performance and also received component marks in the low eights, tough we found the routine boring and largely skating to background music.

The clearly strongest performance of the night was turned in by Russians Stolbova & Klimov.  They had only one error where Stolbova stepped out of a triple toe loop, then singled a planned double toe loop that was downgraded, but finally landed the third jump of the combination, a double toe loop.  Their performance was otherwise well skated with solid performance skills.

Afterwards Klimov said, "We had a lot of emotions but we had to make sure we kept ourselves calm and collected because we knew the task we had ahead of us in the free program.  We felt physically, emotionally and psychologically ready."  He added, " We are so proud to be in first place.  We are proud of Russia, or our team, and we wish all our skaters luck."

Team Russia ended the night 6 points ahead of Team Canada, and seems unstoppable for the gold medal in the team event.  The team event concludes Sunday evening with the skating of the reaming free skate / dance segments.