Pairs

Final Results

Short Program

Russia's Elena Berezhnaya & Anton Sikhuralidze took the lead in the short program on their home turf. The two-time World Champions completed a clean program at high speed to the Russian folk song "Meadowlands".  The team landed side-by-side triple toe loops, a triple throw loop and impressed with beautiful lines and spirals, scoring marks up to 5.9 for required elements and for presentation.  The current World silver medalists from China, Xue Shen & Hongbo Zhao, also produced a clean program to "Allegretto".  They completed excellent side-by-side triple toe loops and a high double twist, but the landing of the triple throw loop looked shaky.   "We feel really good about that performance", Zhao said.  Third in the short program were Poland's Dorota Zagorska &  Mariusz Siudek.  The husband and wife team pulled off a clean program with side-by-side triple toe loops, a throw triple Salchow and a difficult overhead lift.

Free Skating

The pairs in the long program delivered an interesting and high level competition.   First in the last flight, were the European Silver medalists from Poland, Dorota Zagorska & Mariusz Siudek. They delivered a strong performance to music from the Polish motion picture "Pan Tadeusz".  The husband and wife team completed side-by-side triple toe loops, side-by-side double Axels, a triple twist, a high double Axel, as well as difficult lifts. Only the triple throw Salchow had a lean in the air.   "We are very happy. We had a very bad short program at Skate Canada - Dorota fell twice. That never had happened to us before, and so we were very nervous here.   We wanted to prove that we can do much better", explained Siudek. By the end of the night their result held up for the bronze medal.

Xue Shen & Hongbo Zhao of China were next to skate and were determined to give their best, which they did. The two-time World silver medalists pulled off side-by-side double Axels with steps into triple toe loops, a second set of triple toe loops, a huge triple twist and throw triple loop. Their lifts, however, were not the most difficult.   Their performance to the Violin concerto "Spirit of Spring" by Chinese composer Du Mingxin, received high technical marks up to 5.9 and marks up to 5.8 for presentation, leaving some room for the last couple to skate.

Shen & Zhao stayed in the Kiss and Cry area to watch their competitors Elena Berezhnaya & Anton Sikhuralidze (RUS) skate.  The two-time World Champions opened their entertaining "Charlie Chaplin" program with side-by-side triple toe loops and a double Axel - double toe loop sequence. Berezhnaya had a shaky landing on throw triple Salchow and throw triple loop, but their triple twist was fine.  The program contained many innovative and interesting moves as well as spectacular lifts.  While the technical marks for the Russian pair were about the same as for Shen & Zhao, the presentation marks gave the Russians the edge over their main competitors.   Berezhnaya & Sikhuralidze scored 5.9s from all seven judges and were placed first by all of them.  "I didn't really think at first that this program would work", said Sikhuralidze.  "It is difficult to combine all the technical elements with funny moves.  But our choreographer Igor Bobrin managed it.   "When asked what they need to do in order to beat Berezhnaya & Sikhuralidze, Zhao answered,  "We have to work more on our presentation and on the flow of our program."

U.S. Champions Kyoko Ina & John Zimmerman put in a strong free skate to "Variations on a Theme of Paganini" by Andrew Lloyd Webber and surged from a seventh place finish after the short program to fourth overall.

All three medalists had chosen Cup of Russia as their second scoring event.   Berezhnaya & Sikhuralidze are currently second in the overall Grand Prix standings (21 points) and are qualified for the Final.  Shen & Zhao have 18 points, which should also be enough to qualify.  Zagorska & Siudek collected 12 points and will have to wait and find out if they have qualified.

Return to title page