(13 December 2014)  The senior pairs were first of the four senior categories to compete their free program at the Grand Prix Final in Barcelona. The trend is clear: Four of the six pairs have included at least one quad element into their free program. And off the record, the Chinese skater Con Han had said during the Trophée Bompard in November that they could perform three quad elements if their coaches decide it is necessary. He did not say that especially the knee of the girl has to sustain an enormous pressure for training so many quads.

Meagan Duhamel & Eric Radford from Canada won the gold medal with 220.72 points. They were one of the pairs with a quad element, in their case a throw quad Salchow which they learnt only this summer. Their coaches had been reluctant to teach it in the Olympic season because they feared injuries. But this summer especially Duhamel could convince Richard Gauthier and Bruno Marcotte to go ahead. It took them only three months to learn it. “We had to relearn the throw triple Salchow first”, Duhamel explained, “because it was not in our repertoire any more. We made more difficult triple throws.” In Barcelona, she landed it correctly and got GOEs between 0 and +2. After a good triple twist, their only real mistake in the free program came when she touched down with both hands on the side by side triple Lutz. Eight of the nine judges decided to press the -2 button. Six elements got a level 4, their triple throw Lutz and the three lifts were very good as well. Their interpretation of songs of the British pop group “Muse” was good.

Radford commented: “We knew the Russians would have a great score and that we would have to do the best we can. We’ve had to come in and skate after a great performance before and we’ve done it before and we did it again.” Duhamel added: “I always try to visualize the performance beforehand and I think I’ll stay calm but after that throw triple Lutz I just wanted to jump out of my skin but I knew we had another big element coming up and I had to hold it together. We struggled with our long program last year but with the long program this year we’ve always felt very comfortable.  I think we are also very proud to have a personal best score, not just a season’s but a personal best for our long program.

Concerning quad elements, Radford said: “Maybe we’d look to add another throw quad - it would be really ambitious to have two in the program but we would be capable of it. We’re capable of a throw quad Lutz but we have to weigh up the risk of doing one in competition with breaking a leg or something.”

Ksenia Stolbova & Fedor Klimov from the Moscow pair skating school of Nina Mozer, second at the Olympic Games in Sochi and second at the World Championships 2014 in Japan, earned 213.72 overall points and won the silver medal. They interpreted the French musical “Notre Dame de Paris” by Richard Cocciante. At the Cup of Russia they had chosen a version with English vocals. At their second Grand Prix in France they used the original French version. When they got home they (or some musicians from their camp) found a Spanish version, had to recut it a bit and used it in Barcelona. Now they are looking for a Swedish version for the European Championships in Stockholm. And what about a Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese) version? “At the moment we still haven’t found a Chinese version, but we are still trying and might use it for Worlds”, Klimov explained.

Eleven of their twelve elements were excellent, especially the two triple throws. Their triple throw Salchow at the very end of the program was outstanding (seven times +3). Their only mistake was during the sequence of three toe loops when Stolbova did triple-single-double and Klimov triple-double-double. One judge gave a 10.0 for performance (which was a bit too much), but the average of the components were around 9.0. Klimov said: “There was a mistake but all our emotions felt good. We wanted to show more emotions in our skate this season and I hope we did that. I wouldn’t say it is much harder here at the final than at a Grand Prix. I also remember competing here as a junior alongside the seniors and we got to watch them and have fun. The atmosphere is like that here too. It doesn´t differ a lot from the heats.”

Wenjing Sui & Cong Han from China won the bronze medal with 194.31points, although they had only the fifth best free program. Their quad twist was good, but in their second element Sui did only a single plus a double toe loop instead of a planned triple-double-double sequence. Han said: “I am very sad about our skate. We lost a lot of points. I think it was because we went too fast into the jumps.” But later he added: “First of all we are so happy to be at this competition, although we made some mistakes.”

Cheng Peng & Hao Zhang finished fourth after earning 191.79 points. Their quad twist at the beginning was very good, but Peng singled and two-footed the axel which was planned double. The other elements were at least good, the triple throw loop huge and the lifts looked easy. Later Zhang said: “We are happy with our skate because we performed just like we do in practice. But of course we want to improve our performance so that we can do our very best at the World Championships, which will be in Shanghai, in our country.”

The third Chinese & Xiaoyu YU and Yang Jin ended up on fifth position with 187.79 points. They are relatively new and have an elegant style, but their emotions were a bit weaker. The lifts and the technically difficult triple twist were their best elements, but Yu touched down on the throw triple flip and two footed it. “Overall we were able to skate like we do in practice, but there was a mistake”, Yu explained. “Maybe I was a bit nervous on the flip. After all we are competing in our first Grand Prix Final at the senior level and this is a very important competition.”

Yuko Kavaguti & Alexander Smirnov from Russia skated much better than during their short program. They made no serious mistake and had the fourth best free program. But they could not move up any spot and kept their sixth place, winning 184.54 overall points. Interpreting the heavy Manfred Symphony by Peter Tchaikovsky, their sequence of two triple toe loops was in good harmony and the lifts were excellent. Kavaguti touched down a bit on the throw quad Salchow, and their triple twist was shaky. Kavaguti commented: “I am pleased with my performance today, I felt like I could skate like I usually do. I enjoyed it because you never know when it will be the last time we will skate together.” Smirnov added: “We will go away and analyze the mistakes because the score was not as high as we would like.”

They had a day off between their short and their long program and Smirnov also spoke about this fact: “It was quite hard to regroup after our skate. Yuko rested a lot because she was extremely disappointed. I went out because I wanted to look for New Year´s trees. Sport is sport and at the moment we are skating for the joy of skating, not to win.”