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Russian champions Tatiana Totmianina & Maxim Marinin triumphed over two-time World champions Xue Shen & Hongbo Zhao at Skate Canada's pairs' free program by executing more elements - including an additional lift and death spiral - than the Chinese pair. Under the new "Code of Points" judging system, a quick review of the judges' details per skater shows that the Russians gained points with one additional lift, as well as both a back inside death spiral and forward inside death spiral. The extra 5.02 total element points made the difference in the competition and carried the team to victory. Skating to last year's "Cotton Club" program, Totmianina & Marinen hit all of their opening elements strongly, including their side-by-side triple Salchows, triple twist and throw triple loop. Marinen faltered slightly on their triple toe loop, double toe loop combination, causing the jumps to be landed out of sync, but the couple went on to land a solid throw triple Salchow. Their only other major problem occurred on the side-by-side combination spin, when their unison went off slightly. All of their other elements - including three lifts, two death spirals and a closing combination spin - received positive GOE points, and they finished the long program with 126.78 total points, 3.74 more than Shen & Zhao. Their overall point total was 194.02, just 2.22 points above that of their rivals. "It was not perfect, of course, but it was a good program for us," said Marinen. "We are working on a new long program, but it is very difficult, so we are not going to show it until the Russian nationals," added Totmianina. Coach Oleg Vasiliev confirmed that the couple is currently at work with Guisseppe Arena, the creator of their "Cotton Club" program, on a challenging new free. Shen & Zhao debuted their "Nutcracker" free program here, opening with a double Axel, triple toe loop jump sequence that had a base value of 7.8 and received a GOE of 1.2. They followed with their usual huge throw triple Salchow, but on their next element - side-by-side triple toe loops - Zhao landed wildly, resulting in a GOE of -.40. The pair went on to land their trademark soaring triple twist (GOE of 1.12), but toward the end of their program, Zhao's blade appeared to hit Shen's, causing her to fall into the boards. The couple missed their final lift completely, costing them valuable "total element" points. "It was not so good today. This rink where we train is wider, so we made a little mistake," said Zhao through an interpreter. "We also only began to train the program in August, because of SARS. We will work hard for our next competitions." (The epidemic stranded the couple in Harbin, delaying their travel to Beijing to train.) Veteran competitors Dorota Zagorska & Mariusz Siudek claimed third with a free program choreographed to "Warsaw Concerto." The couple opted to complete only side-by-side double toe loops, and she put her hands down on the landing of their throw triple Salchow. They ended with 171.95 total points, far behind the top two teams. "We love living and training in Montreal," said Siudek. "Richard (Gauthier) is a great coach. We are improving our English, we hope, and soon will start learning French." (Zagorska & Siudek, who are married, moved to Canada this spring, seeking more ice time and better training methods.) After placing third in the short, Canadians Anabelle Langlois & Patrice Archetto made numerous errors in their new "Lawrence of Arabia" free, choreographed by Nikolai Morozov. Langlois put her hands down on their opening throw triple Salchow, turned out of her triple toe loop, double toe loop combination, put her hands down on the landing of their throw triple toe loop. (A hard fall in the warm-up may have affected her performance, since the couple skated first in the final group.) On the plus side, their straight-line footwork sequence is dramatic and difficult (Archetto stumbled once), as is their closing "drag" forward inside death spiral. They ended the competition in fourth place with 168.90 total points overall. Langlois & Archetto were fortunate to finish ahead of countrymen Elizabeth Putnam & Sean Wirtz, who had an impressive outing with their "Variations on a Theme by Paganini" program. Skating with a light, lyrical touch and incorporating many unique choreographic details, the couple's most obvious mistake was a rough landing on their opening triple twist. They went on to hit all of their remaining elements, although their triple Salchow, double flip jump sequence had a sloppy landing on Putnam's part. They ended with 168.90 total points overall. Another promising young pair, Julia Obertas & Sergei Slavnov of Russia - who are coached by Tamara Moskvina -- finished sixth with 155.84 total points overall. After opening with excellent side-by-side triple toe loop, double toe loop combination jumps, followed by a big triple twist with excellent split position from Obertas, they had difficulty with their double Axels (Slavnov landed wildly). Recouping quickly, they landed their throw triple flip (base value of 5.0, the same as a throw triple loop) and executed two lovely lifts. Unfortunately, Obertas then suffered a spectacular fall on the landing of their throw triple loop. Although they went on to completely miss another lift, their elegance, fine basic skating skills and excellent positions (as well as her spectacular fall) are highly reminiscent of another of Tamara Moskvina's teams, Olympic champions Elena Berezhnaya & Anton Sikharulidze. Obertas & Slavnov were actually defeated in the free program by another young Canadian pair, Marcoux & Buntin, but had built a point lead in short program, causing the Canadians to finish seventh overall. For their part, Marcoux & Buntin opened their program with a rough triple twist that Marcoux landed on two feet, followed by a strong throw triple loop, side-by-side triple toe loop, double toe loop combinations, a fine helicopter lift with a flip out exit, and a backward inside death spiral with difficult catch foot entrance. The second half of their program dropped off in quality after they fell on their second triple toe loops, stumbled into each other during a step sequence and had an awkward exit from their final lift. Nevertheless, like the two young couples who finished just ahead of them, Marcoux & Buntin show great potential. Yang Ding & Zongfei Rei, 2003 World junior silver medalists, finished eighth with 147.08 points overall. Two U.S. teams - Kathryn Orscher & Garrett Lucash, and Larisa Spielberg & Craig Joeright - finished ninth and tenth respectively, although both improved over their error-plagued performances at Skate America last week. |
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