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Shen & Zhao skated with elegance to "Claire de Lune" by Claude Debussy and this number shows off their artistic strengths. Zhao said through a translator, "This program needs more practice and more times in competition. We only got this program finished one month ago." This team says they are both currently healthy and without injuries. This team began their program with strong side-by-side triple toe loops, although farther apart than their norm, followed by their Axel Lasso lift. "Hearing about the World Champions at Skate America made me a little nervous during out lift tonight," said Zhao. Other highlights in their program include a big throw triple loop and their double twist. Pang & Tong performed to Andrew Lloyd Weber’s "All I Ask of You", also skating a clean program with strong technical skills on the jumps and twist. Their one handed Axel Lasso Lift had multiple position changes that were executed seamlessly. Tong said, "We have focused more on preparing our long program and have worked on the quad Salchow in practice then the short program." Both these Chinese teams are coached by Bin Yao in Bejing China. Canada nabbed the third place and fourth place positions at this competition stage. Valerie Marcoux and Craig Buntin skated a fun number to "Fever, Jump Jive and Wail" that earned them 64.02 points (35.98 TE and 28.04 PC). Marcoux said, "It is a fun number to practice even in the early morning. It almost doesn’t feel like a short program." This team did their throw triple loop as their second to the last element in their program. But according to this duo, the scoring system does not specifically reward hard elements in pairs like it does for single skaters. When asked about helmet use for pair skaters Buntin replied, "It would just give the hockey players another reason to laugh at us." He also said it was his dancing around the rink that made their coach Richard Gauthier want them to skate a program like this in competition. The other Canadian team Anabelle Langlois & Patrice Archetto had one error at the start of their program when she fell on their throw triple loop. They skated the rest of their program well. "It is a new jump for us this year. It felt good in the air, it was just big and I think I over rotated on the landing. I landed it the first time I tried it this summer and it normally goes well and I landed it on the warm-up," said Langlois. Archetto added, "We are always happy to be in the final flight of skaters but a little disappointed that we missed on our throw jump tonight." They train with Jan Ulmark and Archetto said that pair skater Jamie Sale had been saying their throw was too big sometimes in practice. The Polish team of Dorota Zagorska and Marusz Siudek who finished 6th at last year’s world championships, struggled with their short program to "Un Homme Et Son Peche" to place firth here. The American team of Brittany Vise and Nicholas Kole skated in their first senior international here. They had previously competed on the Junior Grand Prix circuit for two events this season finishing fourth at Skate Long Beach and 2nd at Pokal der Blauen. They both put their hands down on their side-by-side triple toe loops and she two-footed the throw triple loop. "We had some problems with nerves on those elements," said Kole. According to their coach they recently added the extra-required 30 minutes to the middle of their long program for senior level competition. The throw triple loop is one of their favorite jumps," said Kole. Their short program was choreographed by Dalilah Sappenfield who co-coaches them with Tom Zakrajsek in Colorado Springs, Colorado. According to Sappenfield, they made a big change in their long program the day before they left for Skate Canada where they moved their 2nd death spiral from the end of the slow section to the beginning of the slow section so they resubmitted their element list upon arrival. |
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Free Skating
Zagorska & Siudek
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Xue Shen & Hongbo Zhao of China won the free skate to win overall. Many of the skaters still think of the Skate America pair accident on the axel lift and Zhao in particular. Zhao said, “The Males all need to be more careful on that lift and protect the girl and protect themselves. Every skater should do that.” There lifts were all solid in this event but she had a slip on the forward inside death spiral in their “The Soong Sisters” soundtrack program that was choreographed by LeAnn Miller, Renee Roca and their coach Bin Yao. This music by Kitaro and Randy Miller is from a Chinese film. This program shows potential but didn’t yet wow as much as last year’s Nutcracker program. This was a non-scoring event for this team so they don’t receive 12 points in the Grand Prix Series. They earned 123.72 for the free skate score. Dorota Zagorska & Maiusz Siudek of Poland placed second in the free skate but they could not make up enough ground to finish ahead of the other Chinese team. Their lifts were spectacular. “I can’t say enough about our coaches they knew just what to say to us after our disaster yesterday. We are very happy with today’s program, “ said Siudek. They now train in Montreal, Canada with Richard Gauthier and Manon Peron. Siudek was disappointed that one of their lifts, the final one was given only a base level value of 4 instead of the expected 5 from technical controller Alexander Lakernik and technical specialist David Kirby. This team earned 7 points for their bronze medal in the Grand Prix series. Their free skate points total was 114.98. Anabelle Langlois & Patrice Archetto of Canada just missed a medal here, finishing 3rd in the free skate but fourth overall behind the second Chinese team. This team now has 5 points in the Grand Prix series standings. They lost points on one lift where according to Archetto, he saw the judges, lost his focus momentarily and missed their timing on position changes. It was costly and they finished in fourth place with their “Un homme et Son Peche” free skate. They scored 110.32 for their free skate. Qing Pang & Jian Tong struggled with several elements to finish fourth in the free skating but second overall. Their strong lead from the short program made the difference with earning their second place medal. Their Alexander Zhulin free skate to “Butterfly Lovers” by Zhanhao He & Gang Chen was shown to an audience for the first time at this competition. “Since this music is about a man and a woman it is better suited to a pair program,” said Tong when asked if he had seen Chen Lu’s performance to this music for her Olympic program. This duo earned 9 points for the Grand Prix standings and earned 107.94 total points for this free skate. Valerie Marcoux & Craig Buntin struggled tonight to drop to fifth place in the free skate, finishing fifth overall. “We opened some doors here but unfortunately we didn’t walk through them.” They had problems with their final lift that didn’t get up and she fell on their side-by-side triple toe loops during their “Moscow Nights” free skate. Earlier in the day they had a scary big triple twist at practice but he saved her from injury with a catch on his knees. “Our timing was off the whole time tonight,” he explained. This team looks towards their future. “This will be just the fire we need to get ready for China, our next competition. He will become better skaters from this experience.” Four points were credited to this team in the Grand Prix series. The Americans Brittany Vise & Nicholas Kole moved up to seventh place overall after finishing in 8th place in both the short and long programs. They moved ahead of the third Canadian team of Pascale Bergeron & Robert Davison. Vise fell on the double Axel with a hard fall during their “Pirates of the Caribbean” free skate but they completed their other elements. “I think I was over thinking that jump too much,” she said. According to Kole they hope to come back to Canada again for World Juniors in Kitchener, Ontario after the U.S. Nationals competition. |
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2004 Skate
Canada Pairs
Medalists
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