Pairs

Final Results

short program

Jamie Sale & David Pelletier of Canada took the lead in the Pairs event. The reigning Four Continents Champions skated a clean program to "Come Rain, Come Shine" from the "Forget Paris" soundtrack.  They landed side-by-side triple toe loops and a perfect throw triple loop.  Sale just skidded a bit on the triple toe loop.  The Canadians scored marks up to 5.9 for presentation.   "We both felt a little stiff, a bit shaky", admitted Sale.  "In general we skated better than last time at Skate Canada.  We changed the choreography a bit and we are pleased with how that went."

Two-time World Champions Elena Berezhnaya & Anton Sikhuralidze (RUS) had to skate first of all couples and finished second in the short program.  Sikhuralidze doubled his jump in their side-by-side triple toe loops, but the pair completed the rest of their "Meadowlands" (Russian Folk music) program without any further mistakes.   Their double twist was high, and their throw triple loop beautiful.

Kyoko Ina & John Zimmerman (USA) skated their first clean short program of this season and placed third.  The U.S. Champions pulled off side-by-side triple toe loops, a throw triple Salchow and had original positions in their spiral sequence. "We just needed to do that for ourselves", commented a happy Ina.   "Finally we were able to prove what we can do in practice.  We do it every day in practice,, but we had trouble in competition."

World bronze medalists Sarah Abitbol& Stephane Bernadis (FRA) were fourth, with Bernadis falling on his triple toe loop. "We do everything in practice, and then he just fell", sighed Abitbol.

The European Silver medalists from Poland, Dorota Zagorska & Mariusz Siudek, placed fifth in the short program. Zagorska missed her triple toe loop for the main error in their program.

Free Skating

Sarah Abitbol & Stéphane Bernadis (FRA) were first to skate in the second to last flight.  The World bronze medalists were fourth after the short program and wanted to pull up to reach the podium.  They opened their version of "Tristan and Isolde" (music by Maxim Rodriguez) with side-by-side triple toe loops.  Their hopes to medal shattered, however, when Bernadis stepped out of the Axel in the double Axel - step - double toe loop sequence.  Later in the program, Abitbol two-footed the throw triple loop.  The couple impressed with difficult lifts, but overall their performance was not as polished as it had been at the Sparkassen Cup in Germany two weeks ago.  This time, they had to settle for fourth place.

Dorota Zagorska & Mariusz Siudek of Poland landed side-by-side triple toe loops and a double Axel-steps-double toe loop sequence, but Zagorska touched down on throw triple Salchow.  The husband and wife team remained fifth.

Short program leaders Jamie Sale & David Pelletier of Canada opened the final warm-up group. The Four Continents Champions landed a beautiful throw triple loop at the beginning of their emotional "Tristan and Isolde" by Richard Wagner (arranged by Franz Waxman), but then they seemed to loose confidence.  Sale stumbled on side-by-side triple toe loop and touched down with both hands on double Axel.  The throw  triple Salchow was fine, but overall the Canadians did not seem "on".  Their marks went up to 5.8 for technique and up to 5.9 for presentation, and they had to wait and see if that would be enough to win.

Right after them, two-time World Champions Elena Berezhnaya & Anton Sikhuralidze took to the ice.  The Russians had to overcome a shaky start in which Berezhnaya had a wobbly landing on side-by-side triple toe loop and Sikhuralidze caught her too late on the triple twist.  They recovered and produced a side-by-side double Axel - steps - double toe loop sequence, an impressive throw triple loop and strong lifts, but Berezhnaya put her hand down on the ice on the throw triple Salchow towards the end of their "Charlie Chaplin" routine.  Nevertheless, the Russian Champions managed to combine the funny and entertaining choreography of their program with difficult elements.   It was a close decision, with four judges giving Berezhnaya & Sikhuralidze first place ordinals while three put Sale & Pelletier first.  With this, the Russian team won their second Grand Prix competition and beat the Canadians, who had placed ahead of them at Skate Canada.  "We could have been better. We did a few mistakes", said Pelletier.  "Overall I cannot complain, we had a good result."   Sikhuralidze, naturally. was happy with how the competition went for them, although they did not feel that they skated their best. "It has been a difficult competition for us, because we just came from Cup of Russia.  There, we had two great programs we put everything in there, all emotions.  Here, I felt empty", he admitted.

Kyoko Ina & Johns Zimmerman (USA) skated last.  They put together a good performance that included side-by-side triple toe loops and double Axels, a triple twist and nice connecting moves.  Ina touched down on the two triple throws - loop and Salchow.  The judges were divided between the U.S. Champions and Abitbol & Bernadis, but the Americans came out on top.  They claimed the bronze medal, their first one of this season's Grand Prix series.  "We only had a half good program at Cup of Russia, but we had a pretty decent performance here", commented Ina.

Trophée Lalique was a non-scoring event for Berezhnaya & Sikhuralidze, Sale & Pelletier and Abitbol & Bernadis.  The Canadians are leading the overall standings with 24 points after their two wins at Skate America and Skate Canada, the Russians are second with 21 points.  Abitbol & Bernadis currently have 12 points from their win at Sparkassen Cup and aim to secure their spot in the Final next week at the NHK Trophy in Japan.  Ina & Zimmerman collected 7 points in Paris and now have 12 points overall, which will most likely not be enough for them to make the Final.

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