A few final, fleeting observations from last week’s 4CCs before I start trolling for new things to discuss this month…
+ I have seen the near future in ice dance, and the future is a battle for World Bronze. Unless the double D/S’s (Delobel/Schoenfelder and Domnina/Shabalin) have to back out of Worlds due to injury… in which case it could be a battle for a medal of even higher value. Virtue/Moir and Davis/White may have had very different seasons thus far—the former have barely had a season to speak of; the latter have had a long, steady ascent—but if 4CC’s proved anything last week, it proved that these two teams are extremely well-matched right about now. Barely half a point separated them in the end! And while it might be considered unfair to claim them as virtually equal when there was a small bobble on V/M’s opening spin, I’m thinking in the simple terms that a bobble like that can happen anywhere, anytime. Next time it could be D/W just as easily. But in any case, I think I’ll be more interested in what these two teams do than what any of the so-called “top contenders”might pull out of their impeccable hats.
+ And just a couple quick comments about the Free Dances of 4CCs #3 and 4 finishers: Samuelson/Bates are in dire need of less monotonous music… and Crone/Poirier are in dire need of the little push that could consistently take their program from the slightly tedious to the truly remarkable. It will be interesting to see what both teams come up with next year.
+ Also of interest: something I’m starting to think should be called the Great Chinese Change-up. For not only have Pang/Tong supplanted Zhang/Zhang as the top team in China this year, but they’re really starting to trounce them soundly. This time they beat them by 20 points! And with a year to go, I’ve got to say P/T found a great time to make a move.
+ As for Canada’s top pairs… I still find myself liking and appreciating Duhamel/Buntin the most; they posess speed and power similar to the U.S.’s McBru… but their consistency can’t yet match Dube/Davison. At least, not yet.
+ Singles winners Patrick Chan and Yu-Na Kim are off the freakin’ charts with their excellence these days, there’s no disputing that… so why is it that I find myself rooting for Takahiko Kozuka and Joannie Rochette instead in a competition like this? Especially when I’d never heard of Kozuka before this season, and never believed much in Rochette in all the years I HAD heard of her… ah, well, maybe I answered my own question there.
The Clip of the Day showcases Kozuka’s exhibition program, a charming number set to Michael Buble’s version of Save the Last Dance For Me.
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