I know the final GP event before Finals starts up soon, but here's a look back at the Trophee Eric Bompard results before we head to Moscow...
LADIES:
Gold- Ashley Wagner, USA
Silver- Adelina
Sotnikova, RUS
Bronze- Anna
Pogorilaya, RUS
* Both Russian girls missed the double axel in
their SP, and while that surely helped Wagner gain a six-point lead on them,
her components helped too... though in the case of Sotnikova, not as much as I
thought. Sotnikova in particular gave Wagner a great run for her money, skating
perhaps better than I’ve ever seen in her free skate win.
* What’d you think of Wagner’s new FS “Juliet”
dress? I like this one a lot and prefer it to the old one,which for me was too
close in color to last year’s “Delilah” costume.
* Samantha Cesario, who finished 4th
here, continues to be a force of nature among the U.S.
ladies and absolutely should NOT be counted out of an Olympic spot this season
simply because she finished down in 8th at last year’s Nationals.
Christina Gao, meanwhile, had the kind of free skate you want to forget and
turned up down in 8th place. Her Tweets, however, indicate she’s moving
on quickly towards prepping for Nationals.
MEN:
Gold- Patrick Chan,
CAN
Silver- Yuzuru Hanyu,
JPN
Bronze- Jason Brown, USA
* As at Skate Canada, props go out once again to
Chan. Not just for his sublime-beyond- words, World Record-setting free skate,
but the fact that he skated “lights out” when he didn’t need to (to win). He
now heads into the GP Final as not only the reigning World Champ, but the most
consistent jumper among the top men.
* Hanyu continues to struggle somewhat this
year—to look at his first two (missed) quad jumping passes in the FS was to
figure he was about to skate his way right off the TEB podium—but he pulled it
together after that, and his SP was much better this time around too.
* China’s Han Yan didn’t skate much like he did at
Cup of China—a step out on the combo in the SP; a series of bobbles in the FS
that increased as he ran out of gas—and he proved no match for the top skaters...
* ...One of which turned out to be Jason Brown.
With no quads and a still-inconsistent triple axel (he popped his second one in
the FS), Brown is currently the kind of skater who needs the quad guys to miss
if he’s to be competitive. Yes, he finished ahead of Han in the SP, but had Han
hit his toughest jumps in the longer FS (where more points are accumulated), he
would’ve gone ahead of Brown. That said, Brown LIT. IT. UP. in Paris, continuing to share his brand of Ponytail Power all over the world.
PAIRS:
Gold- Qing Pang/Jian
Tong, CHN
Silver- Meagan
Duhamel/Eric Radford, CAN
Bronze- Caydee
Denney/John Coughlin, USA
How I wish Tong wasn’t struggling with his SBS jumps... the
Thirtysomethings of Olympic-eligible pairs skating were otherwise looking
pretty good (again) over the weekend. And I didn’t realize they’d never won TEB
before, so that victory had to be especially sweet. Duhamel/Radford looked
better here than at SkCan, but of course with the higher risk elements come
bigger knocks when they don’t happen as planned. And speaking of side-by-side
jumps, it appears to still be Bazarova/Larionov’s weakness—if she wasn’t
missing them, he was (or was too worried about her to focus, as Peter
Carruthers might say). In any case, Denney/Coughlin were the ones to medal, and
high time they did this season.
DANCE:
Gold- Tessa
Virtue/Scott Moir, CAN
Silver- Elena
Ilinykh/Nikita Katsalapov, RUS
Bronze- Nathalie
Pechalat/Fabian Bourzat, FRA
There wasn’t as much of a point spread among these three as
you might think... and you may have noticed they weren’t in the order that I,
for one, was expecting. Are I/K on track to be the breakout team of the season?
A theory I posed on Twitter during the FD was that their centerpiece last
season (the Ghost FD, with the wildly
distracting dialogue and drama) held them back from showcasing how much they
were fusing as a team... so perhaps their Swan
Lake looks that much better to us (and the judges) in comparison. Will they
turn out to be yet another viable contender for the Olympic bronze?
In any case, I broke out the technical FD protocols for both
I/K and P/B so you can see who won which individual battle. Levels-wise, both
were getting 4’s on everything except the dance spin (where P/B got a level 3).
I’ve highlighted the higher score on most of the elements.
P/B
STw4 (twizzles) 6.86
SILi4
5.21 (Li= LIFT)
CuLi4 4.93
CuLi4 5.00
RoLi4 4.86
ChLi1 0.86
CiSt3 7.93 (St= STEP SEQUENCE)
DSt3
8.07
Sp3 4.43 (Sp=SPIN)
I/K
STw4
7.29
SlLi4+RoLi4
10.86
SiLi4 4.93
RoLi4
4.93
ChLi1
0.93
CiSt3 7.93
DSt3 7.64
CoSp4
6.00
So this round went to I/K, but it’s P/B that already have a
spot in the GP Final... I/K, with a 4th place finish at NHK, are
most likely to be the 1st alternate depending on what happens at Cup
of Russia this weekend. It starts FRIDAY (at 6AM
Eastern time), so I’ll get my preview/predictions posted later this evening!
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