2015 Trophee Eric Bompard (such as it was) in Review

So what did YOU do over the weekend with your P.A.S.T. (Previously Allotted Skating Time), once you realized that Trophee Eric Bompard would not continue due to last Friday’s terrorist attacks on Paris?

Here’s what I did (in no particular order):

+ Ate a bowl of mini-wheats. Because breakfast.

+ Checked news sources to make sure no further attacks had happened in Paris since Friday evening.

+ Took my daughter to Nutcracker rehearsal at her dance studio. (She’s a soldier in Act 1 and an Arabian coffee merchant—that slow, slinky music that Peng/Zhang used for their SP last season—in Act 2.)

+ Prayed for the people of Paris... and other countries, as we came to learn of multiple weekend attacks... and was especially grateful that TEB has not taken place in the City of Lights for the past couple of years.

+ Cut back about two-thirds of the growth in my gardens, in preparation for winter. (I should’ve had most of this done already; of course, I place the blame squarely on Cup of China, Skate America, Skate Canada...)

+Thought about catching up on some of the writing work I did NOT get done during TEB short programs on Friday. Put off doing anything about it until late Saturday afternoon. Consequentially didn’t get enough done to feel satisfied.

+ Picked up my son from school once they’d learned for sure that his marching band had missed the cut for Band of America finals. (They’d performed at semi-finals earlier in the day. He came home very tired. And hungry. And probably ate the rest of the mini-wheats.)

+ Tried to put my aforementioned daughter’s mind at some sort of ease regarding what happened in Paris. Was probably more successful with the unsatisfying work catch-up.

Yet here we are again on the Thursday before a GP event. TEB was cancelled, and as of this moment we don’t yet know what the ISU has decided about GP scoring in TEB’s wake. But there were certainly an abundance of noteworthy short programs skated in Bordeaux on Friday the 13^th, and I need to get to them before Rostelecom Cup (of Russia) looms any closer! So... I kept it short and sweet; three words each for nearly 3 minutes of skating. Top five finishers in singles; top 4 in pairs/dance.

One caveat—if you didn’t see these programs yet you may not get what I’m saying about some of them. Here we go...

NOTEWORTHY LADIES

1^st—Gracie Gold (USA)—Sharp. Sassy. Fantastic!

2^nd—Julia Lipnitskaia (RUS)—Dress! Better! Panda!

3^rd—Roberta Rodeghiero (ITA)—Surprise! 3^rd! (Who?)

4^th—Kanako Murakami (JPN)—Popped axel. Gah!

5^th—Elizaveta Tuktamysheva (RUS)—Oh no! Again??

NOTEWORTHY MEN

1^st—Shoma Uno—God, he’s good.

2^nd—Maxim Kovtun (RUS)—He can’t dance. (Hey, the song said it, not me.)

3^rd—Daisuke Murakami (JPN)—Quad salchow. BOOM.

4^th—Denis Ten (KAZ)—Injured. Please rest.

5^th—Patrick Chan (CAN)—Pop! Goes (the) combo.

NOTEWORTHY PAIRS

1^st—Volosohzar/Trankov (RUS)—No explanation necessary.

2^nd—James/Cipres (FRA)—Second! Hooray! Unexpected!

3^rd—Seguin/Bilodeau (CAN)—So. Dang. Adorable.

4^th—Cheng/Zhang (CHN)—Father-Daughter Dance?

NOTEWORTHY DANCE

1^st-- Hubbell/Donohue (USA) – Glory glory Hallelujah!

2^nd-- Gilles/Poirier (CAN)—Ahh! My eyes! (Bright Sgt. Pepper costume alert)

3^rd—Stepanova/Bukin (RUS)—Sit-spin twizzles!

4^th—Coomes/Buckland (GBR)—Missed them! Much!

NOTE re: Rostelecom Cup... IceNetwork’s original posted schedule was off by one hour. I’ll include a link to the amended schedule when I post my preview/picks later tonight.