I must confess that I paid quite a bit more attention to the
ladies than the pairs at Cup of China. OK, let’s keep it 100—that’s probably
true at every event. But it was especially true at CoC, if only because there
were no US
pairs competing.
There were still some very cool, NOTEWORTHY things happening
with pairs, though...
+ Kavaguti/Smirnov... I must admit, they never
cease to amaze me. Like ice dancers Cappellini/Lanotte, this is their 10th
GP season together. Unlike C/L (who have placed all over the map), Kav/Smir have medaled at every GP event at which
they’ve competed—save for the Finals—since 2006. Think about that.
Unfortunately, the best they’ve ever been able to place by season’s end (at
Worlds) was 3rd, and those times were several years back. Smirnov is
31; Kavaguti will turn 34 in about a week. Like Pang/Tong (who I think have finally retired for good),
they are trekking well past the average expiration date at this point in their
careers. But here’s the thing: Pang/Tong—or, more accurately, Pang—was not
completing, let alone attempting, quad throws in her 30s. In admittedly
oversimplified terms, that makes Yuka Kavaguti either a crazy woman or a
badass.
I’m
gonna go with badass. And in saying that, I take back anything I might have said on Twitter reminding us how
soon she’d be AARP-eligible in the US .
+ The Kava/Smir win kept home faves Sui/Han from a
second consecutive victory this season (though like Chock/Bates, they’re still
an early entrant in the GP Final). They, too, have a throw quad—the salchow—but
appear to be saving it for later in the season. That strategy may have worked
against them here, but then again, Sui/Han are the current World Silver
Medalists. They’re clearly doing something right. And as it happened, they lost
by less than one point... and one point was deducted from their FS score due to
a time violation. So make of that what you will.
+ So if Sui/Han are poising themselves for
Shen/Zhao-like domination... and the role previously occupied by Zhang/Zhang is
now played by... um... Cheng/Zhang (who make their GP season debut this coming
weekend)... who are the “new” Pang/Tong for Chinese pairs? Yu/Jin, with their
balletic qualities, seem to fit that bill. Though they were a distant 3rd
this year, they’ve done as well as 2nd at CoC. And since they’ve
been on and off the GP circuit since 2011, they’re already building up some P/T
longevity...
NOTEWORTHY LADIES
+ USA ’s
Hannah Miller (in 10th) and China ’s Li Zijun (in 9th) were something of a study in contrasts. Miller, 19
and making her GP debut, looked unhappy as soon as her FS ended... though to me
it was a pretty good, to-be-expected kind of outing. Li, 18 and now in her 4th
GP season, seemed fairly pleased with what she’d done... yet that FS (to The Artist) had sparkle factor that
never seemed to kick in, and the 5th place she’d earned in the SP
went down the drain.
+ The Russian Report: Elena Radionova took bronze
here—by a paltry .12 over teammate Anna Pogorilaya—and she did so with a Titanic soundtrack FS that,
unfortunately, checked all the wrong boxes for me. Repetitive, middling tempo? Check. Redundant melody that we’re all a
little too familiar with? Check. Lots
of overemoting on Miss Rad’s part? Check.
Annoying voiceovers throughout the program that bring the infamous Ghost free dance back to mind? Oh, no,
where’s that pen... check check check.
I DID think her FS dress was a vast improvement on last year’s bead-heavy blue
thing, so hooray for that.
What
about Miss Pogo (who is taking on Scheherazade for her FS this year at the tender
age of 17)? I actually liked her overall skating and presence much more than previous years. But as soon as I’d be
thinking that for more than 30 seconds, she
let loose with one of those horrifically hard falls that spoiled the effect. We’ll see her get another shot
at the podium when NHK Trophy rolls around in 2 weeks; Radionova will be back in the hunt next week at
Rostelecom Cup.
+ USA ’s
Karen Chen and Courtney Hicks finished down in 5th and 6th
respectively, though Hicks made things interesting with the 3rd best
SP of the event. What happened during her FS to plummet her from podium status?
You can call it nerves if you like. Me, I’m blaming the dress. I presume she
was going for something to reflect her music (to Elizabeth: The Golden Age), but all I saw was something reminiscent
of Dijon mustard that didn’t compliment her skin tone at all. What did YOU
think of it? Or maybe the better question is, what color would you put her in
for this program?
+ Finally, the Japanese headliner became the
Japanese headliners (plural) after
that free skate! Thank goodness Mao Asada nailed that FS triple axel with even
more strength and flow than usual—she wouldn’t have eked out a victory without
it. But if there was an upset to be had, Rika Hongo would have deserved the
win. Fierce, that one is, digging in and proving that last year’s surprise
Rostelecom victory was no fluke. She may not be the most elegant athlete on the
Japanese roster—not yet at least; she’s only 19—but she’s a competitor through
and through who skates with a lot of joy and heart. “Reel Around the Sun”
(a.k.a Riverdance) is a great vehicle for her strengths. I
smell a breakout season ahead.
Gotta go make some Bompard predictions next...!
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