The Grand Prix Final took place in Marseille, France, between the 8th and 11th of December, marking the end of the first half of the season. Relevant names like Weaver/Poje and Cappellini/Lanotte did not make the top six, so making it was already a huge accomplishment for couples like Hubbell/Donohue and Bobrova/Soloviev. However, everyone was in it to get the best placement possible, building momentum for the upcoming competitions.
Predictions ranged from Canadians Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir and French Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron for the gold, with the two American teams of Maia Shibutani/Alex Shibutani and Madison Chock/Evan Bates to be capable of challenging these two teams if they faltered. The results were the following:
0 Comments
Between the 25th and 27th of November, the last event of the Grand Prix Series, the NHK Trophy, took place in Sapporo, Japan. This was a highly anticipated event by ice dance fans, as it would be the first time the World Champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, of France, would face the reigning Olympic Silver Medalists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, of Canada. The outcome of this competition will likely shape the rest of the season, so much attention had been given to it. Furthermore, Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte, of Italy, the 2014 World Champions, were present to try and shake things up. The final outcome was the following: 4. Kaitlin Hawayek/Jean-Luc Baker (USA) – Total of 169.75 points
5. Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov (Russia) – Total of 169.62 points 6. Marie-Jade Lauriault/Romain Le Gac (France) – Total of 149.99 points 7. Natalia Kaliszek/Maksym Spodyriev (Poland) – Total of 147.93 points 8. Anastasia Cannuscio/Colin McManus (USA) – Total of 139.47 points 9. Emi Hirai/Marien De La Asuncion (Japan) – Total of 120.35 points Kana Muramoto and Chris Reed (Japan) withdrew from the competition. In the penultimate event of the Grand Prix Series, the couples taking place in the Final are beginning to secure their spots. In this competition, two teams were looking to do so: Canadians Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje and Americans Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani. Weaver and Poje needed a first place finish (due to their third place at Rostelecom), which provided an interesting competition among the top two teams here. On the other hand, there was the debut of Sinitsina/Katsalapov of Russia, who certainly wanted to outshine fellow Russians Stepanova/Bukin and, possibly, have great performance to have a shot at being in the final. The final results were the following: 4. Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov (Russia) – Total of 171.94 points
5. Natalia Kaliszek/Maksym Spodyriev (Poland) – Total of 150.78 points 6. Shiyue Wang/Xinyu Liu (China) – Total of 149.8 points 7. Anastasia Cannuscio/Colin McManus (USA) – Total of 141.17 points 8. Linshu Song/Zhuoming Sun (China) – Total of 130.9 points 9. Hong Chen/Yan Zhao (China) – Total of 117.32 points Alexandra Paul and Mitchell Islam (Canada) withdrew before the beginning of the short dance. Between the 10th and 13th of November, all eyes were in France for the Trophee de France. In this event, the reigning European and World Champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron were performing their programs internationally for the first time (they competed at the French Masters but due to the low quality of the videos that surfaced after the competition, I am considering this to be the first time most people are going to see them). While they were expected to win the gold, the podium was not fully predetermined at the start, with three other teams aiming at achieving the best place possible: Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier (that after a great performance at Skate Canada, were expected to win silver), Americans Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue and Russians Elena Ilinykh and Ruslan Zhiganshin. Here is the outcome of the competition: 4. Elena Ilinykh/Ruslan Zhiganshin (Russia) – Total of 167.4 points
5. Isabella Tobias/Ilia Tkachenko (Israel) – Total of 158.86 points 6. Marie-Jade Lauriault/Romain Le Gac (France) – Total of 150.07 points 7. Alexandra Nazarova/Maxim Nikitin (Ukraine) – Total of 145.39 points 8. Cortney Mansour/Michal Ceska (Czech Republic) – Total of 140.92 points 9. Lorenza Alessandrini/Pierre Souquet (France) – Total of 130.12 points 10. Viktoria Kavaliova/Yurii Bieliaiev (Belarus) – Total of 115.04 points Last week, the Rostelecom Cup was held in Russia. On what concerned ice dance, everyone knew who was going to be on the podium. The major question was what would be the order of the top teams. After the momentum built on Skate Canada in the previous week, Chock/Bates of the United States were the favourites here. However, some mistakes prevented them from getting the gold medal. Here are the results: 4. Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri (Italy) - Total of 170.45 points
5. Tiffany Zahorski/Jonathan Guerreiro (Russia) - Total of 156.95 points 6. Elliana Pogrebinsky/Alex Benoit (USA) - Total of 153.92 points 7. Laurence Fournier Beaudry/Nikolaj Sorensen (Denmark) - Total of 152.52 points 8. Alisa Agafonova/Alper Ucar (Turkey) - Total of 143.90 points 9. Sofia Evdokimova/Egor Bazin (Russia) - Total of 133.37 points 10. Viktoria Kavaliova/Yurii Bieliaiev (Belarus) - Total of 129.5510 points Even though this blog’s focus is on ice dance, there are three other events in figure skating that I can’t leave unnoticed. As a result, every time I consider relevant, I will be making highlights from the ladies, pairs and men events. Here is the one concerning the Progressive Skate America. First of all, let’s start with the best short program of the ladies event. Maybe most of people associate figure skating with classical music. Well, that is not always true, and Ashley Wagner proves that with this program. It is so fresh compared to all the classic tunes and she interprets it so well, which led me to give it the attention it deserves. It is true that the program was not technically perfect (the judges did see that the second jump of the opening combination was underrotated and all her spins and set sequence were given a level 3 instead of the highest, level 4), but she does draw you in the performance.
The surprise performance of this event and, for me, the one I think of when anyone mentions Skate America this season, was the free program of Mariah Bell. She won it, ending up moving from sixth to second place, edging relevant names like Mao Asada, Gracie Gold and newcomer Mai Mihara. In one word, gorgeous, and I would also add delicate. This is a program that I will certainly re-watch several times. She has tremendous potential to make the American World team if she manages to keep up this quality. Moving on to the men’s event, there is little to say about Shoma Uno. He did great and is setting himself up to be a World Medalist after his disappointing seventh place at the last Worlds. Things are looking good for that purpose. I just leave here both his short and free programs, which are a must-watch.
Last but not least, the largest surprise on what concerned the gold medalists here. Maybe it was not such a large surprise if you had watched Seguin and Bilodeau last season. However, this free program was beautiful and clean, which is really hard to accomplish in pairs, particularly if you are relatively new to the senior scene. These two are just amazing to watch and they will likely have a great future ahead of them. This week we have the first event of the senior Grand Prix: the Progressive Skate America. Here are the participants, and a little to know about them: SD: That's life from Frank Sinatra; Jay Z FD: TBA SD: Feeling Good by Nina Simone; Hip Hop Medley FD: I Wanna Dance with Somebody by Bootstrap; Can't Help Falling in Love by Ingrid Michaelson; Earned it by Bootstrap SD: Trouble by Elvis Presley FD: Sadko by Nikolai Rimski-Korsakov; The Feeling Begins by Peter Gabriel SD: Mercy On Me by Christina Aguilera; Sing Sing Sing by Louis Prima FD: Prelude No. 20 by Frederic Chopin; The Four Seasons by Nigel Kennedy SD: Big Bad Love by Ray Charles, Diana Ross; Sing Sing Sing by Louis Prima FD: Slumdog Millionaire (soundtrack); Ang Laga De by Aditi Paul SD: There Are Worse Things I Could Do; Grease Lightning FD: From the "Nutcracker" by Petr I. Tchaikovski: Pas de deux; Waltz of the Flower SD: By the Weekend - Real Life; Can't Feel My Face FD: Pas de deux from "The Nutcracker" by Petr I. Tchaikovski SD: By Ray Charles - The Sun's Gonna Shine Again; I've Got a Woman; Mess Around FD: By Vincente Amigo - Poeta en el Puerto; Amor Dulce Muerte; Nada Puede Dormir; Poeta en el Viento SD: Why Don't You Do Right by Amy Irving; Straight To Number One by Touch & Go FD: Near Light by Olafur Arnalds; Beethoven's Five Secrets by The Piano Guys; Sand by Nathan Lanier SD: Your Heart is as Black as Night; I Am the Bet x Bang Bang Bang by 2NE1 & Big Bang FD: Cinema Paradiso soundtrack by Ennio Morricone (voice of Dulce Pontes) News from First PracticeFinally we had a first look at Maia and Alex Shibutani's Short Dance. Here are some clips and photos:
The mystery also applied to Elena Ilinykh and Ruslan Zhiganshin. Here are also some photos and a video:
We were also able to see Bobrova/Soloviev: |
Categories
All
|