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Mel's Editorial#20: November 13, 2005Cup of China I tried thinking of some sort of pun relating to cups and China that I could use for a title, perhaps something involving tea, but I'm too tired to be witty. A week later, I think I am still trying to recover from the erratic sleep schedule that live coverage of Cup of China on CCTV5 caused. I'm really not exaggerating when I say that for several days, I was sleeping for about three hours, then getting up and watching the live streaming video from Cup of China, and recording the stream and making clips from it until I had to get up and go to work. It was brutal, but oh, the things I do for skating coverage in a country dependent on ESPN. On to the competition, though...some surprises, eh? Probably the most surprising were the series of the events in the men's discipline. I mean, especially after his meltdown at Skate Canada the week before and the agonizingly long travel between the two competitions, who was honestly expecting Andrei Griazev to be in the lead after the short program? I mean, I'm friends with two of his biggest fans, and even they were bowled over. The opinion that he really didn't deserve to have that lead is becoming increasingly popular, but I disagree with popular opinion...again. Though Chengjiang Li and Stéphane Lambiel both had strong programs, they did have their flaws as well. Besides, the difference between the first three places was less than a point; in today's scoring, they were essentially tied, as evidenced by the movement in the free skate. Lambiel easily climbed a spot to win the silver medal and Griazev slipped just a bit to take the bronze, and in back-to-back comebacks, Emanuel Sandhu delivered a thrilling free program to leap from fourth up to first. Also worth mentioning is the fourth place effort of Ben Ferreira. Though it was a fight, he successfully completed the majority of his jumps, his only major error being the triple toe/single toe combination instead of a planned quad toe/triple toe. I have to admit, I was fairly...and by fairly, I mean extremely...disappointed that he used his "Untouchables" program. Although I loved it two years ago, I have been anxiously waiting to see his new "West Side Story" since I heard about it, maybe four months ago. I'm sort of clinging to some hope that he's just waiting until Nationals to unveil it, but we'll see. After the ulcerfest that was Skate Canada, the pairs competition at Cup of China was fairly low-key for me. In the battle of the P&Ts, Petrova & Tikhonov triumphed over Pang & Tong with performances that were more solid than their efforts at Skate Canada, despite travel difficulties. I have to say that I like their program, but I hope they grow into it a little more, and I think they will. The Fellini characters have good starts, but I'd like to see them carry the characterization throughout the program, rather than just after the difficult elements are behind them. Zagorska & Siudek took bronze, though they did not skate as well as they wanted to in the free program. I do love their short, though, and have since I saw it in August in Pierrefonds. A little bit of their charming side emerges more every year. In their first year solely on the senior Grand Prix, Jessica Dubé & Bryce Davison gave a strong showing, finishing fourth. Their short, in particular, impressed me, especially after a less-than-impressive showing at their season opening in Pierrefonds. Those triple salchows are going to be a powerful weapon when it comes to the Nationals in January. I feel like I gush about them nonstop and everyone is getting really sick of reading it, but Wing & Lowe's bronze medal was the highlight of the entire competition for me. There were some flaws in their free dance, but it was enough to hang onto third place after what was, in my opinion, a fabulous original dance. The dance event had plenty of impressive moments, actually, as I was definitely wowed by Chait & Sakhnovski's dances. Though they're not at top quality yet, there were some moments where I thought they were on par with the world champions. And speaking of the world champions, let's first talk about their original dance. Navka & Kostomarov are a great dance team, hands down. They have their weaknesses, sure, but they have a lot of strengths and there isn't really a team in the world that matches their flow and effortless quality of skating. Their original dance was delivered wonderfully and they fully deserved the win. However, their original dance is not Latin! Receiving nines in interpretation was ludicrous when their dancing lacked the Latin flavour that the other teams try so hard to capture. All of that being said, I quickly lost all hositility towards them (if there was any to begin with) when I saw their free dance. I hate it when skaters use overused music, okay? I absolutely hate it. But when I saw Navka & Kostomarov's "Carmen" free dance, I sort of forgot that it had previously been used by approximately everyone and their brother. I am really looking forward to seeing it develop even further. If anyone can challenge Katarina Witt for the Diva Carmen title, I think it is Tatiana Navka. I'd love to comment on Fraser & Lukanin's third-place free dance, but unfortunately, they were not shown on CCTV5. Here's hoping that ESPN shows them tomorrow! Irina, Irina, Irina. Picture me saying that in a "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha" kind of way. I love Irina Slutskaya as a person - at least, what we see of her personality; I don't know her personally. I like her skating, or at least, I used to. What I do not like are her programs this year and since the introduction of the Bielmann-infused Code of Points. I can't really blame her, though. She found one of her strengths that is rewarded greatly in the Code of Points, so she's going to milk that for all it's worth. It's smart, and if I were her, I would probably do the same thing. Everyone seems to be picking on her and her Bielmann overuse, but really, like she's supposed to sit back and ignore the fact that she knows a surefire way to get her level fours? I think not! But...it doesn't make her programs any less tedious, to be quite honest about the whole thing. She deserved her win, although I thought it was much closer between her and the other medalists, Mao Asada in her senior debut and Shizuka Arakawa, the 2004 World Champion. Elena Liashenko was a solid fourth place and China's Yan Liu was fifth. So what does the French event hold for us? Totmianina & Marinin's return to the Grand Prix, a packed ladies field that features Arakawa, Sokolova, Asada, Cohen, and Rochette, a face-off between Grushina & Goncharov and Delobel & Schoenfelder, and who knows what other surprises may come? Archives -- Contact -- Features -- Guestbook -- Links -- Webmistress (c)2005 Melanie L. Hoyt All rights reserved. |