I am thinking about …

to visit the NRW Trophy next weekend in Dortmund. The entries of Ladies and Men look pretty good. Maybe I’ll watch their LPs on Sunday 6th.

Entries

[Coup de Nice] Pairs, Men and Dance Results

Pairs

Adeline CANAC / Maximin COIA from France won with 136.60 points. Their “Samson and Delilah” LP included a Level 3 double Twist Lift and a clean triple Salchow side by side. The Russian pair Ksenia OZEROVA / Alexander ENBERT finished second with 133.55 points. They fell on their opening triple Toeloop aswell as on their double Axel sequence. Third are Katerina KOSTENKO / Roman TALAN from the Ukraine with 123.30 points. The German pair finished only 4^th with 119.48 points. They had three falls on the double Axel, throw double Loop and throw triple Salchow. They clearly failed the required 138 points to fulfil the German Olympic norm.

Men

Artur GACHINSKIY from Russia won with 189.59 points. He fell on the double Axel but did two clean triple Axels before. Alban PREAUBERT from France finished second with 188.26 points. Alban had tough problems on both of his triple Axels and the triple Loop. Seems that he also has problems with his quadruple Toeloop since this season as he does not show it anymore. Third is Javier FERNANDEZ from Spain with 184.33 points and an absolute fantastic Free Skate. He was only 11^th after the SP but fought back in the LP with two clean triple Axels, a triple Flip and a triple Loop. Unfortunately he fell on his opening quadruple Toeloop.

Yannick Ponsero withdrew. Hopefully not due to injury because he fell again on his opening Quad in the SP, the same jump where he cut his elbow at the Cup of China.

Dance

Only two pairs skated the Free Dance. Chloé IBANEZ / Marien DE LA ASUNCION from France won with 102.44 points. Both of their Rotational Lifts got Level 4. Second are Henna LINDHOLM / Ossi KANERVO from Finland with 94.27 points. Their Straight line Lift also got Level 4. The third pair Katelyn GOOD / Nikolaj SORENSEN from Denmark withdrew after the OD.

[Coup de Nice] Men and Pairs SP Results

Men

Préaubert leads with 73.88 points. The start of this season must be pretty confusing for him. He skated almost clean in all competitions and got high marks at Masters, very low marks at TEB and now quite good marks again for the SP. I can’t wait to see him in Canada in two weeks. Second is Artur Gachinskiy from Russia with 65.45 points. In third place is Chafik Besseghier from France with 64.29 points. Yannick Ponsero again seemed to struggle at his jumps and is only 7^th with 59.15 points. Exact the same points got the young German skater Daniel Dotzauer, with higher technical marks than Ponsero but four points lower in components.

Pairs

As I expected Tanja Szewczenko and Norman Jeschke do not take part in Nice. Russia’s Ksenia Ozerova and Alexander Enbert took the lead with 47.08 points. Second are Mari Vartmann and Florian Just with 45.66 points. Germany has one pairs spot left for the Olympics and a pair must achieve twice a minimum of 138 points in total, in two different competitions to get the spot. The other German pair Maylin Hausch and Daniel Wende already achieved this at the Nebelhorn Trophy so Mari and Flo must keep up with them. Third are Adeline Canac and Maximin Coia from France with 43.92 points. Their chances to get the only French Olympics spot are bigger again as Vanessa James and Yannick Bonheur did not very well in both of their Grand Prix events.

The SP of the Ladies is today as well as the LP of Men and Pairs and the Free Dance, where only three couples take part, so I am supposed to think that all of them will medal

I am curious about the two German girls Sarah Hecken and Katharina Häcker as Germany’s number one Lady Annette Dytrt today failed again to achieve the required minimum of 128 points at the NHK Trophy.

Icechallenge 2009 Ice Dance CD Results

Senior | Junior |  Novice

Senior Men, Pairs and Laides start tomorrow.

Entries

Daisuke Takahashi SP @ Trophy Finlandia

If I should name simply one word for this program, than it would be: outstanding. Look at the step seqs. How the hell can he hold those edges? I think Takahashi will be my favorite for Vancouver.

French Masters Results

First of all the size of the ice rink looked weird to me. Some skaters especially Men really had problems with it during jumps . Préaubert’s coach Annick Dumont was shown with ice on her knee, I don’t know what happened to her. But get well soon Annick!

Pairs

1 James/Bonheur 139.15

3S he fell, 2 Tw shaky landing, 3STh very good, 3FTh, 2A+2A she turns out he landed on both feet. They really have to work on their lifts, they are all a bit, well I would say aprubt and unclean especially at the landing. Their Throw jumps are amazing and they thankfully changed their ugly Death spiral from last year.

2 Canac/Coia 136.49

2S her hand down, 2Tw solid, 3FTh hand down+turn out, 3STh she fell, 2A+1A she turns out and not in sync. Their lifts are very good with high difficulty.

Men

1 Florent Amodio 232.52

His performance was simply amazing and outstanding. Best choreography of all Men. He landed everything except of the 4S. If he continues this way I am sure we’ll see him in Vancouver.

2 Brian Joubert 220.79

Fell on the 4T again and had some problems on other jumps. I cannot say much about the program because Orange TV decided Figure Skating needs no sound.

3 Alban Préaubert 217.36

He landed his 4T but fell on the 3Lz. I thought his CiSt was a bit slow but maybe it fits to the music. Some movements reminded me on his Swing Kids LP back in 2006. His costume (black jeans and RS shirt) rocks.

4 Yannick Ponsero 215.54

He fell on his 3A and doubled the other one. Some problems on other jumps including the 4T. He looked very displeased with his own performance.

Dance

1 Pechalat/Bourzat 150.93

Even without sound I can say this program is outstanding. Their lifts are gorgeous (SlLi looks like Nathalie wants to enter a Throw jump). Fabian had some painting in his face and a small error at the Twizzle sequence.

2 Blanc/Bouquet 135.90

I cannot say that much because the stream broke here. Black/purple costumes.

3 Carron/Jones 128.68

Jones is a bit slow at some points but they look cute together and are very young. I think they have potential to become a world class team some time.

4 Orlova/Jost 119.67

They skate very far away from each other. I would love to hear their music.