No Change at the Top
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Which can only mean the topic of discussion is ice dancing.
The order of the top 11 couples after Sunday’s original dance was identical to the order after the first phase, the compulsory dances. Anyone want to venture out on a limb and predict the order will be the same after tonight’s final phase, the free dance?
Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat of France, bronze medalists at the 1998 Nagano Games, were first. Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh of Russia--who got the evening’s only perfect 6.0, from the Polish judge, for presentation--were second. World champions Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maruizio Margaglio of Italy were third, with Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz of Canada fourth.
There was no discernible bloc voting by the judges, who are from Poland, Italy, Lithuania, Switzerland, Azerbaijan, Israel, Germany, Bulgaria and Russia. Anissina and Peizerat, who won the European championship after losing the Grand Prix Final to Bourne and Kraatz, were ranked first by all but the Polish judge, who gave her first-place vote to Lobacheva and Averbukh.
“I think it was the best performance we did this season,” Anissina said. “We are always progressing, and anytime we skate, it’s getting better and better in the competition.”
The original dance counts for 30% of the final score. Couples created a dance to a prescribed rhythm, the Spanish Medley. They’re free to use any kind of music in tonight’s free dance, which is worth 50% of the final score.
Lobacheva and Averbukh, performing to tango and flamenco music, were spirited and fast. Although they missed part of the season because of a knee injury suffered by Lobacheva, they peaked Sunday.
“I think it was the best performance of our lives,” Averbukh said. “Now we are ready for good skating. Now we are ready for competition.”
Fusar-Poli was much happier than she had been Friday, when she complained the marks given to her and her partner for the compulsory dances were too low.
“I’m satisfied,” said Fusar-Poli, who had a worrisome moment when her scarf got caught under one of her blades but escaped without harm. “Of course, I’m just a little mad for the results of the compulsories because we did a good job.”
Said Margaglio: “We tried to do our best and take out our rage.”
U.S. champions Naomi Lang and Peter Tchernyshev stayed 11th, but the other U.S. entry, Beata Handra and Charles Sinek, dropped a spot to 21st.
“We had a blast out there,” Lang said after the couple performed to a medley of the paso doble and flamenco. “The crowd supported us through the compulsories [where they felt their scores were too low] and that was great. It doesn’t matter what the marks are, as long as the crowd is happy....
“Yeah, we’re in 11th place, but we feel like we’re winners.”
