Having problems with message search?
Well, I'm a real fan of T&M so you'll have to somehow bear with me :-)
As for if their performance was up to a Euros pairs gold medal I'd say that much more so than some of B&S's performances... I mean B&S won last years Euros with making 2 mistakes, to add to that T&M's program was much more difficult than B&S's... Ok, not so good in terms of presentation, but B&S actually won on the technical mark as well, which I thought was very unfair.... But oh well, it's old stuff really. No use in moaning about it now.
And as for Z&S, I'm probably the only person in Poland who thought Z&S off the podium was an acceptable result... (so unfortunately, your mind reading wasn't quite succesful :-)) They were actually the only pair which I gave a standing ovation because they really did their best, it's just that the difficulty wasn't there... Well, A&B's program was technically probably the worst out of the top 4, but their presentation was probably the best of the evening, so I can understand that they won with Z&S.
P&T skated one of the most difficult pairs routines in the World and that's why I thought that even with so many mistakes it was ok they were 3rd. For instance the 2axel P&T landed in the middle of the program was something Z&S would never be able to do - they just barely hold on to the one they have at the beginning of their program.
P&T's speed was quite ok. Not something fantastic, but ok, I've seen them skating much slower (generally the speed is sometimes a problem for them - perhaps that's why your commentator decided to say something about it).
I didn't see a two footed landing either. The 3 mistakes I was refering to are:
1. Alexei made only two rotations instead of three during their 3toe in sequence.
2. Maria made only about 2,5 rotations in the twist before Alexei caught her (and she actually fell on top of him a bit, which also shouldn't have happened).
3. Maria stepped out of the throw 3toe.
I don't really mind mistake no 1 much because all the other top couples (except T&M) were doing 2A...2T anyway. P&T risked a sequence which as far as I'm aware only 2 other top couples in the World are able to match: S&Z are also doing 2A...3T and T&M go even further by doing a combination instead of a sequence - 3T/2T, what's even more breathtaking about T&M in this element is they do it in the middle of their program!
Mistake no 2 was rather bad, although perhaps not that bad in comparison to the other couples because no couple actually had a perfect twist. Sarah Abitbol also kind of fell on top of her partner, Tatiana barely made the rotation, Maxim only just had time to catch her. Best of the night was probably Z&S's, but also not perfect. Would have been if he had been on one foot when he was putting down Dorota on the ice. Apparently it is a mistake. Then again I only know of two couples (Shen&Zao and Savchenko&Morozov) that actually occasionally do make sure the man's leg is up (most couples are ok with the 2twist, it's just the 3twist, which is a problem). In fact it's so common that I've kind of stopped counting it as a mistake, I just give extra credit if someone does it properly.
At any rate it wasn't a strong element for anybody.
Mistake no 3 is obviously a bigger error. Then again it was a triple jump (A&B and Z&S were doing throw 2axels instead). My theory is actually that the 3toe is probably a more difficult throw than the salchow. Doing it solo is of course easier than a salchow, but if you think about actually synchronising the toe jamming with the partner throwing the lady, it must be much more difficult than synchronising with the ice scooping in the salchow. Of course it's probably still an easier jump than the loop (which T&M did) because there you don't get any "added" elevation.
Ok...
Hope you haven't found this boring :-)
Monika
----- Original Message -----From: juncox@...Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2002 4:20 AMSubject: Re: [Petrova-Tikhonov]Hi, Monika,
I admit that I tend to be unjustifiably critical of Totmianina/Marinin because I don`t care for them at a personal level, so I`ll reduce my harsh assessment to just saying that their performance was not up to the Euros pairs gold medal performances of the past.
The American commentators were live at the rink. Terry Gannon, whose background is baseball (but has been doing figure skating commenting for about 5 years) was the one who remarked that P/T seemed to be terribly out-of-breath.Dick Button, who has spent a lifetime in figure skating, but is senile now, remarked on P/T`s slowness, in fact he savaged their performance.
Re Z/S vs P/T, it wasn`t clear to me that Alexei two-footed a landing so it possibly could have only been 2 mistakes on P/T`s part. Z/S came into the long program 2 slots behind P/T. You could well be right though in thinking that Z/S deserved the bronze (I`m reading your mind). I`ll yield to you because you were there and also know much more about figure skating than I do.
Best to you and the rest of the group. Bye, bye.
Arthur
Community email addresses:
Post message: Petrova-Tikhonov@onelist.com
Subscribe: Petrova-Tikhonov-subscribe@onelist.com
Unsubscribe: Petrova-Tikhonov-unsubscribe@onelist.com
List owner: Petrova-Tikhonov-owner@onelist.com
Shortcut URL to this page:
http://www.onelist.com/community/Petrova-Tikhonov
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
Offline 
Send Email