2015-16 Grand Prix Final Pairs Free Skate

[notonmylife15]

S/K are going to win this convincingly, and they deserve to, but man I need a hot chocolate and a thermal blanket after watching them. There's just something cold at heart about them to me. Still, congrats to them. It is a convincing win.

THIS. ^^^ Also, someone feed Kavaguti a cookie - and a sandwich - already. Her thinness is as disturbing as Jian Tong's was.

 

[Dots]

I am the happiest for Fedor Klimov.

A win here means she is not going to give him dead eyes. Phew!

 

[MIM]

Congratulation all the medalists and S/B!
What a competition, from the splat fest to the World Record!!
I am super impressed with Both Russian teams.

Manfred of Yuko and Sasha is simply a MASTERPIECE. :thumbsup:

Ksenia makes sense of this vague and eerie music/program. She is the reason of this program. She and Klimov put a disappointing last season behind and rise to the top of the top. :thumbsup:

 

[Sugarpova]

I am the happiest for Fedor Klimov.

A win here means she is not going to give him dead eyes. Phew!

yep he's safe
...
for now
:dev3:

 

[QuadThrow]

10.70 for the 3T+3T+2T.

It is the highest ever score for an pairs skating Element. They beat P/Z's 10.63 from their 4Tw3

That free skate had the wow-factor

 

[s_parks]

Tbh, I feel like the scoring in Barcelona has been on the rather generous side. I'm not talking about a particular skater/team, or even one discipline. Just all around...

 

[Kinga]

On the side note, Alexander Smirnov must be the nicest partner ever! Always so warm and supportive.

 

[Mao88]

Videos now in the videos & results thread

 

[ruffledgrouse]

Should we say Russian S/K and American S/K when we talk about about the two pairs. For a while, I was super confused.

Fesenia and Chralexa? Stokli and Scikni? Addams Family and Matching Blues?

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

I agree. They are SO talented and have innovative choreography this season and top notch skating skills, but I don't feel anything for them, both on the ice and off. Meagan endears me to her because of her constant talking and calculating, plus I like the energy she and Eric have on the ice, K/S are just the sweetest PLUS best connection on ice in both cheesy programs and DRAMA programs...but S/K don't make me FEEL anything. It's just an emotional thing.

I don't particularly find their choreography innovative. There's many times that they do their usual skating backwards and she places her hand on his and they circle around CCW prepping for their next element. I personally find Kav/Smirnov to have some of the best highlights (and D/R a close second).

This was a prime example of if you skate clean with excellent difficulty, you will be rewarded. Their components were 64ish at Skate America - and I don't think anyone can legitimately say that they made such drastic changes to their program which actually merited the jump in some of those components.

CH went from 8.21 to 9.46.
SS went from 8.29 to 9.36
TR went from 7.93 to 9.25.
IN went from 8.00 to 9.46.
PE went from 7.75 to 9.64.

Don't get me wrong, they totally deserved the win (and by a healthy margin) for sure but these were clearly "clean skate" PCS.

 

[Tastetherainbow]

Should we say Russian S/K and American S/K when we talk about about the two pairs. For a while, I was super confused.

I personally say St/K and Sc/K, but that works fine too.

 

[Heleng]

K/s made me cry.. I don't care how many times Yuko fell. It is so pure!, love them so much!

K/S program is my favorite this season and turned me into a fan. I also loved it despite the falls.

 

[Kutien]

1 Ksenia STOLBOVA / Fedor KLIMOV RUS 229.44 1 1 video
2 Meagan DUHAMEL / Eric RADFORD CAN 216.67 3 2 video
3 Yuko KAVAGUTI / Alexander SMIRNOV RUS 206.59 2 3 video
4 Julianne SEGUIN / Charlie BILODEAU CAN 200.98 4 4 video
5 Xiaoyu YU / Yang JIN CHN 186.87 5 5 video
6 Cheng PENG / Hao ZHANG CHN 183.04 7 6 video
7 Alexa SCIMECA / Chris KNIERIM USA 177.42 6 7 video

 

[solani]

So happy for Stolbova and Klimov! They are not only back to Sochi form, but even better with 3+3+2 combination. When they are clean, they have the potential to win everything actually!

I agree, they don't need a quad when they nail the 3-3-2. Ksenia would have made a very good solo skater. Impressive. The program is very good, the skating is gorgeous but it still feels somehow empty to me, I hope they can improve their chemistry.
I really liked Seguin/Bilodeau, they have chemistry. I bet they'll challenge Duhamel/Radford in the future.

 

[Ilvskating]

That was a very good program from S/K! Their technical are to die for, but performance/Interpretation wise I like K/S better. I was never a K/S fan but I think they are just getting better after the 2010 Olympics. She does not appear to be a big event skater, bombed every time. This FS is so good, one of the few programs in pairs that I would love to watch again and again. I'm glad they bring it back and I hope they can skate it clean at World, just like they did last year at SA.

Congratulations to the medalists!

The young Canadian pair did really well! She is lovely with that bubbly characteristics. I wish she gets rid of some of the baby fat and gets her arms toned a bit. She has very short arms, like Meagan and Joannie Rochette. Getting them toned would help a lot. He needs to improve his posture. Good job though!

Yu had such an odd fall at the beginning, did pretty well otherwise. They need to up their jumps to be more competitive. It seems that all the current ladies who do well are the ones that skated as single skaters before. SBS jumps are critical in today's pair skating. It seems that it is the bottleneck for many pairs.

Looking forward to men's FS!

 

[QuadThrow]

What is a bout judge number 8?

D/R S/K

TR 9.75 8.75
CH 10.00 9.00

Come on! that is not fair.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

I agree, they don't need a quad when they nail the 3-3-2. Ksenia would have made a very good solo skater. Impressive. The program is very good, the skating is gorgeous but it still feels somehow empty to me, I hope they can improve their chemistry.
I really liked Seguin/Bilodeau, they have chemistry. I bet they'll challenge Duhamel/Radford in the future.

Yeah, with the way quad throws are still scored, they are perfectly fine hitting their other throws (and the 3-3-2 makes up for it).

Their clean 3F throw got 7.50 points to D/R's clean 4S throw with 8.06 points. The flip was executed much better, but that throw's base value should have at least been 4 points more.

The real question is if Stolbova/Klimov can replicate it but kudos to them on such a turnaround from not even medaling at Skate America to such a huge PB at the GPF.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

What is a bout judge number 8?

D/R S/K

TR 9.75 8.75
CH 10.00 9.00

Come on! that is not fair.

The judges don't line up, but still that's rather ridiculous to give any of these pairs a 9.50/9.75 for TR.

 

[whatif]

What is a bout judge number 8?

D/R S/K

TR 9.75 8.75
CH 10.00 9.00

Come on! that is not fair.

Must have been CanadianSkaterGuy sneaked on the judging panel. In any case, I can beat $100 that this anonymous judge represents CAN.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

Re-watched the videos (thanks Mao!).

Ksenia definitely URed her second 3T. Guess they must have had the same tech specialist as Cappellini/Lanotte?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3VlHxNZKRo slow it down at 7:32