Day 4
The competition concluded on a controversial note for our team. Sasha and Roman Zaretsky skated a clean free dance routine but one of their lifts was marked as illegal and not counted in the score. This cost them about 7 points and 4 placements. Their final placement is 11th.
Day 3
Sasha and Roman Zaretsky climbed up 3 places from the compulsory dance and are currently in the 7th place going into the FD on Friday. They improved their season's best by 4 points earning 51.65 for the segment. Coach Galit Chait comments: "They skated it exactly the way I wanted them to, giving it 150% both technically and artistically. Almost all of the elements got level 4, but for one footwork section, which got level 3. We're going to look into it and work on it to improve the level. This performance is a good stepping stone before the Worlds in LA."
Answering my question about the designer of Sasha and Roman's new costumes, Galit said that the designer is different, but not new for her. The lady's name is Natalia Bolshakova, and she worked with Galit when she was competing, designing costumes for her during the 2002 Olympics and other events.
Bye for now from the snowy Helsinki - the snowfall started early in the morning and the city looks like a fairytale scene this evening.
Day 2
Pairs' Free Skate
It all started off rather well. The emcee even joked about the choice of the free skate music for Ekaterina and Fedor ( Sviridov's Snowstorm) saying they probably had the Finnish weather in mind before making this selection. Theye were half way through with their free skate having executed a triple twist, two lifts, a throw triple Salchow ( she put her hand down on the landing), and a spin. When they went into the side by side double loop, Ekaterina cut a knee with her left blade. The couple had to stop the skate and withdrew due to Ekaterina's injury. She will be unable to skate for at least 10 days. I spoke with her a few hours after the accident happened and she told me that at first she didn't quite understand what had happened and just saw blood gushing down to her ankle from the injured spot in the knee. She's now resting and worried she might not be able to cheer on Sasha and Roma Zaretsky at the original dance Thursday afternoon. Our congratulations to the 2009 European Champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy, who skated a mesmerizing free programme, part of which was to the soundtrack from The Schindler's List movie.
Men's Short
Maxim Shipov faced tough competition from 38 competitors in the men's short. He missed the chance to get through to the free skate by just 2 spots finishing in the 26th position with a score of 48.30. The top 24 make it through to the free programme. Maxim executed a clean double Axel and a clean triple flip-triple toe loop combination. He made just a couple of minor errors on the triple lutz and in the straight line step sequence. His head coach Elena Chaikovskaia gave an appreciative comment on Maxim's short programme pointing out that a steady climbing in the international ratings will eventually earn Maxim higher placements. It's been Maxim's 2nd Europeans and the first year under the guidance of Chaikovskaya who trains him together with Vladimir Kotin, multiple European medalist in single skating in the 80s.
Day 1
We're just back from a long day of practice sessions and competition. The Championships kicked off with the compulsory dance. Sasha and Roman Zaretsky opened the final group and got 30.16 points for their Finnstep and a top 10 position going into the original dance on Thursday. Our team doctor Mark Goldfarb is doing multitasking, which means taking care both of our team and taking a few pictures of it in between, so that you will be able to see Sasha's new red dress for the CD in the Gallery section to begin with.
After the opening ceremony, for which Sauli Niinisto, Speaker of the Finnish Parliament, practiced skating skills under the guidance of the 1995 European Champion Susanna Rahkamo, we moved to the pairs' short programme. Ekaterina Sokolova stumbled both on her double Salchow and throw jump, which brought her and Fedor 36.60 points and a 20th spot before the LP tomorrow evening. The couple had better unison and flow compared with their performance at the Cup of Russia back in November 2008, but the major jumping errors did not allow them to slot in a higher spot. We hope to see some improvement from them in the LP on Wednesday.
