Days 4-5

Alexandra and Roman Zaretsky finished 13th overall in the ice dance competition with 80.49 points (43.10 for technical elements (TES) / 37.39 for programme component score (PCS). They skated a dramatic free dance to the music of Andrew Lloyd Weber's "Jesus Christ Superstar", which earned them tremendous support of the audience in the 10,000-strong Staples Center and a season's best of 167.53 points overall. The duo got the highest level (4) for all the lifts and a level 3 for the diagonal and circular step sequences.

Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin of Russia won the gold; Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto took the silver medal award, while the Canadian team Tessa Virtue- Scott Moir took the bronze.

In the ladies event, Tamar Katz finished the short programme, which she performed to the soundtrack of "Gone with the Wind" in the 25th position among the 54 participants, with less than a point short of a place in the final. Tamar hasn't fully recovered from tendonitis, which has forced her to reduce the technical content of her short programme – she opted for double jumps instead of triples. Her result is 40.62 points ( TES 21.86 TES 18.76 PCS). Tamar executed a double lutz-double toe loop combination, a double flip and a double axel and received a level 4 for her flying sit spin and beautifully executed spiral step sequence. Her circular step sequence, layback spin, and combination spin received a level 3.

In the ladies event, Yu-Na Kim of Korea won the gold, Joanny Rochette of Canada is second, while Mike Ando of Japan is third.

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Day 3

Alexandra and Roman Zaretsky got their season's best of 54.19 points for the original dance to the music of the 20s, 30s and 40s, improving their previous season's best (51.65) by almost 3 points. They received level 4 for all the elements, but a slight off-axis on one of the spins got them a negative GOE and put them in the 13th position overall with 87.04 points. However, the final standings will be decided in the free dance later today, as only a smidgeon of 0.44 points separates our team from their immediate contenders, Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates of team USA. Russia's Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin held on to their lead despite not winning the segment. They are ahead of Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto of the USA, winners of the original dance, by a mere 0.64 points overall.

Somewhere in the middle of the competition I personally lost the count of how many teams chose the Yiddish music hit "Bei Mir Bist Du Shein" ("You're the beautiful for me"), originally composed by Jacob Jacobs and Shalom Secunda for a musical in Yiddish in 1932, as their rhythm. When I asked Mark Hanretty of the second British team at the Europeans, if he knew the origin of the song, he said he had no idea, but just liked it. Incidentally, it was the choice of the other British team, Phillippa Towler-Green and Phillipe Poole, as well as of the Lithuanian Katherine Copely and Deividas Stagniunas, the Italian Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte, and,,,well, I seriously lost the count.

In the men's event, Evan Lysacek brought a gold medal to his home crowd with 242.23 points. Patrick Chan of Canada took the silver with 237.58 points, while Brian Joubert of France had to be content with the bronze earning 235.97 points overall.

Tamar Katz is preparing for the ladies short later today, which will be followed by the ice dance free programme.

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Day 2

Maxim Shipov finished his short programme to the music of Czardas in the 36th place among 50 contestants with a total of 44.85 points ( 25.20 – TES, 20.65 -  PCS, 1-point deduction for a fall on the opening triple Axel, which he attempted for the first time in competition). He managed to fully rotate it, which is crucial under the new judging system, as popped or under rotated jumps are severely downgraded.  Brian Joubert of France leads going into the free with 84.40 points. Evan Lysachek of the USA team is second with 82.70 points, and Patrick Chan of Canada is 3d with 82.55 points. Only Joubert did a quad during the short programme of the three competitors lying in the medal position.

 

In the pairs event, ALyona Savchenko and Robin Szolkovwy took the gold with a total score of 203.48 points, the Chinese Dan Zhang/Hao Zhang took the silver with 186.52 points, while Russia's Yuko Kawaguti/Alexander Smirnov had to accept the bronze with 186.39 points –a smidgeon of a difference between the 2nd and 3d placements.

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Day 1

Alexandra and Roman Zaretsky performed a strong and smooth Paso Doble at their opening segment of the World Championships in Los Angeles earning 32.85 and improving their season's best by more than 2 points. They're lying in 12th position going into the OD on Thursday, with less than half a mark separating them from the top 10.

Ekaterina and Fedor Sokolov missed the final of the pairs event by a mere 0.08 points finishing the short programme in the 21st position with 39.62 points. Only 20 out of 24 competitors reached the final.

 

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