The judges ranking and their score for
OD are in parentheses.
1) Belbin/Agosto (2, 67.54) It is quite ironic that after spending all season complaining bout how much I dislike this program that I am ranking it first at worlds. But I feel they were
clear winners of
OD. They attacked this program and nailed everything. I got a good laugh at
British Eurosport's commentators trying to find something about this performance to criticize and coming up with 'Their arms weren't always in perfect unison,' because if that is
biggest problem with any program, it was obviously skated fabulously. The Charleston and quickstep were arguably
best of
night, and their foxtrot was almost up to
level it was four seasons ago. The choreography still is not very good, but their performance overcame that and made you forget about
it.
2) Navka/Kostomarov (1, 68.67) This is by no means a bad program, but it is also not a great program. Both
quickstep and foxtrot were done well, but not amazingly so. Still,
transitions are 1000% better than they were a season ago, making this actually looks somewhat like a dance program, instead of a pairs program with dance elements. And how can one not give them points for their extremely original musical selection of "Sing Sing Sing"? But as neither
difficulty level nor
interpretation was up to
level of Belbin/Agosto's, they deserved to place second.
3) Chait/Sakhnovski (5, 61.19) After placing 3rd at
GPF in
OD, I was crossing my fingers that their placement would be
same here. Unfortunately,
judges failed me. They, unlike
teams directly below them, had great interpretation of
rhythms and skated without any mistakes. And their energy level, as always, was ridiculously high. Plus, their skating skills, while not quite as good as
skating skills of
very best in
world, have improved so much that they should challenge those other teams.
4) Denkova/Staviski (4, 62.79) Awkward OD interpretation, but thy did skate all out. Their skating skills - and
fact that they too did not mess up, held them above
other teams here. Still, this OD is very forgettable.
5) Delobel/Schoenfelder (6, 60.25) Had Isabelle not made a small mistake on
sbs footwork sequence, they would have been challenging
top teams. Unfortunately, she did. Isabelle has nice interpretation, and even Olivier seems less lifeless than usual. Plus,
choreography is superb. The only other problem is that they are slightly off-beat for part of
foxtrot.
6) Grushina/Goncharov (3, 63.17) This program has many of they same weaknesses as B/A's does, which should not be a surprise, considering it is basically
same program. (Morozov's creativity or lack there of has sunk to a new low for "his" programs for G/G this season.) But unfortunately for them, they do not have B/A's technical strengths and charisma. Elena is lovely as always; Ruslan is dull as always. And I'm still waiting for them to finish their sbs footwork. Somebody needs to go out and push them during any footwork sequence.
7) Domnina/Shabalin (7, 58.86) These two probably had
best foxtrot interpretation of
season. It was graceful, musical, and truly brought
classical foxtrot to
ice. They even made their dance spin seem foxtrot-y. The sbs footwork didn't seem very powerful, and their twizzles, while miles better than many of
other team's, were a bit shaky. The quickstep was okay.
8) Dubreuil/Lauzon (8,58.30) Argh. The foxtrot and quickstep sections were extremely well-interpreted and
whole dance was extremely cohesive for a combination OD. But
sbs footwork was a complete and utter disaster. It got messed up about 1/3 of
way through, and they never quite got it back on track. There was a little to much of time spent not touching each other. And their Charleston was a bit awkward in places. Plus, why are they miming holding umbrellas? Isn't
whole point of "Singin' in
Rain" that one is singing in
rain, and not covered by umbrellas?
9) Faiella/Scali (9, 56.13) Their stroking has improved dramatically. Their twizzles still aren't very good. And they didn't really seem to truly get either rhythm, especially
quickstep. But technically, it was a strong program, and they had good energy as always,
10) Wing/Lowe (10, 52.52) They start off with a nice, although slightly dull, foxtrot. And then they transition into a nice, but slightly dull Charleston. I normally really like this team, but this performance seemed to lack energy. They don't have
technical content of
teams above them.
11) Fraser/Lukanin (13, 48.82) Their speed and polished has dramatically improved. Very nice foxtrot expression. They spend a little too much time apart. They had nice musicality too.