Four Continents Championships
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Cat's Lair

Four Continents Championships

Colorado Springs, CO
Feb. 7-10, 2007

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Index

2007 Four Continents Championships

6-Feb-2007: Day 2, More Practices


Updated: 19-Feb-2007 11:48 PM
Cover Page
Feb 5: Practices
(06-Feb-2007 11:54 AM)
Feb 6: More Practices
(06-Feb-2007 11:25 PM)
Feb 7: Compulsory Dance
(07-Feb-2007 08:29 PM)
Feb 7: Pairs Short
(07-Feb-2007 08:33 PM)
Feb 7: Men's Short
(09-Feb-2007 08:46 PM)
Feb 8: Original Dance
(09-Feb-2007 08:46 PM)
Promises of More to Come, and Some Pictures as a Bribe
(please read)
(12-Feb-2007 10:49 PM)
Feb 8: Pairs Free
(12-Feb-2007 10:52 PM)
Feb 8: Ladies Short (fixed missing skaters)
(13-Feb-2007 06:24 PM)
Feb 9: Men's Free
(14-Feb-2007 01:31 AM)
Feb 10: Ladies Free
(16-Feb-2007 01:03 AM)
Feb 10: Exhibition
(19-Feb-2007 11:49 PM)

Shen and Zhao are in the building!!!

Shen and Zhao are in the building!!! I have always mocked footage of bimbettes screaming about some rock/pop star, but today I had to cover my mouth with my hands to stop from screaming "Oh My God" when I saw Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao enter World Arena. What a privilege and a joy to be able to see them skate. Watching at home you know about their amazing power and height. But you may not know about their deep edges, their speed and their expression. Oh my gosh their expressions! As they stroke around the ice they gaze into each others eyes and it is so beautiful. Remember that look that Ilsa gives Rick at the end of Casablanca, well that is nothing compared to how Shen and Zhao gaze at each other. They did a run through of their short program to Concerto Aranjuez ( I have no idea how to spell that.) They start out with cute flirting moves that are too sweet. They nailed everything in their run through and then worked on their throws, each one better than their last.

Pang and Tong are also here. Their short is very romantic. They also landed a ton of jumps. Just this one practice with these 2 World Champion pairs teams was worth the price of the all event ticket. Oh, and neither of the teams seems to be affected by the altitude or the fact that they were competing in Asia just a few days ago. Amazing!

I am the anti-NBC reporter today, focusing on the International skaters, I saw very little of the Americans. I see the Americans all the time so now I wanted to focus on the skaters I don't see as much.

I saw Fumie Surguri and Yoshie Onda this morning. I missed their run through. Both girls looked good, Fumie working on her lutz and landed a really high one. Yoshie was working more on her Moves and her expression. Her expression has improved much. Josee Chouinard is of course coaching Yoshie Onda, which I knew. But I couldn't see so well with all the hockey glass up and got confused.

Later in the afternoon I got to see both lady's run through their free skates. Fumie did only a partial run through but she did land many of her jumps. One jump seemed to be giving her trouble and she worked on that for a while. Her spins are very fast, she ends her free with a very blurry scratch. But the scratch spins she warmed up were even better than the ones she did in practice. Because the madness that is COP requires the skater to change positions every revolution and a half no one gets to do long held spins in programs anymore.

Yoshie's free skate is Red Violin. She had an amazing run through, landing at least 6 triples including two lutzes and two salchows one in combination with a double axel.

Saw the Canadians Joannie Rochette and Cynthia Phaneuf. Cynthia was working on her lutz, and not dong well. Cynthia's free skate is Clair De Lune. Joannie started out her practice by doing three turns the whole length of the rink, first on one foot then the other. Magnificent three turns, deep edge, crisp turns, these three turns were some of the most beautiful skating I have seen. Joannie really has incredible edges she moves so smoothly over the ice. She landed a ton of jumps, high and powerful during warm up.

Watched one flight of dance practice, the Canadians and Japanese. Marie France Dubreuil and Patrick Lauzon were the only dance team that I saw who did a full run through. And what a program, their At Last free dance is, the most romantic thing I have seen in ice dance since Torvill and Dean's Rhumba. Extra deep edges, knees softer than butter. Plus they are fast and smooth and their lifts are effortless. Of course I am the woman who liked B&A's That's Entertainment program so I clearly know nothing about dance. The Japanese team is Cathy and Chris Reed. Is their mother Japanese? Anyone out there with any info about them I would love to know.


Copyright © 2007, Antoinette M. Aubert & Richard M. Hartman

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