Worlds - pairs short results (spoilers!)

[Artemis]

Here are the results from the short program.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
1 Xue SHEN / Hongbo ZHAO CHN 71.07 39.50 31.57 8.00 7.75 7.86 7.96 7.89 0.00 #21
2 Aliona SAVCHENKO / Robin SZOLKOWY GER 67.65 37.70 29.95 7.61 7.25 7.46 7.50 7.61 0.00 #13
3 Qing PANG / Jian TONG CHN 66.75 37.30 29.45 7.46 7.18 7.43 7.36 7.39 0.00 #9
4 Yuko KAWAGUCHI / Alexander SMIRNOV RUS 62.07 35.02 27.05 6.96 6.46 6.93 6.68 6.79 0.00 #17
5 Valerie MARCOUX / Craig BUNTIN CAN 60.73 34.66 26.07 6.61 6.25 6.50 6.61 6.61 0.00 #4
6 Rena INOUE / John BALDWIN USA 59.50 34.65 25.85 6.68 6.25 6.50 6.43 6.46 1.00 #14
7 Jessica DUBE / Bryce DAVISON CAN 58.94 34.46 24.48 6.25 5.89 6.11 6.18 6.18 0.00 #6
8 Tatiana VOLOSOZHAR / Stanislav MOROZOV UKR 57.62 32.28 25.34 6.46 6.14 6.43 6.36 6.29 0.00 #12
9 Dorota SIUDEK / Mariusz SIUDEK POL 57.23 31.77 25.46 6.61 6.18 6.21 6.36 6.46 0.00 #8
10 Dan ZHANG / Hao ZHANG CHN 57.00 31.37 27.63 7.21 6.71 6.86 6.96 6.79 2.00 #3
11 Maria PETROVA / Alexei TIKHONOV RUS 56.36 27.94 28.42 7.32 6.93 6.96 7.18 7.14 0.00 #22
12 Maria MUKHORTOVA / Maxim TRANKOV RUS 56.14 31.69 24.45 6.29 5.96 6.14 6.04 6.14 0.00 #18
13 Anabelle LANGLOIS / Cody HAY CAN 55.96 32.90 23.06 5.89 5.57 5.75 5.79 5.82 0.00 #5
14 Brooke CASTILE / Benjamin OKOLSKI USA 54.51 31.77 22.74 5.93 5.32 5.75 5.71 5.71 0.00 #1
15 Dominika PIATKOWSKA / Dmitri KHROMIN POL 50.18 30.41 19.77 5.07 4.89 4.86 5.00 4.89 0.00 #7
16 Marylin PLA / Yannick BONHEUR FRA 48.60 28.92 19.68 5.14 4.75 4.93 4.93 4.86 0.00 #2
17 Angelika PYLKINA / Niklas HOGNER SWE 47.36 26.36 21.00 5.36 5.14 5.36 5.25 5.14 0.00 #10
18 Laura MAGITTERI / Ondrej HOTAREK ITA 46.59 28.05 18.54 4.82 4.46 4.64 4.68 4.57 0.00 #19
19 Stacey KEMP / David KING GBR 44.96 27.38 17.58 4.57 4.25 4.46 4.36 4.32 0.00 #20
20 Mari VARTMANN / Florian JUST GER 43.20 24.94 18.26 4.86 4.39 4.46 4.61 4.50 0.00 #15
21 Marina AGANINA / Artem KNYAZEV UZB 40.60 23.22 17.38 4.57 4.25 4.21 4.32 4.36 0.00 #11
22 Diana RENNIK / Aleksei SAKS EST 40.04 23.33 16.71 4.50 3.96 4.25 4.18 4.00 0.00 #16

No surprise about who's in first ... but lots of surprises in the rest of the lineup. Esp. to see the Zhangs so far down the order -- they've been skating brilliantly all season.

[Isk8NYC]

This explains the Zhang's position after the short program:

... Reigning World silver medallists Dan Zhang/Hao Zhang (CHN) finished a distant 10th. A mistake on the lift cost them dearly. He did too many rotations and subsequently the lift received no level and was called an illegal element. ...I wondered about the 2.0 deduction - that hurts!

Quoted from the ISU News Page (http://www.isu.org/vsite/vcontent/content/transnews/0,10869,4844-128590-19728-18885-267940-3787-4771-layout160-129898-news-item,00.html)

Apparently, Rena fell on the throw triple axel.

[Artemis]

Wow, I didn't even know there was a rule about # of rotations!

[Lark]

Wow, that is some picky stuff there on the rotation deduction!

It is sad to see so many great skaters having to skate so cautiously with so many picky, some may say dumb, rules. It has kind of taken away from the presentation.

I should say I am surprised to see some Russian team in 4th, considering I have never heard of them before.

[cathrl]

They're a new team, and she broke something in December so they haven't skated much this year either.

They really deserved it, though - they skated beautifully.

I have to say, I think the rules on rotations in lifts are a good idea with the new system. Otherwise you'd get more marks for more rotations and people would be tempted to put in more and more. It would turn into a sort of game about who thought they could safely do the most, and especially for the lower level skaters who might see it as a relatively easy way to up their marks, it could be dangerous if the man's pushing himself to and beyond his physical limit strength-wise while spinning round many times with the girl eight feet above the ice.

[Lark]

I would suggest giving the same score for minimum and maximum rotations. That would allow for the variance in a program, but not make someone do more than they are able to, and risk the safety of the Lady.

I am also a fan of doing away with the Zayak rule that limits jumps in Singles. If you can do 12-3toes or 6-3axels, more power to you. It IS all about points, anyways.

[Artemis]

I think that if they're going to have a rule like that, they should pick one form of penalty, not two. The Zhang's got a double whammy because the lift was counted as zero points and they got the 2-point deduction. That seems unnecessarily harsh. I could see that for a truly illegal move like a headbanger or something like that. But for a regular lift that just happens to have a couple more rotations than what's allowed ...

I wonder what was going on their heads yesterday, though. Because in addition to the mistake on the lift, their entire program seemed rather flat, slow, and lacking in emotion -- very different from what we've seen from them all season.

As for the rest of the programs, I think the judging was generally pretty good. Rena and John were given a huge gift, IMO, but the other placements are good.

I was blown away to find out that Yuko Kawaguchi is 25. She looks about 13!