For a long time, pairs has not been my favourite event. For a long time, it was one of my least favourite events, but that has changed pretty dramatically.
Megan Duhamel and Eric Radford have done a lot to make pairs exciting. They have forced up the level of technical difficulty.
Having heard what their music was going to be, I have to be honest, I wasn't thrilled with their choices.
As anyone who has read this blog for a while will know, I can't stand Moulin Rouge. I cannot stand the movie, and I'm really not a fan of those versions of the song.
That said, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked their short program. That said, I would prefer the original version of Your Song, but it is one of the pieces I hate the least.
I really enjoy watching Duhamel and Radford skate. I know some people don't enjoy watching them, but I like their style, and they're selling their programs, and even though they don't have the best skating skills in the world, they still have good skating skills and choreography, not to mention their technical ability.
Their skates were not perfect, she doubled the sbs lutz in the short, fell on the quad salchow, and popped the quad lutz.
Their skates were a little bit disappointing but still very entertaining to watch and still strong.
They won by a country mile, beating out Castelli and Tran by almost 30 points.
Castelli and Tran have come a long way since last season. They had pretty strong skates this week in Barrie.
Castelli and Tran had some issues on the sbs jumps, but overall were very strong.
I really enjoyed watching both of their programs. They were fun and upbeat, and very entertaining. Though that doesn't suit everyone, this style works very well for them.
They've improved a lot technically, and they look like they're enjoying their programs.
The only thing I would say is that Mervin really needs an actual costume for the short program. Not anything too elaborate, just something more costume like than what he wore this week in the short.
The other three pairs in the event were not as strong as Duhamel and Radford and Castelli and Tran by quite a lot.
The third place team from the US, Pfund and Santillan, finished with a total score of just under 150, compared to Castelli and Tran's almost 178.
Jones and Regan finished in fourth place with a total of 144.55. They skated pretty well, but struggled a little in the freeskate.
Hayleigh Bell and Rudy Sweigers skated this week in Barrie, unlike in Thornhill.
They finished with a total score of 135.43, in last place.
They are still a very new team, and so they had a little more difficulty than the other, more experienced teams.
The biggest problem for Bell and Sweigers was their speed.
Especially compared to Duhamel and Radford, they were very slow moving across the ice.
Their speed had a serious impact on the quality of their elements. Their jumps weren't as high as they could've been and their step sequence was very slow and their edges weren't very deep.
Over time I'm sure we'll see their speed and synchronicity improve, but for now they stood out a little as a less experienced team.
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