Four Continents Short Dance Recap

Many wondered if the altitude of Colorado Springs would have a deleterious effect on the skaters competing at Four Continents. While a few athletes needed to catch their breaths post-program, perhaps the bigger challenge of the short dance event was a tough technical panel – only Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue topped their previous season’s best here.

The centerpiece battles of the event began about as closely as anticipated. American national champions Meryl Davis & Charlie White (pictured, right) took a narrow 0.55-point lead over Canadian national champions Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir, with each team earning mostly level 3s on their elements. While both teams netted level 4s with GOEs of 1.21 for their lifts, Davis & White’s additional level 4 on the twizzles made the difference here, providing them with a Technical Element Score of 34.71 to Virtue & Moir’s 33.92. Their total score of 72.15, however, was four points below their Grand Prix Final season’s best, courtesy of a four-point difference in TES between the two events.

“It’s hard competition to competition with the different technical people,” White said. “I don’t feel like we’ve taken a step back from where we were at the Grand Prix Final. They are maybe being a little more harsh. At altitude, it makes it a little more difficult, so I’m happy with the way we were able to bring it tonight.”

Virtue & Moir, meanwhile, presented another revised version of their short dance, this time featuring new transitions and a hybrid ending combining the rotational lift debuted at Canadians with the Latin “pot-stirrer” twirl which concluded the Grand Prix performances. A late blade-catch from Tessa in the twizzles and a bobble for Scott in the no-touch circular step sequence impacted the levels and GOEs of those elements, but the program revisions along with their overall performance level helped provide the team with a program component score of 37.68, 0.24 above Davis & White’s and the highest seen internationally this season.

“It was a good skate for Tessa and I, the way that we attacked it,” Moir said. “I made a couple of mistakes and there are some places where we can make up some points at Worlds, but all in all, the changes we have done in the last month, and specifically in the weeks since Nationals, have really worked well.”

Kaitlyn Weaver & Andrew Poje faced the daunting task of skating on the heels of a wildly audience-pleasing performance by Maia & Alex Shibutani, but the team succeeded in drawing upon that crowd momentum. Their performance earned a PCS of 32.80, a new ISU personal best, and earned a total 64.23 points, putting the couple in third place and just less than a point ahead of the Shibutanis. Technical issues held Weaver & Poje two points below their season’s best total; while their straight-line lift and twizzles earned level 4s, both sequences of the Rhumba earned only level 2s, a first for the couple this season.

“We trained the Rhumba harder than ever after Nationals, so to see the levels be lower is frustrating,” Weaver said. “Every caller has a different objective they are looking for. We need to go home and cover the gray areas so there will be no doubt the next time. The tough callers make us better. It makes us stronger. It makes us push harder because you never know who you’re going to get as a caller. I think it makes us all better.”

Maia & Alex Shibutani presented a heavily-revised short dance at U.S. Nationals two weeks ago to considerable success. Though their performance here matched the one in San Jose for energy and spirit, the team received a score of only 63.38, a drop of nine points from that outing and over two points off their Grand Prix Final ISU season’s best. Despite the lower overall marks here, however, the Shibutanis actually earned a marginally higher TES than Weaver & Poje, with a level 3 on the second Rhumba sequence earning the siblings 31.86 to the other team’s 31.43.

“I think it’s another good experience for us. We want the judges to be tough because then we know what we have to work on when we get home and be ready for the World Championships,” Alex said.

For first-year team Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue, Four Continents may be a test run in advance of Worlds, providing the couple with an opportunity to compete against many of the world’s best. While an unfortunate fall for Donohue on the no-touch step sequence impacted their subsequent performance level to a degree, the team was able to set a new ISU season’s best of 49.93, 0.22 points better than that earned at Skate America. The achievement included earning three level 4s, one more than at that event, actually improving their TES by a little under one point to 25.50.

“It obviously was a pretty poor performance,” Hubbell said. “We really worked hard in the time that we had which was only a few days from nationals. We felt like we made significant improvements on our short dance and I think we displayed those in the practices. Unfortunately we went out there today it didn’t click.”

The assignment to Four Continents gave Canada’s Alexandra Paul & Mitchell Islam an opportunity to make a positive international statement after two problematic Grand Prix outings. Their short dance was a good first step, presented more cleanly and with more attack than seen at Skate America or NHK Trophy, but scored only 48.52 – one point lower than at NHK – with levels of only 1 and 2 on the Rhumba sequences here making the biggest difference.

“It was the best one we’ve done all year and it’s really all we’ve wanted to do here,” Islam said. “We went out there and did the best we could.”

“We just really wanted to perform because we really haven’t been able to do that. It’s been a rough season,” Paul added. “Our goal was two good performances and that’s how we wanted to end our season.”

Xiaoyang Yu & Chen Wang of China earned a score of 45.42, three points below their Cup of China season’s best. While the team’s PCS were comparable at each outing, in Colorado Springs, a bobble on the twizzles for Wang dropped that element to a level 1 with a negative GOE of -0.36, meaning a nearly four-point loss in base value.
Four Continents was the first major international event of the season for two teams. Australia’s Danielle O’Brien & Gregory Merriman (pictured, left) earned a total of 40.10, including a PCS of 20.46, three points better than that earned in last year’s Four Continents short dance. Corenne Bruhns & Ryan Van Natten, representing Mexico, took a score of 35.93, including a level 4 on their straight-line lift.

Two teams who competed as juniors in the fall had the chance to compete alongside top seniors here. With a stumble and hand down on the twizzles for him, Anna Nagornyuk & Viktor Kovalenko of Uzbekistan scored 39.93, a bit over 10 points below their Junior Grand Prix season’s high. Kazakhstan’s Cortney Mansour & Daryn Zhunossov had a difficult skate, with Mansour stumbling on the first Rhumba sequence and falling after the twizzles, earning a total of 25.53.

On Sunday, the free dance wraps up the dance events and is the final competition of the 2012 ISU Four Continents Championships.