Pairs' short program (FINAL)
1. Wenjing Sui/Cong Han CHN - 66.75
2. Caydee Denney/John Coughlin USA - 63.35
3. Mary Beth Marley/Rockne Brubaker USA - 62.42
4. Narumi Takahashi/Mervin Tran JPN - 61.54
5. Amanda Evora/Mark Ladwig USA - 60.75
6. Paige Lawrence/Rudi Swiegers CAN - 57.97
7. Jessica Dube/Sebastien Wolfe CAN - 57.68
8. Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford CAN - 57.53
9. Huibo Dong/Yiming Wu CHN - 49.52
10. Yue Zhang/Lei Wang CHN - 48.04
Paige Lawrence/Rudi Swiegers CAN - Beetlejuice - triple twist (collision, leaned really far inside the circle, but held on), side-by-side triple salchow, a little iffy on the setdown of that lift, throw triple lutz (hangs on) - TES 31.28, PCS 26.69, SP SCORE 57.97
Amanda Evora/Mark Ladwig USA - speed into triple twist (nice), side-by-side triple toe (Evora two-foot, possibly underrotated), throw triple loop (nice) - possibly the best they've skated this program this season, hope that toe isn't underrotated - TES 32.47, PCS 28.28, SP SCORE 60.75
Wenjing Sui/Cong Han CHN - Tano triple twist, side-by-side triple toe (nice), throw triple flip (nice) - the difference in maturity between them and Takahashi/Tran are apparent, but they have the elements - TES 37.31, PCS 29.44, SP SCORE 66.75
Narumi Takahashi/Mervin Tran JPN - Imagine - side-by-side triple salchow (Takahashi fall), triple twist (out of the sky), throw triple salchow (nice) - beautifully elegant, a fall on the solo sal but they got the rest of it together - TES 34.74, PCS 27.80, FALL -1.00, SP SCORE 61.54
Final group on the ice for warmup, and it's a packed one. Skate order: Takahashi/Tran, Sui/Han, Evora/Ladwig, Lawrence/Swiegers.
Huibo Dong/Yiming Wu CHN - Concerto do Aranjuez - side-by-side tripel toe (hangs on), triple twist (all lateral), throw triple loop (hand down, step out) - TES 27.29, PCS 22.23, SP SCORE 49.52
Yue Zhang/Lei Wang CHN - triple twist, side-by-side triple toe (Zhang doubles, Wang steps out), throw triple loop (outside the circle, came down completely on two feet) - TES 24.41, PCS 23.63, SP SCORE 48.04
Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford CAN - Aranjuez - triple twist (a bit too quick on the setdown), side-by-side triple salchow (Duhamel all sorts of off-axis in the air but held on), some good and mediocre parts about that step sequence, lift a bit slow, throw triple flip (hand down) - a couple of iffy issues on the elements, that should put them in third (scratch that - I believe they got their pair spin invalidated) - TES 31.44, PCS 26.09, SP SCORE 57.53
Second group on the ice to warm up. Skate order: Duhamel/Radford, Zhang/Wang, Dong/Wu. Still catching my breath after those three great programs to open the competition. What a great way to start. And then we've got Duhamel/Radford, the new Canadian champs, coming up. Unfortunately, the two Chinese pairs in this flight are not the most refined, but still, we should be seeing some strong elements from them.
Mary Beth Marley/Rockne Brubaker USA - Singing in the Rain - steps into side-by-side triple toe (nice!), triple twist (airy), throw triple lutz (comes down literally two feet side-by-side, but fully-rotated) - TES 34.96, PCS 27.46, SP SCORE 62.42
Jessica Dube/Sebastien Wolfe CAN - triple twist (a bit low but pretty clean catch and setdown), side-by-side triple salchow (nice), throw triple lutz (very nice) - what a huge difference a few months have done for them, they didn't look like they could've possibly gotten this good when they debuted during the off-season - TES 31.28, PCS 26.40, SP SCORE 57.68
Caydee Denney/John Coughlin USA - East of Eden - triple twist (huge!), side-by-side triple toe (nice and smooth), throw triple flip (tentative on the landing, but just hangs on) - TES 35.55, PCS 27.80, SP SCORE 63.35
First group on the ice for warmup! Skate order: Denney/Coughlin, Dube/Wolfe, Marley/Brubaker. Three talented pairs, two in their rookie season and one in their sophomore season, all three pairs have looked stronger and stronger this season.
Pregame analysis: With ten pairs in the field, the pairs' event isn't nearly the marathon that the men's and ladies' competitions were. And that's also to say that the majority of these pairs have a real shot at the podium. There really is no clear favorite - I can see scenarios where any of five pairs could win the title - Denney/Coughlin, Duhamel/Radford, Takahashi/Tran, Sui/Han, and Evora/Ladwig all have what it takes to get to the top. Let's see who will put it together to race out in front today.
Stay tuned - right here! - for LIVE up-to-the-second play-by-play coverage and commentary of the pairs' short program at the 2012 Four Continents Championships. Coverage starts at 3:00 p.m. Eastern / 12:00 p.m. Pacific / 5:00 a.m. (Sunday) Tokyo. Take a look at the previews and predictions here.
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Below is the skate order. Note that the U.S. gold and silver medalists are going in the first group. The Canadian champions start off the second group. And the last group will have the rest of the heavy hitters.
Pairs' short program (skate order)
GROUP 1
1. Caydee Denney/John Coughlin USA
2. Jessica Dube/Sebastien Wolfe CAN
3. Mary Beth Marley/Rockne Brubaker USA
GROUP 2
4. Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford CAN
5. Yue Zhang/Lei Wang CHN
6. Huibo Dong/Yiming Wu CHN
GROUP 3
7. Narumi Takahashi/Mervin Tran JPN
8. Wenjing Sui/Cong Han CHN
9. Amanda Evora/Mark Ladwig USA
10. Paige Lawrence/Rudi Swiegers CAN
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