The figure skating competition at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games continued in Sochi, Russia, on Tuesday with the Pairs Short Program.
Tatiana Volosozhar/Maxim Trankov (RUS) lead Pairs after Short Program
Russia’s Tatiana Volosozhar/Maxim Trankov skated to the lead in the Pairs Short Program at the Iceberg Skating Palace at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games on Tuesday, setting a record score on the way. Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy of Germany are sitting in second place, trailing the Russians by 4.53 points. Ksenia Stolbova/Fedor Klimov of Russia follow in third place.
Volosozhar/Trankov’s powerful performance to “Waltz Masquerade” featured a high triple twist, side by side triple toeloops and a throw triple loop. The World and European Champions picked up a level four for five elements and posted a personal best and record score with 84.17 points. "It was a nervous moment because we needed to repeat our performance from the other night (from the team event). It was good that we managed our emotions. They were under control”, Trankov said. “I was quite nervous and there were moments when things seemed easy and I thought I was just flying but I had to contain myself and focus on the elements since it happened before that the emotions took over and we made mistakes."
Savchenko/Szolkowy put out an entertaining program to "Pink Panther”, hitting a huge throw triple flip and side by side triple toeloops, but their death spiral was rated a level two. The four-time World Champions received 79.64 points, slightly over their previous personal best. "On one hand it was risky to change the short program after the Europeans, but we had more fun this time and it was the right choice to do this for sure”, Savchenko commented. “We started with a great throw. That was the easy part and then we could enjoy the rest. We had a good feeling, indeed the most important thing was to skate clean. We're glad that we did all our elements since we want to fight for the gold. The points don't matter for now. Let's see what comes out in the end”, Szolkowy added.
Stolbova/Klimov delivered a flawless Flamenco routine that included a triple toe, throw triple flip and three level-four elements to earn a personal best of 75.21 points. “In these two years since we moved up from juniors we have made a big breakthrough and we progressed a lot. We didn’t think about points tonight, we just wanted to skate clean and this was our best performance of the season if not ever”, Klimov told the post-event press conference.
2010 Olympic silver medalists Qing Pang/Jian Tong (CHN) came fourth with 73.30 points. Pang under-rotated the triple toeloop. World bronze medalists Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford (CAN) finished fifth with 72.21 points. She wobbled in the footwork while he had to fight for the landing of the side by side triple Lutz. Kirsten Moore-Towers/Dylan Moscovitch (CAN) were sixth with 70.92 points.
A total of 20 Pairs representing 12 ISU members competed in the Short Program and the top 16 advance to the Free Skating .The figure skating competition at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games continues Wednesday with the Pairs Free Skating.
Results