GPF Senior Pairs SP & Senior Men SP

It's late, so just a few quick thoughts on the Senior Pairs and Senior Men short programs. Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov were awesome! This was my first time seeing them skate live. Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy had a small uncharacteristic mistake on the throw flip, so they're slightly behind V/T in the standings. These two teams have quite a lead on the rest of the field.

Aside from the top two performances, I also enjoyed Narumi Takahashi and Mervin Tran, another team I hadn't seen live before. They have some innovative transitions and choreography.

Senior Men was a little all over the place with some crazy stuff happening. The biggest "OMG did that just happen" moment was when Patrick Chan jumped into the boards doing a triple toe on the back end of his quad toe. BAM! One of the most insane things I've seen at a skating event in eleven years.

Daisuke Takahashi didn't do the second jump in his planned combination, another surprising turn of events. Jeremy Abbott also had combination issues but adjusted his program to take care of the problem. There were no perfectly clean programs in the event.

On to the photos from tonight!

2011 Grand Prix Final Sr Pairs SP & Sr Men SP