Elena Ilinykh & Ruslan Zhiganshin:

Step Sequences Level 3:
…great edges, deep edges, in every Step Sequence there was a moment when some turn was under question of having light edge or no edge, but many turns perfect…
…why judges gave 0 or +1 GOE only, I don’t know…+2 would be OK (with some space to get closer and skate like one in every second until the steps will reach +3 GOE), but judges giving 0 or +1 GOE only, this is really not matching what happened on the ice…

Twizzles Level 4:
…I was shocked, I expected some kind of fight which was in SD, but those are the best Twizzles executed this season from all couples. Simply superb, also perfect synchro during all Sets (they only get closer in the third Set) and Oh my God watch that ice coverage in the first Set, very good ice coverage in the second Set (realise that they are not changing leg, so to keep balance and moving in second Set is very difficult)…
…I re-watched those Twizzles few times and I couldn’t believe that the couple skating together for such short time can execute such perfect Twizzles in such perfect synchro…
…I take today’s Twizzles even better that I&K were doing when they were “in the right mood“…
…I don’t have words for judges – GOE 0 or 1, and even -1 from somebody only supports the idea that their knowledge of Grade of Execution is not on high Level (or somebody persuade them that this couple is no way Russian Federation‘s sweetheart?)….those Twizzles deserved +3 GOE from all judges (only one judge realised what he/she saw and gave +3 GOE)…
…in reality those Twizzles got the same GOE like in SD, which is very very strange…I&Z got GOE + 0.60 points only, while even C&L with visible mistake got GOE +0.96 points, P&C whose Twizzles were no way better got 1.20 points…
Curved Lift Level 2:
…big fight in this lift…
…for Level 3 they needed to have 3 seconds in Difficult position for Lifting partner and 3 seconds in Difficult position for Lifted partner…Ruslan didn’t keep one foot position for three seconds…

Spin Level 1:
…during first part Lena slightly moved up with her upper body during the third rotation (normally it is not visible, only when you watch carefully the blue line on the board), Ruslan moved with his free leg too long until he fixed the position in Sit Spin, so he didn’t keep fixed position for 3 rotations…
…during second part only Ruslan’s camel is counted (lady’s simple camel is not counted like difficult position)…
…in the third part Ruslan has Upright Basic Position (this is not some kind of difficult position) and Lena has difficult position in Camel Basic Position having almost split between legs…
…so only 2 difficult positions were counted, but because they were both from Group of Camel Basic Position, the couple didn’t fulfilled the criteria for Level 2 where you need two different difficult positions in TWO DIFFERENT Basic Positions…so they dropped to Level 1…

Great speed, great skating skills. I would like to see more close holds in Transitions and in future more difficult Transitions, because this couple is really capable of this with no worry to hide some weaknesses. Better unison is needed.

Already now the couple has smaller distance between each other in Step Sequences than I&K ever had, but I would like to see them closer in future.

I see visible improvement in Lena’s free leg extension during most of steps, I hope that at the end of the season all steps will be done with perfect free leg extension.

As to presentation:

Once again I would complain about the couple not skating at some B-competition. This FD is very good (while SD is a masterpiece), but such kind of program needs to be skated more than once to tranfer all emotions and the atmosphere to the audience. I think that every next time this dance will grow and will take more attention.

In presentation - right now there are strong moments and some moments when it is OK, then again strong moment and then OK part, it is not compact yet. Nice gradation towards the end of program, good expression of powerfull moments in music."

There can be some nuances like Lena’s a litle bit more soft knee’s work, but Ruslan’s knee work is still on the top in men’s field together with Nikita. Both Lena and Ruslan have deep edges. They are on the same level in technique.

If some couple is not equal in Skating Skills then:
1) One of them moves faster – it is visible in Step Sequences, one partner skates faster and another one must hurry to catch him, it is also visible in the same turn done together like in Mohawk or Chocktaw, Bracket, Counter, in Double Twizzles…in FD both Lena and Ruslan are doing a few same difficult turns together and you can see that Lena is not getting forward some mile in front of him…
…in FD you can see that during Twizzles Lena is moving a little bit faster in last two rotations of the first Set, but in second and third Set it is Ruslan who is moving a little bit faster…

2) One of partners have light or lighter edges…in case of Lena & Ruslan you can notice that they have both deep edges.

3) The couple is overall slower than the couple where both partners are great technicians – once again visible in Step Sequences…you can notice that I&Z are faster than I&K were in their top form…how it would be possible if Ruslan would be much weaker or weaker than Nikita…
…just compare…I&Z… http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...R7cEYIcnU#t=85
…I&K’s World Champs FD… http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...u4ZKruzw#t=113

I fully agree that they need time to gel, because it is visible that they don’t skate all the time like one unit. I don’t have any idea how long it will take, because they are definitely NOT skating like somebody who is together for such short time…so normal time schedule of geling looks to be not equivalent for them.

If already now they are so fast with having deep edges not only in Step Sequences but also in Transitions (and thanks to not perfect technicians in top field they are maybe the fastest team with Bobrova & Soloviev at the current field, not seen S&K yet) and they were visibly faster then other teams here in Shanghai, then in future it can be only better.