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Russians and Chinese Pairs Hold Top Six Spots at World Championships

Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin in the post-event press conference Photo by Michelle Wojdyla

Event Results, News and Photos

(3/14/05) — Russian pairs skater Tatiana Totmianina admits she is getting a bit bored of the questions about the well-known crash to the ice. Perhaps her partner Maxim Marinin is, too. They seem to go into autopilot whenever they are asked about the fall last October at Smart Ones Skate America.

“The answers are like ones learned by heart,” she said.

Perhaps they could also get bored of winning after taking the lead in the short program over Chinese pair Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao.

Though the Chinese have the acrobatic moves, their spins in Monday's short program were costly, and the Russians are in line for a chance at another World title — and their fourth victory over the Chinese in the last two years.

Totmianina and Marinin were smooth throughout their “Ave Maria” routine, skating with the same grace that helped them to the European title in January.

Each time they do a lift they are endlessly questioned about whether any memories linger. But they take it in stride.

“I know people think that it's unbelievable for me to be skating, but for me I didn't think for one second I would not be back,” Totmianina said.

They scored a personal best of 70.12 points. The Chinese didn't even get second as Russian veterans Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov's tango program scored 66.94 points — .94 above Shen and Zhao's 66.00 points.

Shen and Zhao could still make up the difference as the new scoring system rewards their spectacular twists. Last year, under the 6.0 scoring system, they were in fourth after the short program — meaning not only did they have to win the free skate to capture gold, but that the short program leaders had to finish no higher than third. Now it's all a matter of points.

As expected the Russian and the Chinese fill up the top six spots with Poland's Dorota Zagorska and Mariusz Siudek in seventh.

Zagorska and Siudek would rather forget the last time they were in Msocow at the 2004 Cup of Russia.

“Dorota injured her shoulder on a fall on the throw triple loop, and we were off the ice for several months,'' Siudek said.

American pair chances for two entries in next year's Olympics took a hit when Rena Inoue & John Baldwin finished 12th, and Katie Orscher & Garrett Lucash were 14th.

According to the rules, the combined score of the top two entries must be 28 or less to qualify two teams. It would be the first time since 1924 only one American pair would compete at the Olympics if that happens.

However Inoue and Baldwin finished in the top 10 in both 2003 and 2004 and both teams could likely move up in the free skate.

Inoue and Baldwin had a good routine, but Baldwin doubled the planned side-by-side triple Lutz. Under the new judging system, they only receive credit for double jumps, even though Inoue landed her triple.

“It was a great performance – one of our best yet,” Baldwin said. “We had one slip – not we, me – I doubled my Lutz. For the long program I'm just going to go for it.”

Lucash fell on the side-by-side triple toes, and Orscher fell while landing the throw triple flip.

“The mistakes were unexpected, but that's the short program,” Orscher said.

The pairs free skate is Wednesday, March 16.