From: cs431109@umbc5.umbc.edu (cs431109)
Subject: 1992 World Pro Championships from Landover, MD
Organization: University of Maryland Baltimore Campus, Academic Computing Services
Distribution: na
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 06:48:03 GMT


I thought some of you might like to know the results of the Dec. 12 competion,
which will air in January. If you don't want to know, I'll bs for a few lines
so you can quit my note without seeing.
 
There were new faces in this years show, and a few faces were definately
missed.  Absent were Scott Hamilton, Underhill and Martini, Peter and Kitty,
Debi Thomas and Robin Cousins -- all were missed.  But there were excellent
performances by the new people -- Kristi Yamaguchi and Paul Wylie debuted
in the competition and were immediate crowd and judge pleasers.

The pairs competition was disappointing, except for the winners. Why do the
Russian pairs pick such abhorant music? The dance competition was equally
abismal except for the winners.  The ladies competition was probably the
best I have seen in the 5 years I've attended this show.  And of course,
the mens competition was awesome. Well I've rambled enough.

Pairs:                           Dance:
1. Gordeeva and Grinkov  99.5    1. Annenko and Sretenski 99.6
2. Bechke/Petrov         99.1    2. Bestemianova/Bukin 98.8
3. Mishkutenok/Dmitriev  97.9    3. Engi/Toth   97.4
4. Valova/Vassiliev      96.6

Ladies:                          Mens:
1. Kristi Yamaguchi  99.9        1. Brian Boitano  99.5
2. Denise Biellmann  99.1        2. Paul Wylie   98.9
3. Rosalind Sumners  98.2        3. Brian Orser  98.8
4. Jill Trenery      97.2        4. Viktor Petrenko  97.3

I had a hard time believing Ekaterina Gordeeva recently had a baby. She
has the abdomen of a ten year old.  Bechke/Petrov were really the
highlight of the pairs comp. They were simply excellent and the judging
really is subjective. The dance comp. was a complete surprise. Bestemianova
and Bukin are just getting too theatrical. Their Free dance piece was the
music from Platoon --Adagio for strings by somebody I can't remember.
Their costumes were just way too distracting, as usual. Annenko
and Sretenski skated their way to perfect marks with Nat and Natalie
Cole's Unforgettable.

Jill Trenery, an obvious graduate of the Katarina Witt Acadamey of "Not"
Skating, was the only flaw of the ladies competition. Kristi was simply
outstanding with a perferct score for her technical piece.  Denise, whose
choice of music usually escapes me, chose two pieces that were worth
listening to, and it greatly enhanced her performance. Rosalind skated
flawlessly.

The men's competition had a few surprises. In the five competitions I've
seen at Landover, this was Brian Orser's very best. In fact, its's the
best I've seen him skate since the Olympics in 88. Wylie only narrowly
edged him out for 2nd, and they were in fact tied after the technical
part. Boitano's scores should have been much higher.  I think the judges
didn't give him all tens for his technical piece because Petrenko had
yet to skate, but Petrenko had an extremely poor technical piece, falling
twice and bringing in the worst performance of the evening. He made up
for it in the artistic piece, but not nearly enough to do better than the
rest. 

Boitano pulled a piece out of his attic and redid Pavarotti's 
Parlami d'amore, Mariu. He put in a few more jumps than I've seen in his
exhibition performance of that piece, and was naturally breathtaking.
His technical piece was to Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite. This guy just seems
to keep getting better and better. He was presented with the Skater
of the year award from American Skating Magazine (I think that's the
name, please correct me if I'm wrong and tell me where I can subscribe.)

This was the 13th World Pro Championships, and coincidently, the Zamboni
machine decided to take part in the act wreaking havoc with the show.
Marv Brooks, the announcer, gave it a 2.5.

Also fyi, the 1993 Tour of World Figure Skating Champions is scheduled
to include: Brian Boitano, Viktor Petrenko, Peter Barna, Mark Mitchell
Todd Eldredge, Gary Beacom, Torvill and Dean, Klimova and Ponomarenko,
the Duchesnays, Usova and Zhulin, Nancy Kerrigan, Jill Trenary, Tonya
Harding, Mishkutenok and Dmitriev, Brasseur and Eisler, Urbanski and 
Marval, Kovaridova and Novotny, and surprise surprise!! Tai Babilonia
and Randy Gardner.


Mary :-)


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