The
Chinese Nationals 2005
by Coralline
Photos © China-Ice.com
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This
year’s Chinese Nationals, which was also a part of
the 10th National Games of China, took place in the rink
of Nanjing Olympic Centre from Sept 22nd to 25th. This rink
had just been completed in August, and was the first standard
rink in southern China. (Because of the weather, ice skating
in southern China is not as popular as it is in the North.)
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It’s
the first time for most audience members here to watch a live figure
skating competition. There are more than 12 000 seats and the arena
is very nice.
There were four events: Ladies, Men, Pairs and Ice dancing, including
140 skaters from the whole country aged from 12-30. The old 6.0
scoring system was applied. Most top skaters in China participated
in this competition: Dan Fang, Yan Liu, Binshu Xu in Ladies; Chenjiang
Li, Min Zhang, Lun Song in Men; Fang Yang/Chongbo Gao in Ice dancing;
and Qing Pang/Jian Tong, Dan Zhang/Hao Zhang, Yang Ding/Chongfei
Ren in Pairs.
Pairs
There were 8 pairs in all. Although the world famous pair Xue
Shen/Hongbo Zhao didn’t attend the competition because of
Zhao’s injury, the Pairs competition was still the main focus
of the Media and audience, since it was the first time for the other
two pairs in the national team, Pang/Tong and Zhang/Zhang, to perform
their new programs of the Olympic season.
Pairs before SP
In the Short Program, Pang/Tong skated to “Variations on
a Theme of Paganini (by Rachmaninoff)” and took the lead.
This past summer they went to America and worked with Sarah Kawahara
for a while, and this beautiful program showed that their performance
had been improved with Sarah’s help. Zhang/Zhang skated to
“Kashmir” by Led Zeppelin, but Dan Zhang (the girl)
stepped out of the side-by-side jump, finishing second. Another
pair, Ding/Ren, who won the Junior Grand Prix Final in Hague in
2003, finished third.
In the Long Program, Ding/Ren were the first of the top three to
compete. Their music was from “Lord of the Rings” and
this program was choreographed by Lu Chen and her husband Denis.
I liked this program but unfortunately they made several mistakes.
Zhang/Zhang were next. Their music was a mix of “La Califfa”
and the famous Chinese song “Descendants of the Dragon”.
They opened with the huge and perfect throw quad Salchow that amazed
everyone in the stadium. Other jumps and elements were also flawless,
but their sbs spins still need to be improved. After that performance
they got four 5.9s and one 5.8 in Technical merits (which they deserved),
and three 5.9s and two 5.8s in presentation (which was a little
high in my opinion). Pang/Tong were
the last pair to skate that night. Their music was “Phantom
of the Opera”. Their costumes were yellow and black. I’d
like to say that although Tong doubled two jumps, their performance
was the best of the evening. Their choreography was fantastic! However
because of the technical gap, they finished second.
Before SP |
Our banner for Pang & Tong |
The other 5 young pairs were not so appealing. None of them had
a clean and impressive program.
Highlights of the other diciplines
The competitions of the ladies and men were divided into three parts:
LP exhibition (sort of like the QR), SP and LP. Each program of
the LP exhibition lasted about 4’30 and required 2-4 jumps.
Most skaters chose to do 3 jumps like in the SP. I did not watch
the men’s LP exhibition.
In the ladies’ LP exhibition, two girls
impressed me most: Yan Liu, 21
years old, dressed in a red mandarin gown, skated to the soundtrack
from “In the Mood of Love”. Although she fell
on one jump, her graceful style and expression of the music
put her in the first place. |
Before SP |
The other girl was Bishu
Xu, only 15 years old. She placed 7th in this year’s
Junior World Champion. Her program was “Little Wonder”,
choreographed by Lu Chen. She landed all three jumps clean
and beautifully, and did some interesting footwork, finishing
third. The former National champion, Dan Fan, only finished
fourth because of some jump problems. |
After LP |
In the following days, Yan Liu held her position with her clean
and steady performance of “Valley of the Red River”
(SP) and “My Parents” (LP), winning the gold medal.
Dan Fan caught up by better programs and more confidence, eventually
finishing second. Bishu Xu, had excellent presentation in the SP,
but fell on two jumps in her LP “Mulan”, and got the
bronze medal.
Men before SP
In the men’s competition, Chengjiang Li had a clean-cut victory.
His SP was to “Liebestraum”. However, in my opinion
he still lacked a little grace compared to Ilia Kulik, and the color
of his costume (an azure one) was too bright. Anyway, he won without
any difficulty. Lun Song was second with Song Gao third.
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A 16-year-old young man named Jinlin
Guan drew my attention. He had finished 5th in this
year’s Junior Worlds. His style was different from the
other Chinese men, somehow resembling Jeffrey Buttle and Johnny
Weir. He still has a lot to improved, but personally he became
my “hope for the further”. ;P |
Ice-dancing was not China’s strong point, but all the dancers
gave their best performances. Xiaoyang Yu/Chen
Wang’s free dance was interesting, set to the music
from the Chinese Movie “House of Flying Dragons”. Wang
was dressed like an ancient warrior. In the end they got the silver
medal with Fang Yang/Chongbo Gao winning
the gold and Xintong Huang/Xun Zheng finishing third.
Off-ice
After winning the bronze medal in Pairs, Yang Ding sat with us to
watch the rest of the competitions. She is a petite young lady,
kind and outgoing. We talked happily and had snacks together. ?
She said she seldom puts on weight no matter how much she eats,
and same with Qing Pang, the lady in Pang/Tong pair. “Oh we
envy you!” us girls exclaimed, and she laughed. Unfortunately,
because of her partner Ren’s decision to retire, she also
has to give up skating. Thus this was the last National they attended
and they have withdrawn from the Grand Prix Series this season.
“It’s difficult to find a suitable partner for me now
in China.” Yang Ding said. However,
she hoped she can become a judge after retiring.
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We also encountered the silver-medal ice-dancing
girl Xiaoyang Yu, and the ladies’ champion Yan Liu off-ice.
Both were beautiful and sweet young ladies. Then we found
Bin Yao, the famous coach of
Chinese national team. All of them are very kind and posed
for photos with us. |
In this Chinese Nationals, we saw the amazing throw quad, watched
many beautiful programs, and met lots of hard-working skaters. It
was a memorable competition and I also hope it will help to make
figure skating more popular in southern China.
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