2007 Worlds Pairs SP | Shen-Zhao steal on-ice spotlight, on way to third World title

HD format, British coverage (commentators: Chris Howarth, Simon Reed)
2007年世界フィギュアスケート選手権 | Selected pairs short program (SP) performances from the 2007 World Figure Skating Championships (Metropolitan Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japan), marked with (^) below:
Final Rank Name Nation Total points SP^ FS
1 Shen Xue / Zhao Hongbo China 203.50 1 71.07^ 1 132.43
2 Pang Qing / Tong Jian China 188.46 3 66.75^ 2 121.71
3 Aliona Savchenko / Robin Szolkowy Germany 187.39 2 67.65^ 3 119.74
4 Tatiana Volosozhar / Stanislav Morozov Ukraine 173.62 8 57.62^ 5 116.00
5 Zhang Dan / Zhang Hao China 173.39 10 57.00^ 4 116.39
6 Valérie Marcoux / Craig Buntin Canada 167.25 5 60.73^ 6 106.52
7 Jessica Dubé / Bryce Davison Canada 164.59 7 58.94^ 7 105.65
8 Rena Inoue / John Baldwin United States 163.97 6 59.50^ 8 104.47
9 Yuko Kawaguchi / Alexander Smirnov Russia 163.62 4 62.07^ 10 101.55
11 Maria Mukhortova / Maxim Trankov Russia 150.43 12 56.14^ 11 94.29
WD Dorota Siudek / Mariusz Siudek Poland 9 57.23^
WD Maria Petrova / Alexei Tikhonov Russia 11 56.36^
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[from the Japan Times] China's two-times world champions Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao stole the show in the second-to-last skate to lead after the pairs' short program on the opening day of the World Figure Skating Championships.
The Winter Gaes bronze medalists, who have missed the last two championships because of Zhao's injuries, executed a near flawless routine to "Romanza" by Bacarisse on Tuesday evening and scored 71.07 points to beat their previous personal best of 70.52.
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Extract from Golden Skate (https://www.goldenskate.com/shen-and-... As the Four Continents Champions closed the program with a pair combination spin, the audience rose to their feet as one with an extended standing ovation. Shen was very happy with the performance as was her partner.
“It is still hard to do jumps because of my Achilles injury,” admitted Zhao, “but I am very happy to make our personal best today. The audience was cheering us up and I felt so good. I hope we will earn another personal best score tomorrow to win these worlds before we retire.”
Aljona Savchenko (23) and Robin Szolkowy (27) of Germany had the audience clapping along as they skated an exciting program to music from the soundtrack Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Their matching lines and extension were accented by Savchenko’s black tights.
The European Champions opened with a clean throw triple flip, followed by side-by-side triple toe loops that were close together and in perfect sync. Their level 1 triple twist had a late catch and was the only element which didn’t receive a +GOE. The team also produced a level 4 lift which had an innovative entrance, lovely air position, and good speed across the ice. Both of the spins were excellent and were awarded level 4, as was their spiral sequence which contained unusual positions and transitions.
The team scored a new personal best of 67.65 points for a second place finish.
“Our short program performance tonight was quite good,” said Szolkowy. “It was the second best short program of the season for us. Only the triple twist was a bit shaky, and overall it felt somewhat difficult to skate. As for the free skating, we intend, as always, to do our very best and to show what we do in practice each day.”
The German Champions are not intimidated by being in the mix with three strong Chinese teams.
“We need to stand in the middle!” said Savchenko. “We are not going to change any elements in our long program anymore, but we will just have to skate like at the European Championships.”
“For an athlete there is never a perfect performance,” continued Szolkowy. “At German Nationals we had a good feeling and it was fun, whereas today things were a bit harder. We have high expectations of ourselves, so we will have to concentrate and pull ourselves together.”
China’s Qing Pang (27) and Jian Tong (27) showed good connection to O Doux Printemps d’Autrefois by Jules Massenet and every move reflected the nuances of the music, earning 66.75 points for a third place finish.
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special thanks to Kim!