Friday CD / OD practice:
-Fang Yang / Chongbo Gao (group 3): nice technique, probably good enough to get at least into the best 24.
- Buck / Nelson-Bond (group 4): a little stiff, didn't pay too much attention to them.
- Kulikova / Novikov (group 4): good speed and ice coverage, very dynamic.
- Kauc / Zych (group 5): If I remember right they had some problems with their lengthwise step sequence in the OD. I didn't take notes and so I don't know if I maybe mix up Kauc / Zych and Janostakova / Prochazka.
- Janostakova / Prochazka (groupe 6): See Kauc / Zych... Tomas Verner took pictures of them while they practiced.
There weren't any more couples that practiced during the time I was there. I saw only the last four dance groups.

Comments:
- Navka Kostomarov have won all competition parts. I did not see their OD, but their FP may be entertaining, but it lacks difficulty in steps and transitions. For every music cut N / K stand before they go on skating.
- Denkova / Staviski won their CD group, but got the second place in the other competition parts. Their FP is difficult, but seems to be a little too difficult for them, because they cannot skate it with ease. However I would have put them ahead of N / K in the FP.
- Winkler / Lohse got in second place in their CD group and were 4th in the OD. Their bronze medal can be justified if we look at their whole career, but their FP was a little slow and not so difficult. It is a beautiful program though.
- Grushina / Gonsharov were second in their CD group and 3rd in the OD, which is one of the best ODs of this season. In the FP they lost the bronze medal to W / L. This could have been the other way around, too.
- Belbin / Agosto were only 4th in their CD group, but oved up with a good OD and FD.
- Delobel / Schoenfelder were badly influenced by a hand injury of Olivier, but made it into 6th place.
- After a fall in the OD Chait / Sakhnovski were behind Dubreuil / Lauzon, but with a really good and powerful FD they made the 7th place.
- Dubreuil / Lauzon came in 8th position with their interpretation of a tango.
- Faiella / Scali skated to my mind better than at the Europeans and got the 9th place.
- Domnina / Shabalin were able to hold their 10th place after the OD in the FD.
- Wing / Lowe came in 11th position, but could have also got the 10th, if they had not skated so much earlier than D / S.
- Gregory / Petukhov skated a solid FP, but lost one place in comparison with the OD.
- Kulikova / Novikov were only 9th in their CD group, but with powerful skating in both OD and FD they moved up to the 13th position.
- The Kerrs moved up from an 8th place in their CD group to finish 14th. Their OD and FD are very good and they will make big steps into the top.
- Gudina / Beletski skated three solid programs and were behind the Kerrs, even though at the Europeans they were ahead of them, but this way the result seems to be more justified.
- Fraser / Lukanin had some interesting moves in their FD, but also had a kind of fall and fell back in the FD ranking behind Watanabe / Kido.
- Watanabe / Kido improved a lot and moved up from the 10th CD group rank to the 18th in the OD and the 16th in the FD. Their FD is really convincing and they deserved to move up that much.
- Hoffmann / Elek fell twice during the FD and fell back behind W / K.