2013 Shanghai Slalom Open – DAY 1

 

pair, speed trials, junior classic

 

August 3-5, 2013

The Bund - Photo : S.Laffargue
The Bund - Photo : S.Laffargue

OPENING CEREMONY

 

 

6:30AM. Appointment in the lobby of the hotel to get on one of the three coaches that will drive us to the Bund, facing the Pearl Tower, to attend the opening ceremony at 7:30AM followed by the kick-off of the event: Pair classic.

 

The ceremony was short with a few speeches from officials and politicians, and punctuated by the march out of the representatives of each attending country and a couple of inline dancing acts.

 

Opening ceremony
Opening ceremony
L.Guslandi (Ita) - Photo : Guan Lin
L.Guslandi (Ita) - Photo : Guan Lin

 

PAIR CLASSIC on the BUND

 

The first competition of the event followed as soon as 8-is right there, on the banks, in an (already) hot sun with a smashing view onto the Peal Tower... unfortunately conceiled by the army of flags embodying each attending country lined up along the river.

11 pairs had registered for the pair classic: 4 Chinese, 2 from Taipei, 2 from Hong Kong, 1 Singaporean, 1 Korean and... 1 Polish, the only European pair (the Italian having withdrawn) as well as the only co-ed pair. One pair from Taipei was made of two teenage girls – very girly from the Asian pop music to the leather-and-leopard outfit and the teasing attitudes, the rest was boys only.

 

PAIR FREESTYLE CHAMPIONS:

Let's mention a few of them by order to go...

 

* Chinese LIAO JIE (#96) and WU RUN ZE (#646) all dressed up in smart black-and-white costumes and white gloves, offering a smooth and clean performance with detailed footwork but lacking finishing in their main tricks: they finish at the 5th position.

 

* Singaporean TERENCE CHEUNG (#222) and LIM WU KAI (#51), the first hardly back from the army and the second soon joining it, in quite an interesting act to a dubstep remix of La Roux's “In it for the kill” with matching footwork but with too many unbalanced trick endings: They end up 7th.

 

* Chinese LAN WANG HENG (#39) and YE HAO QIN (#4) set the technical bar higher, trickier, faster and pretty expressive but lacking cleanliness as for the execution: They deserve the 3rd place.

 

* Chinese GUO FANG (#10) and ZHANG HAO (#17) follow their team mates, outbidding them in technique and creativity, in a run topped with very refined footwork and street style attitudes corresponding to their music. With “UP” written on their caps and to the sound of “We're moving up” they were predestined to the 1st place.

 

* Korean YU JIN SEONG (#6) and LEE CHOONG GOON (#5) playing the self-derision card as usual, in a slightly gay-ish performance with fun breaks to a good old Asian rock'n roll. However their purely technical performance is quite poor and is dragged down by a couple of serious losses of balance from LCG's part; The much awaited pair finishes at the foot of the podium, getting the 4th place.

 

* MICHAL SULINOWSKI (#2) and KLAUDIA HARTMANIS (#2), the European couple, bring up the rear with a quality performance worthy of their Asian siblings, including a huge number of proper tricks which may not have been as crazy technical as some Chinese's but cleanly performed from preparation to landing, and a few appropriate breaks with popping moves – all they lack is a bit more confidence and amplitude in their acting; they get a well-deserved 2nd place!

 

 

 

M.Sulinowski & K.Hartmanis (Pol) - Photo : Guan Lin
M.Sulinowski & K.Hartmanis (Pol) - Photo : Guan Lin

SPEED SLALOM TRIALS

 

 

After a good break, the competition resumed at 1PM with the speed slalom trials for all categories.

 

• THE JUNIOR WOMEN were 17 Asians (China, Taipei and Thailand) to try their luck. Without surprise, Chinese LU QIAN QIAN (#54) takes the lead of the qualifiers (4.941), followed by two Taipeians.

 

• Chinese PAN YU SHUO (#113) imposes himself in front of 26 JUNIOR MEN, far ahead with a best time of 4.483. The only European of the category, Italian LORENZO GUSLANDI (#20) takes the 7th qualifying place. Let's also note the qualification of YE HAO QIN (#36) who manages to get the 5th place despite a few cones down and tired-out bearings.

 

• IN THE SENIOR WOMEN'S WANG TSU CHIEN (#19) of Taipei causes a stir in getting the first qualifying place (4.839) in front of Italian BARBARA BOSSI (#2) while Chinese MENG YUN (#31) secures the 3rd place of the trial ranking, out of 17 competitors. KLAUDIA HARTMANIS (#4) is the 2nd European and last skater to qualify.

 

• IN THE SENIOR MEN'S Korean YU JIN SEONG (#7) seizes the first qualifying place, 3 thousandths in front of Chinese GUO FANG (#3), 4.483 and 4.486. The leader of that 40-skater category makes a bad fall passing the finish line at his second run, lies on the ground for some endless seconds and finally gets up with difficulty under of the public's applause. More frightened than hurt. Amongst the qualified skaters for the final phase: French ROMAIN LEBOIS (#4) 4th, Chinese LAN WANG HENG (#9) 5th, Russain ANDREY SHITOV (#39) 6th, Polish MICHAL SULINOWSKI (#12) and DAWID JAWORSKI (#16) 10th and 12th, Italian TIZIANO FERRARI (#10) 13th, French IGOR CHEREMETIEFF (#14) 15th and Chinese LIAO JIE (#77) 16th.

 

Feng Hui (Chn) - Photo : Guan Lin
Feng Hui (Chn) - Photo : Guan Lin

JUNIOR CLASSIC

THE GIRLS CATEGORY is mainly made of 9 Chinese juniors and 4 skaters from Thailand, Taipei and Hong Kong who end up at the bottom of the ranking. Thai CHANYA MONGKOLCHAREONCHOK (#14) had her chances to make a good ranking but her bad fall during her christie costs her dearly and she finds herself at the 8th place. The two leaders of the category are no surprise: FENG HUI (#6) and GUAN YU XIANG (#16) respectively get the gold and silver. They are a cut above the rest as for expressivity, amplitude, ease on skates... and let's not even mention the technical level of the combos in their runs! ZHAO YI RAN (#146) completes the podium.

 

 

 

JUNIOR WOMEN'S CLASSIC CHAMPION:

Feng Hui (CHN)

 

 

THE BOYS CATEGORY has 25 participants and here again no surprise as for the top-3: Chinese YE HAO QIN (#4), ZHANG HAO (#17) and PAN YU SHUO (#65) seize the podium in that order. Let's note the good ranking of the two Europeans taking part, Italian LORENZO GUSLANDI (#15) and Russian SERGEY TIMCHENKO (#48) who respectively end up at the 4th and 6th places, both runs filled with technical combos but lacking music expression.

 

 

 

JUNIOR MEN'S CLASSIC CHAMPION:

Ye Hao Qin (CHN)

 

Junior Women Classic Top-5:

 

 

  1. Feng Hui (CHN) http://youtu.be/dYIW8n7J78g

  2. Guan Yu Xiang (CHN) http://youtu.be/hvNON95IMNo

  3. Zhao Yi Ran (CHN)

  4. Wang Dingyuxin (CN)

  5. Xu ShuHua (CHN)

 

 

Junior Men Classic Top-10:

 

 

  1. Ye Hao Qin (CHN) http://youtu.be/pTHvTmC6N84

  2. Zhang Hao (CHN) http://youtu.be/Z4TmuDKvLqA

  3. Pan Yu Shuo (CHN) http://youtu.be/SQw2hbzK7Mg

  4. Lorenzo Guslandi (ITA)

  5. Zeng Chen Yu (CHN)

  6. Sergey Timchenko (RUS)

  7. Zhu Tian Le (CHN)

  8. Kanchanok Sawangsri (THA)

  9. Wu Run Ze (CHN)

  10. Lui Bo (CHN)

 

Tomorrow starts at 8AM with the Speed Slalom KO Systems, followed by the senior Classic categories and last but not least the slides in the evening!

 

 

DAY 2 – Speed finals, Senior Classic and Slides: http://www.worldslalomseries.com/news/articles/sso-day-2/

 

DAY 3 – Battle: http://www.worldslalomseries.com/news/articles/sso-day-3/

 

By Chloe Seyres for www.worldslalomseries.com