Okay, this must have been a long day of indoor play. Mixed Semis, Women’s Semis, Open Pairs Semis and Open Co-op Semis.
Hard to make educated commentary just on the scores. It’s impossible to get past my expectations and substantial biases without actually seeing the performances, but that’s not going to hold me back. Here goes:
1. Mixed Pairs
Defending champs Fabio Sanna and Eleonora Imazio may have their work cut out for them, as they tied Paul Kenny and Sarah Bergman for first in their pool while scoring almost two points higher in execution. Meanwhile, Lisa Hunrichs and Matt Gauthier crushed the other pool by more than 10 points with a super clean (28.2 execution) performance. That indoor play really makes a difference, huh? Fabio and Eleonora could very well have held back some surprises for the finals. We’ll see tomorrow. Four teams qualified for the finals – Bergman/Kenny, Imazio/Sanna, Hunrichs/M. Gauthier and Daniels/J. Gauthier. The other ten teams will battle it out tomorrow morning for the final two positions.
2. Women’s Semis
Looks like Lisa Hunrichs and Lori Daniels have this one well in control as long as they play solid. They hit a solid but not stupendous execution score (26.4 – about 4 drops) and still beat Eleonora Imazio and Sylvia Caruso by 4 points.
3. Open Pairs Semi A
To be honest, I’m a little surprised that Imperiale/Sanna outscored Lewis/Marron by so much given how clean Lewis/Marron played. Not having seen the round, I’ll have to reserve judgment until I see the video. Fabio and Larry have a strong routine with difficult elements. They pulled it off and won the pool on the basis of a higher artistic score. I have my personal biases of course given my longtime teammate was in this battle, but I would have expected the scoring to be closer. The #3 (Meola/Cusmá) and #4 (Kenny/Wentzel) spots were expected. Could have gone either way. Both are standard finals teams. I thought Bo Bul and Hartmut Wahrmann had a shot at the finals, especially given the indoor setting, but they came about 4 points short in 5th place.
4. Open Pairs Semi B
Both Pairs pools were tough, but Pool B was more top heavy on paper. Last year’s champs (Matt & Jake Gauthier) and runners up (Tommy Leitner & Reto Zimmerman) plus legends Dave Murphy and Dave Schiller. You would expect those three teams to battle it out for the top three positions, and everyone else to fight it out for the last finals spot. That’s almost what happened. Tommy Leitner and Reto Zimmerman clearly kicked ass, winning by almost five points. Tommy and Reto have really gel’d as a team. They seem to get stronger with every tournament. Schiller/Murphy and defending champs Gauthier/Gauthier actually tied for second, but Brodeur/Lopez nearly snuck in there to spoil their fun. They were only 0.3 back. The closest other team – Clay Collerá/Joakim Arvesk‰r – was more than five points back.
5. Co-op Semi A
The top seeds held in Pool A as Lopez/Leitner/Marron won their pool followed by Cusmá/Meola/Sanna. Dan Yarnell/Matt Guathier/Steve Hays missed the finals cut, but from their execution score (17.6) it looks like they had a very rough round. Rising to the occasion were Paolo Magni/Filippo Cavalca/Giovanni Coppo and Carstein Heim/Flo Hess/Jan Schreck. I believe it’s the first FPAW finals for all six players, and each team has an interesting story. Last year, Paolo and Filippo were part of the Aloha Award winning team with Philipp Lenarz. This year they are in the finals, but Filippo had to overcome a separated shoulder in April that kept him out of Paganello. Flo Hess and Carsten Heim had planned to play with Christian Lamred. Christian was unable to make FPAW due to a work/school commitment, which opened the door for my Paganello teammate Jan Schreck to jump in and make his first FPAW finals.
6. Co-op Semi B
All four top teams were pretty much expected to make the finals, so there weren’t any huge upsets, though Sanchez/Willett/Meier had a legitimate shot at a finals spot, youth prevailed as Matteo Gaddoni, Valerio Occorsio and Matteo Feller played solid to make the finals. It’s the first finals for Valerio and Matteo, and I think Gaddoz has made one before. The top two teams were only 0.1 apart. Brodeur/Imperiale/Kenny edged Lewis/Murphy/Schiller primarily due to a cleaner performance and a few extra tenths in artistic.
The scores…
Score Format: Total Score (Diff, Ex, AI)
Mixed Semis
(Top 2 advance to final; remaining teams play B Final for 2 additional finals positions)
Pool A
1. Bergman/Kenny 56.1 (15.4, 23.2, 17.5)
2. Imazio/Sanna 56.1 (14.3, 25, 16.8)
3. Nicolardi/Perrone 50.2 (13.2, 23.7, 13.3)
4. T Bogenhagen/Schiller 48.4 (15.4, 21.1, 11.9)
5. Strunz/Hein 46.1 (14.2, 20, 11.9)
6. H Bogenhagen/Meola 44 (11.3, 22.5, 10.2)
7. Simon/Wollmann 36.8 (9.7, 19.3, 7.8)
Pool B
1. Hunrichs/M. Gauthier 74.6 (21.3, 28.2, 25.1)
2. Daniels/J. Gauthier 63.4 (18.5, 26.3, 18.6)
3. Lowry/Yarnell 56.6 (19.5, 22.2, 14.9)
4. Caruso/Bersanti 54.9 (17.3, 22.5, 15.1)
5. Sanchez/Brodeur 53.9 (16.4, 23.2, 14.3)
6. Allesandrini/Gaddoni 51.1 (14.2, 22.9, 14)
7. Goh/Scannell 40.2 (12.8, 18.4, 9)
Women’s Semis
(Top 4 advance to the finals)
1. Hunrichs/Daniels 58.4 (15, 26.4, 17)
2. Imazio/Caruso 54.2 (12.9, 25.6, 15.7)
3. Lowry/Bergman 51.2 (13.2, 24, 14)
4. Strunz/Simon 47 (11.4, 22.8, 12.8)
5. Allesandrini/Nicolardi 40.6 (10.7, 19.9, 10)
6. Bogenhagen/Bogenhagen 34.8 (10, 16.8, 8)
Open Pairs Semis
(Top 4 in each pool advance to the finals)
Pool A
1. Imperiale/Sanna 77.6 (23.6, 27.7, 26.3)
2. Lewis/Marron 75.9 (23.9, 28.6, 23.4)
3. Meola/Cusmá 69.5 (20.4, 25.3, 23.8)
4. Wentzel/Kenny 68 (19.9, 28.7, 19.4)
5. Bul/Wahrmann 64 (19.9, 22.9, 21.2)
6. Feller/Magni 62.8 (18.1, 27.1, 17.6)
7. Roman/Capellmann 51.5 (16.7, 20, 14.8)
8. Daniels/Strunz 50.6 (13.3, 25.6, 11.7)
Pool B
1. Leitner/Zimmermann 74.9 (22.7, 27.4, 24.8)
2. Schiller/Murphy 70.2 (21.3, 25.7, 23.2)
3. Gauthier/Gauthier 70.2 (22.3, 24.3, 23.6)
4. Lopez/Brodeur 69.9 (19.4, 27.1, 23.4)
5. Collerá/Arvesk‰r 64.3 (20.2, 23.6, 20.5)
6. Hays/Hess 61.2 (17, 25, 19.2)
7. Sanchez/Meier 58.7 (16.4, 22.7, 19.6)
8. Gaddoni/Schreck 58.2 (18.2, 21.8, 18.2)
Co-Op Semis
(Top 4 in each pool advance to the finals)
Pool A
1. Lopez/Leitner/Marron 63.1 (20.6, 25.1, 17.4)
2. Sanna/Meola/Cusmá 61.9 (19.5, 24.6, 17.8)
3. Magni/Cavalca/Coppo 57.1 (17.6, 24.3, 15.2)
4. Schreck/Hess/Heim 54.5 (19.2, 21.1, 14.2)
5. Yarnell/Hays/M. Gauthier 48.7 (18.5, 17.6, 12.6)
6. Barsanti/Imazio/Goetz 46 (14.7, 20.5, 10.8)
7. J. Gauthier/Wentzel/de Moor 44.3 (16, 16.3, 12)
8. Zahradnicek/Zahradnicek/Struz 34.6 (9.7, 16.7, 8.2)
Pool B
1. Kenny/Imperiale/Brodeur 74.7 (22.5, 27.3, 24.9)
2. Lewis/Murphy/Schiller 74.6 (24.1, 26.1, 24.4)
3. Arvesk‰r/Collerá/Zimmerman 70.8 (21.4, 25.1, 24.3)
4. Gaddoni/Occorsio/Feller 60.1 (17.5, 25.2, 17.4)
5. Sanchez/Willett/Meier 52.9 (14.8, 21.9, 16.2)
6. Poli/Cesari/Arrighi 50.2 (14.4, 19.8, 16)
7. Hannemann/Lenarz/Hein 49.5 (16.6, 18.1, 14.8)
8. Mancarella/Perrone/Galliani 48.1 (15.9, 18.8, 13.4)