Anyone who has seen this? | Golden Skate

Anyone who has seen this?

Joined
Jul 11, 2003
would appreciate your review. There are several skaters of interest from around the world - not just Flatt and Zhang.

Joe
 

Sylvia

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 25, 2003
I was happy to hear that information I provided re. the location of the JGP rink (it's in the municipality of Cuautitlan Izcallia, a metropolitan area of Mexico City, and the "Icentral" rink is inside a brand-new family fun center with miniature golf, bumper cars on land and water, game rooms, a food court, and a bowling facility -- see: http://www.funcentral.com.mx/index.php ) resulted in a skating fan, Quita37, attending Thursday's competition and writing up impressions. :) I have permission to repost the following report by Quita37 in its entirety here and elsewhere online.

<begin report>

Okay, so, I didn't take notes, and although I tried to remember as
much of the jump content as I could, I have definitely forgotten a
lot. So here is just my general impressions of everyone I can
remember, and I apologize for it not being more detailed.

Men's SP results:

1 Kevin REYNOLDS CAN 54.19 1
Well, I didn't really feel like he was as musical as some of the
other guys, and his posture wasn´t really terrific. But he does have
good jumps and a nice presence on the ice, and it was overall a
pretty solid program.

2 Daisuke MURAKAMI USA 54.05 2
I don't know, I might have placed him first, I think both of them
landed all their jumps. (can't really remember anymore, sorry :)) He
had a very cute program which started with him waking up and rubbing
his eyes, and ended with him putting his head to the side like he
was going to sleep. The choreography was pretty interesting, and he
did it well with the music.
[Sylvia's side note: The choreo is by David Wilson.]

3 Manuel LEGAZ ESP 47.49 3
I really liked him too. A very graceful skater with huge jumps.

4 Mark VAILLANT FRA 45.19 4
Well, I'm unfortunately confusing the two French guys, but one of
them, and I think it was this one, was a really big guy with a tight
white costume, who was very powerful and had pretty big jumps.

5 Tatsuki MACHIDA JPN 43.50 5
A very little guy, looked terrific during the warmup, but made a few
mistakes during the program.

6 Patrick WONG CAN 42.55 6
I really liked him, he had a pretty cool program to electronic
music, with kind of weird but interesting choreography.

7 Bruno MASSOT FRA 42.23 7
8 Yukihiro YOSHIDA JPN 42.18 8
Unfortunately fell on his circular footwork, but otherwise had a
very nice classical program.

9 Sebastian IWASAKI POL 39.28 9
A cute little guy, wearing all blue, I remember that I liked him, he
was exciting to watch.

10 Marcel KOTZIAN GER 38.44 10
Skated a jazzy program, wearing all black, pretty expressive.

11 Brandon MROZ USA 38.29 11
Clearly was just not having a good day. He fell on the lutz, popped
the flip, and only landed the double axel.

12 Severin KIEFER AUT 33.58 12
13 Miguel Angel MOYRON MEX 30.14 13
The crowd was so excited for him, but he unfortunately fell on his
first jump, and then fell really hard on the second jump of his
combination. He took a few seconds to get up, finished the program,
but took his skate off in the kiss and cry and his coach had to help
him walk off, so I hope he's okay.

14 Alexander LABOY PUR 29.65 14
He had a really hard fall just as the warmup ended. A pretty nice,
graceful skater, just didn't really have the jumps today.

Compulsory Dance (Midnight Blues) results:
Sorry, I love ice dance but I don't have a great technical eye for
it.

1 Emily SAMUELSON / Evan BATES USA 32.33 1
They were terrific. Both moved extremely well to the music. They
have great lines; he is very flexible!

2 Elodie BROUILLER / Benoit RICHAUD FRA 29.38 2
They had very good chemistry together.

3 Piper GILLES / Timothy McKERNAN USA 25.88 3
They fell in the warmup, and then were the first skaters to go, but
they pulled themselves together nicely.

4 Karen ROUTHIER / Eric SAUCKE-LACELLE CAN 25.32 4
Both Canadian teams had little stumbles.
5 Brooklyn VIENNEAU / Jonathan CLUETT CAN 22.36 5

Well that was probably the first compulsory dance review you ever
read that didn't use the word edges even once! (I just don't want to
go on about who had good edges when I can't really tell yet.)

Junior Ladies SP results:

1 Caroline ZHANG USA 58.93 1
She is incredible. She definitely stole the competition. I´ve heard
her name before, but I didn't really remember it or anything, but
during the warmup I definitely noticed her right away. She's so
little, she spins so fast in the air. Her jumps are totally solid.
She's extremely flexible. Her free leg in her spiral is at about 180
degrees. She hits some very interesting positions in her spins. If I
had to predict anyone from this competition to really succeed, it
would be her. Everyone loved her, she commanded everyone's attention
right from the start of her program, people applauded every little
thing she did, and she even got half a standing ovation from the
crowd.

2 Yea-Ji SHIN KOR 41.53 2
She is a very solid skater, but didn't have (in my opinion) much in
the way of very interesting choreography.

3 Haruka INOUE JPN 40.12 3
Had the unenviable position of skating right after Caroline Zhang,
but she did very well. Skated to Spanish music in a red dress, and
is a pretty musical skater.

4 Loretta HAMUI MEX 38.41 4
The crowd of course went crazy for her, especially because the first
two Mexican girls didn't do all that well, and I think she
definitely rode on that energy. She kept constantly missing her
triple salchow in the warmup, but managed to land it right at the
beginning of her program, and was grinning from then on.

5 Soo-Hyun KIM KOR 35.70 5
6 Mutsumi TAKAYAMA JPN 35.33 6
She has huge jumps! She just needs to be able to control them. She
was awesome in the warmup, but then, okay, I *think* she fell on her
double axel, and two footed her flip. She looked like such a
powerhouse during the warmup, and then had slow, floaty music, which
didn't seem to suit her at all.

7 Sonia LAFUENTE ESP 34.86 7
8 Camille FOUCHER FRA 30.00 8
Skated a jazzy program in a black, semi see through dress. A very
good dancer.

9 Devon NEULS CAN 27.95 9
I really liked her program. She had very weirdly interesting
choreography, done right on the music. I think she fell twice though.

10 Colleen BURKHEAD TPE 27.50 10

11 Victoria MUNIZ PUR 27.36 11
She had two hard falls.

12 Corene BRUHNS MEX 27.33 12
13 Astrid MANGI AUT 26.70 13

14 Mattia SEGOVIA MEX 25.40 14
I was surprised she came in last, because actually, of the three
Mexican girls, all jumps aside, I thought she was the better skater.
She had really good spins and interesting choreography, she just
kind of fell apart.

Ack, I'm sorry I don't really remember more. But it was a really fun
competition to go to. There were a lot of people there; by the end
of the night the rink was probably around 3/4 full, and this is only
the first night, and it was really not advertised at all. The crowd
was really into the skating, too. They especially went crazy for all
the Mexican skaters (even shouting Bravo Mexico! to the guys filling
in the holes in the ice, lol).

Unfortunately I won't be able to go to the rest of the competition
[last day of vacation].

<end report>

Many thanks (gracias!) to Quita37!
 

Sylvia

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 25, 2003
Caroline Zhang certainly skated up to expectations/"hype" in the SP of her first-ever JGP yesterday. For reference -- at the Golden West club competition 2 weeks ago, she scored 59.48 in the Junior SP, landing 3Z-2T, 3F (both triples were credited, unlike at 2006 Nationals) and 2A, with a level 3 spiral sequence and spin and her two other spins being level 4 (with many +2 GOE on her spins).
 

Sylvia

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 25, 2003
Forgot to mention earlier that the last day of Quita37's vacation in Mexico City coincided with the first day of the JGP there, so at least we got to read one report... not sure if there will be any other eyewitness accounts from other people Friday-Sunday, but we can live in hope.
 
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