Mens SP

1 Daisuke TAKAHASHI JPN 84.44 46.14 38.30 7.80 7.45 7.75 7.70 7.60 0.00 #2
2 Nobunari ODA JPN 83.55 45.40 38.15 7.75 7.45 7.75 7.45 7.75 0.00 #8
3 Chengjiang LI CHN 69.26 37.36 31.90 6.70 6.05 6.50 6.30 6.35 0.00 #7
4 Takahiko KOZUKA JPN 67.95 37.80 30.15 6.45 5.65 6.10 6.05 5.90 0.00 #11
5 Kevin VAN DER PERREN BEL 65.55 36.10 29.45 6.20 5.55 6.05 5.80 5.85 0.00 #6
6 Alexander USPENSKI RUS 64.63 36.28 28.35 5.90 5.20 5.90 5.65 5.70 0.00 #3
7 Kristoffer BERNTSSON SWE 63.95 34.90 29.05 5.95 5.50 5.85 5.80 5.95 0.00 #10
8 Patrick CHAN CAN 60.80 35.00 27.80 5.80 5.45 5.50 5.55 5.50 2.00 #4
9 Jialiang WU CHN 56.39 31.74 24.65 5.15 4.65 5.00 5.00 4.85 0.00 #1
10 Marc Andre CRAIG CAN 52.73 27.08 25.65 5.35 4.85 5.15 5.20 5.10 0.00 #5
11 Geoffry VARNER USA 52.70 28.10 24.60 5.20 4.75 4.95 4.90 4.80 0.00 #9


Very interesting. Perhaps a lot of us have been underestimating Takahashi, what with all the talk prior to the event largely being about whether or not Oda could defeat Lambiel. And both Takahashi and Oda more than 10 points ahead of third place Li.

TAKAHASHI and ODA got incredible high scores. Can't wait to see their programs. KEVIN VAN DER PERREN won't have chance to make to the Final.

How did they manage to get such high scores?
Was it top quality skating or quads?
Let's see whether they can continue the same level skating in their LPs, usually there are more problems.

Oh, how exciting. I wasn't expecting the results for hours.

I prefer Takahashi, so I'm thrilled for him. Can't wait to see it.

Kozuka??

84 and 83 are ridiculously high scores, some of the highest after Plushenko's SP of 90 at the Olympics.

Daisuke's SPs are usually pretty consistently good but let's face it, can he hold his jumps together for an entire LP? Not likely. Oda is still the heavy favorite to win.

Why did Stephane withdraw??

I think this year's GP circuit is setting up a current top 4 of Joubert, Oda, Lambiel, and Lysacek. I'd love to see Buttle join them when he returns from the injury.

Jasper said:

Daisuke's SPs are usually pretty consistently good but let's face it, can he hold his jumps together for an entire LP? Not likely. Oda is still the heavy favorite to win.

Click to expand...

The only problem is, Oda's sick. He was looking great on the first day of practices, but on the second day it was reported that he was coughing, looking weak and falling on his jumps a lot. In today's SP he looked a bit off and had a stumble in his step sequence, which probably cost him the 1st place in the SP. He was close to tears when he was being interviewed after his SP. He said he could have skated better, but he's happy he was able to skate with a smile on his face.

Takahashi said he's happy and surprised about his scores. He's going to try a quad in his LP.

Why did Stephane withdraw??

Click to expand...

The official word is that he had an infection and was unable to skate.

Spun Silver said:

Kozuka??

Click to expand...

He's the reigning World Junior Champion. I love his skating, he just flies over the ice. He has nice transitions (I loved hydroblading in his LP last season, and a sit spin as a part of his step sequence) and great spins. He needs more experience, as he tends to become somewhat expresionless when he's nervous, but he's a very promising skater, IMHO.

Thanks!

Japan... wow! how come we never hear about their coaches? They must be amazing!

Spun Silver said:

Thanks!

Japan... wow! how come we never hear about their coaches? They must be amazing!

Click to expand...

Interesting tidbit: Takahiko is being coached by Nobuo Sato and Tsugihiko Kozuka, his father, who also was a skater and represented Japan during the Olympics (his grandfather used to skate, too. ). He also works with Frank Caroll.

From the sounds of it, Takahashi and Oda's scores were very inflated (as was Asada's, but that's another thread). Neither did a quad, and Oda had some noticeable errors. Congrats to the two of them, though, for good short programs.

Actually Asada's short program score is very close to that of Skate America. I believe she earned what she got. On the other hand I do think Oda and Takahashi scores are inflated but i'll what til I see the program and protocols before I make a judgement.

rain said:

From the sounds of it, Takahashi and Oda's scores were very inflated (as was Asada's, but that's another thread). Neither did a quad, and Oda had some noticeable errors. Congrats to the two of them, though, for good short programs.

Click to expand...

Now that I have watched the performances, Oda's 3A actually didn't look bad. I think that the reason it was reported as scary by the user on FSU was the weird camera angle - it made Oda look as if he was about to fall, but in reality he just landed it on that deep of an edge (he did that in his SA SP, too).



The stumble in the footwork was not very noticeable - he slipped on an edge during the illusion spin thing at the end of the step sequence.

Overall it was a good performance. The elements were there, jumps and spins were superb (3L-3T was so good and easy that the person who was reporting from the arena thought he has doubled the combo and Takeshi Honda sounded like he lost his breath while comentating). It's only shortcoming (compared to his skate at SA) was that at SA he was just bubbling with energy and power while at NHK it was visible, especially in the later half, that he is fighting. And Oda looked /so/ devastated after his performance that one would think he did not land a single jump.

I would give this performance about 80-81 points. Flip was better than at SA, but the footwork was a bit laboured (it was goot, but lacked this sparkle it had at SA).


Now about Takahashi... I absolutely adore him as a skater, his footwork is nothing short of amazing and he is very aristic. Still, I actually agree that his score is a bit inflated.
Oda's high scores without a quad do not surprise me, because he has choreo packed with difficulty, his jumps are just out of this world, his spins are great and still improving, and he sells the program from start to end. What he loses because of the lack of a quad, he gains on GoEs and the difficulty of the choreo positively influences the PCS.

Takahashi's SP was gorgeous, but it was very frontloaded, with all the jumps being practically in isolation. The first minute of the program is basically skating around and telegraphing the jumps. After that the program gets really beautiful, but still...

I would give this program about 79-80 points, edging Oda out on the footwork, SS and PE, but losing on GoEs and CH. Interpretation was great in both cases, although I would be inclined to give an advantage to Oda, since he didn't wait until his jumps were done to start selling his performance.

Well, that's it. It's really difficult for me to say those performances were overmarked, as both Takahashi and Oda are my favourite skaters, but still I think the scores were a bit weird.

Of course, that's just my personal opinion - I'm not a judge or anything.

Well, good luck to the boys for tomorrow - I hope Daisuke will keep his composure and Oda will get better health-wise. :thumbsup:

Thanks for a great post, Oscilla. :agree:

Those marks do seem very inflated. Must had 1-2 for all GOE.

Word on FSU from MINAM watching Japanese TV is that the only quad was landed by Chengjiang Li (4T/3T) and it was a beauty.