Chinese nationals just concluded today. There are a bunch of interviews, articles from Chinese media on skaters & coaches. I will try to translate a couple of them.
First a summary article.
http://sports.sohu.com/20061228/n247324757.shtml
Head coach Bin Yao comments on Nationals.
… The competition just ended. Pang & Tong won the pairs gold medals, this is their second appearance this season. Since Pang has not fully recovered and they just changed boots, Pang & Tong lowered the technical difficulty of sbs jumps. They still won by a convincing margin. Pang & Tong were using this competition as a warm up for ‘Asian Winter Games’.
Chenjiang Li had a good performance tonight. Despite popping a 3lz, he completed all of his jumps clean including a 4toe+3toe. It’s hard to imagine he was still suffering from asthma and had to inhale medicine a few minutes before competition. Li jumped from third place in the short to first in the free skate and won the competition. Ming Xu won the silver and Jialiang Wu was in third place with two 3A.
Ladies’ gold medal was won by Yan Liu. Her conditioning is not so good this season, as reflected by her poor showing at GP events. Her coach believes it’s due to lack of preparation after Olys season. But after more practice and more familiar with the new program, he believes Liu will advance further in international rankings. Binshu Xu won the silver medal and the bronze went to Dan Fan.
Xingtong Huang and Xu Zheng won the title of ice dance.
The head coach Bin Yao commented that men’s overall level has been raised to a new high as the gap among top skaters is no longer big. Both Chenjiang Li and Zhixue Yang have successfully executed quad jumps. Most skaters can do 3A with no problem. Compared to men, ladies’ condition is not quite satisfactory. Although Yan Liu won the title, she made several mistakes in her free skate, so did Binshu Xu. They have yet to show their best. Bin Yao suspected it might have something to do with their busy competition schedule this season.
First a summary article.
http://sports.sohu.com/20061228/n247324757.shtml
Head coach Bin Yao comments on Nationals.
… The competition just ended. Pang & Tong won the pairs gold medals, this is their second appearance this season. Since Pang has not fully recovered and they just changed boots, Pang & Tong lowered the technical difficulty of sbs jumps. They still won by a convincing margin. Pang & Tong were using this competition as a warm up for ‘Asian Winter Games’.
Chenjiang Li had a good performance tonight. Despite popping a 3lz, he completed all of his jumps clean including a 4toe+3toe. It’s hard to imagine he was still suffering from asthma and had to inhale medicine a few minutes before competition. Li jumped from third place in the short to first in the free skate and won the competition. Ming Xu won the silver and Jialiang Wu was in third place with two 3A.
Ladies’ gold medal was won by Yan Liu. Her conditioning is not so good this season, as reflected by her poor showing at GP events. Her coach believes it’s due to lack of preparation after Olys season. But after more practice and more familiar with the new program, he believes Liu will advance further in international rankings. Binshu Xu won the silver medal and the bronze went to Dan Fan.
Xingtong Huang and Xu Zheng won the title of ice dance.
The head coach Bin Yao commented that men’s overall level has been raised to a new high as the gap among top skaters is no longer big. Both Chenjiang Li and Zhixue Yang have successfully executed quad jumps. Most skaters can do 3A with no problem. Compared to men, ladies’ condition is not quite satisfactory. Although Yan Liu won the title, she made several mistakes in her free skate, so did Binshu Xu. They have yet to show their best. Bin Yao suspected it might have something to do with their busy competition schedule this season.