Middle Atlantics club competition (Sept. 11-14 in NYC)

**Sylvia** · 09-02-2008, 07:08 PM

Mods, feel free to move this thread to the Nationals Events (Worldwide) forum.

Schedule and competitor list (alphabetical) are published on the club site: http://www.thescny.org/

Notable senior level competitors listed include Tommy Steenberg, Emily Hughes, Elene Gedevanishvili (GEO), Tamar Katz (ISR), Blake Rosenthal, and skaters representing Great Britain, Finland, Poland and the Philippines.

JGP competitors include Daisuke Murakami (JPN), Ksenia Makarova (RUS), Beka Shankulashvili (GEO) and Matej Silecky (UKR).

**Joesitz** · 09-02-2008, 07:50 PM

Thanks Sylvia - I downloaded the schedule and I'll be there Fri,Sat and Sun.

Looking forward to seeing all the skaters you listed. Nice to see Tommy Steenberg and Daisuke Murakami as well as Emile listed.

I wonder if the Shibutani's will skate an exhibition?

**silverfox** · 09-02-2008, 08:56 PM

I'll be there too.

Does anybody know who is coaching Colin Pennington?

Having the Shib Sibs do an exhibition would be great. Last year Fallen Angels -was the exhibition special... wonderful.

**Sylvia** · 09-03-2008, 12:00 AM

Originally Posted by Joesitz

Looking forward to seeing all the skaters you listed.

Caveat: Registered skaters don't always end up competing at club competitions and so I don't recommend attending just to see one or two "name" skaters.

I wonder if the Shibutani's will skate an exhibition?

They currently train in Michigan so I would think it's unlikely?

**nylynnr** · 09-12-2008, 11:38 PM

Went to Mid-Atlantics today; among the events I saw was senior ladies short. Since I posted a less-than-enthusiastic report about Elene Gedesvanishvili's short at Moran Memorial, I want to give the young lady her due here, by reporting that she looked 100% better today.

Skating to music from "Cabaret," she hit a triple Lutz-triple toe (the toe may have been a bit under rotated); a triple flip; and double Axel. Her spins and steps were secure, and her spirals were more elegant. If she continues like this, she could have a good fall season. Anyway, she won the short with 54.36 points. Tamar Katz, who skated to "Gone with the Wind," was also strong; she hit a triple Lutz-double toe and a triple flip, and earned 50.98 for second place. (Note: I don't have judges' details, so it's possible I have made a mistake in the jumps.) The rest of the top seven: Emily Hughes, 44.58; Elizabeth Stern, 37.50; Kaela Pflumm, 35.68; Henrikka Hietaniemi (Finland), 34.20; Blake Rosenthal, 34.02.

Didn't hang around for the scores for junior ladies free but it appeared to me Samantha Cesario's "Tosca" program was the strongest.

Lynn

**Joesitz** · 09-12-2008, 11:38 PM

She skated her SP and she skated delightful. I was much impressed with her performance, but competitively, her jumps are in a sorry state. Her 3F was clumsy; her combo was a dbl sal x dbl toe and also clumsy; her landing on the 2A was iffy, But she looked good otherwise. I do not see her ahead of the young divas at Nats but let's have another look when she does the GP.

Gedenashvili never skated better from what I've seen, and the biggest surprise was Tamar Katz who has finally come into her own.

Standings After SP (just the top five)

1. Gedenashvili
2 Katz
3. Hughes
4. Stern
5. Pflum

I don't think the others will matter.

Tomorrow (Saturday) The Men'SP at noon and the Ladies Final at 7pm.

:

**Mathman** · 09-13-2008, 12:23 AM

Thanks for the reports, Nylynnr and Joesitz.

**silverfox** · 09-13-2008, 10:15 AM

Thanks for the reports. I saw Emily's skate and besides her jumps I'd like to see her work on her speed and sharpen up her footwork section. As the poster noted, the skating was good, but there's lots of room for improvement in the details. I also got the feeling that perhaps there are confidence issues with Emily, just below the surface.

Can she really improve by GP? She and Bonnie are going to be doing long distance training. Bonnie told me that she will be going to Boston to do some coaching and Emily will come to New York for training. In between, Emily will practice on her own, I suppose. To me, this does not bode well for a skater who is in need of a lot of attention at this point in her preparation. I'll see how the LP goes tonight.

I loved, loved, loved, loved Tamar Katz. What a beautiful performance.

Elene's 3/3 was amazing.

Emily's SP is on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtLYc-UqWIc

**personwhoishere** · 09-13-2008, 03:16 PM

I'm so happy to hear that Elene skated well!
She's been struggling a bit in competition the past year or so, hope she can keep up this form throughout the season!

**london_calling** · 09-13-2008, 04:10 PM

So has Emily stopped working with Mark Mitchell and Peter Johansson?

**samba** · 09-13-2008, 07:17 PM

Originally Posted by silverfox

Thanks for the reports. I saw Emily's skate and besides her jumps I'd like to see her work on her speed and sharpen up her footwork section. As the poster noted, the skating was good, but there's lots of room for improvement in the details. I also got the feeling that perhaps there are confidence issues with Emily, just below the surface.

Can she really improve by GP? She and Bonnie are going to be doing long distance training. Bonnie told me that she will be going to Boston to do some coaching and Emily will come to New York for training. In between, Emily will practice on her own, I suppose. To me, this does not bode well for a skater who is in need of a lot of attention at this point in her preparation. I'll see how the LP goes tonight.

I loved, loved, loved, loved Tamar Katz. What a beautiful performance.

Elene's 3/3 was amazing.

Emily's SP is on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtLYc-UqWIc

OMG! thanks for the youtube. I hope Emily would make the right decision for herself, going to GP??

**Joesitz** · 09-13-2008, 11:54 PM

I just watched the Ladies LP at MidAtlantics. To be honest it was bleh. No one was outstanding, imo,

Emily would have done better with the movie version of Gone With the Wind rather than the one she used. Total background music, and she skated without any reference to the music unlike her SP. Her jumps are still weak and need some work on them soon. She lost some weight and her body looks a lot better. Of course, she has that wonderful smile still.

Elene, was not as good as she was in her SP either but I think she fared better in scoring to hold onto first place. When a friend said to her in the elevator that she had a nice ending for the competition. She replied. It's just the beginning.

Tamar, more like trying to emulate Sasha then bringing out her own personality. She was ok, but all these ladies had faults.

We have to realize that this is nothing more than a rehearsal, imo.

**nylynnr** · 09-14-2008, 12:36 AM

Have to disagree with Joesitz a bit -- as I've said before, we all see (and hear) things differently; that's what makes the world go 'round.

I really liked the GWTW music David Wilson chose; I found that instead of repeating the same four notes -- DA DAH DA DAH -- it was diverse and interpreted other sections of the movie's soundtrack. Thought the choreography suited her, although obviously she needs to work on her jumps. (She sprained her ankle earlier this summer and was off ice for a few weeks.) Also, it was thought above she was going to train on her own in Boston, when Bonni is not there; actually, Elin Gardiner (Tenley Albright's daughter) will be supervising her training on the days Bonni is unavailable.

Otherwise, as noted, there was nothing remarkable in the senior ladies' free, although Elene opened with a huge triple flip and Blake Rosenthal was third with a strong skate. The performance of the day was definitely Daisuke Murakami, who had probably the highest-ever score recorded for a junior man's short. (Although club competitions don't really count when determining personal bests.) Great program, much improved even from Moran a few weeks ago, especially the spins.

Lynn

**bethissoawesome** · 09-14-2008, 06:49 AM

It's funny to think that we were all in the same place at the same time lol.

I was very underwhelmed with Emily. Her body doesn't look like it's in good shape... it looks like she lost a bit of weight, but the weight she lost was muscle. Her skating had very little enthusiasm, both the SP and the LP. The only enjoyable skate (for the Ladies), in my opinion, was Elene's short.