Japanese World Teams This Season

My predictions are:

Men
1./2. Oda / Kozuka
3. Mura

Ladies
1. Mao
2./3. Miki/ Yukari/ Akiko/ Fumie

I feel that the ladies would be interesting. Except for Mao, the rest seem to have a similar chance.

Miki is very unpredictable, esp. with recent UR issues. But she should be the strongest among them if she skates well. Akiko seems to have better jumps than Yukari unless she messes up. But Yukari seems more consistent than Akiko. They received very similar PCS at NHK. Fumie may face the toughest competition. But it would be wonderful if she can make it. Takeda might have a chance, too, if she lands almost everything.

Remember the judges are not international. There are may interests and considerations to influence judgings. In this season, the JSF has changed the selection criteria (for men and ladies) a litte. The gold and the silver medalists at nationals qualify for worlds automatically. The third spots are decided by factors like past achievements or results from current competitions. I think men's selection is quite simple. Oda, Kozuka and Mura will go to LA. As for ladies, if Ando lands jump (regardless of slight UR's and empty transitions) as she did in the US and China, no one but Mao can beat her here. The third spot will be contended by Suzuki and Nakano. I think Nakano has some upper hand because the PCS gap between them will be bigger than the case of NHK trophy. The special considerations clause for the third spots is mainly designed for Asada, Ando and Takahashi. Nakano and Suguri will not have the privilege.

That's a good point. Tech callers and judges may be less harsh on URs and wrong edges at Nationals.

But I do not know who are the JSF's favorites. I suppose that they just want to have the skaters who are the truly strongest to ensure the three spots for the next season. In that sense, they would not be able to ignore the international judging because the skaters eventually will be competing under international judging at Worlds however they may be held up at Nationals.

ETA
I think that Akiko has a good chance to make the world because she scored almost equally with Yukari at LP despite making more mistakes. She had one downgrade, two stepouts, and one edge call whereas Yukari got only one ! and one downgrade. If her F and Lz become more consistent, she would score higher than Yukari.

Japanese National was finished.

Ladies: Mao 1st, Fumie 2nd and Miki 3rd
Akiko finished 4th and Yukari finished 5th. I think they changed the rules after Torino that who ever finished on the podium goes to World. Aside from Mao, all the rest of the ladies have more or less similar results on the GP series. Too bad Yukari had a meltdown on the FS as her program is the best of the JPN ladies this season. Mao program is too repetitive and boring. It will be interesting to see if Miki will go back to Gieselle program now.

Men: Oda, Kazuko and Mura

So, who is coming from Japan?

eleonora.d said:

So, who is coming from Japan?

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Mao, Miki and Fumie

C_T_T_ said:

Mao, Miki and Fumie

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Very interesting that Yukuri was left off the world team. I loved both her programs this year and she had a very sucessful skate at SA.

C_T_T_ said:

Mao, Miki and Fumie

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2008 world champion, 2007 world champion, 2006 silver medalist. nice! :thumbsup: