I was there today. Kanako was super great! Polina is a talented skater, but today's Kanako was much better than Polina at the point of speed, energy and performance. Even with the fall on the footwork and the shaky first spin, she deserved to win.
I was there today. Kanako was super great! Polina is a talented skater, but today's Kanako was much better than Polina at the point of speed, energy and performance. Even with the fall on the footwork and the shaky first spin, she deserved to win.
Wow, just saw the protocols. Polina fixed her flip! No edge calls at all this time!So she has 3-3 and clean lutz and flip - truly amazing! I hope we'll see her at Senior Grand Prix series next year
This is such a good news! She is my favourite junior skater (I like Kanano i Yukiko, too) and I really wanted her to fix her flip. She has to work a little on her presentation, but she has lots of time to do it.Originally Posted by Lucky Star
She looked quite disappointment to be in second after Kanako, but she shouldn't - Kanano skated great and Polina will have a chance to win Junior Grand Prix title next year after all.
I think she will skate at senior Grand Prix next year, she will be eligible and russian senior ladies, except Leonova, don't have any good results... And next year Sotnikova and Tuktamysheva will be eligible for JGP, so I think one of them probably will win JGPF
How old do you have to be to skate at the senior grand prix events? I know Mao competed as a 15 year old (her birthday's in September), so does that mean Polina could skate at SGP events next year? Kanako is already 15 so she definitely can, can't wait to see her beat Mao and Miki!
Also, can Ksenia go to the Olympics this year? She is 16 and last Olympics Elene Gedevanishvilli went to the Olympics and it was her first senior competition I think. Apart from Alena Leonova the Russian senior ladies aren't very good, and Russia gets 2 spots on the Olympic team right?
Murakami has much better skating skills -- she's much faster and more expressive. Gao is still very junior-ish.
Shelepen is great, but I don't see continuing to be as successful unless she doesn't grow at all or she fixes her technique. She has some technique flaws (the checkout of her jumps, and some of her takeoffs), which, while nothing major now, seem to magnify under nerves (her first two jumps in the long) and will get worse if she grows.
Silverlake, yes, Ksenia can go to the Olympics. I'm pretty sure that's what she's shooting for. Also, you're eligible for the grand prix the year after you become eligible for the junior grand prix, so anyone skating JGP now is eligible for SGP next year (if they're not already eligible).
Aaaaand my prediction of Christina Gao was right
I'll be surprised if she doesn't make top 10 at nationals.
Is she competing at senior nationals this year? Love that girl, she's so cute, and reminds me a lot of Yuna at that ageAaaaand my prediction of Christina Gao was right
I'll be surprised if she doesn't make top 10 at nationals.plus they have the same coach, who is obviously great.
I can't wait until Kanako skates in seniors against Mao, Miki, Akiko, I bet she could beat them all very soon!
I agree that Polina might have some issues once she grows, her technique is a little iffy. It says she's 5'2" though so maybe she won't get that much bigger. Certainly still looks like a little girl though. I think Anna has great potential for a 13 year old and should go great next year at the JGP.
As for Ksenia, that is wonderful. So will Russia likely send Ksenia and Alena Leonova to the Olympics?
Lucky Star, thanks for this info, I'm really excited about these young Russian talents in the ladies field.
Since you and oleada know quite a lot about up-and-comers in Russian I want to ask, do you guys have info about how another novice skater named Radionova is doing? I wish I could read Russian so I could dig fsonline myself.
Last edited by champs; 12-06-2009 at 10:20 PM. Reason: mistyped
It's less height that body-type, I think. She is really skinny (because she's still a kid) which lets her get away with the iffy technique.
Watched the whole free skating and I was most impressed with Ovcharova and Makarova, for two different reasons. For Ovcharova, I noticed that every single jumping pass in this program had either a step or a spiral right into the jump (except for the triple loop for which it 's the usual 3 turn.) Unfortunately didn't have much flow out of the jumps and the jumps themselves were not very high or do not span over a long distance, but still, it's hard to believe a 13 year old female skater is doing this. She also had a nice circular step sequence, her upper body movement throughout her skating was quite well done, and her reserved smile was so amiable and adorable. I really really enjoyed her skating.
As for Makarova, she's so mature in a very good way, and I don't mean it because of her height. The speed, her body control, her posture, and the way she keeps her cool (maybe "noble" is the adjective I night use to describe her in her skating,) everything appeared to my eyes that of a seasoned senior skater. She had a couple of stepout and overturn on her jump landings but those jumps she nailed without a problem had beautiful landings. I agree with everyone that Murakami deserved much higher PCS than Shelepen, but then I also feel Makarova should have received just as high or even higher than Murakami. With Shelepen getting 44.16 and Murakami 47.92, I feel Makarova's 44.00 is nothing but a poor scoring. JMO, of course, though.
I must say I am a bit disappointed by Shelepen's skating. With a big screen her coarseness stood out more than her jump contents. Her jump landings were almost always shaky, and she always had this long gap between the two consecutive jumps within a combination jump with the leaning upper body and the half-bent knee. But she's only 14, she has plenty of time for improvement. I am looking forward to her steady progress in her skating skills and improvement for her jump landings. About her flip takeoff since it was mentioned above... no wrong edge call in the protocol but with frame-by-frame repeats of the two different camera angles that were shown (one in realtime and one in the slow-mo replay) it still looks like a takeoff on the outside edge. But I personally don't really care, wrong edge doesn't deprive me of the joy of watching figure skating. (Neither do two-footed landing and underrotation as far as the flow out of the jump is smooth.)
By the way the highlight of the junior ladies free skating for me was Ashley in the audience section with a cute tri-color striped ribbon on his head
Christina Gao's FS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA4ZoDwqV_A
I am very impressed. I think Brian Orser's got his next meal ticket
Yeah, but if you look at Irina Slutskaya and Alena Leonova they probably were really skinny as kids like Polina but can still do all the hard jumps with grown up, athletic bodies. It might not be a big deal
Elena Radionova competed at Rostelecom Cup of Russia 4 round (juniors) about 2 weeks ago and was 3rd with 122.78 points. This is very good result for her, especially because she was the youngest there, her rivals are about 2 years older (she was born in 1999).
I'm not sure that Shelepen has the same body type as Alena and Irina... Here's Alena at 16 y.o.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F15eZeREG8
And here is Irina at 14 y.o.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZy3dgNRrIw
Polina looks taller and her legs seems longer, I think she is more like Mao Asada. And Polina has grown a lot from last year but still can jump
Coudn't find Polina's FS. The link posted here does not work anymore. Does anybody have another link?
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