Canadian Summer competitions, General

[NorthernDancers]

Tomas was again the class of the field. Very solid program, with still some room for improvements. Michael Jackson theme, and he does it quite well. I liked his short much better, and think his Michael Jackson needs more artistic improvement to look more like the real thing. He was first. Of course. Don't remember the points, but it was high. In second was Elladj. Very interesting program. Well presented, crowd pleasing. Different music than the rest, so it stood out. It seemed a little wild, but has definite potential. In 3rd was Joey. I really like his skating. He is a "whole" skater - great choreography and linking steps along with his jumps. He had some issues with his jumps today, which landed him in 3rd, but no one was perfect today. But really enjoyed his program. In 4th was Andre, and he started very strong, but seemed to run out of gas a little by the end of the program. I'm thinking maybe that was because he has been skating Junior so far this season internationally. Good solid program. With everyone else in the running at Nationals, I think he will not finish top 5 this year, but he is definitely one of Canada's bright lights.

[silverlake22]

Protocols for the men's event are here . Scroll down about halfway, since the men's long program results are in the same pdf as the short program results.

As expected, Tomas easily won, with a long program score of about 145 points. From the protocols I count seven triples that he landed (second axel not clean, apparently), with his only mistake being a singled flip. What's encouraging is that his jump results seem to indicate that he didn't fade at the end as he often has. Hopefully someone at the competition can give detailed comments.

The biggest surprise on the protocols was Eladj Balde's second place finish, since his long program score of 128 points is his best long program score ever. He's apparently back after his injury. According to the protocols he landed seven triples, including a 3A-3T combination. He fell on the second triple axel but apparently rotated it.

Joey's skate was about par for him (116 points, with a fall on the 3A), and Andrei's 113 point performance was slightly off what he's been doing in the JGP. He didn't attempt two triple axels in this performance, as he has been doing on the JGP.

Thanks for the details! Also promising is that Tomas rotated the 2nd 3a (even though it was a step out), as last season I know he popped the 2nd 3a a lot. Also his jump layout doesn't let him chase down the quad - it appears that he will attempt it once as the first jump of the FS and then if it doesn't work out he just goes on with the rest of his program. I assume he also intended to do a 3-3 somewhere (or maybe a 4-3 at the beginning), so there is room to grow, but it seems like he is in good shape for CoC in a few weeks, hopefully he can work out those last few kinks by then.

Impressive score for Blade, and 3a-3t that's impressive. Too bad Joey didn't skate better, he is so lovely when he is on.

[nadster]

T In 4th was Andre, and he started very strong, but seemed to run out of gas a little by the end of the program. I'm thinking maybe that was because he has been skating Junior so far this season internationally. Good solid program. With everyone else in the running at Nationals, I think he will not finish top 5 this year, but he is definitely one of Canada's bright lights.

I think that Andre will definitely be in the top 5 at nationals this year mainly due to his consistency.

Remember that Sawyer, Ten and Russell, while strong in the second mark can't be relied upon to land the triple axel. Rogozine is the most consistent technically of the bronze medal contenders at nationals with Balde a strong second.

Another thing I noted is that Andre got higher PCS marks than Joey in the FS here despite Andre's tiring towards the end of the program. Andre's PCS in the short were also higher than Joey's. Also Sawyer got lower PCS marks in the Quebec SP than a very flawed Balde ( grant you Sawyer had major technical issues there as well ).

Right now I would say that Balde is the likely one to get bronze as he is reasonably consistent with his elements and has decent presentation. The enforced injury layoff causing him to miss all of last season has not hindered him. Yes he struggled in his first competition back in over a year in Quebec but I noted from the protocols that he was at least rotating everything even if the landings were off.

Right now I would say that Balde and Rogozine are likely to be 3rd and 4th at nationals this year. Of course Ten, Sawyer and Russell could be spoilers but they would have to bring their jumps to the table ( and they don't have a history of doing that consistently.).

[mariposa]

Does anyone have reports from senior ladies?

[geoskate]

Results from the small Autumn Leaves competition last weekend in Kamloops, B.C. have been posted, at this link.

[travis porter]

So it's getting close to sectionals for all sections does anyone have any particular predictions? The senior men event at Quebec looks to be a strong flight of guys

[geoskate]

(Sorry, this post doesn't respond to your question) . . .

The results for the BC Coast Regional Championships have been published, at this link.

http://www.skatinginbc.com/content/C.../2011Coast.asp

Probably the best-known skater there was Nam Nguyen, who was junior bronze medallist at Canadians. Patrick Wong, Andrew Lum, Rika Inoda and Kathryn Kang, all of whom skated on the JGP circuit in the past, were also competing.

[travis porter]

I think nam will win junior this year at nationals forsure

[geoskate]

He certainly has a good shot at it (referring to Nam Nguyen from BC). Two of the other junior-eligible skaters who outscored Nam this season (Andrei Rogozine and Samuel Morais) are entered in senior, and presumably Liam Firus will be also.

His main competition I think will come from Shaquille Davis, who is entered in juniors in the Central Ontario section. Nam's total scores in his competitions to date has been 138.28 (BC Summer Skate) and 148.15 at BC Coast Regional Championships. Shaquille Davis scores have been 131.54 (Skate Detroit), 149.02 (Quebec Summer Skate), 147.91 (Thornhill), 130.74 (JGP Japan) and 159.03 (Octoberfest). If Shaquille skates as he did at Octoberfest and Nam skates as he did at BC Summer Skate, Shaquille will win. If Shaquille skates as he did at the JPG in Japan and Nam skates as he did at the BC Coast Regional Championships, Nam will win. It should be interesting.

The other interesting contest should be for bronze, because I think Shaquille and Nam will take the top two spots in either order.

[nadster]

I agree with geoskate's points wrt junior mens. It will be a Nam-Davis fight with 3rd place likely finishing well behind those 2.

What really be interesting will be the fight for the JGP slots next season.

Assuming that Rogozine finishes in the top 3 countries at JW ( a reasonably safe assumption), we will have 14 slots. Davis, Morais and Firus can't return to the JGP next season. It is very likely that Rogozine will be on the senior GP next year even though he can return to the JGP next season.

It is safe to say that Nam ( who will finally be old enough ) will get 2 of those slots. Really no one else has stood up. I know it is early but it will be interesting to see the junior and novice men's results.

The one scary thing is that this season we sent no one to the final JGP ( even though we had the right to send 1 person). That suggests that Skate Canada thought no one other than the skaters who got JGP's were good enough to get one. Davis was supposed to go to the last JGP but as his result was not that good at his first JGP this season , Skate Canada decided to not give him a second one and never replaced him with anybody.

Hopefully we don't leave men's JGP spots blank. We left 4 dance JGP spots blank this season and so a team who finished 4th in their JGP debut ( an excellent result ) did not even get a second assignment. There were many deserving dance teams who did not get assignments and leaving 4 spots blank must be an insult.