Here's a less choppy video of Mirai's SP:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdLavCLWeNQ
Mirai, then Akiko and Miki....not sure about the rest. Mirai had 58 and change
Thanks! Mirai looks good. Wobbly on her flip but for a first outing this season she looks great. I think this choreo has some very nice moments. Love her costume!
I like the program and agree her dress is nice..
Some of these skaters have shown their programs 2-3 times already. This was the first time out for Mirai and I thought she did OK. Hope she can hold up during the LP.
Didn't GOE get changed with the new rules? That could be another reason
There was no WOW in this comp either. I've never been a Miki Ando fan, so I'll be quiet about her, but she is included among the non wow skaters.
mirai was slow and laboured, she should have gotten an edge call on her lutz and ur. but she did show more emotion 2nd half. and was choppy--not flowing.
miki was okay but her 2nd triple on the triple looked a bit ur.
I was so surprised to see Kwak so low in the standings!
Good luck to everyone for tomorrow!
Live and in real-time, ladies' short was pretty lackluster, but at least not a complete splatfest. More 2A troubles than I expected to see at this level.
You are completely wrong. I was there. Mirai actually was not slow, and she was faster than just about anybody else out there tonight. The lutz was fine. However, your biases are well known and you don't ever let the facts get in your way, so carry on...
***
The current top 3 were clearly above the rest of the pack tonight, though each had her own technical warts. I'm not convinced about Mirai's music, Akiko carries hers off well, and Miki needs better choreography for hers, with less frantic arm movements on the footwork section.
Bingwa put together a decent technical showing, but she's not up to interpreting the music chosen for her. Amanda looks good out there, and she's a natural for Moon River, but needs that full jump arsenal, also she visibly slows down in the last part of the program.
Leonova looked awful, both the Halloween costume and the sloppy skating. It really does look like she has past her prime--definitely not on track to be the next Slutskaya. I don't agree with her placement above Helgesson, and she should be not too far in front of Dobbs, though she is. Min Jung Kwak had a rough night, hopefully it is an aberration, and not indicative of a less-than-desireable training situation. She is a very pretty skater to watch. Her PCS seemed a tad low. Musademba I had high hopes for, based on comments from those who saw her on the JGP circuit last 2 years. But....I'm seeing neither great athleticism nor superior artistry. Frankly, her skating looked somewhat clunky and the performance was flat--I had been led to believe she was very balletic and all that. I don't think Claire de Lune is the easiest piece of music to interpret. Szmiett's music is boring, not a good match for her. I found her general basic skating of clearly poorer quality than the other skaters. Which is odd, as I saw her at CoC last year, where she was a newbie, an unknown, and yet performed respectably. Is it my imagination or has she regressed?
Let's hope the ladies wake up in time to put some spark in those free skates tomorrow.
I just watched Nagasu's SP on Universal sports. Good debut for her, she made an effort to express the music but somehow I felt last year's SP was better. She needs something a bit more fiery IMHO.
Not a huge fan of Miki's new program. Don't get me wrong, I think it has potential, but I don't think she sells it enough yet.
What I don't understand, though, is how a program with a 3-3 gets lower TES than Mirai and Akiko with 3-2s. Obviously it's not all about the jumps, but given the way the CoP is set up, I don't think Miki's other elements were that inferior, and you'd think that a 3-3 would provide enough of a buffer to offset the wonky landing on the 2A.
I think dlgpffps hits it on the head here, though. Under the new rules, if a jump is under-rotated by between 90 and 180 degrees, it should get a <, and more than 180 and it should get a <<. With this distinction, though, it seems as if callers feel more comfortable judging that a jump is under-rotated in borderline cases.