Canadian Summer Competitions, 2011, General

[colleen o'neill]

Thanks, trains.. Boy, I wish someone had posted a fan video. I'm really looking forward to tracking their progress this season.

I'm also so sorry Thornhill and Quebec happened on the same weekend. I didn't know what to watch first ( high class complaint, I know )..There seems to be a lot archived from Quebec, but not from Thornhill (yet), that I can find. So I understand I missed quite a thrill when I missed Bobak and Beharry in Jr pairs. I did come across this in my search ..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24291681@N08/5968014699/

..but , of course that only serves to tantalize further.

[vintagefigureskater]

Does anyone know Purich & Schultz's FP score at BC Summerskate? It's not listed in the protocols. Thx!

[colleen o'neill]

It's odd that P/S 's scores aren't up , isn't it ? ...I don't remember what the marks were , but I do remember they were really pleased.

[geoskate]

Purich/Schultz's score at BC SummerSkate was 87.15. If I remember correctly, he had some problems with the jumps in the long program, but everything else was good, other than a hand down on one throw. His presentation, in particular, has improved this year. (She was already good last year). That really showed up in his singles skating, where I believe his PCS scores were quite a bit better than last year.

On another topic, the entries for Autumn Skate in Ottawa are up. The competition is September 16-18, and the entries are here. The most notable entry is in the senior men - Kevin Reynolds. I think this will be his first competition of the season.

The dance field is quite strong in both junior (8 teams) and senior (7 teams). There is one new team (new to me, at least) in junior: Auvikki de Boon/Tanner White. Auvikki is from the Netherlands; will they be skating for The Netherlands? There is also one new team in the senior ranks: Jazz Smyl Joly/Nicholas Jesionek (free dance only).

[geoskate]

Also, the entries to the Souvenir Georges-Ethier competition in Trois-Rivieres September 29-October 2 are up, at this location. As usual for a Quebec competition, there is a large contingent of 37 junior ladies, and 13 junior men. There don't appear to be an senior dance teams, but there are two pairs teams, 16 senior ladies and 11 senior men. Among the senior men is Maxime-Billy Fortin, who started a comeback last season and was 10th at Canadians. I believe this is his first competition of this season.

[nadster]

I just checked the entry list for the JGP in Austria ( the 5th JGP ) released today and again Canada is only sending one man and one pair.

So far in the first 5 JGPs we have left 4 men's spot ( out of 10 ) blank and 6 ( out of 9 ) pairs spots blank.

The JGP is the best way of building up an ISU ranking. We are also shooting ourselves in the foot when it comes to JW by forcing our skaters to skate in the early group for the short programs ( yes ISU rankings determine SP skate order at JW ).

In pairs we have received the right to send 3 pairs to JW. The way we are going, one of those pairs will be guaranteed to go with no ISU experience and therefore will be stuck in the early group ( if Skate Canada is willing to send them )

First of the country to benefit the most from leaving the men's spots blank is Russia. Since Sweden ( guaranteed 14 slots but clearly does not have the man power ) couldn't fill its spots , USA was always in for the 14 spots anyway. So realistically any spots we don't use go to Russia.

Even using Skate Canada's standards for the men ( 150 total score in summer competition ) , there are several men who have met the standard. Grant you, some of them are at least listed as substitutes. Mitchell Gordon met the standard at the BC skate and is not even listed as a substitute in any of the events so far.

[Scout]

What about pairs? Does anybody know how many junior pairs meet SC's threshold score as well as the age minimum?

Also, is there any website for Canada that is similar to the 'Unseen Skaters' website for the US, that compiles various stats such as a list of the top scores for the season?

I agree that it seems extremely dumb to forfeit spots. Maybe there's a link to Skatebuzz or PJ or somewhere we can post a question to get some insight.
Obviously, SC must be aware of the rules regarding JW skate order and such, so there must be some method to their madness (hopefully...).

[colleen o'neill]

Just glancing at the Autumn Skate line up...I guess this will give us our first look at Arnold / Trojeck...( or at least a report of someone's first look ) It will be interesting to see if there are any effect yet from the coaching change. ( I must say I respect Paul McIntosh immensely for knowing when to send his teams on to a different situation. ) They got the 3rd SC assignment last year , so will it be between them , R/H and H /G this year ? ( I notice H/G and R/H are both assigned to Nebelhorn. )

I really can't wrap my head around the assignments, this year. I wish someone could just pat me on the back and say There, there it'll be OK , but that seems a vain hope. Very glad P/I have SA as well as NHK , now , but feeling pretty discouraged for the couples a step or two back.

[CdnSkateWatcher]

There is one new team (new to me, at least) in junior: Auvikki de Boon/Tanner White. Auvikki is from the Netherlands; will they be skating for The Netherlands? There is also one new team in the senior ranks: Jazz Smyl Joly/Nicholas Jesionek (free dance only).

Tanner White is with a new partner this year; he's been representing EOS for a number of years, in singles for a bit IIRC, but with dance in latter years, with Emily Valentine last year at the Novice level.

[thumbyskates]

Mitchell Gordon is listed as a spare for Austria!

[geoskate]

Even using Skate Canada's standards for the men ( 150 total score in summer competition ) , there are several men who have met the standard.

Here's a timeline on how many men have met the 150 standard (or come close), and at what time:

1. Met the standard last season, so Skate Canada could have considered these skaters for initial assignments without any summer results and honoured their standards:
- Liam Firus, 185.40 at Canadians 2011. (Assigned to JGP Brisbane and JGP Innsbruck)
- Nam Nguyen, 169.89 at Canadians 2011.(Assigned to JGP Latvia and JGP Romania)
- Shaquille Davis, 159.03 at Octoberfest in 2010. (No assignments or subs)

2. Almost met the standard last season:
- Samuel Angers 147.52 at Challenge 2010 (Alternate JGP Poland and JGP Romania).

And that's about it from last season. Garrett Gosselin had scored 144.01 at Challenge, Peter O'Brien had scored 142.42 at Canadians, Jack Kermezian had scored 140.61 at Quebec sectionals, and everyone was below 140 points.

Subsequent to that the following people met the standard, or almost met the standard, in this order:

3. Dennis Margalik, 146.90 at Spring Fling (Assigned to JGP Gdansk, alternate to JGP Innsbruck)

4. Garrett Gosselin, 151.95 at Skate Detroit (Alternate at JGP Brisbane, alternate at JGP Poland, alternate at JGP Romania). Since Skate Detroit was on July 19-23, that score was achieved before the assignments for any JGP events were decided.

My understanding is that assignments for JGP events have to be submitted one month prior to the actual event. Therefore, for JGP Latvia and JGP Brisbane they had four skaters who had met the standard, six if you count Angers and Margalik who were close. They could make a selection for four possible spots from these skaters and honour their selection standards..

5. Peter O'Brien, 159.52 at Quebec Summer (Assigned to JGP Romania) The Quebec Summer competition was August 8-11, so he met the standard in time for assignments to JGP Gdansk and following events.

6. Christophe Belley-Lemelin, 156.19 at Quebec Summer (Alternate at JGP Romania and JGP Innsbruck). He also met the standard in time for assignments to JGP Gdansk and following.

Therefore by the time of assignments for the Gdansk event they had six to eight skaters to choose from, and could have had six spots to fill if they had used them all.

7. Mitchell Gordon, 152.12 at BC SummerSkate August 18-21 (Alternate JGP Innsbruck). This was in time for assignments to JGP Romania and following events.

So for these events they had the following numbers of eligible skaters from which to choose:
Latvia August 31-September 4: Four (or six with Margalik and Angers)
Brisbane September 7-11: Four (or six with Margalik and Angers)
Gdansk, Poland September 14-18: Six (or eight with Margalik and Angers)
Brasov, Romania September 21-25 Seven (or nine with Margalik and Angers)
Innsbuck, Austria September 28-October 2: Seven (or nine with Marglik and Angers)

What this shows, I think, is that there were enough eligible skaters who had met the standard at the time to fill all the spots that were available at the times that selections had to be made for each event. In the case of the pairs there may be a lack of skaters who have met their standard, but in the case of the men it seems to be a deliberate policy to leave spots unfilled, rather than a result of a lack of eligible skaters.

[nadster]

Thanks geoskate for coming up with that comprehensive list and putting the detailed proof of my rant for all to see.

For one, given the scores of the top novices at Canadians, I am not surprised that these skaters ( like Gordon and Belley-Lemelin ) met the standard.

I am reasonably sure that their novice scores if juniorized ( IOW using the higher junior PCS multipliers rather than the much lower novice PCS multipliers ) would have put their scores in that range or close to it. I know that this is an inexact science but juniorizing novice scores adds a significant amount of points to the score even when you take away the novice jump bonuses and increase the penalty for falls. Under the novice rules last season, juniorizing the novice scores of the top skaters can easily add 15 to over 20 points to the score.

This season the novice scores will be a little bit more inflated than in previous seasons as all triples ( not just loop and harder in previous years ) get the bonus and there are no fall deductions on jumps ( fall deductions were previously 0.50 as opposed to the junior/senior standard of 1.00 deduction ). I think these rule changes are more for the ladies ( to try to encourage them to do the harder jumps without fear of huge deductions )

[geoskate]

Registrations for the Isabelle Henderson competition are up. This competition takes place in Paris, Ontario this year, and the dates are September 23-25.

Notable registrants are Kirsten Moore-Towers/Dylan Moscovitch in pairs, and Alexandra Paul/Mitchell Islam in dance.

[dorispulaski]

I hope there will be videos!

[geoskate]

Results for Autumn Skate in Ottawa are up. Click on the live links after 'segment' for the segment results, and 'category' for overall results.

It looks like no protocols have been posted, unless they are there and I'm not seeing them.

The best-known skater here was Kevin Reynolds. He had a score of 68.42 in the short program and 127.93 in the long program. Last season he also skated at Autumn Skate as his first competition of the season. His marks last season were 58.32 in the short program and 116.92 in the long program, so he seems to be off to a better start this season than he was last season.