Mens SP

I think it's great how Gachinski was able to add a spread eagle entrance to his 3A. He doesn't seem as fast as the other people. He 3 loop is just insanely fast. It always looks like a double.

I like Abbott's SP- it is a lot energy and choreo

Hanyu was good though he looked like he did 10 LPs - maybe it was hot in the arena

Oda's shirt is blinding!

I was hoping Richard would do better.

I'm just starting to watch but... I thought Jeremy was a blond now? I'm impressed that he can keep track of when it's time to play with his suspenders, but talk about unnecessary complications. Jeez.

And China's K&C sure beats Canada's! The flowers are beautiful! :thumbsup:

Don't know if any posted this already but here is a link to eurosport version of a couple of Friday's programs.

http://www.youtube.com/user/frida340

and here is Yuzuru's SP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nSihTWuRMw

Jeremy's program seems like something Ryan Bradley would do. I don't love it for him. The hunched-over finger snapping bothers me and the use of the suspenders is never big/outrageous enough to make an impact.

It's too bad Oda doesn't have as much personality on ice as his shirt.

Gachinski needs to learn to do a proper sit-change-sit. The way he does that element should have it being called as a change-of-foot combination spin (and thus an invalid element in the SP...at 2011 Europeans the tech specialist did call it as such).

Hanyu is the best. Really, I wouldn't flinch at all if he were to win Worlds this year. I'm very impressed with how much he has grown as a performer. He puts his heart and soul into his skating, uses full-body movements, and pays attention to the details - look at how he utilizes his hands during spins to interpret the music. People note how tired he seems at the end of the program without noting how much more energy he is exerting in comparison to most other competitors.

snowflake said:

Hanyu and Gashinski can really jump. Hanyu was just wow! Seniorita says he wears Plushy's bracelet(?) and maybe he also borrowed Weir's costume

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I couldnt remember when i had read it about the bracelet but then I did, it was in Prince on Ice or FOI photos from the summer where Hanyu was doing the crazy combos, I had seen it in photos of the World Figure Skating49 magazine, 1, 2, 3.
I think Weir has designed a couple of his costumes already.

Can someone explain to me why Artur GACHINSKI deserved a higher PCS than Yuzuru HANYU? I enjoyed Yuzuru's choreography and performance better.

Blades of Passion said:

Jeremy's program seems like something Ryan Bradley would do. I don't love it for him. The hunched-over finger snapping bothers me and the use of the suspenders is never big/outrageous enough to make an impact.

It's too bad Oda doesn't have as much personality on ice as his shirt.

Gachinski needs to learn to do a proper sit-change-sit. The way he does that element should have it being called as a change-of-foot combination spin (and thus an invalid element in the SP...at 2011 Europeans the tech specialist did call it as such).

Hanyu is the best. Really, I wouldn't flinch at all if he were to win Worlds this year. I'm very impressed with how much he has grown as a performer. He puts his heart and soul into his skating, uses full-body movements, and pays attention to the details - look at how he utilizes his hands during spins to interpret the music. People note how tired he seems at the end of the program without noting how much more energy he is exerting in comparison to most other competitors.

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Isn't this partly due to his being asthmatic? I thought I read where this is why he sometimes runs out of stamina during his LP.

There is hardly any difference between Artur's and Yuzuru's PCS, thus it could just be random factors with so many individual scores to average and add up after the eleminaition of two judges' scores. They are statiscally equal within a small margin of errors/randomness.

eta. They actually have identical SS and TR scores. Quite some synchronicities.

What happened to Jinlin Guan? I don't see results for him. He's on my fantasy team, and I have a nasty tendency to pick skaters who withdraw!

Wicked said:

I have a nasty tendency to pick skaters who withdraw!

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Who's your pick for the World champion this year?

chloepoco said:

Isn't this partly due to his being asthmatic? I thought I read where this is why he sometimes runs out of stamina during his LP.

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Yea I think I read that in an article too. That's also why he doesn't practice for long periods of time too. I hope that as he gets older, his asthma will get better. I hope he can make the GPF this year and the world team!! What was wrong with Hanyu's quad that he got -GOE for it?

skatinginbc said:

Who's your pick for the World champion this year?

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Awww, now I wouldn't do that somebody this early!

Spun Silver said:

I'm just starting to watch but... I thought Jeremy was a blond now? I'm impressed that he can keep track of when it's time to play with his suspenders, but talk about unnecessary complications. Jeez.

And China's K&C sure beats Canada's! The flowers are beautiful! :thumbsup:

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Oh, I have to change my avatar

Agree about the flowers.

Blades of Passion said:

Jeremy's program seems like something Ryan Bradley would do. I don't love it for him. The hunched-over finger snapping bothers me and the use of the suspenders is never big/outrageous enough to make an impact.

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What do you want him to do with his suspenders then?
I think I saw this as a show program and I thought; Ouch, he is suspender pulling to much

I think the choreo is mostly great for a swing program and that his skating to it is brilliant.

Blades of Passion said:

Hanyu is the best. Really, I wouldn't flinch at all if he were to win Worlds this year. I'm very impressed with how much he has grown as a performer. He puts his heart and soul into his skating, uses full-body movements, and pays attention to the details - look at how he utilizes his hands during spins to interpret the music. People note how tired he seems at the end of the program without noting how much more energy he is exerting in comparison to most other competitors.

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Many posters have noted that he is rushing things to much. Agree that he seems to put his heart into skating, but maybe he should calm down a bit. Could also be a technical issue... breathing problems or whatever?

Spun Silver said:

And China's K&C sure beats Canada's! The flowers are beautiful! :thumbsup:

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Yes, but Canadian audience beat Shanghai audience by a country mile or whatever measure. I just got Asian languages back on my computer and checked out the Chinese forums (Guan has an jury, wicked). Chinese fans are being very critical of and dismayed by the COC audience and hope ISU events will just be herld in Beijing with more real fans. The Shanghai audience are clueless about figure skating but mostly there with free tickets. They behave poorly and noisily, not enthusiastic and welcoming but exclaim loudly ("awwww....") at falls.

I am rather proud of the Canadian fans at SC.

Russia is eagerly trying to build it's name in Figure skating big time in preparation for Sochi!

can't find a video of this performance only a picture. Ryan Bradley in suspenders 2006-07 short. Abbott being really subtle compared to Bradley

http://www.skateygirl.com/nat2007/srmen_s/bradley/pages/1-25-07 273_jpg.htm

http://www.iceskatingintnl.com/images/four_continents/2007 4c bradley sp 5734.jpg

I think this SP actually suits Jeremy's playful personality, bringing out the smile to begin the program instead of a dreadful face. I hope the LP too will be something calming rather than nerve racking for him. It's all about nerves with Abbott. Smile, Jeremy!

Saw vids of the top 4. *** at the sound setup? The music isn't directly piped to the broadcast feed, so the home audience has to rely on the ambient mic to pick it up, which makes the whole thing sound like soup. Shanghai Sports Center, y u no hook up sound feed? Y?!

In increasing order of enjoyment:

There was a time I liked Nobunari Oda, back when he was putting comedy in his programs and skating as Super Mario. Now all the whimsy and fun are gone, to be replaced by this awkward attempt at festiveness. The more I see him, the more I realize he's purely an athlete and not a dancer at all. There's no sense of style or grace, or any particular musicality. With how sensational his countrymen are, I hope he's the one who stays home.

Artur Gachinski was... adequate. Nothing stands out particularly, but nothing objectionable either. His footwork section was rather slow. But good on him for making an actual effort to perform.

Yuzuru Hanyu's performance was rather stunning. I kept having to rewind just to look at his fantastic entrances to various elements, like the entrance to his next to last spin, or actual footwork into a quad. I saw no signs of any sudden bouts of sloppiness, which sometimes beplagued him in the past. He is egregiously lowballed in PCS. On the negative side, he's still gasping for air even at the end of an SP, which shows his stamina doesn't seem to have improved much. That's a giant weakness of his that he needs to fix if he wants to advance.

Jeremy Abbott is the man. Such a wonderful, nimble and entertaining performance. I'm reading some comparisons between this SP and Ryan Bradley. LOL no. It's the difference between your charming uncle doing a dance at a bar mitzvah vs. Michael Jackson. Abbott can actually move. Those jazz moves of his may not be new, but he incorporates them so seamlessly into his skating and with such speed that it is a new experience. The best Sing, Sing, Sing program I have seen, and there have been a lot.

SkateFiguring said:

I hope the LP too will be something calming rather than nerve racking for him. It's all about nerves with Abbott. Smile, Jeremy!

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Well, Jeremy actually choreographed his LP with Yuka Sato, so I would hope that means that he will be comfortable skating it since it's his and his coach's creation. I really hope he shines in the LP too; it will be his very first time skating it in public.