Wish this could help the men's event tomorrow! For now, good night!Originally Posted by rallycairn
Wish this could help the men's event tomorrow! For now, good night!
Well apparently he is only 170 cm tall, so that's not that small a size shoe, and he's so skinny that they look bigger. He definitely seems like he's grown to me, though. Hanyu and Kozuka are listed as the same height, but Hanyu looks quite a bit taller like 3-4 cm, in pictures together he is definitely taller by at least a couple cm. Maybe it's due to different footwear but Hanyu looks in the vicinity of 172-175 cm now and that could definitely effect his timing on the quads.
It is written on the following page that his height is 170cm, and the size of the foot was 25.5cm. But it may be different from the present because it was an article of November, 2010.
http://www.asahi.com/special/plus/TK....html?ref=reca
Start at 1:00, Kozuka: 4-2- combo (the second jump was poor). Dai and Hanyu both landed 4-3 combos rock solid:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm3aKbvpE7Y
Dai`s SP 4-2 combo, 3A:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkTgCfY-3F0
Thank you, soooo much!! Great! Great! I'll cross my fingers for Daisuke tonight (tokyo).
FROM MY FRIEND:
Bon jour tout le monde!
A daily dose of France and skating.
General comments first.
Lots of school groups coming to the arena during the morning hours for the practice sessions. Seems 100’s or even 1000’s of kids. What a nice outing for them . Noticed that also for the early qualifying rounds. Have often wondered why USFSA doesn’t promote the same thing at Nationals. No real cost, would sell some f and b on site and expose a generation to the sport.
It’s been in the mid to upper 70’s here by day all week. Lower 60’s at night. Really shorts weather during the day with nearly no breeze. I’ve been hot all week wishing I had shorts and short sleeve shirt. One can pick out many of the locals as one walks around as many are wearing heavy coats, hats, scarves and gloves!!! They are cold. Reminds me of when I lived in Cancun. In December andJanuary the temp would sometimes drop from the 90’s into the 70’s. I would be in heavy and still wearing shorts and my local neighbors would be bundled up talking about how “freezing” it was.
English is the common denominator language of choice. Interesting to see the locals dealing with the international travelers and both using broken English to communicate.
-What’s with the Raggedy Ann red haired French women? Quite a few with that really fake “red” hair.
I’ve mentioned the arena set up with 1 entrance. They have been allowing exit at end of event through side cargo doors, but as one approaches the main entrance where there are multiple double glass doors, one finds that many of them are CHAINED shut forcing the flow out of the same entrance doors. It’s nuts. I did notice last night with the increased crowd size that some of the chains had been removed. Not sure if fire inspectors or officials forced it or what but it’s so dangerous.
There seem to be 3 main broadcasting booths on the end of oval near Kiss and cry, The Japanese had the center position and a big set up with permanent team. Then there is a smaller booth that seems to have regular team and we think they are with euro sport since they are televising live. Then there is a middle booth that has a roaming cast. Yesterday Kurt browning and tracy Wilson were doing some commentary there and then disappeared. Others have been in it as well but don’t know who. No sign of USA team. There is what appears to be a press area way up at the top on the end of oval so they could be up there.
Stefan Lambiel and Delabe/Schonfelder(sp??) sitting below us in a box last night for Dance final. Stefan has quite a “swish” as he walks. Looks great though.
-cushions appeared on the first row of the chairs last night. They aren’t great but better than nothing as the seating is not the most comfortable. We wondered why only the first row. Suspect maybe it’s the arenas apology for charging VIP seating price and giving us an obstructed view. Remember the glass partition in front separating us from the boxes. Not a great trade off but I’m taking it.
A think a record was set yesterday. 23 of the 30 women skated before we heard your favorite and mine, “Maleguena”. AND we only heard it once!!!
Oddest musical choice nomination goes too Coomes and Buckland from GBR for their choice of a quick step rap version of “2001 Space Odyssey” followed by “Blue Suede Shoes” and then with “Falling in love with you”. It was just weird. Though I hear it’s from the sound track of the Cirque du Soleil Elvis show.
Last couple of groups of dance quite fun. All seemed to do well. As with all season, there was a seeming split in the audience about who the winners were. Boils down to preference in music and style. Both D/W and V/ m delivered the goods. I gave the LP to D/W, judges disagreed. No one really upset as both are great.
The roar was so loud when Pechalat/Bourzat were introduced that you couldn’t hear the announcers say their name so they had TO REPEAT AND THIS TIME SHOUT OUT THE NAMES!!! They wer great fun and rose to the occasion and pressure of having to deliver at home. All were happy for them. Was funny to see them in the warm up session. All the other ladies in that group had on lovely dresses and she was wearing rags. As if she shown up to a party where “you told me it was a costume ball!!”
Shibutanis must be disappointed. Didn’t think they would do as well this year with the material they had chosen but with his error, they dropped in the standings. But great learning experience for them. And we now know a pair can move in the standings in dance. Never used to, but they went from 3rd last year to 8th this year.
I’m leaving out the most of the technical information as anyone interested is likely watching or will watch on IN or Universal Sports. Or standing by for Susan’s report!!!! Just filling in some of the gaps.
I think that’s it for now. Don’t have skating order yet. May wander over now and see if it’s out.
Au revoir mes amis
A few results oriented comments below so don’t read on if you are waiting to watch on your own.
While seemingly obvious, one thing was made very clear at yesterday’s ladies SP. Alissa Czisny is not Patrick Chan. The judges would not allow her to make 3 mistakes in her SP and still stay in medal contention. She’s rightfully 16th in standing and really lucky to be there. She is the only woman to have 2 falls in the SP and not only the 2 falls on the jumping passes, did not do a combo and stepped out and hand down on the 2A. It was just terrible to see. It seems everyone was routing for her and the oxygen was sucked out of the building after her 2nd fall. You could see her slow down heading into first jumping pass and faltering, then the rest just fell apart. Fortunately for her, everything she does between the jumps is superlative and somehow, she was able to do those elements well and managed to qualify but really it was one of the worst programs of the 30 that skated (as it relates to the point getting jumps). One has to feel for her. If she has the ‘skate of her life” LP, she can easily pick off many who’ve placed ahead of her and could easily end up in top 10 and potentially top 6. Only 10 points between her and 6th place. 10 points is a lot for someone without the talent to overcome, but she has the skills and ability to do it if she throws caution to the wind and gets over her head. She’s ranked now with skaters of lesser ability so reality is that she could do it. However, she definitely gets the best costume of the year award.
Mao looked anorexic thin. Not a healthy look though likely looks great on TV. She so skinny that when she finished and took her bows, others were throwing flowers and stuffed animals, but I looked around and hoped to have found the ever present baguette to throw to her!! She needs to eat. She was good, but tentative and everyone wonders why she continues to play with the 3A. Let it go and clean up the program. With those skinny legs how she thinks she’ll find the power to do the 3A consistently is a mystery.
The other 2 japanese ladies were on fire especially Murikami who lit up the ice and crowd went wild. Susuki alo had the crowd on their feet though a couple of errors.
Leonova was the crowd pleaser though and rocked yesterday. Like her or not, she delivered the goods when it counted.
Ashley, was hitting the 3/3 in the warm up but missed it in the SP and you could then see her too sort of lose her focus and rest of program was blah.
Kostner looks so different on the ice than off in person. Interesting to see her all made up and costumed then an hour later sitting behind me without war paint having dinner looking like an ordinary young lady. She’s a crowd pleaser.
I am back from ladies practice. The most of them skated in the morning. Kostner didn't attend any of the sessions
Wagner was very solid throughtout all her practice. She landed very nicely every jump and also a double axel-triple toe. She seemed relaxed.
Valentina had some little struggles on triple lutzes, but then solid.
Then, in the last group Makarova looked relaxed and smiled a lot. Though she didn't try so much. Leonova was so and so. Some jumps were good, other not. Actually she seemed a lot nervous, she didn't do quite anything during her runthrought and spoke a lot with Morozov.
The Japanese girls attended both sessions. Akiko had some troubles, especially in the double axel-triple toe that she tried several times and did not nail much times and triple loops in the afternoon were shaky.
Kanako is so and so. She looked very solid on toe pick jumps, but not so much in the triple toe-triple toe combo.
Mao has an enormous strenght of will because she tries time after time the triple axel, but it is not there at all. She double-footed all of her landings. In the afternoon she even tried the triple flip-triple loop and that looked fine few times. At the end of the practice she was terribly tired and missed all of her jumps in the runtrought
Anyone want ot analyse Mao's 3F - 3L?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzQYAvSo8W8 at 0.58
Thank to all poster who give the impression from practise.
Mao's run-through: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzQYAvSo8W8
3A (step out), 3F-3L, skipped 3Lz, 2A-3T, 3F-2L-2L, 3S, 3L
Akiko's run-through: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V4s8Xrg4vk
She didn't do a complete one and spent sme time speaking to her coach during the RT. Also, Mao landing 3L @1:12 and 3S@2:20.
Kanako's run-through: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMtWaiK5tWI
Interesting jump layout. Missed some jumps here, but maybe she was just saving strength for later sessions / actual FS. You can see Mao landing 3Lz @1:43.
Ashley's run-through: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdErpTtiCrE
Last edited by Okami; 03-30-2012 at 12:43 PM.
I really don't know why Mao insists on always going for the 3A when every practice report I've seen mentions how she's clearly struggling with it. I fear for her LP tomorrow.
Women's practice:
Ashley: looked really strong! Hit a lot of jumps in her run-through; did the 2A-3T several times, sometimes the 3T looks a little tight, but mostly it looks landed on one foot. Didn't spot any two-foots on other jumps.
Mao: looked pretty strong in the run-through, all practice really except for 3A which.. really I can't see that one happening.
Kanako: had strong moments, seemed to struggle a bit with the triple loop? Had some falls and doubled jumps.
Alena: didn't see her jump a lot of triple, though at least one nice 3T-3T.
Carolina was a no-show at the morning practice, as was Elene.
I saw a little bit from Alissa's practice.. she had good moments but also struggled a lot, I think..
Closer look at Mao's practice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrPh-2q5zjw
Loveskating, thanks for the front-line reports! It sounds like so much fun to be there (glass partition and all). More, please!
Wow! If practices could win gold medals, Ashley would certainly be in the running straight to the top. I really hope she can bring all of that to the LP performance when it really counts!
Someone in the short program thread said that it was her mother's favorite jump. A homage, maybe?
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