Quote Originally Posted by wallylutz View Post
Well, for Hanyu to compete in London Worlds against Patrick Chan, Hanyu has to actually earn a spot on the Japanese team first. There are 5 very strong Japanese men, each of them can make a case for a spot on the team. If Hanyu skates his FS like he did in SA, there is a very real chance he won't make it to the podium at the Japanese Nationals. If so, can he legitimately take the place of another Japanese man who finished higher at their Nationals? Say, Machida skated lights out and finished 2nd, like how he defeated Takahashi recently, while Kozuka won the title. Do you shaft whoever finished 3rd in favor of Hanyu? What if that person happens to be Dai? Would it be more legitimate if that person were Oda?
Hanyu’s spot at world is almost guaranteed. His miserable FS in SA still got higher PCS than both Oda and Machida who had a couple of jump mistakes but performed much better overall. Hanyu’s SP got 46 on the PCS, so if he skates with only a few mistakes, the judges will be ready to give him similar PCS. Only way that Oda and Machida win against him is that they skate perfectly with successful quads, and Hanyu repeats the SA FS performance. The chance is not zero, but quite small, unfortunately.