But how have they done previously in the season? - if they don't only keep in mind what they did now at Russian Nationals? This is an actual question, as I now can't recollect - all I remember is that neither did that great during the GP, the finer details escape me. So based on the overall season - Leonova versus Makarova?
I think makarova actually placed in a top 3 in a sp once this season in a gp event.
Has Makarova achieved the minimum FS score for Worlds yet? IIRC, she had only achieved it in the SP thus far.
Leonova and Makarova both had very poor seasons so far so it's definitely the right decision to send Gosvianni.
I guess we can expect Kovtun to be officially replaced with Menshov soon now that the politicians stepped in. :P
No, she hasn't, so, unless they send her to Euros in order to achieve the TES instead of Gosviani, she has to compete in another Senior B... And, watching her weak layout and usual UR jumps, looks very difficult to accomplish... So sad! At this point, I guess that Leonova will be surely the 3rd Russian lady at Worlds (unless Gosviani surprises everyone and skates wonderfully at Euros like Polina did last year and the Fed sends her to Worlds...)Originally Posted by blue_idealist
Korobeynikova finished 19th at Worlds 2012. I don't think the Russian Fed wants another repeat.
Yeah, especially with Leonova being the world silver medalist, although she is not skating like one at the moment.
Well, I don't know... I think the real pressure to perform will be on Liza and Adelina - the third lady is just a bonus chance; if she performs: great; if not... shrug.
Leonova hasn't had a single good competition this season, so far.
It's funny how the things are right now for the Russian Fed: half of her top skaters (Lipnitskaya, radionova, Sakanovich, pogorilaya) are not age-eligible, the only two good skaters, Liza and Adelina, are there, but they don't have a good skater to send as the 3rd lady, because the best at the moment of the not-so-good, age-eligible skaters (in my opinion), Makarova, doesn't have the minimum TES, the World Silver Medalist has had a disastrous season and Korobeneykova is really not ready for the ISU Championships, so they have to choose an almost unknown skater like Gosviani who still has to obtain the minimum TES! They have the best field in the world (with japan, I think), but they don't have a decent 3rd lady to send to Euros!
Leonova will frequently do more triples than Mao asada but she will fall once or twice and doesn't have assess pcs.
She got held up hugely in PCS at Nats and still wasn't named to the Euros team so I'm not sure about that. Seems like the judges are trying to hold her up, but when she skates that badly, there's only so much they can do that's reasonable...Mao has faced similar treatment in the past those two years she didn't make the GPF and the past 2 years when she was 6th at Worlds, she's just skating better now and has better programs so holding her up is not as difficult because she is at least landing/rotating a lot of her jumps, even if there are still a lot of mistakes. Alena OTOH is bombing.
I hope if the older Russian girls continue to skate so poorly that the Fed will name some younger, lesser known chick to the Olympics instead. Pogorilaya for example is old enough for senior ISU championships next season and has been skating really well this season even though she's virtually unknown and new to the international scene. I know she doesn't have the experience and reputation of a Leonova or Sotnikova, but if she's landing the big jumps when it matters and those two aren't, well, it seems like a logical choice to send her, or some other age eligible lesser known Russian girl with consistent jumps, instead. Leonova is a great skater when she skates well, sure, same goes for Sotnikova, but unfortunately that doesn't seem to be very frequently as of late. Hopefully things change soon.
But that was when asada did not give up on so Many jumps and failed at them. Now Mao has given up 3a and never attempts a 3/3 and can't do a triple lutz and has some of the worst rotating of triples in skating. Down to two triples sometimes. Maybe if leonova gave up on so many jumps like Mao she would be better and try to get better pcs because of no falling and better choreography or something. But unlike Mao she needs jumps and the harder jumps which are giving her trouble. Mao had the pcs by bing 2 time world champ and olympic silver medalist that she could totally give up on jumps and be like kostner or ando and have free skates with no 3/3 or no lutz or both. Leonova just doesn't have that pcs. Not even at Russian nationals. But she also unlike Mao and kostner couldn't even attempt to give up on the harder jumps because of skaters like shshnokova and radionova and tuktamisheva
Maybe she can get the PCS though if she can start being consistent. She has the same coach as Ando and Ando wasn't originally a skater known for her artistry, but she tried hard content and was consistent, won lots of medals, which built her PCS up, then once her PCS were so high, she could afford to stop trying 3-3s and 3f and still do well just by consistently landing 3lz, 3lo, 3s, 3t, 2a in her programs. I'm sure Alena could do the same, but she'd at least need to show consistency with some of her jumps to get that kind of treatment, and as of late she isn't doing that.
Ando also was a world champion. Sure it would make sense for leonova to stop doing 3/3's but now she has no opportunity to do that! The Russian federation is very mistakenly sending girls who do hard jumps but have terrible pcs like tuktamisheva. Tuk will be lucky to get 55 in pcs when she needs near 70 in pcs to do well. Leonova at least has much better pcs and that is what the ladies event is about.
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