Krislite said:Where she really needs the 3Axel is in the SP. But that's also where it's riskier to go for it. Many of the top contenders will be doing 3/3's in the SP and she'll be left far behind if she sticks with her current layout.
Regardless of its consistency, I suspect she will attempt it. Her chances of getting no UR? Less than 50% I'd say. The 3Axel has eluded her in recent years.
After that failed 3A all her jump passes went wrong.
And behind whom? Of course there's Yuna, but besides that... most woman are doing 3T-3T now (Caro, Akiko, Adelina, Kaetlyn,...). That's 8.2 points. Mao's 3F-2Lo gives her 7.1, that's just a difference of 1.1. Except for Caro, Mao equals that out with the PCS already (and for Caro, she makes up some ground again with her better spnis). So the only real threads are those girls going for 3F-3T or 3Lz-3T - and that's so rare today. The only ones I can think of now are Liza and Gracie, and still I'm not too sure they'd beat Mao (non-jump elements + spins).
The only two skaters that will beat Mao if she's clean are Yuna and Caro. That's not really being buried
vera01 said:But even if she does jump 3A, remember how Yuna won the Olympics. Mao did 3A there and Yuna was still 20 points ahead of her.
let`s talk said:She tried 3A in Nagoya and downgraded it heavily, two-footed.
Asada will absolutely need a 3A or 3/3 to win Worlds. She's done very well this season winning everything she entered so far. But Worlds is where everybody steps their game up, and Asada's jumps hasn't really been up to snuff. Plus, there's the matter of Yuna Kim, who doesn't seem to have missed a beat, coming back. The top contenders are all hungry killers. They will all assume that the others will bust out the big guns, so they are going to bring their own. It's an arms race and the motto is BYOB (Bring Your Own Bomb) if you want to win. Can Asada do it? I doubt it.