2023 World Junior Men's Short Program

[lariko]

Ok, who should I catch up on outside of the top ten? (Also open to women’s recs by the way, not caught up on them at all yet)

Zich, absolutely. He was absolutely incredible. Suntsev, Marsak, Bodenstein, Hermann and Martsenko.

 

[lariko]

Enlightening and sobering for those pretending that there was any home cooking here.
As per usual, the Canadian judge was not particularly generous with homeskaters.
The Canadian judge destroyed Edward, while some judges ranked him higher than where he finished. Most judges gave Edward a generous PCS ranking compared to what the Canadian judge did.
The Canadian judge put Naoki over Wesley.
The Canadian judge gave favourable scores to Broussard with the highest score he received in PCS by any judge 39.67... which is the same score that they gave to Chiu.
The Canadian judge scored Aleksa close enough to the average. Too close to call this homecooking.

Memola's scores are all over the place... so I don't see much problem here with the Canadian judge not placing him super high... because he seems to have divided pretty much the entire panel.

Canadian judge significantly scored favourably Yoshioka and Martynov (but not as high as the Georgian who put the latter in 2nd place !)

And I am in full agreement with Georgian judge. Okay, so we rewatched Broussard in 2D on TV, and he is slightly, slightly better on TV than live, but when Martynov came out, he was fluid, filling the rink. He had surety of movement, of every element. Broussard had nothing in 3D. Like, seriously, nothing. He was slow, unsure, his famed arms weren’t there on display and guys like Yoshioka and Kim, even Y.Chen had speed, edges, fluidity and coverage that Broussard can’t dream of. So did Chiu, absolutely, not even disputable how much better he fills the space with the story he tells. And the difference between Rossi and Broussard was huge in 3D in impact, presence and that surety of delivery, knowing what they are trying to do, particularly back to back. Like, literally, no comparison.

Imo, Martynov was the strongest of the three US men in the short, and Broussard benefitted the most from being the last US guy so had to be in the final group…

 

[Ruthypegs]

Every time I see a skater from GBR and it isn’t PJ I am sad.

I know what you mean... but...Harry Mattick, who was another entertaining and charismatic GB singles skater, is now skating pairs....

 

[4everchan]

And I am in full agreement with Georgian judge. Okay, so we rewatched Broussard in 2D on TV, and he is slightly, slightly better on TV than live, but when Martynov came out, he was fluid, filling the rink. He had surety of movement, of every element. Broussard had nothing in 3D. Like, seriously, nothing. He was slow, unsure, his famed arms weren’t there on display and guys like Yoshioka and Kim, even Y.Chen had speed, edges, fluidity and coverage that Broussard can’t dream of. So did Chiu, absolutely, not even disputable how much better he fills the space with the story he tells. And the difference between Rossi and Broussard was huge in 3D in impact, presence and that surety of delivery, knowing what they are trying to do, particularly back to back. Like, literally, no comparison.

Imo, Martynov was the strongest of the three US men in the short, and Broussard benefitted the most from being the last US guy so had to be in the final group…

there is nothing like being at the rink... and the judges are at the rink... I have no problem believing Wesley fills the space. You can hear the swooshing sounds of his blades even on the video.... a sound dear to my ears as a Patrick Chan fan... (not pretending Wesley is close to skate like Patrick... ) I prefer many other skaters to Wesley but he did do very well... even with a hand down on his lutz. Other skaters had their flaws too.. Regarding Broussard, I hadn't seen him in a while...and I was disappointed too. I felt a disconnection between the upper body and the lower body. He is an attractive skater but that wasn't an organic skate, at least, on video. Thank you for sharing your perspective from the rink. I have a sudden urge to buy tickets for competition again... which i haven't done since worlds were canceled in 2020....

 

[Ruthypegs]

I know what you mean... but...Harry Mattick, who was another entertaining and charismatic GB singles skater, is now skating pairs....

Also, hats off to Ed Appleby - he did well today, and has loads of potential.

 

[lariko]

there is nothing like being at the rink... and the judges are at the rink... I have no problem believing Wesley fills the space. You can hear the swooshing sounds of his blades even on the video.... a sound dear to my ears as a Patrick Chan fan... (not pretending Wesley is close to skate like Patrick... ) I prefer many other skaters to Wesley but he did do very well... even with a hand down on his lutz. Other skaters had their flaws too.. Regarding Broussard, I hadn't seen him in a while...and I was disappointed too. I felt a disconnection between the upper body and the lower body. He is an attractive skater but that wasn't an organic skate, at least, on video. Thank you for sharing your perspective from the rink. I have a sudden urge to buy tickets for competition again... which i haven't done since worlds were canceled in 2020....

Yes, exactly that. Judges and tech panel are in the rink. In juniors, I can see more difference between skaters than in GP, but omg, Zich and Rossi alone were worth the price of admission. The 3D impact of the rink and how much the speed translates in the space is very different than on TV.

In recording, you can see that Rossi skates faster than Broussard, but the camera is shaking a little because the camera man has troubles keeping him in the frame. Camera likes Broussard. But with human eyes, in the space, the whole body+speed+charisma and the feel the skater has for music or how committed they are to it makes a different impression. Particularly on a small rink like this.

I haven’t seen P. Chan live, but I saw Zhou’s best delivery of the same music in Skate America live as what W. Chiu skates to and the performances are obviously different and I like both. Guys have different build and energy, but Chiu is very light/delicate vs powerful and dramatic. They both know what they do with hand and feet and why. People didn’t just respond to him because there was a huge Canadian block of fans in the audience. People were responding to him because he skated well.

Also, @Ruthypegs Appleby definitely delivered so much more than where he seemed to be heading with practice and his ability to smile sincerely at the front rows is going to work great for him.

I also can see why opinions would be divided on Memola. Like Bodenstein his build is tall and slim, but he uses it effectively for dancing in his style. But if you are convinced that figureskating is aboyt soft knees and staying close to the ice, that ain’t that. He cuts a bella figura though, very much, precisely not trying to imitate someone like Kim because it would be nonsensical for him to try to.

I think a few of the tall men showed well in competition, Bralin, Memola, Bodenstein. Vlasnko to a lesser degree.

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

good night dear, have dreams of cartwheeling cacti

That's actually all my dreams are made of. Well, that and kittens (of all kinds).

 

[Skater Boy]

Miura is so overwhelmingly the favourite and the class of the filed. Speed. Style and Tech. Wesley Chiu is very lucky he saved that combo. I give full credit to the guys who got the triple axel done. The battle is for silver and bronze.

 

[Ziotic]

To be fair to Wesley he scored higher at last years WJ and was also second in the SP

He just had a rough season transitioning to Sr thus the lower scores this year. I also believe he was doing a quad in the short so likely a lesser success rate and lower scores.

It’s not like this score was a one off.

 

[TontoK]

For @lariko

I'll let others argue (or not) about Broussard, but I'm with you in spirit concerning Martynov.

I'm surprised that he sits in only 10th. I thought the elements were delivered with real clarity, maybe even with a bit of swagger.

 

[yesterday]

Another day that shows how starting order can impact scores. Lots of other factors do too, but the order is something that could really be changed easily and without extra cost. why can't they do it for the SP? Would be fun to mix it in the FS as well but ofc there's the dramatic moments when the go with reverse

 

[yesterday]

I just rewatched the top 6 here. Did Ted really gush over Kao's SB from SkAm? As "wow for a Junior"? Did he not realise it's two different programs with different requirements and that he can't reproduce such a score here

 

[lariko]

For @lariko

I'll let others argue (or not) about Broussard, but I'm with you in spirit concerning Martynov.

I'm surprised that he sits in only 10th. I thought the elements were delivered with real clarity, maybe even with a bit of swagger.

He did and he is a good sport too, spending the whole afternoon cheering for dance and women for his team. I am looking forward to seeing him in the free.

 

[Dreamer57]

Yanhao Li of New Zealand, I'm sad he didn't make it into the free skate.

Me too just over a point away!

I was also hoping for Yu-hsiang Li to make it through.
Maybe next year - it's a home junior worlds in Taipei for him - I would like to see Yanhao and Hugo join him in the free skate!!
As for Makar, maybe Finland could host a GP event again? It would be good to see him debut in seniors with a big audience.

 

[balabam]

Where's @balabam ? His son did pretty good

My son is my hero and he is sober boy Just watching the replays