2017 Jr Worlds Ladies FS

[solani]

Like Yulia and Adelina ?

Only Yulia. They have the same coach who might use the same approach if necessary. Adelina always looked strong and fit to me.

 

[jaylee]

Alina Zagitova: Very impressive technically, and I found her interpretation and choreography to be much better in the FS than in the SP, where her movements didn't match the music at all. I thought she fed off the audience's enthusiasm really well. The program, for me, pales in comparison to Alexandra Proklova's Don Quixote program from a few years ago, but at least she hit more of the notes than in her SP. If she moves up to seniors next year, it'll definitely be interesting to see if Medvedeva can be out-'tanoed.

Marin Honda: Lovely. Beautiful, strong performance. She's a charismatic skater and so musical. She seemed a little preoccupied by being clean but overall, I thought she skated really wonderfully and I'm excited to see her move to seniors next year. I also agree with her that she skated better here this year than last year, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Kaori Sakamoto: Terrific speed & jumps. I thought her SP was cleverly choreographed, very fun and upbeat, but I thought her FS was much, much weaker and showed her musical interpretative limitations. She's not fluid or sophisticated enough in her movement. She also skated with a blank face with her mouth slightly open for the majority of the program, with the occasional smile. Desperately needs to add a variety of facial expressions. There was also something slightly stiff/odd about her carriage and movement that reminded me of Midori Ito.

Eun Soo Lim: Lovely performances in both the SP and FS, strong choreography throughout (her SP is one of my favorites, junior or senior, from this season). Shame about the fall on the second lutz, but it didn't disrupt the program. I think her musical interpretation is as good as Marin's, though she currently lacks Marin's confidence. Give her another year and I think she's going to continue to grow in all areas. Every one of her jumps was fully rotated--she's got a bright future! Since she didn't qualify for the JGPF, this was her first time skating in the final group with the top junior skaters. I was very impressed with her mettle in not melting down, and I think it bodes really well for the future. Too bad she's not old enough for Pyeongchang, but it's probably better that way.

 

[WeakAnkles]

Seriously. Marin skated like a queen, a mature and absolutely gorgeous senior skater, superb quality. Zagitova skates like a junior. Huge difference. But congrats for the winner, a deserved victory for an amazing technicall display(with good ss, tr and ch to be fair). Alina certainly won the gold fair and square, but once again it seems (by the crowd's reaction) that Marin won the publics' heart.

She was in Asia, so that may have had something to do with the crowd reaction. Let's be fair. If this had been held in Russia, the crowd reaction may have been quite different.

This is not to take away from either performer. They're not responsible for a hometown cheer boost.

 

[rosy14]

Sotnikova was 17 when she won the Olympics and she turned 18 in 2014 so we would have seen her at the Olympics under my "rules".
And regarding Lipnitskaya - I suspect that we would still see her skating now at a top level if she didn't have to go through the process of drinking protein shakes for a year or so when she was 15. But she's Olympic champion so she's definitely not a loser of this system, same goes for Sotnikova. But I would prefer if we could still see both of them compete. We all know that they have the potential.

Protein shakes ? Can you elaborate, please ?

 

[Ares]

Where in the criteria it says doing your jumps in the second half makes yours routine unbalanced? Like seriously is there a formula to it?

Marin won in PCS (very subjective criteria) while Zagitova blew her in TES(can be measured).

Sure TES has Base Values and all but it's also subjective criteria, how it's judged & how tech panel meddle into that ... we can witness many examples of judges' incompetency when they even occasionally give positive GOE after Quad jump with step-out.

 

[Chemistry66]

Finished this finally, crossposting from the 2018 Spots thread.

2018 World Junior Championships: Ladies

2017 Ladies results: http://www.isuresults.com/results/season1617/wjc2017/CAT002RS.HTM

3 Spots

Russia (1 + 6 = 7)
Japan (2 + 3 = 5)

2 Spots

South Korea (4 + 16 = 20)
USA (7 + 12 = 19)
Germany (8, only skater) - up from 1 spot
Hong Kong! (9, only skater) - up from 1 spot

2017-2018 Junior Grand Prix: Ladies

A: 2 Entries in 7 Events - Top 3 highest placing countries

(1) Russia
(2) Japan
(3) South Korea

B: 1 Entry in 7 Events - Countries 4th-6th, eligible for any unused spots from A, B, or C to add a second skater to an event

(4) USA
(5) Germany
(6) Hong Kong

C: 1 Entry in 6 Events - Countries 7th - 10th

(7) China
(8) Sweden
(9) Finland
(10) Great Britain

1 Entry in 5 Events - Countries qualifying for FS, 11th and lower

Czech Republic, Canada, Italy, Mexico, Taipei, Turkey, Australia, Spain

1 Entry in 4 Events - Countries with skaters placing 25th-30th in the SP

Bulgaria, Ukraine, Israel, Estonia, Switzerland, Latvia

1 Entry in 3 Events - Countries with skaters placing 31st or lower in the SP

Kazakhstan, Hungary, Romania, Singapore, France, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Lithuania, Croatia, Austria, Slovakia, Norway, Slovenia

All other countries wishing to send Ladies skaters to the JGP can send 1 entry to each of 2 events.

 

[solani]

Protein shakes ? Can you elaborate, please ?

The story is (probably not 100% accurate) that Yulia gained weight easily a couple of months before the Olympics. The only thing that let her keep her weight and the energy was some special protein shake (I don't remember the name). So she didn't eat, she only drank that shake. Eteri said that she was very sorry for her during that time but that it couldn't be helped.

 

[Li'Kitsu]

I also find it remarkable that you think everyone else's 'faves' can't backload a program. It's amazing Eteri students have learned to do so at such a young age but this isn't like learning a triple axel. I have no doubt that at the rate we're going, every top ladies skater will put all their jumps in the 2nd half and many will be successful in doing so. They simply won't have any other choice (which is the 'bad' part in all of this).

Many will be successful in doing so? Who? Because I'm not seeing that.

 

[Mathman]

How shall I put this.

Alina was the best junior skater today. It was a tick box system with all the ticks in big bold bright red felt tips in a maths exam.

Marin was the best senior skater today. It was a well realised program that has the beauty, grace and well phrased musicality and the emotions...

Still ... there is no harm in tempering our gush now and saving some for later.

Marin Honda was a delight, no doubt. But if we compare her to the most senior of the seniors -- Carolina Kostner or Mao Asada, say -- we can still tell the difference between junior skating and senior skating. It gives us something to look forward to in the future. :yes:

 

[OS]

Still ... there is no harm in tempering our gush now and saving it for later.

Marin Honda was a delight, no doubt. But if we compare her to the most senior of the seniors -- Carolina Kostner or Mao Asada, say -- we can still tell the difference between junior skating and senior skating. It gives us something to look forward to in the future. :yes:

Oh absolutely! But the way they mark PCS these days, it is hard to tell anymore.

 

[shiroKJ]

I actually enjoyed Alina's performance. Her rippons look nice and adds some variation to the usual fly swatter....plus her Lz/F looks really good. Even if I don't like the X-backloading or the half OTBT....

Overall, everyone on the podium brought something different that we could all admire.

 

[begin]

Many will be successful in doing so? Who? Because I'm not seeing that.

The top ladies we just saw? Marin, Eunsoo, and Kaori could do it. Maybe Yuna too (who skated well despite her injury).

It's definitely a challenge but I don't understand why people assume they won't be capable of doing it if it becomes necessary.

 

[[email protected]]

The top ladies we just saw? Marin, Eunsoo, and Kaori could do it. Maybe Yuna too (who skated well despite her injury).

It's definitely a challenge but I don't understand why people assume they won't be capable of doing it if it becomes necessary.

There is one trick to do it once. May be those girls will be able to. There is another trick to do it consistently. 3 combos in the second half seems like a big challenge. No one among the above mentioned showed a series of back to back clean performances like Zagitova. May be Kaori is more or less consistent. Then what happens if you fail your first combo in the second half? There is a risk of a total meltdown. Something like what happened to Alina in Lyubliana. Is Marin ready to risk? We shall see next season now that she realizes that she cannot beat Zagitova even if she skates to her full potential.

But if Marin's team realize that risks are too high they will change nothing. And it has nothing to do with "balanced programs".

 

[Ares]

Protein shakes ? Can you elaborate, please ?

Lipnitskaya was on "powder diet" to keep her light & tiny as long as possible during Olympic season.

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

Lipnitskaya was on "powder diet" to keep her light & tiny as long as possible during Olympic season.

Exclusively on powder diet? Source please.

 

[Li'Kitsu]

The top ladies we just saw? Marin, Eunsoo, and Kaori could do it. Maybe Yuna too (who skated well despite her injury).

It's definitely a challenge but I don't understand why people assume they won't be capable of doing it if it becomes necessary.

Didn't Marin try to backload her combo in the SP and decided it isn't working for her?

Sure, we might see it more in the next seasons. But so far, I don't think a lot of ladies 'took the hint' last year, when Evgnia, you know, dominated and became WC. Backloading included. So so far, I think it's fair to assume not 'many top ladies' seem to be comfortable with such a backloaded layout.

 

[MaiKatze]

That Anna didn't backload her programs this season made me sad, because I knew she wouldn't be able to beat Evgenia, even clean with that layout. But realistically speaking, maybe she just can't do it. Or she needs to save for the worst case ála Europeans when she missed the combo at the start and put it in later.

Skaters must ask themselves if they can do it. If they can't and want to be on top, they have to train the triple axel. I think that would be the only way to really shine with the never changing layouts, but a more or less stable 3-3 combi is a must.

 

[Mathman]

About backloading, it's not the current skaters but the next generation that I think about. When all the ten- and eleven-year-old girls see skaters winning while doing all of their jumps in the second half, they will want to train that, too.

It's like quads for the men. We drifted along complacently for several years with the very top guys doing maybe two quad toes and a quad Salchow in the LP. All of a sudden the dam burst and the young guns coming up see that they can't win without a four-quad program including a quad flip or Lutz.

 

[zanadude]

She was in Asia, so that may have had something to do with the crowd reaction. Let's be fair. If this had been held in Russia, the crowd reaction may have been quite different.

Most of the crowd was made up of Japanese uber fans with the money to fly anywhere to support their favorites. Assuming they could get visas, they'd probably be there for a Russian junior world competition as well, making up a sizeable chunk of the crowd.

 

[begin]

Didn't Marin try to backload her combo in the SP and decided it isn't working for her?

Sure, we might see it more in the next seasons. But so far, I don't think a lot of ladies 'took the hint' last year, when Evgnia, you know, dominated and became WC. Backloading included. So so far, I think it's fair to assume not 'many top ladies' seem to be comfortable with such a backloaded layout.

We're talking about potential rule changes that would take another 2 years to implement so obviously this a conversation about the future of ladies' skating. Figure skating trends never happen over one or two seasons.

Marin hasn't been much of a SP skater but I'm not betting against her or any of these girls.