Watching the stream after the event (as usual for me at the moment
), but thoughts as I go:
Elizaveta Osokina is such a favourite of mine. Her look for the SP is awesome, with the contrasting colours of her dress and her vivid hair, and she reminds me a lot of Sansa Stark. I love her spins, they are so different from the usual positions, and her lutz is wonderful, coming out of seemingly nowhere. She did seem to slow down a bit towards the end, but otherwise she was so dynamic and playful and just such a
fun performer.
Veronika Zhilina is so tiny but so focused. She is really athletic - her 3A looked huge, such a pity she couldn't land it, as the loss of the combination really hurt her score. She's also so supple, in both her spins and her split jumps, and she moves wonderfully through her body. She's still going through the moves at times, but she's so young, and she will only improve.
Anna Frolova has grown on me. She's presenting this SP better each time, is careful and meticulous, paying attention to every detail, and skating patiently into the jumps. Really happy to see her go clean after her rough showing at Senior Nationals.
Ksenia Tsibinova is elegant and graceful, and that longer dress is just so pretty and floaty. I also cheered for the 3F-3Lo, breaking the parade of 3F-3T. Loop combinations are really exciting when they are done well, as the loop just pops off the ice almost before I expect it. Would have liked her to hold her final pose for just one extra count, as she struck it and then moved on from it.
Anastasia Morozova impressed me. She was fast, she was bold, she had the direct challenging look and the crisp movements of the tango. And then she came unstuck on the combination at the end, but up until then she was a little red chilli pepper zooming round the ice.
Sofia Muravieva has really improved since test skates. She doesn't look as frantic (though there were still some moments), and is really filling out the movements with her arms and upper body. She's so fast, she really whizzed into that final spin; I also feel her jumps have become bigger and more secure, but ... I can't actually remember how she was jumping at the start of the season. Am inclined to think that the choreography is the problem with this programme, as there just seems to be
so much of it, to the point that it feels too busy, which is why Sofia has to race around.
Sofia Akatieva is marvellous. She hung onto that 3A and got the combo out, and then went on to skate the rest of the programme with an assurance and poise that is years ahead of her actual age. Her arms are really beautiful, and her hands are so soft and floaty that at times they were at odds with the music, which (to me) calls for something a little sharper. Also, a cantilever
and a hydroblade?!? Was really surprised that she placed behind Muravieva, even if it was just under two tenths of a point behind.
(Small giggle at the fact that after Akatieva had skated, the top three skaters were all Sofias.)
Adeliya Petrosyan oozes charisma. She performs, she has presence, she just draws me in as a viewer. She did not seem as fast as some of the others, she doesn't have the technical arsenal of Samodelkina and Akatieva, and sometimes her movements weren't as sharp as they might have been, but she has some indefinable quality that makes it just not matter to me. It's not the easiest piece of music to skate to, but she really handled it well.
Maria Paramonova is another with lovely carriage of her arms; I really liked the wing beats choreography to match the lyrics, especially as her arms were so soft. She's a good spinner as well.
Elizaveta Berestovskaya is charming. Her programme is charming. The choreography is charming. Charming is what she is, as the little clockwork Sugar Plum Fairy. She has that adorable smile and looks so happy to be out there. Also, her layback spin was so fast, and her extension into the Biellmann looked effortless.
Honestly, though, they were all wonderful. So much passion, so much talent, so much energy. Every single one of those young skaters has clearly worked hard, and it shows, because they are all wonderful.
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