2022-23 Japanese figure skating - pairs and ice dance

[Dreamer57]

With such rules, it would indeed confirm that the Fed hates to develop pairs and ice dance...

So I guess...Japan is not sending a pairs team to 4CC?

If this happens, it would be very short-sighted of them to not send their current GPF champions/world silver medallists and gift an ISU championship title to likely USA or China, with the added momentum going into worlds.

With those criteria it makes me wonder whether Yuma could have skipped nationals this year and still be eligible for 4CC (guess that's for another thread)!

 

[TeamGubanova]

This is very interesting.

https://www.skatingjapan.or.jp/common/img/info/20220901_fs_senkokijun.pdf

Looking at the selection for Worlds, they make it clear that participation in Nationals is mandatory for selection, with no exceptions, except for teams that have finished top 3 at Worlds and have a valid excuse for missing the competition. For this reason, RikuRyu can (and will) be chosen for Worlds.

However, here is the selection criteria for Four Continents (run through Google Translate, because I'm too lazy to do a good translation right now):


So while the "world championships podium" exception remains in place for the men's and women's skaters for Four Continents, for whatever reason, it is not in place for the pair skaters and ice dancers. Participation in Nationals is mandatory, without exception, in order to be selected.

So I guess...Japan is not sending a pairs team to 4CC?

I think JSF would make an exception bc Riku/Ryuichi's participation was due to flight delays and their intention was to compete, also if they didn't let Riku/Ryuichi compete that would be incredibly stupid of them. (bc the title is theirs to win)

 

[zanadude]

With those criteria it makes me wonder whether Yuma could have skipped nationals this year and still be eligible for 4CC (guess that's for another thread)!

Even Worlds medalists need a legitimate reason to skip Nationals, like an injury or ridiculous travel issues outside of their control. You can't say "I just don't want to compete at Nationals" and expect to be selected for the National team.

I think JSF would make an exception bc Riku/Ryuichi's participation was due to flight delays and their intention was to compete, also if they didn't let Riku/Ryuichi compete that would be incredibly stupid of them. (bc the title is theirs to win)

JSF does not make exceptions to their own rules, especially once Nationals have begun. And they deliberately took away their own ability to make an exception (which they left in for singles skaters) in this case, so they would make themselves look incredibly stupid to break their own rules here.

 

[Dreamer57]

Even Worlds medalists need a legitimate reason to skip Nationals, like an injury or ridiculous travel issues outside of their control. You can't say "I just don't want to compete at Nationals" and expect to be selected for the National team.


JSF does not make exceptions to their own rules, especially once Nationals have begun. And they deliberately took away their own ability to make an exception (which they left in for singles skaters) in this case, so they would make themselves look incredibly stupid to break their own rules here.

Yuma is still currently injured with a foot injury but wants to compete at nationals (against the wishes of his dad)
If he places outside of the podium then I wonder what would happen as he doesn't have a SB for this season.

I guess it matches with last year when they didn't send Rikako and Eichu to 4CC as they couldn't make it to nationals. We'll see what happens in the 4CC selections and if JSF prefer to have no pair competing.
Edit: they did choose to send RikuRyu to 4CC after all

 

[Dreamer57]

Posts after nationals from Misato and Haruno:





Can anyone help with a rough translation of Haruno's post please?

 

[yesterday]

Can anyone help with a rough translation of Haruno's post please?

From what I could machine translate (her text and the comments) it's a recap and a thank you message.
And they will continue together.

 

[Dreamer57]

From what I could machine translate (her text and the comments) it's a recap and a thank you message.
And they will continue together.

Thanks, I'm relieved that they will continue! Haruno looked so upset in the KnC and those two falls in the free dance were unfortunate.

I really enjoyed Kinoshita/Tamura at this event and naively hope (please JSF) that they can be assigned a senior B comp along with Takahashi/Judd to earn the 4CC minimums - which I think they are capable of.

I've quoted tsuyoboogie's post with free dances here:

Free Dance video links (video quality can be increased up to 720p by clicking on the settings wheel)

	Program Music	Choreographer(s)
Kana Muramoto / Daisuke Takahashi	Phantom of the Opera	Marina Zueva, Ilia Tkachenko, Kenta Kojiri
Misato Komatsubara / Takeru Komatsubara (Tim Koleto)	The Fifth Element	Romain Hagenauer, Marie-France Dubreuil, Ginette Cournoyer, Samuel Chouinard, Eva Airapetian
Nichole Takahashi / Shiloh Judd	Hans Zimmer - Day One (Interstellar), home with you by FKA twigs
Akari Kinoshita / Takahiko Tamura	Madonna Medley	Kenji Miyamoto
Saiko Kikuchi / Yoshimitsu Ikeda	Secrets by OneRepublic	Aaron Lowe
Haruno Yajima / Tsutomu Matsui	Les Misérables	Neil Brown

 

[mikeko666]

Sara Kishimoto/Atsuhiko Tamura, who are the substitute for Junior Words, have been assigned to Bavarian Open (January 31 - February 5).

Bavarian Open

Die Deutsche Eislauf-Union e.V. ist nationaler Spitzenverband für Eiskunstlaufen, Eistanz und Synchroneiskunstlaufen und einer von nur 7 olympischen Wintersportverbänden.

www.eislauf-union.de

 

[mikeko666]

Haru Matsuzaki and Haruki Motomura (Haruharu), 2nd in Novice National, split according to Haruki's Instagram
He will continue ice dance while her future is unknown.

 

[Sai Bon]

What a shame, after working together for 4 years and 3 months! I hope Haruki finds another partner soon.

 

[mikeko666]

Ayumi Takanami announced her retirement in her twitter. She will be graduating Waseda University next September and choose a career outside of figure skating. Her last performance will be at Waseda on Ice, the annual exhibition by Waseda University Figure Skating Club on February 25 (livestream will be available).

 

[rabidline]

New international assignments from JSF:

Challenge Cup (February 23-26, The Netherlands)
Senior Men: Shun Sato, Sota Yamamoto, Tatsuya Tsuboi
Senior Women: Kaori Sakamoto, Mai Mihara, Mana Kawabe
Senior Ice Dance: Misato Komatsubara/Takeru Komatsubara
Junior Men: Haruya Sasaki, Haru Kakiuchi
Junior Women: Ikura Kushida, Ayumi Shibayama, Yurina Okuno

Source: https://twitter.com/figure365/status/1618112834914910209

Coupe de Printemps (March 17-19, Luxembourg)
Senior Men: Koshiro Shimada, Takeru Amine Kataise (Alternate: Sena Miyake)
Senior Women: Mone Chiba, Rika Kihira
Junior Men: Tsudoi Suto, Seigo Tauchi
Junior Women: Ami Nakai, You Takagi

Source: https://twitter.com/figure365/status/1618114207022731266

No pre-Worlds assignments aside from 4CC for Kanadai and Rikuryu, and no pre-Junior Worlds assignments for Kidamori and Harusumi, but great to see Koko getting to finish their season at CC.

 

[ladyjane]

That's a very decent team for Challenge, although I had hoped to see Shoma there. He has nothing to prove of course but I really enjoyed his presence in 2020 (and I was there live). Having Kaori and Mai there is welcomed! and even dancers!

 

[rabidline]

Marin Honda shared a video of her and Shingo Nishiyama trying out ice dance together, and her caption states that it was taken in 2021.



Marin has spoken about trying out ice dance in 2021 before coming back to singles, and I have always wondered the exact timeline. I suppose the footage in the video was taken between January 2021 - March 2021, as it was when Shingo split with Utana Yoshida (January 2021), and teamed up with Ayumi Takanami (March 2021). So I suppose it didn't work out, and Marin's comment about in ice dance "it wasn't a decision she could make on her own" may have meant that she did an ice dance tryout with Shingo, but Shingo ended up teaming up with Ayumi in the end, likely because Ayumi has more experience in ice dance as she has trained abroad before with Yoshimitsu Ikeda with Igor Shilpband.

 

[demarinis5]

They looked good together.

 

[yesterday]

Marin Honda shared a video of her and Shingo Nishiyama trying out ice dance together, and her caption states that it was taken in 2021.



Marin has spoken about trying out ice dance in 2021 before coming back to singles, and I have always wondered the exact timeline. I suppose the footage in the video was taken between January 2021 - March 2021, as it was when Shingo split with Utana Yoshida (January 2021), and teamed up with Ayumi Takanami (March 2021). So I suppose it didn't work out, and Marin's comment about in ice dance "it wasn't a decision she could make on her own" may have meant that she did an ice dance tryout with Shingo, but Shingo ended up teaming up with Ayumi in the end, likely because Ayumi has more experience in ice dance as she has trained abroad with Yoshimitsu Ikeda with Igor Shilpband.

Interesting.
Now she could be the one with a bit of knowledge to grab one of the super skilled and a bit stronger singles skaters for ID

 

[cohkaix]

I also thought they looked good, after watching the IG LIVE posted by Marin.
But I only got to know about the time line later on, so that was an old video from 21'.
Now I'm wondering about the purpose for Marin to post the video... perhaps she's still interested in ID (I think she's not giving up on singles yet.)

 

[rabidline]

I also thought they looked good, after watching the IG LIVE posted by Marin.
But I only got to know about the time line later on, so that was an old video from 21'.
Now I'm wondering about the purpose for Marin to post the video... perhaps she's still interested in ID (I think she's not giving up on singles yet.)

From the caption of Marin's IG story linking to the IG post, it seems Shingo only just gave her the video of their ice dance footage now (that he edited as a compilation), so she posted it.

The caption: しんごちゃんがまとめた動画をくれましたので少し ("Shingo gave us a video he put together, so we have a few.")

But honestly, if the reason they didn't work out the first time was because there was a better partner skill-wise for Shingo (Ayumi was a former Jr Nationals champion in ice dance, and has trained abroad for ice dance at Novi with her previous partner), and now Shingo and Marin want to partner up together... I think it's an opportunity worth trying for. But if that ship has sailed, oh well. Marin admitted she had a really difficult time in 2021 coming back to singles and now that I know the tryout for ice dance was at the beginning in 2021, I wonder if switching to ice dance not working out for her was difficult to accept.

 

[surimi]

Shingo and Marin looked good! I wonder what's next for Shingo. I've heard Kokutai was his last singles event. So either he has a partner in mind or wants to take a break? He's really musical so it would be a pity if he wasn't able to find partner for a long-term career.

 

[yesterday]

I think here's a good place for this article as well

Bruno Marcotte: 'The door is wide open'

The door is wide open During an interview, Coach Bruno Marcotte pointed out that the door is wide open for a new generation in pair skating. He also hopes

www.goldenskate.com