Japan Figure Skating Championships

Mao should have recieved huge goe because she scored over 65 despite missing combination and lv1 on spiral (I didn't see protocol yet but her spiral was definitely lv1).
Now I understand this is nationals but her flutz was so obvious this time unlike grand prix sereis that she should have gotten e this time .

Well, I agree with Benett. Her Lutz was better than before. Sadly, in the replay they cut off Mao's take-off leg in the replay (Japanese surgeons, as the Russian commentator Vasya would probably say), but in the real time it looked good. I also agree this was the best performance of this SP we've seen from Mao, even with the mistake on the combo. It was lovely.

Nobunari won the competition by a landslide! Final results:

1 Nobunari Oda 243.70 :thumbsup:
2 Takahiko Kozuka 225.94
3 Takahito Mura 200.48
4 Yasuharu Nanri 197.69
5 Kensuke Nakaniwa 184.18
6 Daisuke Murakami 187.50
7 Tatsuki Machida 183.73
8 Yuzuru Hanyu 181.65
9 Takemochi Ohgami 176.74

Nobunari used too much power to launch 4T and fell, but otherwise was flawless. Shame about the fall, as in the practices and in the warmup he was landing 4T and 4T combos very consistently. I think this jump is still pretty "soft-wired" for him (especially after reworking his jump technique) and when he gets nervous, he overcooks the jump. Thankfully he'll have a lot of time to work on his technique now.

Takahiko fell on the quad and singled the second 3A, otherwise he skated well. Overall, the level of performances was reportedly good! Only Daisuke Murakami had a bit of a meldown - after falling on 4T he fell again as he was getting up, and then fell 2 more times (on 3A and step sequence). According to reports, it looked as if he hurt himself on the first fall. Still, he placed higher than Hanyu and Machida, to whom he lost at Junior Nationals.

Who could post the whole ranking list of ladies' short program, please? Thanks a million!

Bennett said:

despite the strange mistake, Mao was far better than usual in her speed. This was the first time I heartily enjoyed this program. it used to come across as a flat program, but at this time, i could feel the ups and downs and changes in speed. it was nice. i think that mao is good at giving a strength to the music. her edge in the lutz looked a lot better at this time.

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ITA. In spite of the mistake, the performance was GORGEOUS!! Amazing spins and steps. Mao's 3lutz looked way better than before.
Spread eagle+2A

Okami said:

Nobunari won the competition by a landslide!

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Good For Him!!!!!!!!!!!
Congratulations!!!

I am so happy for nobu that he won after the NHK victory. This seems an even better victory. His quad sounds pretty consistent in practices. Even takahiko whose success rate is said to be 1/5 as of a month ago still tries at every competition. So I think it good that Nobu also keeps trying so that he could use it at the olympics.

I couldn't see Mao's edge closely either because of the problem with replay. TV at my home is wider than the normal size and somehow cuts the upper and lower boundaries. So I thought that's why. But it was like that even seen at a full screen, right? But seen with bare eyes at the real time, her edge looked better. Her edge looked NHK > GPF > TEB and I had an impression that this one was better than NHK although i could be wrong because of the lack of slow mo. I once saw a real lutz in her relatively recent practice video. the one that has really deep outside edge that involved counterrotation. it was really beautiful.

yukari's lutz also looked better than usual to me.

joyfulxj said:

Who could post the whole ranking list of ladies' short program, please? Thanks a million!

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Ladies SP results:
http://www.skatingjapan.jp/National/2008-2009/fs/national/E/data0203.htm

Here are the score details for the entire competition:
http://www.skatingjapan.jp/National/2008-2009/fs/national/E/index.htm

Nobu's 4T got downgraded (it did get a bit wonky in the air), but he got amazing GoEs in both part of the competition.

I'm happy for Mura! It's great that he'll (most probably) get the 3rd spot for Worlds. :thumbsup:

joyfulxj said:

Who could post the whole ranking list of ladies' short program, please? Thanks a million!

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They haven't updated it yet.
But i think1. Yukari 2 mao 3 miki 4 nana 5 fumie 6 suzuki
top 3 are really close, with yukari 2 points ahead, and 4-6 are almost the same in their scores. ks777 has all the scores in his/her p-b-p.

Bennett said:

They haven't updated it yet.

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They have - please check my post above. (Try refreshing if the scores don't show up.)

joyfulxj said:

Who could post the whole ranking list of ladies' short program, please? Thanks a million!

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1.Yukari Nakano 67.26 38.30 28.96
2.Mao Asada 65.30 34.50 30.80
3.Miki Ando 65.02 35.90 29.12
4.Nana Takeda 57.82 32.70 25.12
5.Fumie Suguri 57.32 31.20 28.12
6.Akiko Suzuki 57.02 30.14 26.88
7.Kanako Murakami 55.74 33.30 22.44
8.Satsuki Muramoto 53.08 31.60 21.48
9.Ayumi Miyamoto 48.72 28.80 19.92
10.Sayaka Yodo 48.56 28.60 19.96
11.Aki Sawada 48.36 27.20 21.16
12.Mari Suzuki 47.58 26.30 21.28
13.Ayane Nakamura 46.64 25.68 20.96
14.Ayumi Goto 45.86 27.46 18.40
15.Mai Asada 44.50 22.46 22.04
16.Haruka Imai 43.86 23.74 20.12
17.Ayako Hagiwara 42.82 24.10 18.72
18.Risa Mochizuki 40.04 20.96 19.08
19.Asami Nagumo 39.82 22.30 17.52
20.Haruka Inoue 38.28 20.20 18.08
21.Yuko Iwaki 37.50 20.74 16.76
22. Hinako Kikuchi 36.88 19.44 17.44
23.Eri Seto 35.50 17.98 17.52
24.Haruka Hasegawa 33.50 16.46 17.04
25.Kazuha Asami 32.66 16.22 17.44
26.Misaki Ohara 32.44 17.40 17.04
27.Akiko Kitamura 32.24 13.96 18.28
28.Yuko Muraki 31.92 16.28 16.64
29.Miyu Yamazaki 29.48 14.56 16.92


I enjoyed Mao, Yukari, Miki, Nana and Mari Suzuki's program

Okami said:

Final results:

1 Nobunari Oda 243.70 :thumbsup:
2 Takahiko Kozuka 225.94
3 Takahito Mura 200.48
4 Yasuharu Nanri 197.69
5 Kensuke Nakaniwa 184.18

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siberia82 said:

My predictions for the men:

1. Kozuka
2. Oda
3. Mura
4. Nanri
5. Nakaniwa

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My only mistake was that I got 1st and 2nd place mixed up, but otherwise, my sixth sense did a pretty good job .

Kudos to Oda on his victory!

protocols for guys are up!
I am amazed by nobu's GOEs on jumps in his SP. This is not meant to be a criticism at all as i do think that he has good jumps. But I am curious why his GOEs on jumps are so huge. What makes his jumps so special to judges? If anyone has insights, I'd appreciate it.

I also was wondering since GPF why Kozuka doesn't earn more impressive GOEs on steps. If anyone has any insights, I would appreciate it.

ladies' protocol

http://www.skatingjapan.jp/National/2008-2009/fs/national/J/data0203.pdf

The skaters' names are in Japanese, but you could figure them out if you compare them with the above list.

-mao got l4 and 2 GOE on steps, which yielded 5.9!!!

-mao also got 1 GOE on her lutz without edge call.

-on the other hand, mao got low levels on spirals and layback. yet GOEs are high.

-fumie finally got ! on her lutz.

-fumie managed to get l3 on her back spin. cool.

-fumie also got highest levels possible on other elements.

-akiko's combo was indeed downgraded. 3Lz+2T<.

-another edge call on her flip. since her turnover was pretty big, -2.2 GOE was not that bad for an edge call plus turnover (think of mao who got as much deduction on GOE for her flutz last season).

- i do not understand why miki got DG on 3-3 and how come fumie had time over.

Here are the positive aspects bumping up the GoE according to ISU:

1. unexpected / creative / difficult entry
2. clear recognizable steps/free skating movements immediately preceding element
3. varied position in the air / delay in rotation
4. great height and/or distance
5. superior extension on landing / creative exit
6. superior flow in and out (and in-between in jump combinations / sequences)

To achieve +1 GoE the jumps must include one or two of the above requirements. To get +2GoE - 3 or 4 requirements. To get +3 GoE - 5 or 5.

Nobu's jumps in SP without doubt fulfilled the 4th,5th and 6th requirement. They all had tremendous height, covered a huge distance, great flow and landing with superior extension (deep knee, straight back, free leg extended and toes pointed). In addition to that, they were approached at breakneck speed and had great air position. Furthermore, 3Lz-3T had a very creative exit - without putting the free leg down Nobu executes a series of snakes, a high kick and a turn. 3F had difficult approach (changing "levels", in this case kneel-slide, is tiring for the leg and can mess up the timing of the jump) and was landed immediately out of the steps. And they were very fully rotated; the toe jumps especially looked almost delayed, completing the rotation while high in the air before unfurling and settling down.

All of the above aspects were mentioned by the commentators on various occassions.

I think it's really difficult to get a high GoE, because it's difficult to fulfill all the requirements at the same time. For example, a very high, explosive jump might be difficult to control on the landing (Irina for example had very high jumps, but not so much flow out of them). A difficult air position might spoil the flow as well (Nobu used to do 3S-2T combo with arms behind his back or on his hips, but gave it up as it din't help his GoE. Also Mao got actually a negative GoE from one or two of the judges for her 'Tano combo with the Flip). The difficult entrances are not always beneficial, too - Mao gets much higher GoEs for her 3A now than when she landed it out of brackets.

I also was wondering since GPF why Kozuka doesn't earn more impressive GOEs on steps. If anyone has any insights, I would appreciate it.

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I'll need to check the ISU requirements and rewatch the videos. :think: I think he got pretty good GoEs here at Nationals... Not having watched his performances yet (they are not available ) I have no idea how the scoring relates to the actual skating, though.

GOE and PCS are always exaggerated at National events.

Thanks a lot for your very detailed explanations,Okami!

I have not had an impression that Nobu's jumps have the greatest height/distance or the best extension on landing in the field. But I do think that he has a great flow, esp. flow out.

In his SP, he had a great speed going into 3A, even though nobu did not seem to be satisfied with that jump.

I was not aware that his entry/exit to lutz/flip helped the GOEs.

Thanks again! I really appreciate it.

chuckm, i know what you mean. but nobu tends to get really high GOEs at international events as well.

Miki Ando
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvA0IiJ1aMU&feature=channel_page

Mao Asada
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjMtVeKc9_s&feature=channel_page

Yukari Nakano
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJQSr0H11nw&feature=channel_page

Nana Takeda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7jOO-vFyMo&feature=channel_page

I love Mao, but that was a flutz. Also, her double loop for the combo looked cheated and double-footed, so I would have been better if she did not try it at all. Beautiful skate though. NIce to see that she got Level 4 on the steps, but why Level 1 on the spirals? they looked the same as always and each position was held to the count of 3.

I have no doubts that she will win this thing though...i just hope she is not too upset.

Nice job Oda! He and Kozuka will be some duo at Worlds. I see them both on the podium.

Mao's 2Lo was downgraded.