Thornhill Senior B Status Cancelled

As per Skate Canada ;

http://www.skatecanada.ca/AboutUs/NewsDetails/tabid/2157/sni[2797]/975/language/en-US/Default.aspx

Slow burn time...Was it the changes to the GP that did this in ?

trying to get the link..

http://www.skatecanada.ca/AboutUs/NewsDetails/tabid/2157/sni[2797]/975/language/en-US/Default.aspx
Nope ..won't work

Can't open the link, but shouldn't the lesser spots in GP make other ISU events more popular to compete in? I thought Thornhill would also be a great competition for the non american skaters practicing in Canada/US

Ok , try this ..it's in the News items on the right

http://www.skatecanada.ca/

IT WORKED !

Sounds to me like SC didn't have or couldn't get the required number of judges/tech panel from 4 different countries to meet ISU requirements for a Senior B competition.

To help colleen.

Here

If SC doesn't send a bevy of skaters to Nebelhorn, I will be supremely pissed off.

Thanks, Pogue ..I don't know why I couldn't get that page to link properly..

Anyway , I suppose the skaters are no worse off for Senior B's than they were a year ago , but it seemed like that was going to be an improvement ,reducing some of the need for travel.

Of course , I'm such a Nervous Nelly..I'm feeling very trepidacious about the changes to the GP , and the way that appears have the potential to narrow the field...I wonder if SC might feel it's cheaper to pay for travel for only as many skaters as they feel will have a chance to move up in the immediate future.....which makes me more nervous as they haven't always backed the right horse.

Looking for rassurance...

Oh, Skate Canada will totally screw it up. Here's the deal. The following teams should be sent to Nebelhorn

Men: Roland Lam, Elladj Balde, (Firus is staying junior, which is wise)
Ladies: Adriana DeSanctis, Diane Szmiett (if she's still competing), Alexandara Najarro (probably staying junior)
Pairs: Lawrence/Sweigers, Dube/Wolfe
Dance: Harvey/Gagnon, Ralph/Hill, Arnold/Trojek, Paul/Islam

Paul/Islam can get by without it, as can Lawrence/Swiegers, but the rest for sure.

Unfortunately, colleen, your anxiety feels wise as well. They do such a mediocre job of promoting and developing new talent, often focusing solely on one or two skaters.

Really a shame, not just for Canadian skaters, as North America really needs more Senior B events, especially since the downsizing of GP spots. As GP events are obviously meant for the top elite skaters, the developing and potentially great skaters need more training opportinuties but there is a dearth outside of Europe.

ImaginaryPogue said:

Oh, Skate Canada will totally screw it up. Here's the deal. The following teams should be sent to Nebelhorn

Ladies: Adriana DeSanctis, Diane Szmiett (if she's still competing), Alexandara Najarro (probably staying junior)

Click to expand...

Szmiett retired. It was in the same SC news release as Sawyer, Russell and Adam Johnson's retirement.

If Skate Canada didn't want to spend the money to host a B event, then it is unlikely to send lots of Canadian skaters to European B events. Maybe to them, "future" means 2-3 years at most and they think they have lots of amazing talent to replace Chan and Phaneuf without spending the money for development.

Oh, to be a fly on the wall .
( And since Pogue mentioned Elladj , I just want to register this.. If Elladj doesn't get the support and opportunities he deserves this year , I'm going to be scouring the internet for photos of SC and ISU officials and going into production on a full array of Voodoo dolls .)

If I try to be kind to SC , I wonder if they're not holding off for a year or so, until they see some further changes.. to the GP for example.( I can't imagine that this best 2 of 3 will be a good thing..etc. ) They may be viewing the approaching season with as much of a jaundiced eye as we are.

OTOH, I may be paranoid , but do I detect some old David Dore ideas coming to the fore , here ? ( now at the ISU level ?) Back in the day, when he was our Great Leader , SC came up with the whole " make your Champions the stars " idea that I think has been extremely detrimental to skating in Canada. It's all very well if you have skaters who truly are exceptional, and stand head and shoulders above their National competition.( And if you have that kind of skater , they will become stars anyway.) If you have a number of skaters who are roughly equivalent , it can lead to unfair results, too much pressure on the designated "stars" and a sense of futility on the part of the others. And even if you have real stars , careers can be short , and you need to be helping the others down the ranks to progress.There have been times when SC has seemed to be paying no more than lip service to this principle.

I could go on , but that's enough for now.

I am pretty sure that Balde will get Nebelhorn ( and possibly Skate Canada ). Balde has not been ignored by SC. He has been held back by injury issues which caused him to miss an entire season including the early summer competitions. Unfortunately the season he missed was his last year he could compete junior internationally.

Skate Canada listed Nebelhorn and Finlandia as the senior B events where there may be assignments.

Usually Nebelhorn is a skateoff for any TBA Skate Canada spots. Finlandia is usually seen more of a developmental event.

My guesses on senior B's. Please note summer competitions can change this.

Nebelhorn: 2 entries oer discipline max

Men: Elladj Balde , Jeremy Ten ( if healthy ) otherwise Roland Lam
Women: Samson ( she has no GP events this year ) , Adriana DeSanctis
Dance : Ralph/Hill , Harvey/Gagnon
Pairs: Dube/Wolfe , one of the pairs that made the JGPF last season

I have my doubts that Skate Canada will be sending anybody to Finlandia . With only 4 ladies jgp slots perhaps SC will send some of the older normally JGP bound skaters to Finlandia instead. Finlandia might serve to ease the pain of only 4 ladies JGP slots.

My optimistic hopes for Finlandia ( note no pairs here )

Men : Roland Lam ( if not Nebelhorn ) , Ian Martinez, Samuel Morais ( if Roland goes to Nebelhorn )
Ladies : Dallas Daniel ( can't do JGP ) , maybe Najarro ( who might score higher under senior conditions as she does not have the lutz required in the junior SP ). I think some otherwise JGP bound lady may be here like Najarro.

I doubt SC will send any ice dancers to Finlandia.

Balde is on the national team but not eligible for GP so he may be the TBD at SC. Besides that he still needs more qualifiers for next season's GP.

Thornhill is cancelled as Senior B obviously for cost and benefits consideration. Skate Canada may wait to see if US will provide a Senior B event which the Americans need even more than Canada. It's wait and see for us as they sit on it for now.

J10 is off his new cast now without another surgery. I hope he gets back in competitive form soon. I like his skating.

Why does the US need a Senior B more than Canada? Because it has more good skaters, perhaps. But the US does send skaters to many Senior B events in Europe, whereas Canada hardly sends any.

Cynically, I wonder if one of the reasons Canada cancelled the Thornhill Senior B was because it was afraid the US skaters would outperform the lesser Canadian skaters, as they usually do at summer comps in Canada. Why give your competition an additional edge?

chuckm said:

Why does the US need a Senior B more than Canada? Because it has more good skaters, perhaps. But the US does send skaters to many Senior B events in Europe, whereas Canada hardly sends any.

Cynically, I wonder if one of the reasons Canada cancelled the Thornhill Senior B was because it was afraid the US skaters would outperform the lesser Canadian skaters, as they usually do at summer comps in Canada. Why give your competition an additional edge?

Click to expand...

I hardly think that US outperforming us is the reason. After filling the Nebelhorn and Finlandia spots there aren't many Canadian skaters that are ready to fill the senior B spots. Our most talented men other than those listed in my last post would be doing JGP ( Firus, Nam , top novices ). Our ladies are a mess . With only 4 JGP spots in ladies we should be able to offload extras to a senior B put when your junior champion landed nothing more than a triple toe at nationals, who do you pick.


IMO, I wished SC focused more on having event finals in all summer and fall competitions at all levels ( not just pre-novice to junior in Thornhill ). The fact is that our juvenile skaters lack that extra external push that would help them be competitive juniors and seniors later on. It is especially important at the juvenile level that our most talented skaters get the external push of quality competition instead of merely only competing against weak fields where they can sleepwalk their way to victory in the competition.

In junior ladies competitions where there are no finals ( everywhere but Thornhill), often the "winner" of a group has landed nothing more than a double axel ( without even attempting any triples even in warmup I might add ). Sending more skaters to senior B's won't help until this changes. Right now our best female skaters are overwhelmed by international competition because they only compete against poor fields domestically.