Is Alena Leonova finished?

pangtongfan said:

I was referring to Julia Lipnitskaya, who actually has posted better results for the most part the last 2 seasons than both Sotnikova and Tuktamysheva.

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That may be, but this is also Lipnitskaia's first senior season, so you really can't compare her junior results with Tukt and Sotnikova's senior ones. In addition, she's started to struggle with the puberty monster, and her jumps are already so small (that 2A makes me cringe and grip the edge of my seat every time she attempts it). I don't doubt that Lipnitskaia can continue challenging for international medals, but IMO, she's still a ways away from the Euros performances of her older compatriots.

hanca said:

I know, very rubbish skaters. The whole lot! Absolutely no potential there! And the worst Elena and Julia. That's why they managed to beat the US girls at junior worlds, because they are so bad that it distracted US girls from skating properly... or is it that despite them being so rubbish, the US girls are actually even worse and that's why they were beaten by Elena and Julia?

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Good answer, Hanca. I just think of Julia last year when she trounced Gold by 15 points and Gao by 36 points at junior worlds. Hopefully, she will return to form.
It was still a shocker for me to see Adelina and Tuk finish behind not only Gold, but also Osmond and Li. At the beginning of the season last September I would have said that would be impossible.
I have hated seeing only 2 US skaters at world's the last 5 years, and I will hate seeing only 2 Russian skaters next year.

b-man said:

Good answer, Hanca. I just think of Julia last year when she trounced Gold by 15 points and Gao by 36 points at junior worlds. Hopefully, she will return to form.
It was still a shocker for me to see Adelina and Tuk finish behind not only Gold, but also Osmond and Li. At the beginning of the season last September I would have said that would be impossible.
I have hated seeing only 2 US skaters at world's the last 5 years, and I will hate seeing only 2 Russian skaters next year.

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ITA. I had a sneaking suspicion headed into Worlds that Tukt and Sotnikova would crack under the pressure, but I'd hoped that it was just paranoia. Not in a million years would I have guessed them to barely sneak into the top 10.

Fortunately, the two of them have a good chance of being Russia's Oly team next year. Radionova is too young, Lipnitskaia is too inexperienced/immature (skating-wise), Pogorilaya and Gosviani don't yet have the full package, and Leonova has been sluggish and sloppy all season (though she could be a dark horse for an Olympic spot if she pulls herself together).

Lipnitksya wasnt at Russian nationals last year so her form against Liza and sotnikova has not been measured but she almost beat radinova at jr worlds. Liza and sotnikova are just not as good as people were saying. Julia can beat them
Both easily I bet.

FlattFan said:

That's funny! You are a comedian. So natural.

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Slutskaya was considered artistic in her early career ?

gmyers said:

Lipnitksya wasnt at Russian nationals last year so her form against Liza and sotnikova has not been measured but she almost beat radinova at jr worlds. Liza and sotnikova are just not as good as people were saying. Julia can beat them
Both easily I bet.

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Julia lost junior worlds because of the double salchow and that was only her 2nd competition
she wasn't clean all season with injuries but a clean Julia with beat Liza also in pcs she will beat Liza
and Julia will come close or level with Sotnikova in pcs on her top form.

To say the truth, none of the Russian ladies are close to winning a medal at Sochi, and definitely far from being an Olympic Champion. Judges are obviously not going to give 210+ score for Lipnitskaia, Tuktamysheva and Sotnikova even if they have two clean skates.

sky_fly20 said:

Julia lost junior worlds because of the double salchow and that was only her 2nd competition
she wasn't clean all season with injuries but a clean Julia with beat Liza also in pcs she will beat Liza
and Julia will come close or level with Sotnikova in pcs on her top form.

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Expressionless Julia getting higher PCS than Adelina, Gracie and Zijun?

vera01 said:

Expressionless Julia getting higher PCS than Adelina, Gracie and Zijun?

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I'm talking about amongst the Russian ladies
she already beat Liza in pcs, she hasn't skated clean
If she gets back in shape next season, she will come close or level Adelinas pcs

Actually, Adelina placed over both Gracie and Zijun in PCS this Worlds, so if Julia actually gets PCS high as Adelina's, that also means that she's getting higher PCS than Zijun and Gracie.

And I doubt judges would give Julia PCS high as Adelina's, even if she's clean. Adelina is better than Julia in every category(PE, IN, SS, CH, TR) of PCS.

vera01 said:

Expressionless Julia getting higher PCS than Adelina, Gracie and Zijun?

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Gold had the same PCS as her, and Osmond with two bad falls and some other mistakes also had the same PCS in the LP as her.

Um let's get this thread back on topic.

Alena is done, yes, I think so. Others are passing her by. Pogorilaya and Gosviani are both better than her at this point and everybody knows it, it just takes a while for the judges to get the memo and drop her PCS to where they belong for how she is skating recently. Korobeynikova could still bounce back, so that's 3 ladies right there who have essentially passed her or have the potential to soon and that's not including the big 3 (Tuk, Sot, Lip) and those who are still ineligible for another season or two (Radionova, Sahnkovitch, etc) so really things look pretty dim for Leonova. Her spark is gone and so is the jump consistency, and those were the 2 things that got her to such a high point in the first place, she's never been the strongest skater with the most beautiful or difficult jump combos and layouts.

Julia is good and can come back still, but her scores at JW were interesting. Her PCS were not that high and were right between Radio and Pogo (2-3 points below and above those two, respectively) but overall, it seemed like the judges regarded all 3 fairly equally. Elena won because she was the cleanest, but her score in the FS was just 4 points above Julia, who had 2 visible errors to Elena's none, and even Julia was only 6 points ahead of Anna who had several small errors that cost her a lot of points. So I think either Julia or Anna could have maybe won with a clean skate, but the score for such likely would not be that high anyways, perhaps 115-120 points. So it's hard to stay where they stand compared to Liza and Adelina, just because senior internationals are judges differently, esp. regarding PCS.