Junior Worlds: Ladies' SP

Anna Shcherbakova of Russia took the lead in the Ladies' Short Program at the 2019 World Figure Skating Championships on Friday. Training mate Alexandra Trusova is close behind in second, followed by USA's Ting Cui.

More...

What are your thoughts? Any surprises or disappointments?

Not very surprised, because after seeing them at Nationals I had strong faith in both US Ladies. But I'm definitely thrilled with both Hanna's and Ting's performances. And duh: Final Flight!

"Bla Bla Bla Bla Cha Cha Cha." That is the most fun SP music title in years! Right up there with "Hip Hip Chin Chin." And both title and program just go beautifully with Hanna Harrell's personality ... intense and just slightly pulled back toward the idea of laid back.
She's such a (fellow) southern girl in personality. And I adore her 3L-3T, both Rippons. I like Rippons so much better than tanos.

I also love Ting's double Rippon 3L-3T, as well. And Ting skates with such heart. Both ladies mean everything that they put on the ice.

What a contrast between 2 of the other performances .... Scherbakova and Shiraiwa ... that followed one another, with the final warm-up between. Anna S - everything was there, but (for me) she was just going through the motions. She looked exactly like some of Eteri's other girls, in program, style, beautiful moves that don't get held for a few seconds, so that we can really enjoy them. My impression is that they've ticked the boxes for the judging. It works for the medals, but I'm so happy when other skaters value all the aspects of beautiful figure skating.

Including Alena Kostornaia. I really missed being able to see her skate in this event; I've become a big fan of hers.

Yuna S - From the first second, she felt everything, and she brought it! Loved loved loved that performance. From the very first note in the program, the music caught my attention, woke me up, and best of all, Yuna was right there with it.

I also really enjoyed Lucrezia Baccari, from Italy, and Alison Schumacher (CAN). I didn't get to see Anna Kuzmenko, from France, or Julia Lang from Hungary. Must go watch!

Excellent skates Ksenia Sinitsyna, what a beautiful program and a beautiful skater. Also Hanna and Ting were nice. All three Japanese girls were a bit disappointed. But still ahead in the FS to fight for a place on the podium.
Sasha and Anna have their own competition and it will be tomorrow.

I am missing Alena Kostornaya.

Other than that, there was lots of talent, of course. Some thoughts:

Anna Shcherbakova: Wonderful performer. She's such a gentle, musical and beautiful skater. Her SP suits her and is one of the best Daniil has made this season. I would have given her more PCS but lower GOE on some of her spins and jumps. As lovely as she is, she had a bit of a travel today and her jump technique isn't optimal. Overall, I'd say the score is totally fine, though and she definitely deserves to lead, I just would have had it distributed a bit differently. But congrats on her great skate today and a Junior Worlds small gold medal!

Sasha Trusova: Well, she lacked the spark today. Normally I love this SP for her because she performs it with energy and enthusiasm and she's just a very confident and powerful skater. But today everything looked a bit tentative, if not flat. Her jumps were confident as usually, though. Very easily landed and deserve high GOE. Performance wise she was way behind quite a few ladies today, however.

Ting Cui: She's so elegant. I really like her SP and hope she can break the curse and have two good programs after another.

Kseniia Sinitsyna: Well... that's what happens when you have to skate in an early group. 27 in PCS was way too low for what she put out there. She has magnificent spins, good jumps with ideal technique, beautiful SS and an unusual but fun SP. She isn't as refined and mature yet but then again, she's also very young and has lots of time to improve. But overall, I think she's a pretty balanced skater and her PCS didn't reflect that. A shame.

Hanna Harrell: Her jumps are lovely and she's very promising. Great height! But I just don't like her program or her costume, it's not my taste. But she did well here, so congrats.

Yuna Shiraiwa: Well, THAT was a performance. I don't get the concept of her program at all but it doesn't matter because she skates with so much joy and enthusiasm. I loved it from start to finish. Her score was very low, I would have expected more. I hope she can perform to her potential in the FS and keeps the URs to a minimum.

Anna Kuzmenko: Another lovely performer that was lowballed on PCS. She's so charismatic, 23 was too low for that. She also had pretty solid jumps. I hope she can climb a bit in the ranks tomorrow.

Lucrezia Beccari: I like her gentle and calm skating style and she has nice spins.

I was very sad for Haein, who's a favorite of mine. She had such a good skate until she singled that axel. Also, Korean ladies struggled today, unfortunately. I hope they and the other two Japanese ladies Yuhana and Tomoe (who have some of the best jumps of the competition) can rebound and show redemption skates in the FS,

Good luck to all the ladies. Hoping for a great FS!

Trusova brought her dog "Tina" to the event. "She is helping me a lot when I have her with me. She brings a lot of warmth and comfort to the hotel room."

https://twitter.com/goldenskate/status/1104068523079491584

gsk8 said:

Trusova brought her dog "Tina" to the event. "She is helping me a lot when I have her with me. She brings a lot of warmth and comfort to the hotel room."

https://twitter.com/goldenskate/status/1104068523079491584

Click to expand...

Love that little doggie there....Reminds me of Sarah Abitbol's little dog who was let loose so she could run onto the ice slippering and slithering after Sarah and Stephan finished skating.

I only watched the performance of Tomoe Kawabata (with Alena out, she was the only skater here that I was interested in).

Stellar jumps, though it was too bad she couldn’t get the 3T all the way around. Stellar skating skills but judges were very stingy with PCS. So much talent and potential. I hope Japan recognizes that she is the future of its ladies figure skating and does everything to help her succeed.

Finally watched Julia Lang ... and I'm so happy I did. I now have another new love in Junior Ladies.

Julia is very gifted in expressing music with her movement. She flies over the ice and through everything, but for me, nothing seemed overly rushed. She has a nice running edge out of all of her jumps, holds them just long enough and then moves smoothly into her transition out of the jump. Her transitions are many, and so smooth. She skates with real purpose and a sense of confidence. I trust her skating. Another FS to look forward to tomorrow!

I couldn't help thinking (although this probably isn't a popular opinion) that I'd love to see her continue with what she's doing technically right now. We see so many skaters with such promise, and then the next season they often try to push their technique to another level and aren't able to sustain the excellent qualities they've shown. I'd love to see Julia just confirm what she's doing, develop her style the way it's going right now, and not try to do too much more in the next year or maybe two. Establish herself as she is now, if that makes sense.

Ugh, that interview with Joe Inman ruined everything for me. Not in a bad way, but perhaps not in a good way either. I'm now watching programs with an altered, more musical mindset. Stupid sexy Inman.

The 3Z-3L combo is/was my favorite part of Trusova's SP, fast punchy combo timed perfectly to the music. It's like an Emeril BAM moment. When she replaced the 3Loop with 3Toe, all I could think of was Inman's "musical phrasing" criticism, especially with the Eteri-trademark(?) slowness between first and second jump.

On the other hand, I now appreciate the brilliant placement of Shcherbakova's 3Flip even more, in terms of musical phrasing (sigh). Anna has the same long stroke Flip entry as Zagitova, and that was basically the best part of the music for such an entry. Good job Daniil. Anna was a tiny bit behind the music though for the 3Flip - Joe Inman would have made appropriate adjustment in GOE.

It really is a bummer that the SP layouts for junior ladies are so restrictive, with no option to tack a combo onto another jump. While the small medals might still go to the same skaters, the standings could look very different, and in seniors, skaters often have to think quickly to add a combo later anyway, so it seems silly to me that instead of allowing juniors to practice thinking on the fly, they are instead boxed into a specific layout.

Fingers crossed that Young You, Yuhana Yokoi, etc. can come back strong in the free.

Yuna Shiraiwa was a delight, as a side note.

Yeah, why shouldn't the required jump also be allowed in a combo if the skater wants? grumble grumble

^^^ I don't know ... but perhaps because they want to be able to compare everyone's solo triple jump to everyone else's, and a comparison is more exact that way? If so, this rule would be a more exact teaching tool.

I understand the "grumble, grumble," though. I like more freedom for the skaters. But maybe that's for the FS.