2018 JPG Kaunas Highlights: Your thoughts?

GOLD: Trusova SP's personality demonstrating fierceness, nerves and talent. Her movements in front of the judges like they were all Bill in that programme
SILVER: Trusova's combos. First lady to land a quad combo. And her 3lz-3lo where she barely touches the ice between jumps
BRONZE: Ushakova/Nekrasov electro - tango. Its different from any other tango i saw and they performed very well. First one to be awarded with 8+ scores in PE, CO and IN this season. I guess this is what Ice Dance technical commitee wanted by asking dancers to think outside the box for tango.

Honorable mentions:
Ladies competition particulary impressed me. Beside Trusova a great performance by Yelim Kim who contiuned the rise of the Korean ladies. I would say they are now on par with Japanese juniors and just behind Russians. Top 5 placement for Ukraine and top 10 for Azerbaijan, Israel and Lithuania. Paulina Ramanauskaite's performance in front of her home public giving them something more to cheer for and enjoy the competition. Men's competion wasnt on the same level like the two ones before. What stood out are the facts that South Africa has male skater, Takahiko Mura choreography work for Kishina and Egor Murashov free programs shirt. In free dance Ukrashova/Nekrasov was the one that's particulary chalenging to skate to - with gypsy music full of tempo changes. A ukranian ice dance team managed to grab a medal after a period of no medals. Browns paying homage to Bourne/Kraatz and Anissina/Peizerat with their elements, hydroblading and reverse left, respectively. Nguyen/Kolesnik getting Level 4 for their tango patterns. Ted Barton reading e-mails from all around the world :thumbsup:

The Ladies Competition in Kaunas was absolutely fierce and full of highlights, and impressed me the most!
Alexandra Trusova was technically amazing in both the SP and the FS. The SP, choreographed to the music of "Kill Bill", was modern and full of energy. Her triple jumps really are easy, secure and the transitions in the program were, as usual with Eteri's girls, so intricate, but still executed with speed and easiness. Her FS, to the music of "The Fifth Element", was for me the most exciting program of the event so far. The quadruples are already there at the start of the season, and this is really impressive. Shame about the under rotation on the 4 Lz, but she'll get it. The 4T-3T combination was absolutely amazing, because came right after the scary fall on the first 4T attempt. How courageous from a 14 year old girl to try it again, landing it so beautifully! The second part of the program was equally impressive for me. Amazing transitions, triples that look so easy for her even if executed after 3 quads attempts, very good height and length. Brava! Just some thoughts about her costumes: I don't like the dress/pants concept, the costume for the SP is not really my cup of tea, but the one for the FS is interesting and modern, with some gorgeous combinations of colors.
Yelim Kim was just beautiful. She has gorgeous lines, beautiful flowing skating skills (not as many transitions in her programs as in the Russian girls' ones, and this let her lovely skating "breathe"), and finally had her breakout competition here in Kaunas! The SP and the FS are very similar, very soft music that let her subtle interpretation shines. I appreciated her programs more than Trusova's programs from the point of view of the artistic side, although I see why Alexandra got higher PCS' score with her very good skating skills and phenomenal transitions. If she perfects her Short she has very good chance of breaking the 200 points barrier with two clean programs, and that is a very prestigious result. I hope she will succeed with it by the end of the season! It will be interesting to see how she will compete in her 2nd Junior Grand Prix assignment, because at the moment is the only non-Russian girl with good chances to make the Junior Grand Prix Final, and personally, I'm rooting for her! Brava
The 3rd classified, Ksenia Sinitsyna, was a beautiful discovery. Her SP, choreographed on Latin musics, was full of energy, and she emotes very well on the ice, while her FS was more "balletic", full of interesting choreographic moments and lovely transitions. She really is going for that bonus in the FS by putting the 3 combinations as the last 3 jumping passes, and kudos for her to do so! This time it didn't reward her, but I believe that when she will nail the contents her program will be a really competitive one! Probably it wasn't the result she was hoping for, but she skated really well and was surpassed only by Trusova and an inspired Yelim Kim, so it was a good competition anyway. She should not be ashamed of herself, well done!

I was waiting Alexandra Trusova and her quads for the season so it was the main thing for me to watch...
I like her 4T-3T combo I am sure she will fix her 4Lz before gpf
Her music choices are not bad - if you think about Alina's music cuts Alexandra seems very lucky- but I can't say the same thing for her costumes. Her sp dress was was the worst costume that olga has done so far IMO What the hell was that? I get the yellow part - it was Kill Bill after all but rest and her fs dress was She may not have any taste in fashion or Eteri lost her mind. I don't even have name for them they can not be called as dress or bodysuit...

Besides her eyes burning costumes she has incredible technical skills and I hope she won't get hurt before the next Olympics. She is a tiny little thing and very brave to do all those quads but who knows when her body says enough is enough. I don't want to be a drama queen but I think she push her body too much

I didn't know about Yelim Kim before this gp so she was nice surprise for me to watch.. She has nice lines and her style was very different from Russian girls. Her sp has David Wilson signature so it makes sense

Boys... I am sorry to say this but it was dull to watch. Nobody skates clean, no new soul to discover. I will wait to watch Stephan Gogolev in his next event
I wonder why Russia has so many young talented girls but don't have any boys... I miss the Yagudin vs Plushenko years don't they still have Mishin to find young ones ?

in any particular order:

over all i found the men events boring and low level, nobody stood up except for the boys that ended up on the podium (and they deserved it). anyway i loved murashov sp, he showed a great connection with the music and told us a story; the other man that impressed me (and not for his technical abilities ) was majorov jr, who at least chose an original program for his fs, i mean he was gomez addams!

in the ladies field, besides the obvious trusova (outstanding), i was really impressed by yelim kim, her fs was flawless and a joy to watch.

i've also some fashion special mentions arena somova in saint laurent mondrian inspired costume (fs), eva lotta kiibus (fs) and yuto kishina (sp).

trend alert: romeo and juliet, the musical.:giveup:

MEN
The first thing that stood out to me watching Torgashev's short program was how his jumps are tilted in the air. Even his combo, executed cleanly, exhibited a tilt on both jumps. The free program showed the same program. His euler, however, is among the best I've seen. Torgashev acutually jumps it, instead of simply stepping onto the next jump. I would also like to note his presentation, before and after the jumps. While in the middle, it is as empty as most men's programs, he comes alive once the jumps are done. His spins were also a pleasant surprise.

Iakovev has something few junior men do: presentation. His programs had a beggining, middle and end, with choreo in between! He also skates with his whole body, which is always good to see. Some of his spins confused me: are those positions planned, or did something go wrong? Overall, it's a pity quads are now necessary to make it big in men's figure skating, because that's the only thing that isn't there. Get him those quads, Buyanova!

I love Kishina's choice of music! Too bad the choreo wasn't quite there to make it better. Here we have again something with potential, but without quads. He actually feels like a blend of Iakovev and Torgashev to me: better than Iakovev in jumps, but better than Torgashev in presentation. Despise being in third place, it feels like he will have the easier time improving: a couple quads and he performs enough to get decent PCS. Having a 3A (even if a poor one) already gives him an edge over the quadless.

WOMEN
What do you expect from Trusova? She's got the mindset (and jumps!) of a champion. You could tell she was visibly nervous before the start of her SP, and as consequence it didn't seem that she enjoyed performing it as much as she did performing Big Spender. Of course, her success during the last JGP turned her from "just another Eteri skater" to earning nicknames such as "Quadrusova" and, my favourite, "Tiny Boss". That, she is. It is of no surprise Trusova feels like there's more at the stake than last year. Her FP fits her to a T, and again, I admire her guts to go and jump another 4T after falling in the first one. The costume is also one of my favourites. I love how Trusova knows she isn't an ice princess, and doesn't care. Her programs display her athletism, and it works.

Coming from a country so insignificant for figure skating, I have a sweet spot for any skater from a small fed that manages to make it to the top. With Kim, it is no different. She possesses all the qualities to continue grabbing medals, and still has plenty of room to grow. It's always a comfort to enjoy a skater once they are already mid-teens: the heart break when jumps disappear doesn't get better with time, and the older the skater is, less likely it is that it will happen. I hope Kim goes on to have a good season; I'd love to see her slaying in seniors soon!

I imagine it's very difficult being a Russian female skater, especially while not being on Eteri's team (I don't support her methods, but they sure work!). Because of this, I worry Sinitsyna won't get a second JPG with a bronze. With so many talented young women coming from Russia, I don't particularly feel she stood out among the others. Her skate felt bland. Still, I admire her guts for skating after Trusova and doing so well. It's a pity there are so few spots for so many talented Russian girls. While she isn't my favourite, I'd like to see Sinitsyna having time to grow.

ICE DANCE
Dance is the discipline I never watch, but whenever I do, I end up loving what I see. Because of that, this is going to be both shorter and based on my own inexperienced opinion.

I never feel one way or another when watching RDs, unless it's a rhythm I actually enjoy, but when I saw the beggining of Ushakova/Nekrasov's FD, I thought: "oh, god, no miming, please!". That's one of the times you're glad to be wrong. I love a comical program, or anything that puts a smile on my face, so I was actually quite upset when it ended. I wish there were more programs like those!

My first impression upon watching Nguyen/Kolesnik was: wow, they're good. I couldn't help but admire Nguyen's RD dress (shallow, I agree), but it amazed me how close she and Kolesnik seem to work. I actually thought they were going to kiss when the RD ended! The one thing I didn't like about their FD was the combination of the songs. They are both among my favourites, but don't work together. TBH, it's quite difficult to put more than one song in a program and make it sound good. This team made a better job than many.

Popova/Byelikov have the advantage of coming from a small fed, which, as mentioned above, already makes me cheer for them. Did they do well? I suppose they did, with their bronze, but I can't really say. However, I did enjoy their programs, even though I'm sick to death of Chopin. The first lift in particular impressed me a lot because of its timing.

The final dance group. suberb programs all around.

Colonel Green said:

I liked this post more when I wrote it.

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Baron Vladimir said:

Browns paying homage to Bourne/Kraatz and Anissina/Peizerat with their elements, hydroblading and reverse left, respectively. Nguyen/Kolesnik getting Level 4 for their tango patterns. Ted Barton reading e-mails from all around the world :thumbsup:

Click to expand...

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who immediately thought of Anisinna/Peizerat with that lovely reverse lift! I wish more teams wanted to / were able to pull that off. Also, yes, Ted reading the emails aloud was awesome! :luv17: