No way either Pogorilaya or Radionova deserve to be ahead of Rika Hongo. I don't think Rika has much personality on the ice, but she skated a very clean and inspired program (probably so happy to even be there). The scoring reeks of fs politics and the overwrought notion of the Russian young ladies being so good. Their talent is mostly in their ability to land jumps and over-dramatically preen on the ice. I'm happy for Lipnitskaya that she skated well. I really like Radionova's potential, but I think she could benefit by not winning here, and stop with all the rushing to get to be on top of the podium. I realize part of the drama is all these Russian young ladies are battling each other to see who gets to go to Worlds and Europeans. Personally, I'd like to see Leonova, Liza T, and Julia Lip make it to Worlds. Pogo is way over-rated, and Radionova needs time to enjoy how old she is, and slowly develop into something very special.
All this talk of Ashley W. lumping Russian ladies together. Ash had complimentary things to say about the Russian skaters, and she is right that none of them have any legacy or memorable style on the ice right now. The youngsters are all still growing as skaters. Leonova would have been a Russian skater more interesting to watch with her programs at GPF. This rush to reward the potential of bright young ladies, to me, is premature and absolutely does nothing for the sport of figure skating. Neither does it do anything for these skaters who need time to develop into mature, expressive skaters with a unique identity on the ice. What the Russian baby ballerinas have is not even much balletic style, but loads of over-reaching ambition, and loads of over-scoring on PCS!