- Joined
- Nov 12, 2013
It wasn't just bad, it was an utter disaster - 2 falls, no combo, and a faulty axel. That is very difficult to recover from, especially when your bread and butter is jumping and can't be saved on PCS. And his FS wasn't great either (5 jumping passes with -GOE, including a UR fall, and a V on his final spin). Frankly, after SA he's lucky to have even had a shot at the GPF.
Of course, he absolutely nailed his SP at CoC but a UR fall in the FS cost him about 9 points there (not to mention Chan skated one of his best freeskates ever). I don't buy the PCS low balling - he was on home ice after all (also it's interesting when people complain that Chan won SC due to home inflation, and then complain that Jin didn't sufficiently benefit from home inflation to win CoC to make the GPF).
Don't get me wrong, I *really* wanted to see Jin in the final too and it won't be nearly as interesting, but arguably Rippon earned his spot there - even if he doesn't have all the big tricks that Jin has.
Which is why I have no problem with his placement behind Sergei, Sergei also deserved higher PCS.
However, Jin has been one of the most consistent skaters of all the men, bombing only once. The other competitions he either skated well at his level or slightly below. He almost always nailed his jumps. He belongs to this flight of GPF men for sure, newly minted seniors snapping at the heels of the 3 top skaters, like Shoma. Of all the men, including Jason, Nathan, Shoma, etc., he's been gifted the least, and often low-balled the most. Not making it to GPF will hurt his Olympics chances, I do feel for him.
Again, it's not the skaters' fault, it's the judges who scored "inconsistently", eg. awarding 84 PCS for Nathan's wobbly FS here, while a WBM like Jin received much lower PCS for far fewer mistakes at COC.
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