Lengthy “whole novel“ like post incoming. Be warned.
I didn‘t have any time whatsoever to watch CoC live but I did check the results and watched videos of the top 3 so far, which I felt was fair in placements.
Now, onto the Russian ladies:
Anna is such a sweetheart. Congrats on winning her second GP Gold and a ticket to the GPF. I admire her so much whenever I see an interview with her, especially if it‘s in English. She seems poised, calm and intelligent and her English is excellent as well. What a great young lady.
As for her skating... I have to say I‘m surprised I don‘t enjoy it more. Like, she has that quality that I absolutely love in skaters - understanding and a feel for the music. However, her overall skating skills and the fact that she never seems to point her toes while she skates make me enjoy her less than I probably should, given how good she is. Her spins also need work, the last two in her program were just not good - lots of traveling and I think she lost levels too. Which I think is interesting if we compare her to Sasha who I always thought was the weakest in spins of the 3A. Her positions are not as interesting as Anna‘s or especially Aliona‘s, her flexibility isn‘t as good but she never loses levels and she also doesn‘t travel. So overall that solid stability will get her more points, even if it doesn‘t have the sort of special quality Anna would have.
Her jumps are very impressive in terms of BV, of course, two 3-3 in the second half, two 4Lzs. However, I think the scores she got today and yesterday were fair. Her lutz IS !, I don‘t know why people are acting like it isn‘t. It‘s flat, but not inside, like Alina‘s. Like Aliona‘s too. Sasha is the only one of the 4A with a true outside edge on the lutz. So, just because Anna lands a 4Lz it doesn’t mean that her edge issue should be ignored.
Many of her jumps also have next to zero flow out of the landings; especially her two 3-3 combos today. That’s why I do think that the low GOE was justified. She still got a huge score and she can contend with the best there are in the world. But as much as I like her, there are issues with her skating and the judges ignoring it until now didn‘t do her a favor. I think her score (and the deductions that came with it) were fair and deserved. Others won’t agree here. That‘s okay. Thankfully, judges decide in the end and we don‘t have to. We‘re probably way too biased.
Anyway, Anna’s a hard worker and I‘m sure Eteri and her will have a look on that and correct it.
As for Liza.. well, I just love the fact that she went back to her old FS. It shows what she‘s good at: performing. The old issues are still there, lack of skating skills, transitions and the like so her PCS aren‘t exactly high. But I prefer this program. The choreo sequence is fire! The audience loved her. Great stuff.
It‘s a shame she made so many mistakes in the SP, it took away her chance for the Silver. But losing out on GPF, while a shame, doesn‘t have to be a tragedy. If she uses the time to work on the important areas, it could actually benefit her. She is technically impressive but I‘m still not sure about her layout. SP is fine (I‘m assuming the 2T was a mistake and was meant to be 3F+3T instead), her flip edge also looked better than at Finlandia. But the FS? Why would she do 2T? One, I can see for the 3A. But the combos otherwise just don‘t make much sense. 3Lz+2A sequence is just painful, it loses her so many points. She also doesn’t do a 3S in her program, does she? Maybe she could use the time until Nationals to train a 3Lz+Eu+3S. It would benefit her a lot if she could do this in the FS instead of the second 2T. Her spins and step sequences are still... well, not exactly fun to watch. Her skating skills are just lacking and especially the last spin is just not good-looking, sorry.
But she has worked on some of the things, so she is willing to change and learn! Her 3A has now transitions into it, it‘s not as telegraphed as before. What I think is funny is how people are like: “she has no transitions, bad skater!“ and when she actually makes the effort and adds transitions they‘re suddenly all: “what would she do that for? Now she lost her consistency! What a stupid move!“ Like, decide, please. Do you want her to listen to the judges and make changes or not? Her transitions score is still the lowest of het PCS and rightfully so but at least she‘s willing to improve. She‘s just not 15 anymore, changes will take time with an adult body. These improvements should have been made a long time ago but they weren‘t. She‘s trying to catch up now and good for her. I think she deserves respect for that. She could just give up and leave the field to the young guns like so many seem to want. But I think it‘s great that we have some older skaters stick around and I hope they continue to skate for seasons to come.
You‘re a brave soul for posting this. Or you like drama. Maybe both.
