2019 NHK Trophy Day 2: Thoughts and Highlights

[Colonel Green]

Men
- Hanyu was not at the level of SCI, but he was still dominant here. This is the best start to a season he's had...ever, I guess?
- A messy free skate from Kevin Aymoz, but he hung on to silver (and even if he had been third, it would still have been enough to make the Final).
- I didn't watch men's or ladies live, you can bet that Roman Sadovsky winning a medal was the biggest surprise I woke up to. It's perhaps too much to hope that this will be a turning point in a career plagued by inconsistency, but even if it isn't, it's a lovely highlight.
- The NHK curse continues for Jason. As I feared, that second triple Axel right in front of the judges is a bit of a performance issue when he falls on it.

Ladies
- Kostornaia delivers again, even with trouble on one Axel. She's a delight as ever.
- Another really good performance from Rika Kihira, even with the Lutzes MIA and the quad Salchow yet to come. Compared to last year it's amazing how consistent her triple Axel is now.
- After an iffy short, Zagitova was much better here.
- I felt bad for Karen Chen, skating after the Kostornaia vs. Kihira clash of the titans; reminded me of when Jason skated last at Worlds after Hanyu and Nathan Chen.
- On a similar note, oof, Eun-soo.
- Unhappily, these two Grand Prix events have seen the unwelcome return of Junior Yuhana, who can't do a short program and then rallies in the free skate.
- I was very happy to see Yamashita turn things around after her earlier competitions this season (and for much of last season, honestly).

Pairs
- Sui fell on the combination this time, but she's now landed three clean triple Salchows in a row, so that's looking really good for this team.
- KMT and Michael did it! Thrilled for them. Both of their programs this season are among Julie Marcotte's best work.
- Good showing by Mishina/Galliamov too, though it seems like the judges here weren't as wild about them as at some of their previous events.
- Decent showing for Efimova/Korovin, and special credit to Alisa for saving both of those suboptimal landings.
- Thrilled about the debut for Miura/Kihara. Kihara never placed higher than seventh at a Grand Prix with any previous partner, and here he was fifth the first time out.
- Oof, Knierims. After such a solid start at Nebelhorn, things seem to have unraveled.

Ice dance
- Papadakis/Cizeron's free dance is a bit like them consciously trying to embody what their haters think they are, but...I kinda like it, I guess?
- Stepanova/Bukin, solid program, though I'd almost thinking matching Einaudi with Justin Timberlake should be weirder than this.
- With Guignard/Fabbri's free dance I was initially taken aback by the lack of Bowie originals, but I've come around to it. Much rougher outing this time, unfortunately, and it looks like there'll be no senior Italian representation at the Grand Prix Final.
- Fear/Gibson deliver another tremendously fun program.
- Wang/Liu's free dance isn't quite as inspired as their rhythm dance, but I like this too.
- The American teams vying to be third at US Nationals, rather like the Canadian teams aspiring to be third at Canadian Nationals, have been having a rough go of it on the Grand Prix.

 

[Farnaz]

To summarise the men:

Aymoz and Sadovsky: "Yuzuru is a god"
Yuzuru himself: wtf am I doing. Wtf should I be doing. What is life.

brilliant post

 

[gold12345]

I was intrigued by the deep Pairs field, although a couple of the better teams underachieved. Half of the GP Finalists come from this field.

Moore-Towers/Marinaro skated really well with the GPF berth on the line. They don't have the best twist, throws, or lifts, so they aren't scoring astronomically high, but they're doing their best with what they've got. Kirsten has great athleticism. Their LP is great for them, and they skated it much better than they did at Skate Canada. Their PCS here were virtually the same as they were in Canada, which shows the scoring boost they got at home with a lesser skate.

Sui/Han had a fall on the 3T, but their 3S looks much better lately. The throws are spectacular. A small guy should not be able to throw a girl with that height and distance, but these two are a rare breed.

Nothing in particular about Mishina/Galliamov really stands out, but they skated a great LP after not getting a great score in the SP. Their lifts could be better. Efimova/Korovin skated much better after some disastrous earlier events, but nothing stands out.

The Knierims could have challenged for a medal, but looked strangely off. They gave away a ton of points on their stronger elements, starting with the invalid death spiral in the SP and ending with a botched lift in the LP. Their throws are as huge as any pair, but they were very off in the LP. Hopefully there isn't an injury. They had strong showings at Nebelhorn and Skate Canada with scores around 200 points, but for some reason this event went haywire. They have way more quality than they showed here.

It's noteworthy that Tarasova/Morozov didn't make the Final, yet if the Finalists were determined by score instead of placement, they would have qualified 3rd. The pair fields were very uneven in strength this season.

 

[1111bm]

...but then without a pause kept going in one of the most incredibly demanding programs of all time while revamping that same demanding program in his head to compensate.... and still got the third highest FS score in the entire series. That takes an awe-inspiring level of brilliance in its own right.

Poor Shoma. No one called him a brilliant genius last week, when he not only rearranged his jump layout, but cut his ChSq short and even inserted a whole new jumping pass where there was none, to make up for his earlier, aborted 4T. Granted, his attempt wasn't successful and he did not score well, but he's obviously not in shape currently for whatever reason. Actually, maybe that makes his effort even more impressive.

Oh well, I guess genius is very much in the eye of the beholder, or rather the fan.

Figures speak for themselves, Yuzuru has now podiumed at 20 Grand Prix events (only Plushenko has more). Unless my factchecking is wrong, he is the only man to top 300 in the series, did it both times, and won both events by a 50+ margin. His total score for the series is 627.64, just over thirty ahead of Nathan and ninety-eight or more freaking marks ahead of the rest. And this is the man people were saying should retire and let the younger men take over because he's got to be past it...

I thought this is the NHK Day 2 thread and we’re talking about what skaters put out at this competition on that day? What does Nathan or ‚the rest‘, i.e. skaters from the other GPs, have got to do with how Yuzu performed his free skate here? They weren’t even in this competition.

But I mean, if we’re talking numbers and since this is the NHK thread, then it is also true that Yuzu scored 17 points less in his NHK FS compared to SC…

I'm also pretty certain no one in this thread demanded Yuzu should retire, but ok...
But in any case, I don't think anyone (especially not his fans) should blame people, who feel that maybe Yuzu should stop punishing his body and those poor ankles and retire on a high, especially since he's already achieved so much or rather pretty much everything.

 

[Interspectator]

NHK Viewing Party 2019 edition
Disclaimer: This was a lighthearted, slightly tipsy party, all comments must not be taken seriously, but feel free to disagree with any opinions or comments expressed below.
This won’t be a detailed recap , just some anecdotes from this year's figure skating viewing party.
Most of the party are NHK and Nationals watchers. --they don’t follow the entire skating season so this was a first time for them to see the skaters this year.

It was a hens (girls only) night this time and we had cake, cocktails, loads of chips and gyoza. We were also peeling bitter persimmons from a nearby tree to hang up to dry for the winter. (this info will become important later)

Ladies’ LP
We were cooking and getting caught up on each others' news for most of the Ladies’ event, but concentrated more on the competition for the final group.
There wasn’t much commentary on Mako, all were impressed with Alina.
Eunsoo was so tough to watch…I won’t say more than that. No need to go over it again.
My mom is a huge Rika fan. She was concentrating like a laser the whole time “Surely she must win!”
“That was amazing!” “Wow” We were all so impressed with her performance.
Alena’s costume garnered some remarks as she took to the ice.
“Is that…supposed to be Blood?” “(laughter) Twilight! It makes sense”
I actually saw some viewers recoil in surprise during the sudden music switch. It was just so sudden. Most didn’t know what to make of that part of the choreo.
When the program was finished, we knew she would win, because of the difference in the SP. But, and I’m not ruling out national bias, we of course thought that Rika should have scored higher in the Freeskate. It just seemed like a better program, more thought and intent behind the movements of Rika’s program VS Alena’s.
We almost forgot Karen Chen was next. No comments of note about it.
To back track to my personal standout in the SP, Yuhana’s Phantom LP program didn’t make much of a splash with the viewers, it was pretty normal, and didn’t make use of her wild personality. But she rose to 4th! Well done.

Men’s LP
This is the main event for us. We are all cheering for Koshiro, Sota and Yuzu. We talk about the upcoming Nationals and all the expectations surrounding Yuzu and the desperate hope he can finish the season uninjured. -I propose a game, they must guess the music based on the costume. I do not play as I already know all the programs being skated.
Conrad’s Program was guessed instantly. Of course. He wore a tri-colored rosette and a vest.
“here he is, storming the bastille” Someone dryly commented during a spin. The general consensus was that he did ‘alright’.
‘Pirate or musketeer’ was guessed for uncle Alexei, and his general bounciness across the ice was commented upon, and whether this bounce was considered good skating or not.
Tomoki Hiwatashi’s costume was declared the unholy child of Daisuke and Yuzu. ‘This thing ought not to be’ it was declared. But they were wowed by the split jump.
“Look at the way he moves!” “So much quality…oops!” during a fall. -This was the first SL of the night. Jasons. GPF math started up. --I explained that if either Jason or Kevin did not make the top 4, Boyang was in the GPF. -Everyone in this group loves Boyang.
“Haven’t we heard this music a lot?” was commented during Sota’s performance. We were willing him onto the podium and it looked like he might do it after the first good quad, but after that there were too many errors.
“Don’t tell me…this is yet another Schindler’s list??” “Is this costume…okay??” That’s all that was said about Anton.
Koshiro did not get much comment other than cheers for his good jumps and sighs for his bad ones, but just around the time Roman took to the ice, the pole we were hanging the persimmons on came loose and fell on my head. There was a scramble to hang them somewhere else. “Look, it’s that same darn Schindler’s list AGAIN, we can skip it” so we ran outside to hang the the fruits somewhere else. And that is why we missed Roman Sadovsky’s best skate ever. --It’s too bad! I’ll catch up on it shortly.
Markar’s jumps are truly huge. But like before, by about the middle he started seriously running out of steam and when his spin stalled we all were reminded of the 2012 NHK where Yuzu did the same thing and could barely finish his program.
During Yuzu’s LP, each of us were coping in our own way, mostly by clutching a cushion and willing Yuzu to do well. My mom decided a long prayer was in order. We were shushing her and telling her it was distracting! She wouldn’t listen. After the gasp of horror at the popped jump, we knew Yuzu could try any crazy thing…we were right. -And we cheered at the end. It was a really intense performance, and -I think- it was in its own way as impressive as Skate Canada’s for the sheer will power and quick thinking put in motion to finish the jumping passes and then the choreo sequence as beautifully as he did.
-With the scores, Yuzu’s win was assured. We were able to relax and watch the next two skaters.
Kevin elicited ‘Aww’s like he was an adorable puppy in the kiss and cry. --There were some questions as to how he could possibly be in 2nd place, but we weren’t taking into account the SP.
Voronov is a favorite of ours, so we cheered for him the whole way through. --Since we didn’t see Roman’s performance, we thought he might have a chance at the bronze, and were really disappointed that he didn’t get it.
The medals ceremony was great, and in the interview when Yuzu thanked everyone everywhere who prayed for him, mom was yet again triumphant. -She will not let us live this down. We will not be able to watch Yuzu live again with her. (I must make plans to lock her in another room during the next NHK)
That’s it for the disjointed, rambling NHK viewing party experience.

 

[TallyT]

Poor Shoma. No one called him a brilliant genius last week, when he not only rearranged his jump layout, but cut his ChSq short and even inserted a whole new jumping pass where there was none, to make up for his earlier, aborted 4T. Granted, his attempt wasn't successful and he did not score well, but he's obviously not in shape currently for whatever reason. Actually, maybe that makes his effort even more impressive.

Oh well, I guess genius is very much in the eye of the beholder, or rather the fan.

Hey, I think Shoma's pretty damn awe-inspiring too, my favourite skate of his was the WTT one where Team Japan needed points so he literally threw everything he could think of into the program! But is it necessary, if we praise one skater, to make a laundry list of others at the same time?

I'm also pretty certain no one in this thread demanded Yuzu should retire, but ok...
But in any case, I don't think anyone (especially not his fans) should blame people, who feel that maybe Yuzu should stop punishing his body and those poor ankles and retire on a high, especially since he's already achieved so much or rather pretty much everything.

But that isn't what the folk I was sideswiping have been saying (and yes, on this as on other forums, riiiiiiight up till SC), rather (and probably bowdlerised) "he's so ooooooooollld, he's past it, he's got his share, he should let other younger skaters have first dibs on medals." Forgive me if I don't read any of that as tender concern for The Ankles (TM)

 

[Harriet]

Kailani's SB and general decrease in underrotations from Cup of China, Mae-Berenice's gorgeous first half of the FS, F/G and G/F and all things P/C, Kevin holding it together enough to make it to the final (and crying again of course! ), Uncle Alexei having a blast as a tipsy pirate and continuing his recovery from that wretched hip injury, DM/G keeping on keeping on...

Jason's program was a highlight even with the errors, but I can't complain about him missing the final given said errors. We'll get to see him at Golden Spin the same weekend anyway, and the decreased pressure there should be good for him. I'm looking forward to seeing both programs again.

 

[eppen]

After the ladies SP, the FS was a slight disappointment - and can't believe that I am actually saying that because it was after all a pretty good showing for the top ladies.... But I was fullt expecting a 4S and 4 good 3As. Greed is not good for your mind and viewing experience!

But Alena skated well despite the bad 3A. I again apologize for the shenanigans of the blind Finnish judge - she gave 8.00 for Alena's transitions when everyone else was going for 8.75 and over... Rika did fine also despite not going for the 4S and not going for the Lutzes as she had planned - hope the injury is really healed and she will have the confidence to go for all the elements in the GPF.

I like both of their programs, not perhaps my biggest favourites, but they are slightly different compared what you see most in the current field. Alena's shows a bit of her abilities to do also other things than the pretty ice princess. I still hope they would accentuate the moment of change more in the movement to make it absolutely clear. Rika is growing into the fairly difficult theme they have chosen.

I also realized that when it comes to the 3A, I would put Alena on top now despite her short history with the element. Somehow watching them back to back made me notice that Rika does hers to the exact same position whereas Alena's are done in opposite sides of the rink...

Did not expect very much from the men's FS, but was rewarded with a very good showing from Roman Sadovsky. I did know that he is tall for a figure skater but seeing him on the podium with Hanyu and Amoz kind of made that fact very concrete. I am not perhaps the greatest fan of Schindler's List programs, but his I find one of the more tolerable ones, maybe because of the musical mash-up? It has taken such a long time for him to get on top of his height to get the jumps working and it was delightful to see him do well. Shows that guys suffer from the growing pains also... And then Kevin. Ach, despite all the mishaps, he is such a performer and the choreo and its execution is just wonderful every time.

E

 

[zanadude]

- Thrilled about the debut for Miura/Kihara. Kihara never placed higher than seventh at a Grand Prix with any previous partner, and here he was fifth the first time out.

The only reason he ever placed seventh in a Grand Prix competition before was because there were only seven teams total in that competition.

Put another way, in four previous Grand Prix competitions, he placed dead last thrice and next-to-last once.

This time, only three months into a brand new partnership, he placed ahead of three other teams. And this with a 17 year old girl that bumped into him during the short routine because she started getting it confused with the long program!

This might be my favorite odd-ball pairing ever.

 

[surimi]

I haven't watched pairs and dance yet, except for Sui/Han and the first two dance medalists in a highlights program. I don't much care for Stepanova/Bukin's FD, it feels too much like gymnastics to me than a dance, I wish they had better fluidity of motion. But I didn't mind them. Papadakis/Cizeron, I find the FD idea very interesting. I'm not at all against skating to poetry with a tune, and against modern dance. But this particular dance didn't do much for me, and neither did the boring costumes. They skated pretty, but I still prefer their Mozart, Sonata and Shape of You programs.

I only saw a part of the ladies FD. Happy for Yuhana's fourth place! I still prefer her SP to FP though in terms of interpretation. She has nice solid jumps when she hits them, and nice flow. All top 3 skated lights out, very enjoyable to watch. Kihira's choice of music is fascinating for me, in a good way. I felt very sorry for EunSoo, she's a lovely skater and this is a gorgeous program, so I hope she can regain her confidence. It must be super hard for her. She's secured two spots for the Korean ladies at WC, hasn't she? And now it looks like both Young and Yelim could beat her for the spots.

Men was a stressful event for me because of Sota (I have full confidence in my other super-fave, Yuzuru, so I had calmed down by the time he skated). Fortunately he did well enough to secure 6th place. I admire his courage to tackle so many quads when he had none last year. Like @ichatdelune, I also prefer his last year's FP Nobunaga, but I love Sota's skating no matter what. Yuzuru is fantastic, and I'm happy he is going to Torino. Kevin and Sadovsky also skated very well, well-deserved placements. Jason is very artistic, but too many mistakes there which impacted the program for me. Koshiro is good at selling his programs. I am super happy for Voronov whose skating I really enjoy. Great programs this year, too. I wish he could go to Europeans or Worlds... I'll keep my fingers crossed for him at Nats. I missed some others because I had work to do, so I'll rewatch in retrospect if I find an archived stream. (hello, ISU? archived streams happening anytime soon? you know, our TV doesn't archive their streams...)

 

[1111bm]

Tech Panel seemed pretty lenient on wrong edges... I'm sure I saw at least a few obvious flutzes, but I only saw ! in the protocols at most... :noshake:
But then they turned around completely and gave Karen an e on her Flip wth? The way it looked it deserved an ! maybe, but certainly not a full edge call. :/

But is it necessary, if we praise one skater, to make a laundry list of others at the same time?

Not necessarily. But I do find it interesting how perceptions of a skater's skills and accomplishments vary, depending on which skater it is.
(I'm not even saying I'm totally impervious to it myself)

But that isn't what the folk I was sideswiping have been saying (and yes, on this as on other forums, riiiiiiight up till SC), rather (and probably bowdlerised) "he's so ooooooooollld, he's past it, he's got his share, he should let other younger skaters have first dibs on medals." Forgive me if I don't read any of that as tender concern for The Ankles (TM)

It's the only reason I sometimes feel that he should maybe not tempt fate anymore and consider retiring. Because whenever he has a somewhat wobbly looking jump landing, I'm never sure if it's just due to a technical mistake and non-ideal landing position, or if it's his ankle buckling under the impact, because it's too weak or hurting. So in that sense his physical state or history of injuries does affect my perception of his skating.
I mean, he himself says he's skating with a persistant fear of (re-)injuring himself, so it's constantly on his mind too.

 

[readernick]

Most of the things I would like to say have already been stated here:

So a quick summary of my simple thoughts

Hanyu was wonderful (as expected). I am so happy the Roman Sadovsky finally had a good competition. (there were a lot of uncalled URs in his skate but it was still a massive improvement). He is a lovely skater. I am happy that Kevin is going to the final. These were not his best skates but he got it done.

In the ladies, Rika Vs. Alena was amazing. It would have been a true battle had Rika been able to add her lutz back into the program. However, they both demonstrated amazing quality. I did not enjoy either of Alina's skates but I was happy that her FS was strong technically. It was heart breaking seeing her so upset after her SP. It was also heartbreaking to see Eunsoo so upset. I hope that she does better during the second half of the season. Mako did very well technically. (the programs are terrible) Yuhana Yokoi is a charming girl. She is a performer and her SS are great. She could really be a threat if she gets her 3A and some more consistency. The SP is much better than the FS, imho. (although the judges disagreed since her PCS was higher in the FS)

In the pairs, obviously Sui/Han were amazing. (as always). MT/M performed very well but I wasn't really into their skates here. The same was true (but to an even higher degree) with M/G. Their free skate was messy and I get zero performance from them.. No doubt they are talented, but I think they need another year or two to develop their skills. The new Japanese pair team Miura/ Kihara are adorable. They look to be great friends and they are both so expressive and thrilled to be doing well. I love them and I am so happy that Japan has such a great pair team. (there are a lot of other talented single skaters in Japan who should consider going into pairs). Along with the adorable Japanese junior dance team and the fact that Takahashi is going into ice dance... this team is making Japan a real threat to join the medal hunt in the team event. I hope that this trend will continue and their will be more pairs and dance teams from Japan in the future.

Ice dance turned out as expected.

 

[skylark]

For the men, Roman Sadovsky. I am so happy when he can show his gorgeous Schindler's List/Bells of Moscow program without struggles. Let me say up front that I like quads when they're done well. I'm not in the "skating on the ice vs. number of rotations in the air" argument; there's so much more to figure skating. I love the thrill of a beautiful quad, and Roman delivers.
Roman skates with sensitivity, restraint, subtlety and soulfulness. For me, this is the perfect way to skate to such emotionally sensitive, momentous music. It all starts with his face, in the few seconds at the beginning. And then all of this emotion paired with fragility extends through his arms, hands, back, quality of movement, jumps, spins, all skating. Just exquisite. He pays attention to the music, and he's open to the audience.

“For pairs, not only the elements are such important, but we want to show it from our heart. We want to make the pairs more different so the audience can see your soul in the programs, so we can show who is the best in the world in pairs.” --Cong Han
https://www.goldenskate.com/2019/11/sui-and-han-reign-at-nhk-trophy/​

I love Cong Han so much for saying this in the interview. Sui and Han please nearly everyone: the folks who value sparkling technique, the ones who value winning most, and the ones who want to see superior technique serving the heart, soul, and connection of the partnership, music, and the way they express and transfer all this joy to the audience (live and video) so that we can be part of the experience. It's worth remembering that all of this exquisiteness comes as a result of a 12-year partnership. Their commitment to being complete skaters, with heart and soul, follows their commitment, seen as early as their "cowboy" skate, to every aspect of the performance.

Kirsten M-T and Michael Marinaro. I'm beyond thrilled for them. They speak to me. To see how dedicated they've been all along to bringing their partnership forward, advancing every facet of it little by little and step by step, is just wonderful. I'm always surprised at how tightly many fans cling to their 1st impressions of a pair or single skater, and MT/M are prime examples. They're not the same skaters that they were 3 or 4 years ago; but also I feel that Kirsten had this vision for the team all along. Seeing them in person at SA 2017, I saw and felt Michael's significance in the partnership; for me it went beyond ways he played catch-up. This NHK really showed their connection with each other, their improved elements and skating, and their ability to include the audience in their performance.

One thing that I feel some pairs (the Knierims among them, sorry, it's JMO) miss: They may have a strong connection with each other, and it's obvious and it's touching and magical to some audience members, but it's almost annoying to others, because the pair somehow lacks the ability, or possibly the desire, to include audience members in their joy, struggles, and their emotion. They have the emotions, but they may not extend them. And maybe they don't want to, and it's absolutely their choice. But this brings me back full circle to Cong Han's heartfelt quote. Because of how both he and Sui put so much into their movement and express every mood with their faces, they draw a circle around audiences, world=wide, and draw them in.

Back to the Knierims, my heart was in my throat, I was so afraid the mistakes in their FS would build up and affect their last two lifts, which are both near the end, and then it played out that way. My heart goes out to them; it's heart-rending to see so much shock and discouragement on their faces. We'll see whether they're able to use it as fuel going forward, build their confidence back up again and bring their great technique and beautiful elements to bear in their future performances. Similar thoughts and hopes for Nicole and Matteo, for a different reason. Best wishes to them as they recover and go forward.

I have to give a shout-out for Tarah and Danny. They were so happy with their skate, and rightly so, because their performance of all the elements were better than so far this season. I wish I could say I'm as happy with their programs; their FS especially is a disconnect: while Tarah is showing anguish in Les Mis, Danny is smiling big right alongside her. First time I've ever complained about Danny's smile. But they may work the kinks out and surprise us all at GS and nationals.

And a huge shout=out to the Brand New Japanese pair, Riku Miura and Riyuchu Kihara. I mean, such joy and exultation at clean and nearly-clean performances is just so infectious. And it was a pleasure to watch them skate. Surprising, which is always fun. She's 17 (it shows) and he's 27, with years of trying to find and work the right partnership. Just wonderful to see.

I know I've omitted the two Russian pairs, who did so well here. They just don't speak to me; my apologies. To make it worse, I have to mute the music when they skate. But I can see how beautiful their skating is and appreciate all of the expertise, coaching and hard work that goes into it. One thing I notice all the Russians pay such exquisite attention to: the quality of ALL the elements. And guess what .... every one of those points adds up. When I hear people denigrating the importance of things like SBS jumps, or levels on death spirals or spins, saying they don't count as much as lifts and throws, well ... they're right. But every one of those elements counts, not just in points but in the beauty of the program as a whole. So I do appreciate all that Mishina and Galliamov are doing. And Efimova and Korovin have their moments!

 

[Flying Feijoa]

Not Day 2, but I just noticed that Riku Miura wore Meagan Duhamel's Pyeongchang SP dress for the gala :luv17:

 

[Mathman]

Off topic, but I just noticed that in the 41-year history of NHK an American lady has won only once (Gracie Gold in 2014).

 

[Merjan]

Yuzuru was great, I'm very happy for him. And winning by 55 points when there were really good skaters in the competition, that says it all.
Rika Kihira skated so well in the FS, that's nice for her in front of her home audience. And Papadakis / Cizeron were amazing as always.