This was the event I was looking forward to the most and it did not disappoint. Four men - with different styles of skating - could have taken the title and it’s been at least a decade since there were that many competitors that could realistically take home the gold.
Aymoz : He predictably finished last, but this was a deep field. There’s a difference between finishing last with say a 260ish score (he’s more than capable of it) and great skates and finishing last because you skated poorly. After the first singled jump in his free skate, I literally started thinking that his boot broke or something. He was just very hard to watch. I actually thought his PCS was too high. I would have put him at 73-75. It was that bad. His SP, however, was good. I still think it’s boring, but he was the only skater besides Uno that I thought performed the short best at this competition, instead of earlier in the season. This despite of the small mistake.
Miura : I figured that Miura would finish either fifth or last and that’s where he ended up. Both the SP and FS are good vehicles for him yet he doesn’t sell them and he doesn’t listen to his music. He’s a great jumper, but when the jumps don’t work, there isn’t anything left.
Siao Him Fa : He was one of the favorites - arguably the favorite - but a fourth place finish with a 275+ score isn’t a bad result at all. That’s a medal anywhere else. I don’t think he lost any momentum so hopefully he bounces back for his Nationals and Europeans. I hope he works with a different choreographer in the future; the charade game at the beginning of his programs is unintentionally amusing.
Kagiyama : I think of all the recent comebacks in the last two years or so, his has been the most successful. This is because he actually took the time off to properly heal and didn’t rush with his technical content. I was once excited about a matchup with Ilia, but that has cooled somewhat because his current content cannot compete with Ilia’s, but hopefully he’ll return to full form. I think he has the best programs in this field. His SP is definitely the best choreographically. I wasn’t sold on his free when I first saw it, but now I am. It’s easily one of the best single’s programs using that music. He’s the only other skater that gives the climax justice with the amazing step sequence. He may have won “only” the bronze medal, but I thought he performed the best across both programs.
Uno : He’s had better programs. I absolutely cannot get down with that free skate. It takes a very, very special skater to pull that off and as mesmerizing as he can be…that skater just isn’t him. The second half requires not just beautiful skating, but beautiful choreography and beautiful jumps and those things are sorely lacking. Despite that though and I’ve said this once before, if this is his last year, then he would retire as an all-time great. The first half of his free skate is beautiful, world-class stuff.
Ilia : He won by a country mile, made history with the 4A in the short and then made history again with the 4Lo in the free. I find him exciting and I’m loving the displays of superior athleticism. I think it was two years ago that I wrote on here that announcers will eventually stop mentioning his mother in the warm-up introductions and list his accomplishments instead. He’s actually surpassed his mother now so that time has come. He’s never been a nervy skater (something that I’ve also said before), but he has really become a downright steely competitor. Congratulations on the well-deserved gold and his first major international title!
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