Mao Shimada JPN opens with a stepout on 3A and a fall on the 4T. Back to back solidity on her next jumps. Lovely skating reflecting the 4 seasons. Kudos to her for pushing herself with the higher content.
That was fun guys ! Thanks for watching with me Hairdresser, then party, then more skating tomorrow As a Canadian, I have to make the most of the last few days of summer we get... before I hibernate.
What an exciting free! Obviously, predictions are out of the window, but Goidina having a chance at the final is great. I hope she can deliver in one more stage to get it. Gerke is fantastic too, and Brandenburg's climb was impressive. Also, Lin keeping it together better promises good things!
1)Shimada Mao is not quite as sharp as she can be, it's not just the 3A and 4T going awry some of the landings of her triples looked slightly shaky as well. She's going to win anyway but still.
2)This is the 3rd season where she has a good FS but a not-quite-there SP (at least to me). Like, she's still a junior and she has the right to do juniorish programs, but Defying Gravity is a staple of novice programs and her current SP doesn't elevate her skating that much, or at least to my eyes. Why? Why is that?
Ahhh, one of my favorite songs! I love that Mao is using it!
So I watched the second to last group with my 2 year old, and she was quite impressed. Her favorite thing is the spins, what she calls the "round and rounds." She nodded knowingly as I explained that red means bad and green means good on the score tracker, and cheered for every skater on their "round and rounds" regardless.
So proud of Elina for getting the silver here! Hoping she'll get a 2nd assignment and be able to make JGPF.
Also super proud of Anna for getting 6th at her debut! She has soooo much potential.
I thought Brandenburg was the star of the day. What an enjoyable program and great comeback from a disaster short program. The judges were really hard on her mainly 1's and 0's and PCS needs to be a few points higher when you look at what others were receiving. Really bizarre (or maybe not if you understand me...). Even Kushida with that disaster skate got much higher PCS. I know some feds get a bonus, but this is not right.
Goidina was great too I'm sure she will only get better.
Shimada was the clear best but probably didn't deserve to have such an advantage after the short program. The top three's scores should have been a lot closer after the short program. Ko really impressed me in the short program.
I was keeping count of Shimada's success rate on her 4T I think it was 1 of the last 9. I'm pretty sure she landed it at junior world's. So maybe 2 of the last 10 or 11 at most, and getting worse. That was lucky to not be downgraded. How many times does she fall in training if she has so little success in competition with it? I can't imagine her having a stable 4T at age 18 if she has almost no success with it now, so it would be better to develop other aspects of her skating like her artistry. It can be done look how much Brandenburg has evolved as a skater.