I am finally home and able to write... Today was a lot of skating. I don't think I can do an exhaustive and detailed report
and of course, i have shared many things already in the competition threads.
Edit : well... i still managed to write a wall of words... in many attempts as I passed out after every discipline LOL
Women
for those who have followed our senior women closely this season, well you know how deep and tight the field is. The Sp showed just that. The Sp showed also how strict the tech panels have been at Nationals. (there were a few very surprising calls for me...)
In the end, I was very happy for Julianne who skated so well and is in the final flight ... she was second to skate today so that says a lot about the difference between here and challenge. I thought Fée Ann deserved better. TP decided NO. Her jumps are SO huge and gorgeous and she improved the refinement all around. I like her a lot... so i hope she keeps gaining ground. I have not much to say about hetty. Small jumps. Nice but small skating. Sara Maude made me happy because after the combo mistake, everything she did was so well planned and very well done. Bravo. Maddie had the perf of the day. Very happy to see this ! KMS is good. A bit bland but still very nice and good.
Kaiya and Uliana were disappointments... i hope they get better in the free. Uliana popped her way through the warm up... so seeing the combo pop during the actual SP wasn't a surprise.. it still hurt. We never want that to happen to anyone. Kaiya : not so sure she deserved the PCS she got... she had a huge jumping error and some spin issues... Everyone adores her, myself included but at one point, we gotta be realistic : she needs more time to fix her issues. I believe she will get there !
Dance : pretty much everything was highly enjoyable, except for BB's double fall. F/A are very powerful. Their twizzles are better than everyone but LaLa. Lala's RD is not great. They are much better skater than what they were given.. SIGH. Piper and Paul are awesome, so is their RD, my favourite of the year, worldwide. Marie-Jade and Romain worked hard. They've improved a lot and they were rewarded for it. It will be a tight race for bronze. The biggest winners of the RD, considering national pecking order are probably Jamie and Everest. They were thrilled with their score and placement.
Men : It has come to this : it is our weakest discipline. I am not overly worried.. Juniors are growing fast.. but I wonder.. as it ever been the case that our men are weaker than every other discipline. Of course, the recent retirements of Keegan and Conrad and just before that of very promising Joseph Phan combined to the current health issues Stephen, Wesley and Aleksa suffer from are not going to help the situation. It takes time to build a skater and we never know if that skater will reach their potential. Last time I went to Nationals, Gogo won the junior title just edging Conrad. Younglings Joseph and Edrian were 11,12 in seniors..Nic Nadeau was in 4th place....too bad his injuries took care of his single skating career... he was also a huge star in the making that didn't get made... There were 21 entries... 8 years later... well, this is where we are exactly because some of our very talented skaters didn't fulfill their potential. It can happen to a few not to reach their peak but when it happens to so many of our skaters, then of course, the scene is going to look like this...
Talking about new talents, I am excited the most about John Kim. I think he needs to work on his mental preparation but he is extremely talented in various areas of the sport. He's the only one who attempted two types of quads (and landed them in the LP) I think he lost his focus when he fell because he knew the opportunity was there to seize for him and though he kept trying, he just wasn't able to land his jumps after the two quads and until the final 3loop. I was so sad for him. I hope he recovers from this and brings it next year. Skate Canada needs to intervene and mentor and cherish this huge talent and not let him go into a funk or early retirement. Anthony did all he could and bravo for this. I am not as upset as some other fans that he doesn't have the content our men have usually needed to win medals. We were doing the maths and if Roman had done some of the programs we have seen him do in the past, Anthony could have won the whole thing... So that shows that you better be able to land your stuff... Base value is just one thing... Talking about Roman, I am glad that he skated relatively well this weekend...Still, two falls... one per program... That doesn't get you very far at worlds but hopefully he qualifies for the LP. Speaking of which, yes,.... I htink Skate Canada needs to send him and let everyone know already. Others can take their time getting healthy again. With one spot and only one really available athlete, why keep an unnecessary suspense... Of course, they have announced that it would be at 4CC so changing the rules may be seen as unfair.... I mean maybe Wesley might have tried to skate here if he had been told that the National Championship would be the deciding factor. So, they will wait... and create this tension... I guess, we gotta see it as one more opportunity for Roman to deal with pressure, and learn to take it in.
Special mention to Edrian. I will miss you so much. I know you were skating injured. Thanks for all these years of wonderful skating skills and performance flair.
Pairs : this was of course the main course of saturday. Gosh our pairs are so good ! I will just mention a few things... L/H have great jumps. They just need to get their lifts learned properly. Jazzy and Kiki are special ! They are really intense and beautiful to watch. Their twist is world class and we know it's a deciding factor. Their lifts : Kieran is so strong ... wow... he muscled up one of the lifts and saved it... pure strength. Let's not forget that in juniors they only do two lifts... I find that they are improving fast.... The throws almost worked... They need to work with Meagan and jump all summer. Fiona and Ben : I see what some people are saying that they can look mismatched at times... but I think it's just because they looked better with their previous partners. They have some qualities of their own and I would give them another season before saying they are not a good fit. Fiona lands throws nobody would land. It's a bit scary but both of them, the air position wasn't ideal (tilted) and she managed beautiful exits on both. Too bad their jumps weren't there this weekend because I'd expect Fiona to be solid there and Ben isn't bad either. They will need to find a style because for me, the issues were not the mismatched lines or whatever but the bland programs. I think they are very promising. Loucas and Kelly Ann wanted to skate well at home, well they did just that. I was so happy for them. Bravo !!!!!
The age difference is getting less noticeable and Kelly Ann is maturing a lot in performance and flair. I like these two and I hope they keep developping. Right now, they are ahead for the Canada's number 3 team that could be Olympians but I suspect the battle will be fierce at next Nationals. Lia and Trennt had the best LP of the night. Strangely, I liked the program better on streams that live... which is never the case usually... so perhaps it had to do with where I was sitting. I was particularly thrilled about their jumps that were so good... and their lifts that have improved a lot, including the twist (they got level 4 in the SP !!!) The throws are still iffy but Lia fought for one of them... if they can hold on to both, they would score very high. Deanna and Max, I was suspecting that they could manage a strong SP but that the LP would be the program suffering the most from Max's illness... we saw that... the jumps weren't there and although Deanna was still shining, I didn't feel the same vibe as usually when I watch them. Nothing to do with what they did at worlds last year. This being said, I am certain that in a couple weeks from now, considering what we just saw, things will be back !!! Bravo on another title and Bravo to Lia and Trennt for winning the LP.
So far, i haven't been in disagreement with the judging... so that's refreshing LOL... The panels are strict. The judges are not throwing PCS and GOE like candy... Canada is fighting inflation, not just with its monetary politics but also in skating
Heading now to the rink for the last two events !
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