She so far showed that she is plus-start which is more than any other Canadian woman can say save for Cho, but we'll have to see if it holds in the free. However, Hwang was far more convincing in PCS, so with all the desire to actually have a Canadian junior woman in the first half of the list I feel her placement was more than fair. Tbh, both Gladkih and Ezhova looked stronger visually, but I assume there were edges, q's and URs.
This is the result of overreactions of ISU. They could have raised the age to 16, that would have been enough to handle the whole protected athlete issue, but no, let's overdo it. Same with the stupid Zagitova rule. They could have made it 1+2 and 3+4 or 2+5 even, but no, they made it 2+1 and 4+3, so that every program now has the same layout: jumps, a spin, jumps, spins + steps, with a rare exception. We don't see step sequences mid-program or spins in the beginning of the program, and nobody cares about fitting choreography to music anymore (not that there is much music to care about, this is just my opinion backed up by some knowledgeable people). I noticed that Japanese go for some unusual music selections, Koreans - no.
While I feel for the girl (she is not a favourite but I have to admire her rare skill) someone - quite a few someones - was going to feel and be disadvantaged by the age going up, no matter how and when and whatever they did, it would hit someone. The sheer coincidence of the said disadvantaged being the prodigy of her generation is mind-boggling but if they don't want sixteen-year-olds in the seniors ranks any more, they don't. Having made the decision, they could hardly backtrack for the benefit of one person.
Of course they won't backtrack, and the community will adapt. I am not a fan of her, but I think she is over-sitting in juniors.
