I've been looking through my notes and it appears that this year I am watching Norvegian Nationals for the 3rd time after 2016 and 2020 - so every 4 years. While watching short programs yesterday I wondered if any of the senior skaters had tech minimums for Europeans.
@norwegianfairytale, you explained the state of things, so it will be more interesting to follow today free skates. What about the juniors? Does anybody have tech minimums for Junior Worlds?
That is fun, 2016 is a long time ago. I guess even the Gjersem twins was still competing then?
That is a very good question.
Only Mia has all minimums, including Jworlds for now. This is the last year she is young enough to still do juniors, so if nobody else doesn´t get them in time she might go to both JrWorlds and Worlds like last season.
But, since the first spots for Olympic games are being handed out at Worlds this year, I really hope this scenario doesn´t happen again, because she needs to prepare fully for Worlds instead of having such a busy competition schedule. Fortunately - last year she ended up having a very good skate at Worlds after a disaster skate at JWorlds, despite flying between two continents and time zones, but if I remember correctly this season the schedules are more tight between the two competitions. Last season she went directly from Taipei to Montreal and had some extra days to prepare herself in Canada before Worlds, so I guess it kinda worked out for her. I also think her former coach Agnes Z had some connections that made it easier for them to get access to training locations.
Last year, Pernille With also had the minimums for JWorlds but they still sent Mia to both, most likely because Pernille hadn´t been competing the first half of the season, and only came back at Nationals with watered down content. She was a sub for JWorlds. Now she had longer time to prepare.
Pernille lost her minimums after the change of combined TES, but she is only 4 points off. She is capable of getting the minimums, her strong side is her FS, she needs around 51 in TES and she has gotten it before in FS. She is scheduled for some early international competitions in January, so there is still time. Or she needs to improve her SP TES as well which is more difficult for her, she tends to go for 3T-3T in the SP but keeps falling on that. She also doesn´t do 3F so it´s difficult to get a high enough TES in the SP, and spins aren´t her strong sides, so she needs ro rely on a strong FS to get the minimum.
If she gets the minimum, there is still some requirements she needs to achieve, one of them is that during the seasons, you should have posted a SP score high enough to be able to advance to the FS. I think the big issues for Pernille is this. This season her SP scores have been between 39-43, so not nearly high enough to make the FS at JWorlds. The Fed hasn´t said a certain score for that, so it´s in theory, but i´m guessing it has to be around 50 points, or maybe they even look at last years cut off. That would be even higher. I´m not sure if they are going to be that strict, because surely - if she gets the minimum, it would be better to send her and not leave the spot empty, and instead of putting pressure on Mia having to both again.
Oda Havgar is still young enough for juniors, and if she would have done more junior competitions this season I think she would have been the most likely candidate for JWorlds. She doesn´t have the minimums but her highest TES as a senior this season would have been enough for JWorlds, so I think she could have made it. She also had SP score as high as 57 this season, so she surely would have a high enough SP score. But since JGP earlier this season, she has only been doing senior competitions, and she is also scheduled to compete at senior competitions this spring, so it seems she is not in the loop for JWorlds.
However, Oda has a really good chance to get the World University Game spot, she is a student, and it´s the same time as Euros. My guess is that when Mia gets Euros spot, it´s between Oda and Linnea for World University Games spot, and today could decide that too. Linnea is a student as well.
I think no other of the juniors can get the JWorlds right now, perhaps Ida Vamnes who can do flip and lutz, but she seems to be injured (not at Nationals this weekend) again and barely had any normal season because of injuries. But, she is in fact scheduled for some junior competitions in January, so fingers crossed she can make it.
As for the men, Daniil Valanov had the minimums for JWorlds last season, but also lost them due to the change of combined TES, he is only 4-5 points off as well, he can surely get them but he just came back from injury and hasn´t been competing the last months after the first JGP. I´m not sure of what state he is in. He landed a clean 3S-3T in the SP yesterday so that is good, but for some reason he left out his solo jumps 3F and only did two jumping passes - combo and axel, so i´m wondering if he can only do a few triples now or if it was just a mistake. So i´m unsure if he will get the minimums in time but he is also scheduled for competitions in January.
Pernille and Daniil for sure would probably get EYOF though, I don´t think there is minimums required? Or in case, they are lower than JWorlds.
So, there is a lot of selections to be handed out after Nationals, and other important competitions for the skaters includes Nordics Open and Sonja Henie Trophy - only 4 spots in each segment. Nationals is only a part of selections though, the whole season decides, but it could surely change things around.
