2026 Kinoshita Group Cup: General Info and Pregame Chat

[lariko]

Looks like Neset/Markelov are out. The ISU still has them listed as well as the USFS assignment page, but they're not on the event website any longer

ISUチャレンジャーシリーズフィギュアスケート木下グループ杯2026／辰巳

To me this points at an injury of some sort that is slowing down their season start. Better they take it easy then.

 

[labgoat]

To me this points at an injury of some sort that is slowing down their season start. Better they take it easy then.

Pate & Bye may be the better choice having scored better at Lake Placid.

 

[Jontor]

Perhaps, a new thread for NA challengers and their prospects? Given that ISU wants to add events like semifinal, it makes sense to bring more challengers as well. Maybe challengers can have their own capping event or something.

The lack of Challengers in Asia and The Americas is mind boggling to me. This year we have 12 Challengers.
2 in Asia: Kinoshita and Denis Ten Memorial
1 in the US: Cranberry/John Nicks
The rest is in Europe (if you count Georgia as Europe).

Why is that? It's probably all about money...no?

 

[DemTuppesSeine]

Neset/Markelov are not on the entry list any more, as expected. Sonja Hilmer seems to have withdrawn as well.

 

[Artemisa]

The lack of Challengers in Asia and The Americas is mind boggling to me. This year we have 12 Challengers.
2 in Asia: Kinoshita and Denis Ten Memorial
1 in the US: Cranberry/John Nicks
The rest is in Europe (if you count Georgia as Europe).

Why is that? It's probably all about money...no?

I don't think so .. if we think about it .. asia countries have money and audiance for that .. The objective of the challengers is for an athlete to earn points to participate in the Grand Prix. Athletes from the major federations are selected in the national championship and subsequently earn points in the main competitions (Europe, World, etc. ... even if an athlete earned points in the challengers, with the limitations on participation by country, it wouldn't be very useful... the selected athletes would end up being the top 3 from the national championship who would participate, for example, in a world championship or Olympic Games at get points that way ... In America, skating is essentially in the USA and Canada, and they don't need challengers because they already have the spot fulls ... therefore, it doesn't make sense to have more competitions there....
Who profits from the challengers? The smaller federations that exist mostly in Europe... for example, it helped Gubanova and Samodelkina to earn points.
In Asia... there isn't a lot of competition (yet) outside of the major federations... because I don't see china or korea not wanting a challenge because of the money