54th Volvo Open Cup | Jan 16-19

[CaroLiza_fan]

I am even further behind (32m) than I was earlier, because of getting washed. But, I just wanted to say that I loved that Skater #15 in the Basic Novice 2013 And Younger Ladies FS skated to heavy metal music!

Don't know what the music was, but she was wearing one of those "Daddy's Little Monster" costumes.

She went into 2nd position.

And flicking over to the LIVE pictures, I think that is her sister currently waiting for her scores! Put it like this - they are so alike that I would put money on them being twins!

CaroLiza_fan

Just watched the sister (Skater #21). And she was skating to "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga. Which isn't that far away from heavy metal.

Is Latvia a nation of metalheads? Because not only were these two skaters skating to music of that ilk, but the organisers are playing it in the arena in between skaters too!

She went into the lead.

EDIT: Skater #21 went on to win. Her sister (Skater #15) finished 4.98 points behind her in 5th position.​

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

My jaw dropped when the first of the Basic Novice boys came out, and he was bald! But then the "Addams Family" music started playing, and I thought:

"Aha! I remember seeing a programme where somebody was portraying Uncle Fester, and when he sat down to get his results, you realised that he was wearing a skullcap because you could see the line of the edge going across his forehead".

Well, the exact thing happened there now. So, I reckon it is the same skater.

He went into the lead. Obviously.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

My jaw dropped when the first of the Basic Novice boys came out, and he was bald! But then the "Addams Family" music started playing, and I thought:

"Aha! I remember seeing a programme where somebody was portraying Uncle Fester, and when he sat down to get his results, you realised that he was wearing a skullcap because you could see the line of the edge going across his forehead".

Well, the exact thing happened there now. So, I reckon it is the same skater.

He went into the lead. Obviously.

CaroLiza_fan

He won.

I just checked, and it was the same guy that I saw before. And it was at the 53rd Volvo Open Cup in November. And he was first to skate then too. And he won then too!

Here is what I wrote at the time:

The first of the boys did an "Addams Family" programme. And I was going to say "he's keen, shaving his head to look like Uncle Fester". But when he sat down to get his scores, you could see the line across his forehead of where the cover ended. And whenever he smiled, it wrinkled up.

But, I have to take my hat off, it blended in perfectly with his skin tone. Much better than the illusion mesh you get in most figure skating dresses.

Wow. It's taking forever to his scores to come through.

Finally! Into the lead (obviously!)

CaroLiza_fan

Incidentally, the guy who finished 2nd in November finished 2nd today as well. There was another boy who skated in between them in November and finished 3rd then, but he was not competing today.

Now to make up some time by winding through the resurfacing.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

I'm still not caught up, but just posting to let you know that the Advanced Novice 2008-2011 Ladies SP is starting now.

@norwegianfairytale - Ella will be the penultimate skater to go, but there are lots of Norwegian girls skating throughout the segment:

• Anna STEINBERGA in Group 1
• Karina NOKLESTAD and Katrine Victoria BERSTADT in Group 2
• Marit Christine WEARY HANSEN, Paula STEINBERGA, and Ella Risa GOMEZ in Group 3

Hope you get to see them!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Now this is interesting. The Advanced Novices are starting with the older sister of the Latvian girl that I was talking about earlier that I reckoned was related to one of my kids.

It was actually when I first saw this older girl that first started me thinking this. But, now that she is getting older, she doesn't look as much like my kid as she used to. You can still see a similarity, but it is not as pronounced.

Anyway, she had a very werd fall.

She goes into the lead (obviously!)

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Wrong music for Anna STEINBERGA (NOR).

It's a pity. I would have loved to see a programme to that music. Hey, maybe it will turn out to be her FS music.

That said, I did enjoy the music she was actually skating to.

Not bad. But nearly all of her final spin was after the music finished. So she may get a deduction for that.

No need to worry. She didn't.

She went into 3rd position.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

OK, this is really starting to annoy me.

I don't know if it was Urtė GAILIŪTĖ (LTU), but not long ago I saw somebody skating to this song. I know the song, but I couldn't remember what it was called or who was singing it. And when I put some of the lyrics into Google, it was coming up with a completely different song.

I tried again there now, and the same thing happened again.

IT IS NOT "THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM!" FROM "MAN OF LA MANCHA"!!! IT IS A REALLY BIG POP SONG FROM A FEW YEARS AGO BY ONE OF THESE YOUNG FEMALE SINGERS THAT I ALWAYS GET MIXED UP!!!

Anyway, Urtė went into the lead.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

OK, this is really starting to annoy me.

I don't know if it was Urtė GAILIŪTĖ (LTU), but not long ago I saw somebody skating to this song. I know the song, but I couldn't remember what it was called or who was singing it. And when I put some of the lyrics into Google, it was coming up with a completely different song.

I tried again there now, and the same thing happened again.

IT IS NOT "THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM!" FROM "MAN OF LA MANCHA"!!! IT IS A REALLY BIG POP SONG FROM A FEW YEARS AGO BY ONE OF THESE YOUNG FEMALE SINGERS THAT I ALWAYS GET MIXED UP!!!

Anyway, Urtė went into the lead.

CaroLiza_fan

I just checked during the Group 2 Warm-Up. It was Urtė. And it was at the 53rd Volvo Open Cup in November. Here is what I wrote back then:

Urtė GAILIŪTĖ (LTU) wearing a black dress with red trim. She is skating to a song that I know, but can't place what it is.

Right, she fell on her first jump. Let's see if a deduction comes up.

No, it doesn't. Right, there is something badly wrong here. According to the livescoring page, the leader is the only skater that has had a fall. But that is not the case.

Urtė goes into 5th position.

CaroLiza_fan

Didn't think it was as long ago as the start of November, though. Maybe it has happened again more recently with somebody else.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Now that is funny. Urtė GAILIŪTĖ (LTU) lost the lead to the girl that skated directly before her (well, with a Warm-Up between) in November, Sofija BASINA (LAT).

I remembered Sofija. Well, let's face it, with the way she has her hair done up in horns, it is hard to forget her! It's a pretty distinctive look!

She didn't have a good time of it when she did this programme in November, but she definitely did today!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[norwegianfairytale]

I'm still not caught up, but just posting to let you know that the Advanced Novice 2008-2011 Ladies SP is starting now.

@norwegianfairytale - Ella will be the penultimate skater to go, but there are lots of Norwegian girls skating throughout the segment:

• Anna STEINBERGA in Group 1
• Karina NOKLESTAD and Katrine Victoria BERSTADT in Group 2
• Marit Christine WEARY HANSEN, Paula STEINBERGA, and Ella Risa GOMEZ in Group 3

Hope you get to see them!

CaroLiza_fan

Thanks for the reminder, I will be watching on and off. Just a little fun fact, Anna and Paula Steinberga er not only sisters, they are twins

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Thanks for the reminder, I will be watching on and off. Just a little fun fact, Anna and Paula Steinberga er not only sisters, they are twins

Cool!

By the way, there were two girls in Basic Novices earlier that I reckoned were twins.

It's a pity there is a big gap between when Anna and Paula are skating. It's always nice to have siblings skating close together in the same group, if not back-to-back. Makes it easier to compare them.

Mind you, at least it's not like when we had the Gjersem twins skating at different levels...

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

I know this is Advanced Novices. And Lina MATEIKO (LAT) only turned 15 at the end of October.

But my goodness, that costume she is wearing...

Yeah, I thought I had seen it before. Here is what I wrote during the Tallinn Trophy:

I have just started watching ths skaters that I missed yesterday, starting with Lina MATEIKO (LAT). And before I go any further can I just say that I LOVED her costume! White sleeveless blouse; black tie; black lederhosen; green figure-hugging shorts with three quarters of a green tartan skirt over it; black leather gloves; black socks with two white horizontal stripes at the top.

@elektra blue - this is the sort of costume I could imagine you would love, and might even wear yourself. Here is the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUs_HuTHdeM

Back to today, and she went into 4th position.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

And opening the final group is another costume I recognise from earlier in the season.

It's the Queen of the Cylons herself, Glafira USPENSKA (LAT).

She skated this programme well at the 53rd Volvo Open Cup. But then things didn't go well at the Tallinn Trophy a couple of weeks later.

Unfortunately, it didn't go well today either.

She went into 12th position.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Just reached Paula STEINBERGA (NOR), and that is a beautiful blue dress! The colour really suits her.

Not perfect by any means. But, she seemed happy enough when waiting for her scores.

I was hoping that Anna might come and sit with her, but alas not.

She went into 16th position, 3 positions and 8.05 points behind her sister.

You could see she was disappointed.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

See, this is the effect that seeing Maurizio ZANDRON skating to this music so often has had on me.

Growing up, when you thought of "Alice In Wonderland", you automatically thought of a girl in a light blue and white dress. And Ella Risa GOMEZ (NOR) was wearing a light blue and white dress (albeit a totally different design, and with a strange dark area around the midriff).

But now, when I think of "Alice In Wonderland", it is the Mad Hatter that comes to mind rather than Alice.

A few mistakes. But still a beautiful programme.

She went into 13th position.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Ah, I didn't notice. The Time Schedule PDF and the Time Schedule at the bottom of the Entries / Results page do not agree with each other.

According to the PDF, the older Advanced Novice girls that we just had were to be followed by the Advanced Novice boys. But according to the Entries / Ressults page, it is the younger Advanced Novice girls later on that the boys are following.

And it is the latter that is correct. The Chicks A girls are on now.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

Oi! Oi! Oi!

Awwww. She is so cute!!!

Interesting. She is doing an "Aladdin" programme, but she is not dressed as Princess Jasmine. Probably because she was skating to "Friend Like Me", which is sung by the Genie. But she wasn't dressed as him either.

Awwww. She is a happy little girl.

Even going into 3rd and last position didn't spoil it for her.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

My goodness! I am exhausted just watching Skater #11!

That was far too energetic. She was doing an 80's aerobics themed programme. The fact that she did a cartwheel from her starting position really set the tone for the programme.

She went into 2nd position.

By the way, this was the second Estonian girl in a row. And as ever, the Estonian youngsters were trying to see how many skaters you can fit into the results area at the same time! There were 5 when Skater #10 was getting her scores, and this increased to 6 when Skater #11 arrived to get her scores.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

I thought the Chicks A skaters were tiny. But the Pre-Chicks A skaters are even tinier!

The first of them was skating to "Carnival De Paris". And it was so surreal seeing this tiny little girl skating to such a big tune. But, she pulled it off!

Oh, hang on she's the only one.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

And that resurfacing means that I am finally caught up now. It only took 10 hours.

We now return to the Advanced Novices. The younger girls, followed by the boys.

CaroLiza_fan