What a crazy day, am I right?!
I went from being thrilled that Aliona had a good practice, to practically ill from nervousness as the SP began, to :hap57: that Aliona pulled off a clean program with a monster 3A, to

at the scores, and then finally

What a bizarre event!
For the life of me, I cannot understand where the UR call on the 3A came from.

Yes, the solo one at Finlandia definitely looked UR on the replay, but I just do not see it at all here.
The height that Aliona got was just insane--in the first gif you can see her knees above the boards! :shocked:
In fact, I think that was actually why she had trouble with the landing--it had TOO much height and she couldn't control the landing.
Unfortunately, if she does have a really swingy landing like that (and that seems to happen a lot), the tech panel is definitely going to take a close look.
I wish that Aliona wouldn't do her 3As so close to the corners. She inevitably has to swing herself around (curve sharply) on the landing to avoid running into the boards, but I feel like that makes it look like she's underrotating rather than riding out a fully-rotated jump on a tight curve. :yes:
As for the lutz, to me it did look like her blade rolled a bit inward during the take-off on the replay, so I can understand the ! call.
As for the rest of the program--compared to Finlandia, it was clear that Aliona was very nervous at the beginning. To me, she was tight/clearly focusing on the jumps instead of the performance (compared to how amazing she can be) until she got past the lutz, and then it was simply marvelous, sublime skating!

That 3F+3T!!

The step sequence also looked better here and she was selling it!!
I agree with everyone that Aliona's PCS should've been higher, but her program overall was not as perfect and effortless as at Finlandia, and skating in the 1st group probably didn't help her. It will be interesting to see what the PCS look like tomorrow when she and Alina skate back-to-back.
If Aliona is pissed about the scores, I actually think that's a GOOD thing. I think if she's mad, she won't be nervous at all; she'll just SLAY SLAY SLAY that program and the judges will have no choice but to reward her!!
