Alena Kostornaia | Page 174 | Golden Skate

Alena Kostornaia

In the SP Alena's 3F+3T received +2,42. Is that the highest marked 3F+3T ever, men included?
 
1 point behind WR.. and it should have been, underscored PCS.

I don't think she was underscored in PCS. Her skate, albeit her magnificent SS, was a bit rough and not her best.
If anything, the Lutz was flat.
But Alyona, hands down, won this event. I'm excited to see her progress and will most definitely support her until she retires. :love:
 
Alyona's programs were stunning! So excited to see her at the final.

Does anybody else wish they would take the falling leaf transition out of 3A in the SP? It kind of makes the landing look wonky
 
Good job, our little bean! :)
2 wins, and gpf, so well deserved! :)
Watching Aliona is truly a treat for the eyes, the way she does everything and gives her all to her programs, she’s just one of a kind!
 
Alyona's programs were stunning! So excited to see her at the final.

Does anybody else wish they would take the falling leaf transition out of 3A in the SP? It kind of makes the landing look wonky

I think it’s better to keep it and work on making it perfect, rather than give up :)
I think the reason they kept it is because Aliona’ capable of doing it well in practice, just harder to do it in competition.
 
Aaaahhhh, well done, Aliona! That was an awesome performance from her, and imagine if she hadn't had that step-out on that 3A just what her score might have been. Not that it needed to be any more jaw-dropping than it was, but goodness, she still has room to improve on herself, and that is astonishing.

I was really impressed with how she saved herself in that corner after the 3A - you can see the concentration on her face in the slow-mo replay, and how close she came to the boards, but she stayed upright and got herself out of trouble. I was a tiny bit sad that she was just off the music for her 3F+3T, because when she hits that first jump on "eyes" it is magnificent, but, eh, that's nit-picking. The best bit about this programme, though is how much she loves it, and how much fun she has skating and performing it - it's impossible not feel her infectious enthusiasm and start tapping one's foot along with the music.

Also, the way she finishes every movement down to the very tips of her fingers is so lovely, whether it is flowing or sharp. She commits herself to each motion, and my old ballet instructor would love her to bits for that quality; you can see it in her step sequence for the FP, for instance, especially where she hits that beat on "scared". It gives her this amazing clarity in her motion, nothing rushed, nothing half-finished. She has this amazing quality when it comes to moving with the music: she makes it seem so natural, like breathing.

In short, she's wonderful.
 
Ughhh...she even finishes her step-outs beautifully...

yes, that was quite a save, staying away from the boarding by mere inches. Shows what can go wrong if you break out of a full speed triksel in the corner, you crash into the board, perhaps on the top rail and topple over?

Alyona is very gutsy to even try this layout. Almost all other skaters jump their triksels in a safe place with room to spare.
 
I don't think she was underscored in PCS. Her skate, albeit her magnificent SS, was a bit rough and not her best.
If anything, the Lutz was flat.
But Alyona, hands down, won this event. I'm excited to see her progress and will most definitely support her until she retires. :love:

I totally agree with you on the PCS. As much as I think that Aliona should deserve the highest PCS when she gets a program worthy of her and skates her best, she clearly wasn't at her best here. She didn't have the same energy and commitment to the program that she had in France, and she had a noticeable break in her program with the step-out, yet her PCS did go up relative to IDF. Even Ambesi, who is an Aliona super-fan, only thinks she deserves 73-74 for her FS (vs like 38 for her SP), so I think what she got here is fair. :yes:

About the lutz, I'm not so sure. In the program and replay it looked ok to me--obviously not a deep edge, but not flat either. It's obvious she worked hard on this over the off-season, and when she's calm and concentrates, it seems she gets a deep outside edge that rolls to a slightly outside edge when she takes off. But when she's nervous (like in IDF SP) she has a tendency to revert to her old habits. So although she didn't get any edge calls here, I'm sure this is something she'll be concentrating on in her future performances. :yes:

I will continue to support Aliona too (though it wreaks havoc on my sleep schedule and mental health)! :hap10:

**

The judge-by-judge comparison on the scores is pretty interesting!
In the SP, unsurprisingly the Russian judge scored her at 88, actually the Japanese judge was the most generous one and scored her at 89.44! :eek:
https://twitter.com/SkatingScores/status/1197881207595425792

Yeah, the Japanese just really love Aliona. :love: :biggrin:

In the FS, the Russian judge wayy overscored her compared to the others. The Japanese judge actually scored Rika ahead of Aliona, but still managed to score Aliona at 157.83 (i.e. above what she actually got). :laugh:
https://twitter.com/SkatingScores/status/1198241303022198784

Also, if we want to talk about combined best SP and FS scores so far, who do you think comes out on top? ;)
https://twitter.com/SkatingScores/status/1198438241134940160

**

ACK, they just interviewed Aliona at the gala but I couldn't hear what they were saying over the @#%$ Zamboni!! :devil: Will have to rewatch later.
 
Of course the Japanese love her. They are by far the biggest fans of skating in the world, and of the Russian ladies in particular. Yulia, Evgenia, and Alina have all become huge stars in Japan, so it is obvious that Alena would become the next with all of her unique qualities. She has an incredible level of natural artistic talent unseen since the time of Sasha Cohen, performs the de facto national figure skating jump (triple Axel), and is breathtakingly gorgeous to boot.
 
Congrats to Alyiona on another great grand prix gold medal. I have never seen anyone make it look so easy and so beautiful as she does. And some of her jumps are so high.!
 
Aliona's teacher (?) and classmates from school congratulated her on getting a world record score in the SP!
https://www.instagram.com/p/B5KrDlSlpZc/
Very cool! :peace:

**

Anyone want to tell us what the Russian, Italian, and Spanish commentators had to say about Aliona's performances? :pray:

Russian:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv3UTVFkSjs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJonqSkGTGo

Italian: (FS)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2T4CK4pCNY

Spanish: (SP):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smKJ8X4WqLM

Once I get my hands on a version of a Japanese broadcast, I'll share what they said... :yes:
 
I've seen a lot of criticism for Aliona's free skate, and it's not my personal favorite, but I think it's refreshing. It's easy to forget how young Aliona, and many other figure skaters, really are, and I think that the Twilight program shows that she is still a teenager who is enjoying herself on the ice. She can portray a more mature persona, as shown in her short program, but she doesn't always need to perform like that. She loves her Twilight program, and seeing how much fun she has performing it leads me to love it as well. :laugh:
 
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