Deniss Vasiljevs

[AgnesR]

I'm home just for four days, so unfortunately I don't have time to come both days, but I'll go to see FS! I saw that it's only Deniss competing in senior men, quite sad for Latvian figure skating.. But I want to see what happens in Ladies field, because now I'm not sure it's Angelina who's going to the Olympics.

Yes, it's only Deniss competing, but due to him it might be that skating will become more popular among boys in Latvia. Latvia is a very little country and figure skating is an expensive kind of sport and we don't have experienced coaches as well. But we have 3 boys in the junior group.

It will be clear only after Latvian nationals who goes to the Olympics-Diana or Angelina.

Me and my friends are going to the championship the both days and this evening already keeping our fingers crossed!!! I only wonder why Deniss looks so sad and serious in the pics.

 

[lavenderblossom]

I only wonder why Deniss looks so sad and serious in the pics.

I don't think he looks sad, serious maybe. He was the same way at practices before, I think he is concentrating. Maybe also he is frustrated about getting the quad - this is pure speculation, but the photo of him holding both arms to his chest reminds me of when he was trying 4S in practice, and working on making his in-air position tighter and rotating faster. That seems to be what's stopping him getting a quad, because he gets plenty of height and enough distance.
And his SP and FS do call for melancholy, longing expressions.

I am excited to see the young juniors coming up! I remember Kims Georgs Pavlovs from JGP, he has all triples but no 3A.

 

[silverfoxes]

AgnesR and Acirelk - have a great time & we will anxiously wait for your reports! I'm incredibly jealous of you guys and especially Wilma, but grateful for her beautiful pics! Obviously this won't be a high pressure competition for Deniss, but I know he always wants to show his best, and I hope he enjoys being home for a few days

 

[icetug]

Yes, it's only Deniss competing, but due to him it might be that skating will become more popular among boys in Latvia. Latvia is a very little country and figure skating is an expensive kind of sport and we don't have experienced coaches as well. But we have 3 boys in the junior group.

There are Korean Ranking Competition these days and a huge number of junior ladies participating is noticeable, obviously as "Yuna effect". 55 junior ladies and... 3 junior men. While in Skate Canada Challenge the number is equal. So hope that Deniss and Diana or Angelina will be able to make figure skating more popular among both boys and girls.

Competition with only one participant is odd, tbh. In fact, I rather expected that the judges just meet Deniss, congratulate him results and after handshakes let him go back to Champery, with no skating at all, as I do not see time for his FS performance at the schedule

 

[AgnesR]

There are Korean Ranking Competition these days and a huge number of junior ladies participating is noticeable, obviously as "Yuna effect". 55 junior ladies and... 3 junior men. While in Skate Canada Challenge the number is equal. So hope that Deniss and Diana or Angelina will be able to make figure skating more popular among both boys and girls.

Competition with only one participant is odd, tbh. In fact, I rather expected that the judges just meet Deniss, congratulate him results and after handshakes let him go back to Champery, with no skating at all, as I do not see time for his FS performance at the schedule

Yes, somebody's success makes things popular and as a result we have 12 junior women skaters on the list. But Deniss will compete and get his today's score. To my mind in the schedule there is a mistake. If I get it correctly, the results in Tirol are not registered in their bio as they don't have a certificate (Challenge certificate or something like that) for it. It is only their third championship. It means that Diana and Angelina will have to compete seriously today to get the ticket to the Olympics.

 

[AgnesR]

I don't think he looks sad, serious maybe. He was the same way at practices before, I think he is concentrating. Maybe also he is frustrated about getting the quad - this is pure speculation, but the photo of him holding both arms to his chest reminds me of when he was trying 4S in practice, and working on making his in-air position tighter and rotating faster. That seems to be what's stopping him getting a quad, because he gets plenty of height and enough distance.
And his SP and FS do call for melancholy, longing expressions.

It's good if he is only concentrated but don't want him to get frustrated about the quads. For me it doesn't matter whether he has quads or not, I love his skating without them. But i understand how important it is for him.

 

[lavenderblossom]

It's good if he is only concentrated but don't want him to get frustrated about the quads. For me it doesn't matter whether he has quads or not, I love his skating without them. But i understand how important it is for him.

Well only maybe. I think he has a competitive streak, at least a little, and he has wanted to add quads for a long time now. But I love his skating, quad or no quad, and will watch him for the rest of his career whatever happens.
He'll be alright. Let's just hope he doesn't get injured and can show his beautiful skating for many years to come

 

[lavenderblossom]

Deniss was wonderful! That 3Lz-3T was easy and light as a feather, so effortless I thought he was about to lose his balance into the 3A but then it was so high and gorgeous and had beautiful flow out. 3F was also excellent! Everything was divine!
I have no idea what he scored because it was in Latvian but I don't even care all that much because it was so lovely :

 

[MGstyle]

Video of his SP, hot from Riga!

 

[catchie]

His score was 86.97.

 

[silverfoxes]

He was on fire today! It sounded like there was a pretty decent sized audience there. I noticed someone threw him a lion He is going to have quite the menagerie...

Jelena just posted that his score was 86. Of course it doesn't mean anything internationally, but it's certainly well deserved!

She took a nice pic with him also:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1389042427773478/permalink/1757921780885539/

 

[YuzuOnIce]

I just watched him, this was beautiful, glad to hear he got a nice score, I think even if it isn't an international competition the score is pretty realistic? I mean he skated clean + with real emotion, overall perfect.

Diana was great too, it seems like she is completely renewed after good skates at CoT, and from what I hear Angelina withdrew, so I'm guessing this means Diana has an olympic spot?
Did anyone catch her score too perhaps?

 

[lavenderblossom]

I just watched him, this was beautiful, glad to hear he got a nice score, I think even if it isn't an international competition the score is pretty realistic? I mean he skated clean + with real emotion, overall perfect.

Diana was great too, it seems like she is completely renewed after good skates at CoT, and from what I hear Angelina withdrew, so I'm guessing this means Diana has an olympic spot?
Did anyone catch her score too perhaps?

Yes, I think the score is pretty accurate, I'm sure he will score similar at Euros if he does the same as he did today. 86.97!!! Wow! I can't wait to see the protocols

I didn't catch Diana's score sadly. But her fabulous SP is already on youtube so maybe someone can tell us what they said.
The olympic spot was meant to be decided through the results of Nationals + 2 Challengers, Angelina already had 2 Challenger events but Diana still needs to go to Golden Spin next week. Going by Angelina's results + no-show at Nats though, it should go to Diana now. Sad for Angelina who got the spot but Diana is well ahead of her this season.

Protocol sheet - a StSq3 and 41.24 PCS?! Most Nationals boost PCS by about 2-3 points over but that's just a little off his PB! He may not get the same GOE anywhere else, but if he skates clean at Euros then it's well within reach :thumbsup:
And Diana scored 58.08, 3f<, and from 21 PCS at CoT to 28 PCS here. Now that might be inflated. But she skated very well today, and I really do think her flow and speed is improving.

 

[skatingfan4ever]

Video of his SP, hot from Riga!

DIVINE!!!!! I love it when transitions and the footwork sequence don't "look" like transitions and the footwork sequence. Very few skaters can pull that off, and Deniss is one of them. With him, it never looks like a list of elements to "get through" and "check off." Rather, the placement and execution of the elements is seamless and flowing and appropriate to the moments in the music. Every moment has significance, even the smallest one. I already loved this program, but it was wonderful to see it skated with such ease and confidence!!! Everything was very crisp and sharp. The expression seemed improved also. Gorgeous and high jumps. Sometimes Deniss's jumps don't get enough height, but here they got plenty. He should jump this big all the time. Even his stroking and little warmup was lovely to watch. The best skaters can amaze us while skating to no music and no program at all. :yes:

Can you imagine how fun it will be if Diana goes with Deniss and Stephane to the Olympics? More karaoke to come? Yes, please!

 

[YuzuOnIce]

Can you imagine how fun it will be if Diana goes with Deniss and Stephane to the Olympics? More karaoke to come? Yes, please!

Yeeees, I think we'll be truly well-covered in terms of instagram updates if Diana is with them too, plus it might make for an even better atmosphere, they all seem to enjoy eachothers' company from what we've seen so far, they make such a great team :luv17:

 

[lavenderblossom]

Yeeees, I think we'll be truly well-covered in terms of instagram updates if Diana is with them too, plus it might make for an even better atmosphere, they all seem to enjoy eachothers' company from what we've seen so far, they make such a great team :luv17:

Right on cue, there's an instastory update from Diana Saved here
And some great photos from today.

SP video with slowmotion (that 3Lz-3T! 3A! They picked the best elements to replay )

 

[fourthdimension]

That was an impressive program from Deniss! Really thinking on his feet. The axel is still a problem, but that was the closest quad we’ve seen, and he got both 3-3 done easily. Nice work!

 

[silverfoxes]

Good for him for going for it! Makes sense to do it here. And if you're like me and wondered if he would get a medal ceremony when it's only just him, the answer is yes, of course

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1389042427773478/permalink/1758888797455504/

Many thanks to the cameraman for the bonus shots of Deniss & team at this competition! Latvian Nats may be small, but they did better with the camerawork than some larger senior Bs!

 

[username0507]

I must say, one of the thing I like about Deniss is that he is quite gutsy, in my opinion. He attempted 3A from spread eagle in second half to cover the poped 3A in the first half. I think he knows his 3A isn't his best jump, but he tried to do it again with the spread eagle. He could have made it easier by removing the spread eagle, but he kept it to dig out some more points, compared to his standard 3A entry. And even though his attempt failed in the end, I really appreciate the fact that he tried it
Also, I can see that he is starting to think on his own feet this season and rearrange the elements when there're mistakes, unlike during Euro when he didn't know what to do. Kudos to Deniss!

P.S Some nice pictures from instagram! https://www.instagram.com/p/BcQPZr1F8B4/?taken-by=aleksandrkosarev

 

[AgnesR]

Two exciting days are over. The house was full. There were also crowds of supporters from Deniss’ native town Daugavpils. We cheered both of them (I mean Diana) as loud as we could.

Yesterday (on Saturday) nobody could turn eyes off him. He did the whole program in one breath. Today there were some flaws but they didn’t spoil the impression. It was very good. And if anybody dares to tell me that artistry is less important than technical elements…!

Today Diana showed her best and she really managed!

So I was lucky to see all of them. Only in my dreams I could imagine that one day I will be only some steps away from my most favourite skater Lambiel! Yeah, I felt a bit as if I were a teenage girl.

I had also a chance to meet his mother and give a kiss on her cheek for raising such a wonderful kid. We talked a bit and I can say that mummy is as adorable as her son. Or it’s the other way round- her son is as adorable as she is.

There was also a bit funny episode. My friend misunderstood some jumps (for example, she took 1A for a popped 3A) and as she is awfully stubborn she didn’t listen to me and, when we met Regina in the yard, she almost started soothing her. I don’t think poor mummy understood what’s going on.

I hope that next year we will meet there again. I hope that Stephane will be with Deniss. Only in my dreams?!