Entries JGP Brisbane

[oleada]

I'm not a huge fan of Courtney's style, but I have to say that she's refreshingly out of the ordinary, does have a program packed with transitions (more so than any other lady in tthis competition), uses the music well and her jumps are much bigger than Risa's. There's definitely a lot of room for improvement and polish, but I find her quite unique

I definitely don't think she should've had lower PCS than Hae Jin Kim, who skated from jump to jump, as someone else said.

 

[ImaginaryPogue]

Orford/Williams FD

1. The D/W comparisons won't stop. The dance spin in particular, but in general, I see them aping the fast and furious style of the American team.
2. Like the whirling dirvish twizzles.
3. They skate with tremendous attack and seem quite fast.
4. There's definitely an unfinished feeling to this. The first lift seems like it should be a long lift, but I don't think it will be. I'll have to withold judgement - hopefully a better audio track will come from the JGPF or JWs (or Nationals).
5. They won the FD and overall.
6. B/M beat Z/S by 0.01 on the FD.
7. colleen, what do you think?

 

[kwanatic]

yeah. hicks' jumps were bigger and the successful ones had better run out, but i still think shoji should have had higher PCS in the FS at least. if hicks had the jumps or skating skills of chan i could understand winning the FS with splats, but this... unrefined stroking, presentation, posture... choppy program with choppy musical cut... she's the anti-chan.

of course, i'm biased, because i prefer skaters who pay attention to posture and have a certain control, balance and refinement to their skating. hicks just looks like she's racing from one end of the rink to the other.

Amen! I think that's what bothered me about Hicks winning of Shoji. Hicks only had a few big jumps--nothing else. Her presentation is just SO messy! She was the worst of the top 5 and yet she received the highest PCS...plus she had more visible errors than any other of the top 5...I think she was gifted with that gold. Shoji's program was well-choreographed and executed cleanly. I don't think she was rewarded enough for that...

 

[colleen o'neill]

Pogue.. I think O/W have a really nice dance that can only get better.
Yes , I think they need to be neater here and there,but their speed ,without a lot of awkward reaching for each other ( I think I see a big difference in this over last year )..and their confidence make it easy to forget that they've only been together for a year and a half this month , and come from two different schools.I'm sure they'll continue to work on this stuff.( It'll be interesting to see what they tinker with over the season )

The spin ? ..Meryl and Charlie's was different ( and more difficult ,IMO )..O/W are in opposite direction camels, and she just takes hers into a layover position..D/W had Charlie in a camel and Meryl in a front extension, torso bent right back from the hip. ( holy toledo !) My sister and I both had the same thought when we saw it..that must be how our other sister had her Tango accident on the dance floor at the Raging Bull ( a local Portugese dine n' dance ).

I know the comparisons are bound to continue..it's the speed and the hair.( inevitable).. But aping ? I don't think it's that anymore than I thought P/I were aping V/M last year. Lots of skaters wear their hair that length. It moves nicely and suits a variety of costume styles. He just happens to be blonde.( I don't think L'Oreal has anything to do with it.).. He's really a different physical type than Charlie , and since the speed lends their skating such a nice feeling of freedom , I guess they'll live with it. Mager is actually closer to Charlie's build, and he wears a mop, too... but it's dark, so that's OK, then.

Z/S still hasn't come up for me.. ( I walked my dogs and everything, in the meantime ) guess I'll try later or tomorrow. I'm going to try to see some of the men before I crash.

 

[gmyers]

You take O/W's program and set it to Phanton or whatever D/W did last season and they O/W couldn't look any more like D/W.

 

[dorispulaski]

Men's event is over. Jason Brown wins his first JGP.
However, he did not try either a 3/3 of any kind (although he showed a lovely one in his SP), and no 3A attempt.
OTOH, the transitions in and out of his other jumps are just insane.

1 Jason BROWN USA 129.03 62.53 66.50 6.64 6.61 6.64 6.68 6.68 0.00 #15
2 Keiji TANAKA JPN 127.71 65.45 62.26 6.46 5.96 6.32 6.25 6.14 0.00 #19
3 Mikhail KOLYADA RUS 123.60 65.40 58.20 5.96 5.46 5.93 5.86 5.89 0.00 #13
4 Liam FIRUS CAN 122.91 59.69 63.22 6.36 6.04 6.46 6.39 6.36 0.00 #16
5 Dong-Won LEE KOR 113.16 57.76 55.40 5.89 5.21 5.57 5.57 5.46 0.00 #14
6 Philip WARREN USA 111.87 53.57 59.30 5.86 5.75 6.11 5.93 6.00 1.00 #18
7 Yoji TSUBOI JPN 100.99 47.91 54.08 5.86 5.18 5.32 5.43 5.25 1.00 #17
8 Simon HOCQUAUX FRA 98.36 49.82 48.54 4.96 4.64 4.96 4.89 4.82 0.00 #9
9 Christopher BERNECK GER 96.98 46.46 51.52 5.29 4.68 5.18 5.29 5.32 1.00 #11
10 Michael Christian MARTINEZ PHI 95.44 46.96 49.48 5.00 4.71 5.07 5.07 4.89 1.00 #10
11 Chih-I TSAO TPE 87.64 43.26 46.38 4.79 4.61 4.57 4.68 4.54 2.00 #12
12 David KRANJEC AUS 86.89 39.41 47.48 4.89 4.57 4.75 4.89 4.64 0.00 #7
13 Bela PAPP FIN 84.04 40.20 43.84 4.57 4.14 4.46 4.39 4.36 0.00 #6
14 Brendan KERRY AUS 81.13 41.27 41.86 4.61 3.96 4.04 4.36 3.96 2.00 #8
15 Marco ZAKOURIL CZE 76.56 37.54 41.02 4.25 3.93 4.04 4.18 4.11 2.00 #5
16 Oliver PORTER AUS 66.75 27.75 39.00 4.21 3.68 4.04 3.86 3.71 0.00 #4
17 Suchet KONGCHIM THA 66.09 31.65 34.44 3.75 3.11 3.54 3.50 3.32 0.00 #1
18 Wayne Wing Yin CHUNG HKG 63.74 30.32 33.42 3.64 3.11 3.39 3.39 3.18 0.00 #3

Overall:
1 Jason BROWN USA 197.23 1 1
2 Keiji TANAKA JPN 192.36 2 2
3 Liam FIRUS CAN 180.00 3 4
4 Mikhail KOLYADA RUS 177.55 6 3
5 Dong-Won LEE KOR 166.47 7 5
6 Philip WARREN USA 166.42 5 6
7 Yoji TSUBOI JPN 157.64 4 7
8 Michael Christian MARTINEZ PHI 148.13 8 10
9 Christopher BERNECK GER 142.35 10 9
10 Simon HOCQUAUX FRA 140.76 11 8
11 Chih-I TSAO TPE 133.24 9 11
12 David KRANJEC AUS 128.93 13 12
13 Bela PAPP FIN 123.86 14 13
14 Brendan KERRY AUS 123.48 12 14
15 Marco ZAKOURIL CZE 113.15 15 15
16 Oliver PORTER AUS 102.03 17 16
17 Wayne Wing Yin CHUNG HKG 99.44 16 18
18 Suchet KONGCHIM THA 88.61 19 17


Nice 8th place finish for Martinez, the very flexible boy from the Philippines.

Brown (1st) jumps a little off today, but the attention to detail, down to the fingertips, and the amount of stuff in this program is amazing. However, this isn't his very best.
http://www.youtube.com/user/ISUJGP2011#p/u/4/dqfdvOngGcg

Tanaka (2nd) He had a 3A, popped his second 3A, everything else done well, but very empty between jumps.
I really felt he looked better to the more lyrical music in the second half of the program than in the shoot em up music in the first half. (Is the music The Untouchables, maybe?)
http://www.youtube.com/user/ISUJGP2011#p/u/0/YzehDUdHZNw

Firus (3rd)
http://www.youtube.com/user/ISUJGP2011#p/u/3/xwTcnZwa-6A

Kolyada(4th) Too bad he had a rough SP. This was a very good program for him.
http://www.youtube.com/user/ISUJGP2011#p/u/6/oLVlnjwtNjU

 

[dorispulaski]

Not all the FD's are on youtube yet.

 

[ImaginaryPogue]

I know the comparisons are bound to continue..it's the speed and the hair.( inevitable).. But aping ? I don't think it's that anymore than I thought P/I were aping V/M last year. Lots of skaters wear their hair that length. It moves nicely and suits a variety of costume styles. He just happens to be blonde.( I don't think L'Oreal has anything to do with it.).. He's really a different physical type than Charlie , and since the speed lends their skating such a nice feeling of freedom , I guess they'll live with it. Mager is actually closer to Charlie's build, and he wears a mop, too... but it's dark, so that's OK, then.

Z/S still hasn't come up for me.. ( I walked my dogs and everything, in the meantime ) guess I'll try later or tomorrow. I'm going to try to see some of the men before I crash.

1. Well, if you recall, I had major issues with P/I's FD last season for it's resemblence to V/M's, so at least I'm being consistent. I know D/W's spin was harder, just that O/W's reminded me of D/W's. But it's not just the guys - the girls have a resemblence as well.

2. doris said something about Wing and Lowe a while back that was along the lines of this (paraphrasing): "Wing and Lowe have always done the CD's very precisely, so it's not surprise that their teams would do so as well there" with regards to Nationals/summer comps. So I really had high hopes of O/W doing well and their level two's disappointed me.

3. doris' comments on Brown reminds me why I hope to avoid paying this close attention to the JGP. I feel rather annoyed with myself for doing so, truth be told. It's wierd - these guys are in such early stages of development and to hav e my expectations of a junior skater that I mentioned earlier just seems unfair. Reminds me why the internet cycles (instant hype, backlash, backlash to the backlash and all before their debut) have been doing harm over in film. I'll wish him luck and wait until he's a senior.

 

[skatingfan04]

Good for Orford & Williams. Winning a JGP is quite an accomplishment for a team that has only been together for a year. I still haven't warmed up to these two, but I like this set of programs better than last years, and I can see why they won. I'm hoping to see the program becoming more refined and a little less frantic as the season progresses. They remind me a lot of D/W as well, but as I mentioned last year when I strongly objected to the Paul/Islam and Virtue/Moir comparison, I think the similarities have more to do with look than elements and style.

As for the men, I was quite impressed by Liam Firus. I haven't seen him skate before, but I felt that he has some great basic skills. His jumps were quite nice, and I liked the way that he moved through the footwork sequences and how he tried to add in some nice transitional movements between the elements. He may become one to watch in Canada in a year or two.

It was to bad that Alexandra Najarro's competition didn't go well. After her beautiful showing at nationals, I was hoping that her JGP season would get off to a better start. Her FS in particular surprised me, though. I saw her skate in a summer competition last month (she skated in Sr ladies there) and she had a stunning FS choreographed to the Black Swan soundtrack. At this competition, however, she went back to last season's Onotol program. I though Black Swan was a perfect vehicle for her, and i hope she brings it back at her next competition.

 

[gmyers]

Even thought Brown was skating for a second JGP event and him winning makes that likely I am not sure i would send him out again. In his winning free skate he came in third in TES. Maybe last year was just a fluke with Dornbush winning with 3A/3T combos and Brown is nowhere near that level of skating yet. But if other people are at the JGP final with that level of jump and delever and he would likely come in last. I'd give someone else a try. Brown is taking advantage of extremely low level required in TES to be successful in junior mens like Rippon did.

 

[chuckm]

Even thought Brown was skating for a second JGP event and him winning makes that likely I am not sure i would send him out again. In his winning free skate he came in third in TES. Maybe last year was just a fluke with Dornbush winning with 3A/3T combos and Brown is nowhere near that level of skating yet. But if other people are at the JGP final with that level of jump and delever and he would likely come in last. I'd give someone else a try. Brown is taking advantage of extremely low level required in TES to be successful in junior mens like Rippon did.

Brown may have been 3rd in TES, but his TOTAL SCORE was the highest yet, 197.23, and his FS PCS was 3.28 higher than the next highest PCS score. Brown's transitions are second to none, and he gets high levels on spins and footwork. He definitely deserves another event and will probably score even higher in his next event.

 

[colleen o'neill]

Pogue, I know where you're coming from, but I do agree with skatingfan04.. I think the similarities O/W vis a vis D/W are ,at this stage just superficial. With Nicole, she's a very different build from Meryl..should she not wear her hair down , just because Meryl sometimes does ? She's certainly not the actress / chameleon that Meryl is. Should they stay away from grand romantic themes ( a main source of fodder for skating programs ) just because those types of programs are done so well by D/W ? Speed is obviously natural for them..should they be slowed down to avoid comparison ..or do you let them keep it and work on their refinement over time ? They're not re-using D/W's music from the past, copying costumes or choreography, so I don't think there's a conscious effort to clone going on .

As with Paul /Islam, I'm waiting to see where they go in the next couple of years.

Comparisons are only natural . Here I am comparing them to P/I, when actually, I don't think they'll be coming up to seniors with anywhere near P/I's level of polish..it's just that here's another team , with very good potential, seemingly coming out of nowhere..holy cow , and lucky us.

 

[merrywidow]

Even thought Brown was skating for a second JGP event and him winning makes that likely I am not sure i would send him out again. In his winning free skate he came in third in TES. Maybe last year was just a fluke with Dornbush winning with 3A/3T combos and Brown is nowhere near that level of skating yet. But if other people are at the JGP final with that level of jump and delever and he would likely come in last. I'd give someone else a try. Brown is taking advantage of extremely low level required in TES to be successful in junior mens like Rippon did.

Considering that Jason Brown is only 16 years of age I think he has time to develop his triple axle as well as a quad before he competes internationally as a Sr.

 

[dorispulaski]

Here's the men's standings after 2 events:



1 Jason BROWN USA 1 15 1 197.23 1 129.03 129.03 68.20 18
2 Ryuju HINO JPN 1 15 1 182.71 1 124.61 124.61 58.10 22
3 Keiji TANAKA JPN 2 13 2 192.36 2 127.71 127.71 64.65 18
4 He Zhang CHN 2 13 2 182.38 2 123.12 123,12 59.26 22

The seventh tie breaker is, I believe, the number of competitors in the event of their highest placing.
Brown has the highest total score, highest SP, highest LP.

I would surely send him to a second event.

I would rather watch him skate than Rippon. He's unique. But I hope he throws his 3A in his next event. His 2A is much higher and has better technique than last year, so he might even land one fully rotated.

IP, you should think of him as similar to the young Patrick Chan who fell on his 3A's and won. Brown chooses to do the 2A until he can execute the 3A without falling.

Brown SP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm7xaXw_3AE

Brown LP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqfdvOngGcg

 

[nadster]

It was to bad that Alexandra Najarro's competition didn't go well. After her beautiful showing at nationals, I was hoping that her JGP season would get off to a better start. Her FS in particular surprised me, though. I saw her skate in a summer competition last month (she skated in Sr ladies there) and she had a stunning FS choreographed to the Black Swan soundtrack. At this competition, however, she went back to last season's Onotol program. I though Black Swan was a perfect vehicle for her, and i hope she brings it back at her next competition.

Perhaps Alexandra could not work out a juniorized ( ie take out half a minute ) version of this program. I agree I much prefer Black Swan.

The sad thing is that it means that likely Alexandra will have a poor qualifying start order ( and short program order too if she gets through qualifying ) should she be chosen for JW as she does not have much of an ISU ranking.

It will be very interesting who Skate Canada will send to junior worlds this season which is a crucial decision for the future development of the ladies. Skate Canada is really hampered by the fact that there are only 4 JGP slots so there won't be much of a record of all of how skaters ( other than Najarro and Charbonneau ) fare in international competition.

History has shown we have been burned by choosing skaters who skated OK at nationals but have generally underperformed at several JGP events before that much better nationals performance. Kang and Grenier are good examples of this. This year I think nationals will have to be everything given the lack of international opportunities for several of the possible contenders.

 

[Violet Bliss]

IP, you should think of him as similar to the young Patrick Chan who fell on his 3A's and won. Brown chooses to do the 2A until he can execute the 3A without falling.

When did a young Patrick Chan fell on his 3A's and won? I remember him landing them beautifully in competitions even if he fell in practice all week before. He was landing them when it counted due to his mental strength. As he grew older and emphasizes techniques, he somehow acquired a mental block re 3A, perhaps due to the intention and effort to do it "properly", which then became his nemesis even as his skills and other jumps improve, even doing his quads seemingly easily and effortlessly.

Jason Brown is not near Patrick's level at the same age but I see an improvement over the last season. As he got noticed and hyped, I found his skating still rather Juniorish. But his skating and performance seems more mature now with well earned PCS. For most skaters, PCS is more important as the base and a young skater like Brown has plenty of time to acquire more difficult jumps instead of rushing into them only to encounter technical problems and/or injuries later. My concern with him is the way he still bends over, as do many young lanky skaters. Such posture may have cost valuable PCS points for Worlds podium contender Oda.

 

[chuckm]

nadster wrote: "The sad thing is that it means that likely Alexandra will have a poor qualifying start order ( and short program order too if she gets through qualifying ) should she be chosen for JW as she does not have much of an ISU ranking.

It will be very interesting who Skate Canada will send to junior worlds this season which is a crucial decision for the future development of the ladies. Skate Canada is really hampered by the fact that there are only 4 JGP slots so there won't be much of a record of all of how skaters ( other than Najarro and Charbonneau ) fare in international competition.

History has shown we have been burned by choosing skaters who skated OK at nationals but have generally underperformed at several JGP events before that much better nationals performance. Kang and Grenier are good examples of this. This year I think nationals will have to be everything given the lack of international opportunities for several of the possible contenders. "

It was NAJARRO's poor performance at JW 2011 (she didn't qualify for the FS) that left Canada with just 4 spots for the JGP this season. Yet you seem to think she's a likely pick for JW 2012. Maybe Skate Canada should give some other lady a shot, as Najarro seems to skate much better at home than she does in international competition.

 

[nadster]

chuckm , I think you misunderstand my post.

About the last JW. Grenier also went to JW and failed to get out of the qualifying skate. She finished closer to the bottom of that list. She skated even worse than Najarro who missed the FS by one place.

The real mistake was sending Grenier instead of Charbonneau simply because Grenier BARELY beat Charbonneau at nationals. The fact is that Charbonneau has done much better than Grenier overall in international competition. Grant you Charbonneau's last season was awful but I think she would at least made it to the FS even with her troubles. If we sent Charbonneau and Najarro, Najarro would have to do the qualifying skate and Charbonneau would have gone directly to the short program as Charbonneau has also faired better than Najarro in international competition.

I never said that Najarro would be going to JW or should be . If you read my last statement it would imply I am against sending those to JW who have a long history of doing badly at several JGPs simply because of one national result. We've been burned by this before several times ( Kang is the best example of this ) and I hope SC learns its lesson.

In fact , from the very beginning I thought that Najarro ( and Charbonneau as well) should get senior B's instead if anything and let other ladies get the JGP slots. The more ladies that get JGPs, the better we can judge who is likely to step it up at JW. Because SC did not do that, SC will have to rely even more on national results as they would have international data for only 2 skaters.

It is going to be tough for whoever we send. I just hope SC makes the right decision.

Based on summer results the one outsider I would look at is Purich. At least she has done well in international competition ( albeit in pairs ) and scored 128 and change in the Alberta summer competition. She will be competing in junior ladies this year.

 

[Scout]

As much as I (personally) want Najarro to get a second jgp event, I definitely think it should be given to Purich. I believe that this is Najarro's fourth year on the circuit, and her lowest total score and placement to date. With Purich, SC would have data on one more lady. At this point, it's not like SC has masses of ladies to choose from. Roxanne Rheault and Veronik Mallet are the only other 2 skaters on the substitution list. Unfortunately, I don't have much faith in Roxanne. She seems way too inconsistent. Not sure about Mallet. I haven't seen much of her, except that she seemed heads and shoulders above the other girls at the Novice level last year.

 

[ImaginaryPogue]

1. Brown is taking advantage of the fact that TES makes up only half your score. He's taking advantage of the fact that there's more to TES than just jumps.

2. gmyers, who from the American juniors would you send instead of Brown?

3. colleen, I'll be more honest: I find Jason Brown's resemblence to Kimmie Meissner more disturbing than O/W's to D/W's. But more thoroughly, the superficial is really all I see with junior skaters. At this point, very few are actually deep enough skaters that a closer reading is plausible/worthwhile (Virtue/Moir in their last junior year were). So yeah, that Thomas Williams has blonde hair and a farm fresh smile that reminds me of Charlie White and that Nicole Orford is like a less majestically severe Meryl Davis is something I'll note.

IP, you should think of him as similar to the young Patrick Chan who fell on his 3A's and won. Brown chooses to do the 2A until he can execute the 3A without falling.

4. The first time I saw Chan skate, it was the 4CC 2009 SP. I prefer that skate to Brown's here.