Japanese Nationals Ladies LP

[champs]

Uggghhhh... it sucks when I came home and found that my TV recording stopped right before Yukari's skating when she was talking to her coach Mr. Sato. Just checked the results of the remaining 4 skaters on the internet and oh no, Yukari was in 5th. Her TES is so low...

At least I was able to watch Akiko and Fumie and enjoyed both performances, they did so well! And congrats to Fumie for medaling. Honestly speaking the program itself is not as emotionally intense or compelling as her previous programs, but how wonderful it is for a veteran skater with so many jump problems last season to have such a near-perfect skate at the Nationals. I don't cry like Nobunari but I felt my tear glands were loosening and opening up

My incomplete recording at least allowed me to see the crash btw Fumie and Miki, that was indeed a horrible moment.
Fumie was pushed to the ground while Miki fell on her butt, or more like on her right hip and her right leg. Unfortunately my recording stopped before Yukari's skate so I don't know how Miki skated, but as far as what I saw from my recording Miki looked concerned about her right leg in the backstage while waiting.

I'm not going to say anything about the 4CC selection by JSF as I did last year, my brain this time refuses to even think about the possible logic behind their criteiron.

 

[Bennett]

It looks like 4CC selection was the same as the last year. 1-2-4.

ETA: I am very happy about the Worlds team selection, which looked very straightforward.
I hope that they could get three spots. In terms of the potential, I feel that Fumie actually may be a good one because she is really experienced. I think that she would do her 100% at Worlds. She has that spirit. Furthermore, Akiko may not have gotten as good PCS as Fumie because she is less known.
I think that Fumie and Yukari are similar in that they cannot afford making mistakes. They really need to be nearly clean to be competitive. This season Yukari seems to be having trouble with injuries. Additionally, I feel that she might be too busy. She has ice shows for her sponsor company and goes to a grad school. That's too much.
I have some concerns about the physical condition of Miki. Mentally, she looks more motivated this season than the last season. I hope that her body could sustain.

 

[champs]

OK, it just occured to me the set { 1, 2, 4 } is the set of all positive divisors of 4, and the name of the game is 4CC, that's the only thing I can come up with

 

[MissCleo]

uuh. This symphony of Saint-Saens, though I love to listen to it, sounds too abstract a piece of music to skate with. IMHO she is good at emotional expression and there must be better choice.

The excerpt Miki chose just repeats itself over and over again with the finale of the last movement thrown in for good measure. Editing the Organ Symphony that way just makes it seems as if it is going nowhere. If she chose excerpts from the other movemebts, the program would seem less abstract, have some direction and more power. I am glad to hear that this was a more expressive skate than at the GPF although there were about as many mistakes. Hopefully she will have the program down by Worlds.

 

[artsciboy]

I am so happy for Fumie! She WON the free skate, and truth be told, she would have won the competition had the judges not given Mao such overinflated PCS scores. Fumie is a good choice for Worlds, because her jumps are less likely to get downgraded. And I'm glad they decided against including the 3salchow this time around, because for whatever reason, she has so many mental issues with that jump.

 

[Tinymavy15]

Mao Asada

3A+2T
3A
3F+2Lo+2Lo
1S
3F+3Lo
3T
2A

Wow. Mao is making 2 triples axels a strong habit. Very impressive. I don't understand what is happening to the scores if she lost the freeskate to Fumie just because of a popped salchow. Fumie did not land a 3/3 nor a triple axel! She must be getting low levels on her spirals and spins again.


About 4cc I hope Mao withdraws. She does not need to go and will only tire herself out before worlds. She has plenty of competition experience already. Takahashi and Evan both went to 4CC last year and regretted it.

 

[kandidy]

I don't know why Mao bothered about salchow. She should have dump it and go for lutz (flutz) or double axel-doubleloop-double loop.
I think she decided to go to 4CC because it is Vancouver and they use the same ice rink for olympics in 2010.

 

[volk]

yeah i thought they were gonna slap each other!

Were they really that angry? I thought it was just an accident!

 

[tae04]

any videos?

 

[artsciboy]

Wow. Mao is making 2 triples axels a strong habit. Very impressive. I don't understand what is happening to the scores if she lost the freeskate to Fumie just because of a popped salchow. Fumie did not land a 3/3 nor a triple axel! She must be getting low levels on her spirals and spins again.


About 4cc I hope Mao withdraws. She does not need to go and will only tire herself out before worlds. She has plenty of competition experience already. Takahashi and Evan both went to 4CC last year and regretted it.

Mao received downgrades for both her 3axels.

 

[ks777]

Akiko Suzuki
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYrK0NCkw38&feature=channel_page

Miki Ando
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j8wBbfVJ6M&feature=channel_page

Yukari Nakano
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQwuoevgkew&feature=channel_page

Fumie suguri
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQVu4sWWZfA&feature=channel_page

Mao Asada
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2o--pVdNP4&feature=channel_page

 

[ks777]

I really really wanted Akiko Suzuki to go to worlds. She is the only top skater in Japan that doesn't have a sponsorship, hope she can get one after the Japanese Nationals!!

 

[yelyoh]

Wow some fine skates out there despite the mistakes. I too think Akiko is terrific and hope she does get some sort of sponsorship. Very charismatic skater. Really happy for Fumie and think it's great she stuck with her skating and it's paying off. Mao looked a bit tired towards the end of her skate. It's chock full of stuff and a big challenge. TT has her going full throttle from start to finish. Congrats to the Japanese women. Finally I feel badly for Yukari. Maybe someone will withdraw from 4CC and she can have one more competition. I like her programs.

 

[Bennett]

Were they really that angry? I thought it was just an accident!

I think it was just an accident, too. Whether you are skating forward or backward, or resting or being at the top speed, you always have to be careful. Japanese skaters are used to very crowded rinks. I think that both were responsible.

 

[Bennett]

Please pardon me for a back-to-back post. As I think of it, I really feel that Akiko deserved better scores for GOEs on her big jumps and PCS for her breathtaking performance. Especially, her PCS should have been at least comparable to Fumie or even higher IMO. I wonder if it was because of the skating ordering (she was the first skater of the group) or less exposure to major competitions. It was unfortunate.

 

[Alberich]

I totally agree with benett.

Akiko tried all types of triples other than axel while Fumie avoided edge jumps. And I was impressed by Akiko's commitment and emotion. Her eyes shot me.

It seemed technical judges were more generous to Fumie on DG.
Yes, the skating order has something to do with the score of two ladies.

I hope a great performance from Akiko at the 4CC!
And I hope she appears in two GPS events next season.

 

[Bennett]

Her eyes shot me.

Wow...! She would be pleased to hear that.

 

[Vincero]

I don't think Fumie and Akiko's scores have anything to do with the starting order. The fact is, Fumie is one of the most decorated Japanese female figure skaters, and that reputation must have helped her. I actually didn't expect the judges to be on her side before the competition. But it seemed like they really wanted to help her get back to Worlds. Not to say that she doesn't deserve it, because she certainly does.

I think the point Alberich brought up about Akiko performing edge jumps while Fumie didn't is an interesting point. From a difficulty perspective, Fumie did have a more difficult program as despite she avoided edge jumps, it's hard to argue that loops are easier than lutzes and flips. However, I do think maybe performing both should be reflected in the Skating Skills score, as that does show mastery of all jumps.

I disagree that Akiko's jumps are big though. They look natural and have good flow out, but I don't think she gets much height on them. I can't really tell underrotations, but I do think quite a few of her jumps looked rather tight and wasn't that clear-cut in terms of rotation.

I'm personally not too fond of Dark Eyes, so I didn't completely fall in love with Akiko's program, but the step sequences and the commitment she showed was fantastic. Her consistency this year is newfound and she has little reputation, so her PCs being up there with the elite (in Japan) is quite good already. If she does well on her two GPs next year (which she'll most probably get), her PCs will probably rise. I wish her good luck at 4CCs too.

 

[Bennett]

I totally agree that Fumie deserved the Worlds team at this time. I am heartily happy for her. It would have been so wonderful if Akiko could go, too. But there are only three spots and some have to stay home I hope that she could use this wonderful opportunity to skate at 4CC and will have a better chance for the Olympic team next season.

Thank you for your insights on Akiko's jumps. I haven't studied her jumps so closely. But I just find a "wow" factor in them. They look really dynamic and I like them a lot when she lands them.

I thought that Fumie also had really nice jumps at this LP. Her jumps do not look as powerful as Akiko's. But they had very nice flows here. I was really impressed. I had not noticed before that she had such nice jumps. Although I had mentioned earlier some of the areas where Fumie might have been overscored, I do not necessarily think that judges were biased and she was held up a lot.

But I do feel that it would have been nicer if the judges could have acknowledged Akiko, too. Despite not being the pre-comp favorite or extremely popular, she got a huge standing ovation. It was a wow performance. Yet, as you said, perhaps next season, she could get better scores.

Regarding the use of all jumps, I checked the PCS criteria, but could not find the relevant items although I might have missed something. But I did hear some rumor this summer that they might reward programs that have all set of triples except for 3 Axel in future.

 

[christinaskater]

Akiko is truly world-class

in my opinion she is the 2nd best in Japan and is one of the best in the world

She has so much emotion, she, along with Mao and Yu-Na are my favorite skaters in the world

Akiko is exquisite, she is arguably one of the most musical and dancer's dancer among the skaters.

She has improved so much this season, i really wish she would really give it her best next year and hopefully challenge for the Olympics

Maybe she could work on her spin positions, it's good but i don't like it that much as Mao's, work on the height and ensuring full rotation of her jumps, better look, (maybe she can have sponsors this year who can aid her develop a really classy and sophisticated look), she could also hire a world-class coach this year, maybe she could hire the services of Sandra Bezic, David Wilson, maybe Jeff Buttle could choreograph or coach her.

I hope she skates to Aranjuez next year........i really wish and pray she could become an international champion in the future (like Shizuka, Mao, Miki).

She has so much talent and potential and is still very young and able to really make it BIG!


GO AKIKO! I am in love with your skating