Welcome, all lurkers! Be proudly (and loudly) Javi fans!
These days, skaters work so much and so often in shows that it cannot be a problem when their eligible status is concerned. Patrick Chan came back any without bigger problems, for example. The biggest problem can be that it affects your world standings which is visible in draws for major competitions. But Javi has still a fairly high world ranking after this year, so in Europeans in January he should still be eligible for the last group.
His plans for the fall and competition are still unknown in detail (I wonder if he himself knows yet!), but in the
fan meeting in Osaka, he talked a bit about what the plans were a week ago. The Japanese post was translated into English by
a kind soul and posted on Twitter. So, apparently no Japan Open as he will be doing all the preparations for getting his things from Toronto to Madrid, then at some point an international B competition plus the Europeans.
His show schedule continues first in Stars on Ice Canada in late April, after which he returns to Japan for the full Fantasy on Ice tour from end of May to end of June. He has a booking even for the free weekend during FaOI - announced last week,
Heroes & Future in Nagano. Then he has to return to Spain in a hurry to prepare for the two weeks of the summer camp in
Granada (July 9-21). I guess he will have/need a vacation after that!
(And it is maybe a little curious that he is not part of the cast in the Hanyu show next weekend after Hanyu saying so many times how he went to Toronto partly because of Javi and how much he has influenced his training and skating...)
Over the past couple of years he has returned to Toronto for training sort of mid-late August and been part of Brian Orser's camp in Port Carling. We'll see if he does that now. If he goes there already that early, then there will be time to get the program/s done for the new season (the rule changes will be clear only in June anyway). But as he will not be doing the whole season, that is, no GPs, but just a minimun of competing before the Europeans, I would be surprised to see him there in August.
Most of the
Senior B competitions are held in September/early October, but if he won't have time to participate in Japan Open in the first weekend of October, I don't think he will go to any of the early competitions (plus would he be ready??). Then there are still Minsk in late October, Tallinn in late November and Golden Spin in early December. The two November ROI dates are 10th and 17th, so that rules out Warsaw. I would also expect him to do the Spanish nationals in mid-December.
It will be interesting to see what he will think and do after all the shows and the camp...
He did the old Petit Fleur/I Love Paris SP in a show version in
SOI Japan (again - he did it also the previous time), plus participated in a
men's group number, as well as in the
opening and
finale.
Plus today a
new interview in Spanish made in March (19th as the ROI announcement was mentioned). And this,
published slightly earlier in Hola!.
E