I think it must have been terribly hard for Miki to skate after the drama of awesome skates by Mao and Yuna and the heartrending skate by Rochette (not to mention her very good score.) Knowing that she had to be perfect to stay in contention for the gold must have weighed heavily on her mind. She's quite fortunate not to have gotten dinged for her 3F. I'm certain the starting order affected her a lot.
I agree. Skating last must have been nerve wrecking.
She looked somewhat uncomfortable and labored, almost tired even before she did any jumps last night.
Hopefully she will fare better tomorrow, seeing as she's up second in the last group before any of the top three.
I don't think I'm alone in this but I think Yuma's program last night was very lackluster. I've seen her do this program before and it sparkled; not last night. She was slow and somewht detached. Her spins are slow and her spiral is terrible. Now, I sound like I don't like her skating but I do. I just find that she is not the "be all end all" phenomenon that she is tounted to be. In comparing the overall performance with Mao: I find Mao to be more graceful, and musical (with the music beat) and her spirals are to die for. She does not get credit for what she does in ccomparison to Yuna.
Mao musical????
She certainly skated well last night, and I was very proud of her for that, but in my opinion she didn't relate to her music AT ALL in the first half until all her hard jumps were done cleanly.
She looked very nervous out of the gate, and the lack of any expression at the beginning looked quite odd to me considering her music was being played with much drama.
Then after a while, it was obvious that the relief took over and she was able to display more emotion and the best quality in her skating, which (I think) is that light, airy, sophisticated feel of her every movement.
As for Yuna, I don't know where you get "very" lackluster.
Maybe it wasn't the best you've seen of her in comparison to her past performances, but
very lackluster??
First and foremost I was so impressed with her total calmness, poise, and control, skating right after Mao.
I didn't sense a hint of panic in her face or in her skating. She skated confidently and so comfortably.
It was just another day in the office for her.
And although I myself have problem appreciating the high scores she gets for her spins and spirals especially, when all these praises from the past champions and skating experts keep pouring in, she must really possess that special rare quality only seen once in a while.
I never saw anything special in Sarah Hughes' skating, even that Olympic winning free, but many experts disagreed with me.

But with Yuna, I can see where they are coming from.