The other girls got downgrades, edge calls, and shaky landings as well. If they were all clean, Polina would still get the Bronze.
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The other girls got downgrades, edge calls, and shaky landings as well. If they were all clean, Polina would still get the Bronze.
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2009
Maybe we'll see Vanessa Lam & Zijun Li meet up at JW.
It will be a brutal contest at National's, not just to qualify for WC but also JW. Among the contenders for WC team:
Rachael Flatt, Ashley Wagner, Mirai Nagasu, Caroline Zhang, Agnes Zawadszki, Christina Gao
At least four of them will not make it, and all but Ashley is still eligible for WC, though I expect some will go to 4CC and give up on JW (I can't see Caroline, Mirai, or Rachael back at JW).
Then among the top juniors:
Yasmin Siraj, Vanessa Lam, Leah Keiser, Courtney Hicks, Angela Wang, Kiri Baga, Kristiene Gong, Gracie Gold, Mary Beth Marley, Katarina Kulgeyko, Nina Jiang...
and I'm sure I've forgotten some!
What about JW in Russia! Liza, Adelina, Polina S, Polina A, Rosa, Anna if she's recovered, and then a bunch of wildcards all battling it out for 3 spots!
Kiri and Kristiene got lucky, but hopefully they can make the most of this opportunity and work to become more competitive with the rest of the field between now and the final. Zijun and Vanessa really are better skaters than those 2 but I guess that's just the way things work out sometimes. I'm still sad about no Ovcharova on the JGP this season, I miss that girl, she always brought the voids, but maybe (hopefully) we'll see her at JW. I think the international judges don't like Polina S's programs and Kiri's LP this season, looking at the marks. I wonder if either girl switches, I really liked Kiri's LP at JW last season.
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2009
Times like this, I really, really despise the ISU's system of awarding points on placements without taking relative scores into account.Zijun Li is currently a better skater than Baga and probably Gong also. She should be in this Final. Would get a big crowd boost since this year it's in her home country. I hope she keeps practicing diligently and improving. You never know--so far this season, the way elite skaters have been dropping like flies from chronic and sudden injuries, she might still get a chance.
And for Juniors at least, the USFS needs to reconsider making assignments based primarily on previous year's nationals. They look pretty stupid about now, not assigning Lam earlier to see how she did on the chance that she at least had the jumps to do well enough in intl comps...instead of wasting a precious entry with someone completely uncompetitive at this level, like Davis.
Maybe next year they will finally change things. Because last season, DeeDee Leng was the US junior champion but only placed 7th at her JGP, and then Ellie who was the silver medalist qualified for the final but didn't get really high scores at any of her events. Plus Lindsay getting bronze at nationals was sort of flukey, because she managed that by placing 5th in the SP and 4th in the LP, due to Nina skating so much better in the LP than SP, and Kiri and Angela skating so much better in the SP than LP.
At the same time though, summer competition results aren't always the most telling. Cesario, Wang, and Gong all looked great this summer and were posting big numbers but then didn't faire as well on the JGP because of URs.
I'm a little sad though that we won't get to see her skate again until JW.
Well there's always Chinese Nationals, which seem to be well-covered judging from the number of YouTube videos. Except I'm always confused with the number of national competitions in China, which seem to take place not only in the winter but also in April or something like that..
That's true. And the one coming up should be quite fun: Zijun Li, Kexin Zhang, and Bingwa Geng will all be there. I'm sure there will be videos.
Yeah, there are two championships, and the winners of both are referred to as the National Champion. Quite confusing!
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2007
Nice going Vanessa!! 
That is the first gold for the U.S. junior ladies.
That is the first gold for the U.S. junior ladies.
Zijun probably had some major problem with her SP. I'm guessing there was a big pop somewhere. The early draw also didn't help her PCS. She managed to score about the same points at her last event and that was with an omitted combo spin + 1 deduction. She has been super consistent the past two years in domestic competitions. I hope nerves are not catching up to her yet..she's way to young for that.
Kiri's PCS are quite astounding. I wonder if she improved a lot over the two weeks? I thought her presentation in her FS in Japan was quite weak.
Good for Vanessa Lam though! She sounds super promising. Can't wait to see her skate.
Zijun had all her 3-loop's in the SP & LP marked <.
