The Nordics Open 2024 | Feb 1-4

[norwegianfairytale]

In case anyone wondered. I bought the livestream for the whole weekend and so far it has been no issues. There is even a tech box and replays after the skates. For now it´s not possible to rewind on the live stream but i´m guessing they will have replay when it´s done for the day that will be possible to rewind.

Even better, it seems I got some additional features buying for the weekend pass. I could watch a video from Milla and Nikolajs FD from Nationals.

 

[norwegianfairytale]

I'm watching the Icebeat Winter Trophy at the moment, and the Junior Ladies SP finished about an hour ago. And I was surprised to see three Finnish girls competing there. Silja SIVU was 3rd, Unna KUUSINEN was 4th, and Ulla NIEMINEN was 5th after the SP.

Meanwhile at the Bavarian Open, Heidi MOISIO was 3rd in both segments and overall in the second of the two Junior Ladies competitions. And at Advanced Novice level, Annika PELLONMAA was 2nd in both segments and overall in the first of the two competitions, while Jenna OLLANKETO was 13th (9th in SP, 15th in FS) in the second of the two competitions.

I wouldn't have expected any Finnish Singles skaters to be doing other events this week. I was going to ask if these were lower ranked skaters, and if they were competing elsewhere because they weren't in contention for slots at the Nordics. But then I saw who the Senior skaters that are at the Bavarian Open are. And they are certainly not lower ranked skaters!

Is the shine starting to come off the Nordics? Like, the Norwegian Championships were only a few days ago, so there is a lack of skaters from that country here too.

Is the fact that there are no international skaters another indication of this? Or have the Nordics reverted back to just being for skaters from Nordic countries, rather than the open event that it has been in recent years?

To be honest, I prefer the format of it being just the Nordic countries competing against each other. For me, having international skaters meant it lost it's unique selling point. It became just another Senior B.

But, it is worrying if the Nordic countries are not treating it as one of the headline events of the season like they they used to.

CaroLiza_fan

In Norways case it hasn´t anything to do with Norwegian Championships though. The selection was done long before and all the skaters who got spots are still on the entries. The Fed has selection criteria and probably gave it max 4 skaters per discipline for financial reasons. Current years there were more skaters, the year after Covid they sent more skaters to competitions, because they saved money on the not sending skaters for a whole season. Exception was also made when Nordics was held in Norway, then there were more skaters.

The Fed has decided to give a lot of skaters a chance at Sonja Henie Trophy, all though there are many of them not filling the requirements for such a competition.

 

[TT_Fin]

I noticed Pihla Bergman who is sub in seniors is there but she competes in juniors. I think it is her own choice, maybe she was asked. I understand, maybe she has chances to better placements there.

 

[TT_Fin]

I'm watching the Icebeat Winter Trophy at the moment, and the Junior Ladies SP finished about an hour ago. And I was surprised to see three Finnish girls competing there. Silja SIVU was 3rd, Unna KUUSINEN was 4th, and Ulla NIEMINEN was 5th after the SP.

Meanwhile at the Bavarian Open, Heidi MOISIO was 3rd in both segments and overall in the second of the two Junior Ladies competitions. And at Advanced Novice level, Annika PELLONMAA was 2nd in both segments and overall in the first of the two competitions, while Jenna OLLANKETO was 13th (9th in SP, 15th in FS) in the second of the two competitions.

I wouldn't have expected any Finnish Singles skaters to be doing other events this week. I was going to ask if these were lower ranked skaters, and if they were competing elsewhere because they weren't in contention for slots at the Nordics. But then I saw who the Senior skaters that are at the Bavarian Open are. And they are certainly not lower ranked skaters!

Is the shine starting to come off the Nordics? Like, the Norwegian Championships were only a few days ago, so there is a lack of skaters from that country here too.

Is the fact that there are no international skaters another indication of this? Or have the Nordics reverted back to just being for skaters from Nordic countries, rather than the open event that it has been in recent years?

To be honest, I prefer the format of it being just the Nordic countries competing against each other. For me, having international skaters meant it lost it's unique selling point. It became just another Senior B.

But, it is worrying if the Nordic countries are not treating it as one of the headline events of the season like they they used to.

CaroLiza_fan

Does the WC minimum count if it were not open? Could this be reason why it is wanted to be open to everybody? Some skaters appreciate it a lot and some never bother to go. Oona and Valtter have both won it once and Valtter still spends time in Germany as her wife is German. Oona is looking for SP minimums for worlds, so maybe she thinks it is better chance to get them in Bavarian. Usually when skaters have their first chance to go there they take it. If the name was Nordic championships, it sounds more valuable than just open.

I consider to buy the stream for Saturday and Sunday. Much check what there is on the to-do-list first.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Does the WC minimum count if it were not open? Could this be reason why it is wanted to be open to everybody? Some skaters appreciate it a lot and some never bother to go. Oona and Valtter have both won it once and Valtter still spends time in Germany as her wife is German. Oona is looking for SP minimums for worlds, so maybe she thinks it is better chance to get them in Bavarian. Usually when skaters have their first chance to go there they take it.

If I am reading correctly what @Andrea82 wrote the other day in the thread for one of next week's events, there shouldn't be any problem with regards the Nordics counting towards minimums. You only need skaters from 2 countries to finish for that, and all the Junior and Senior categories have at least that.

For World Standings points, you need 4 countries and at least 8 skaters. And all the Junior and Senior categories apart from Senior Men have that.

If the name was Nordic championships, it sounds more valuable than just open.

I'll be honest, I still call it the Nordic Championships, even though it has been the Nordic Open for over a decade.

Old habits die hard.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Day 2 starts by continuing our Junior SP double-bill. We finished yesterday with the girls, and we start today with the chaos! 9 boys, arranged into a group of 4; followed by a group of 5.

Livestream for Junior Men's SP is now on air.

Here is the link for the livestream (89 SEK):
https://solidsport.com/skatesweden/watch/nordics-open-2024-friday

Here is the Time Schedule:
https://skate.webbplatsen.net/23-24...JUNIOR----QUAL000100--_StartListwithTimes.pdf

And here is the live scoring:
https://skate.webbplatsen.net/23-24/71937/html/SEG005.htm

Hope this helps

ALL THE BEST EVERYBODY!!!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Now that all the Juniors have started their campaigns, the rest of the day is spent with the Advanced Novices finishing their campaings. A group of 2 boys; followed by 19 girls.

Livestream for Advanced Novice Men's FS is now on air.

Here is the link for the livestream (89 SEK):
https://solidsport.com/skatesweden/watch/nordics-open-2024-friday

Here is the Time Schedule:
https://skate.webbplatsen.net/23-24...ADVNOV----FNL-000100--_StartListwithTimes.pdf

And here is the live scoring:
https://skate.webbplatsen.net/23-24/71937/html/SEG010.htm

Hope this helps

ALL THE BEST EVERYBODY!!!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

And we finish the day by staying with the Advanced Novices, but moving from the boys to the girls. 19 girls, arranged into a group of 6; followed by a resurfacing; followed by a group of 6; followed by a group of 7.

Livestream for Advanced Novice Ladies FS is now on air.

Here is the link for the livestream (89 SEK):
https://solidsport.com/skatesweden/watch/nordics-open-2024-friday

Here is the Time Schedule:
https://skate.webbplatsen.net/23-24...ADVNOV----FNL-000100--_StartListwithTimes.pdf

And here is the live scoring:
https://skate.webbplatsen.net/23-24/71937/html/SEG012.htm

Hope this helps

ALL THE BEST EVERYBODY!!!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Day 3 consists of a Senior SP double-bill; followed by a Junior FS double-bill. In each case, girls first, and then chaos. We begin with the Seniors, which consist of 12 girls; followed by a group of 5 boys. The 12 girls are arranged into two groups of 6.

Livestream for Senior Ladies SP is now on air.

Here is the link for the livestream (89 SEK):
https://solidsport.com/skatesweden/watch/nordics-open-2024-saturday

Here is the Time Schedule:
https://skate.webbplatsen.net/23-24...----------QUAL000100--_StartListwithTimes.pdf

And here is the live scoring:
https://skate.webbplatsen.net/23-24/71937/html/SEG003.htm

Hope this helps

ALL THE BEST EVERYBODY!!!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

And what comes after the girls to complete our Senior SP double-bill? Chaos! A group of 5 boys.

Livestream for Senior Men's SP is now on air.

Here is the link for the livestream (89 SEK):
https://solidsport.com/skatesweden/watch/nordics-open-2024-saturday

Here is the Time Schedule:
https://skate.webbplatsen.net/23-24...----------QUAL000100--_StartListwithTimes.pdf

And here is the live scoring:
https://skate.webbplatsen.net/23-24/71937/html/SEG001.htm

Hope this helps

ALL THE BEST EVERYBODY!!!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[norwegianfairytale]

Oh god, the senior women SP was very messy.

Except Taljegård everybody made mistakes, so she now has a comfortable lead with 10 points down to Olivia Lisko in 2nd place. And then we have Josefin Brovall in third place.

Both Minja and Janna got called by the panel I think, the panel seem to have been very strict. Janna delivered a triple triple combo but I suspect calls. Except the combo the other jumps were a bit iffy in the landings, but there were no clear mistakes. But she was very unlucky to have a fall in the step sequence, so points lost there too.

Minja seemed to do well, but she probably got calls too. She did a 3Lz-2T combo. I think like Janna, her TES went down by 4 points after reviews. They both scored 48 points which is far from their best.

Even Olivia in 2. place was the second closes to cleanest skate but she singled the axel in the end, so that cost her some points as well.

Unfortunately it seems like Nationals last week did have som influence on the Norwegian girls performance today, if it´s not physical it might have taken a mental toll. The juniors did not do well either in the SP. Ironically, of the 4 girls, Frida was the one who wasn´t on the podium at Nationals but delivered the best score today of 47 points and 7th place, she had a clean skate.

Mia, Kaia and Linnea, all on the podium at Nationals got the last places today. The first warm up group in the FS will be 4 Norwegian girls of 6 skaters.

Mia was the first to skate, had a fall on the opening flip. Then she doubled her lutz with a bad landing. Two big mistakes. So there were no combo, but everything else was level 4 after the disaster start, even step sequence and a good 2A. She still managed to score 44 points. The difficult layout is risky but if she can pull it off clean sometime it will be a good score.

Linnea needs to learn from this, even though Mia had a disaster start she managed to do the job to get every other point she could get. Linnea started with popping her toelop into a 2T, which should have been her triple triple combo, then she popped her singel jump leaving with 0 points there, and the axel had a very bad landing. So basically almost no points on the two jumping passes. She ended up scoring 32 points in contrast to 55 points at Nationals last week and is last of all skaters. Those pops are so costly, I guess it´s timing issue but she seems to pop jumps as soon as she makes one mistake.

The good news is, between Mia in 10th place and Brovall in 3rd place there are only 5 points separating, so it´s possible to climb a lot of places in the FS for most of the skaters. I´m pretty certain Taljegård is going to be on the podium and most likely win, but after the SP is very open who will be the other podium finishers. Would be fun though to have Josefin 2x in the podium

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Now that the Seniors have started their campaigns, it is time for the Juniors to finish their campaigns. 19 girls; followed by 9 boys. THe girls are arranged ionto a group of 4; followed by a group of 5; followed by a resurfacing; followed by two groups of 5.

Livestream for Junior Ladies FS is now on air.

Here is the link for the livestream (89 SEK):
https://solidsport.com/skatesweden/watch/nordics-open-2024-saturday

Here is the Time Schedule:
https://skate.webbplatsen.net/23-24...JUNIOR----FNL-000100--_StartListwithTimes.pdf

And here is the live scoring:
https://skate.webbplatsen.net/23-24/71937/html/SEG008.htm

Hope this helps

ALL THE BEST EVERYBODY!!!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Unfortunately it seems like Nationals last week did have som influence on the Norwegian girls performance today, if it´s not physical it might have taken a mental toll. The juniors did not do well either in the SP. Ironically, of the 4 girls, Frida was the one who wasn´t on the podium at Nationals but delivered the best score today of 47 points and 7th place, she had a clean skate.

I don't want to sound negative, but it was inevitable that a scenario like that was going to happen.

Of course, this year was a unique situation, because Europeans was moved from it's original date, and Nationals had to be moved in response. And by that stage there wasn't a lot of lee-way. But, having Nationals a week before the Nordics was not ideal to say the least. And the Nordics was always going to be tough going for the skaters that were doing both.

Hopefully the skaters will get a second wind in the Free Skate segments.

Well, at least your Fed can now see the effect of having Nationals the week before the Nordics, and can work to avoid that happening again.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[norwegianfairytale]

I don't want to sound negative, but it was inevitable that a scenario like that was going to happen.

Of course, this year was a unique situation, because Europeans was moved from it's original date, and Nationals had to be moved in response. And by that stage there wasn't a lot of lee-way. But, having Nationals a week before the Nordics was not ideal to say the least. And the Nordics was always going to be tough going for the skaters that were doing both.

Hopefully the skaters will get a second wind in the Free Skate segments.

Well, at least your Fed can now see the effect of having Nationals the week before the Nordics, and can work to avoid that happening again.

CaroLiza_fan

Yeah I do think it has influenced it a little, all though they are all capable of having bad skates without a competition prior

Nationals this year was also in Tromsø, so it was very far north and almost all the skaters had a long travel. Some might even have got delayed flights at home, because there were a big storm starting when Nationals finished, but I hope most of them were able to get home on a flight on Sunday evening, because on Monday the airport had closed all day because of strong winds. However I did not see any skaters posting they got a delayed flight, so hopefully they got home on Sunday.

Junior women and novice girls already had their first competition on Thursday, if they arrived on Wednesday, they had like only two days at home!

I was always the opinion that they should do as many other countries, have Nationals in December. Many of them have little competition before Christmas. I always found it to be too busy with Nationals in January, because for the one skater who goes to EC, it would be a lot with Nationals, EC, and then Nordics in like a 3-4 weeks time span. This year there is Sonja Henie Trophy is as well in the beginning of March, and Mia is going there and probably WC as well. She was supposed to do Challenge Cup but she isn´t on the list, and then she was maybe going to do Tallinn Hotell Cups but the was WD from that list. I´m not sure they send Pernille With to JWC, so she might even do JWC as well. I think it´s maybe a little too busy with competitions.

Last year was not much better, because Nordics was like the week after Euros? But it affected more than one nation, but only a few skaters from each country.

I hope next year it won´t be a week after Euros or Nationals. I´m guessing it´s Finland that is going to host next year?

I´m having my fingers crossed for the FS tomorrow! Linnea can still fight for WC minimums in the FS tomorrow, all though Mia is going to get the spot there is always need for a sub. Linnea already has the SP minimums.

 

[TT_Fin]

I had so much things to do today and watched 4cc when I was home so I did not buy the stream today.

I think it is Finland's turn next year but I am not sure where. So Janna is out of worlds now I think. Nella is still leading in scores and I think it is hard to beat those scores by others. I just checked, Oona has not got the SP minimums she is missing at Bavarian open, so Olivia probably will keep her place as a first sub no matter how she skates now. I don't know when Finland is going to announce the team, but some have still one competition left before the deadline, Janna and Emmi, I think. Makar needs still FS minimums. If he gets, it will be close between him and Valtter. I think I will buy one stream for tomorrow, but I must choose between this and Bavarian.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

And what comes after the girls to complete our Senior SP double-bill? Chaos! A group of 5 boys.

Livestream for Junior Ladies SP is now on air.

Here is the link for the livestream (89 SEK):
https://solidsport.com/skatesweden/watch/nordics-open-2024-saturday

Here is the Time Schedule:
https://skate.webbplatsen.net/23-24...JUNIOR----FNL-000100--_StartListwithTimes.pdf

And here is the live scoring:
https://skate.webbplatsen.net/23-24/71937/html/SEG008.htm

Hope this helps

ALL THE BEST EVERYBODY!!!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[TT_Fin]

@norwegianfairytale did you watch junior men? Do you know what happened with Jari Kresytanikov's costume as he seems to have "Costume/Prop violation"?

I see Matias L. has gor PB and he is on the way to JWC. Arttu needs about 188 total, means about 135 in FS I don't think he can score it even if he skates clean, his technical content and speed is not yet enough for that. I suppose the selections will be announced right after this.

 

[norwegianfairytale]

@norwegianfairytale did you watch junior men? Do you know what happened with Jari Kresytanikov's costume as he seems to have "Costume/Prop violation"?

I see Matias L. has gor PB and he is on the way to JWC. Arttu needs about 188 total, means about 135 in FS I don't think he can score it even if he skates clean, his technical content and speed is not yet enough for that. I suppose the selections will be announced right after this.

Well yes, so he got a costume violation.... I wasn´t sure what happen at first. I was watching the skate but I was multitasking, I looked away for a moment and suddenly when I looked back his white shirt was wide open and he was flashing the whole upper body. At first I was confused and thought maybe he had done it on purpose like part of the skate, but it seemed very over the top to show the whole upper body. But it kinda fitted the music. Then in replay it appeared that his shirt was opening up a little and little during the skate, at first it was just the first part, nothing outraging, and then after a jump it was full open. So it seems it was not part of the plan and I was wondering if he would get a deduction.

Either his buttons must be really bad quality or he just stuck his shirt in the trousers without bothering about the buttons. The shirt didn´t look the wrong size, but if he has outgrown it of course it could also be the possible that it was stretching too much during the skate leaving the buttons to open up.

Matias Lindfors was wonderful and skated very clean. He was very happy with his skate and his score. He won the free skate as well. Casper barely beat him overall because of his SP score.

 

[norwegianfairytale]

I was curious and went back and looked at his skate again. It was a shirt with buttons but it looked like fine he started. But maybe he didn´t put in the buttons properly from the start with?

Already after the first jump it had opened a little, and it just got worse and worse for each jump, halfway there was a moment he even tried to put in the buttons during the skate, but he soon gave up, and then it just got worse and worse before it was completely open for the last part of the program. Right after he finished he started to button the shirt right away.
It must have been very distracting for both him and the judges. I do think it perhaps made his concentration bad and doing more mistakes. He started the program well off with a 3A.

 

[norwegianfairytale]

According to the result page Janna has WD from the FS