GPS 2012 Singles Standings so far...

We're already half way past GPS this season, thought you might all be interested in who's already made finals, and who're in good positions in making finals at this point.

Men's standings:http://www.isuresults.com/events/gp2012/gpsmen.htm

Ladie's standings:http://www.isuresults.com/events/gp2012/gpsladies.htm

For the guys, Pattie, Takahiko and Machida already got their tickets. But in ladies we're only sure about Kiira for now, right?

Eric Bompard:If Amo can win this one, he'll have 15pnts added to the 9 pnts he already has, which will leave him some hope. The same can be said for Jeremy but slightly less in hope cause he only has 7pnts so far. The reast of the guys entering won't make it to finals even if they miraculously win gold. And it's gonna be a real hot battle between the ladies in France; Ashley, Gao, Julia and Liza all have a chance of getting or losing their tickets to finals according to how they all rank. Meite also has a chance if she should win, but that probably won't happen.

NHK Cup:Javi, Dai, and Yuzuru can all make finals as long as they manage the podium (correct me if I'm wrong). If they do, Nobu and Menshov will be kicked out along with Brezina; but they'd already be out if Amo and Jeremy get 1st or 2nd in Eric Bompard. But then it'll be the same for Amo and Jeremy too. Unless for some reason Javi, Dai and Yuzuru do not make the podium, Amo and Jeremy will be out as well. The dark horse here is Boronov. Should he make gold or silver here, things are gonna get really confusing...but since I can't picture that happening that much, I'm not going to do any calculating here. In ladies, Elene, Haruka and Zijun still have a chance although very slight; even if they win gold, according to how the leading ladies in Eric Bompard do, they still won't be able to go to finals. Mao and Akiko need to be on the podium, Agnes has to get either gold or silver. But as for Agnes too, whether she can make finals or not will depend alot on how the ladies competition turns out in France, right? Of course the same can even be said for Mao and Akiko, but I don't think anyone would deny that they've got a better chance than most of the ladies in both Eric Bompard and NHK Cup.

It's clear to see when you look at the entries, for ladies Eric Bompard has a bit more leading ladies competing against eachother than NHK Cup...just a bit, but this difference will probabaly become crucial to them. I've never been so relieved that Mao wasn't assigned to France this season!

I'm sorry to have to assume that Nobu, Menshov, Brezina, Kanako, Adelina and Gracie who've all finished their assignments, clinging on to just this much hope that something unpredictable might happen in the coming GP competitons which may result in their making finals, will probabaly not occur and they'll be out of the game. I honestly think that they should add 3 more spots and have a total of 9 skaters for both men and ladies...Some skaters just aren't that good at the start of the season, but they manage to get extremely better during the latter half of GP (like Gracie and Brezina for instance), so I wish I could see how they'd do at finals if it were possible. I think only 6 is rather strict. If ISU wants to make the sport more popular, having 9 competitors should do alot of good and no bad.

Anyway, I hope more than anything right now that Mao can make finals this time!

I think Amodio will win TEB and Jeremy will place 2nd or (if he bombs) 3rd, and maybe the bronze could be Verner, I don't think Joubert or Song will compete or, if they risk competing, their health situation could really affect their performances. I'm still expecting the Chinese to withdraw, how can be ready for a GP after that terrible collision?! So (if my predictions are correct) Amodio will have 24 points, then it will depend on the NHK.
I think Dai will win it, just considering the home PCS advantage (just think of what just happened in the CoR Pairs FS), he usually gets 80 or 85 even with two or three falls , and this year his program doesn't deserve high marks at all, I'm still hoping he'll change it! But, if he wins, it will be all about Hanyu and fernandez. Yuzuru is a question mark, for me: will he bomb in the FS? Will he make a mistake in the SP and then skate a perfect FS with two quads like in Finlandia? And, if they both skate at their best, will the home corwd advantage be enough for Hanyu? If Amodio wins TEB, Yuzuru has to win NHK to qualify for the final, when for Fernandez placing 3rd is enough... NHK will be really interesting!!
So, I think these Men will be in the Final:
1) Chan
2) Kozuka
3) takahashi
4) Machida
5) Fernandez/Amodio/Hanyu
6) Fernandez/Amodio/Hanyu

I honestly don't think the Florent has a chance if it comes down to a points match. The final will probably be Chan, Kozuka, Takahashi, Machida, Hanyu, and Fernandez. Assuming Yuzuru doesn't screw up.

PochinkoPotanko wrote:

I think only 6 is rather strict. If ISU wants to make the sport more popular, having 9 competitors should do alot of good and no bad.

Anyway, I hope more than anything right now that Mao can make finals this time!

This. 6 GPF entries isn't much. Maybe that's one of the reasons why the sport ain't that popular much except for the countries who can place a lot of skaters in main events. What's worse... they already limited the number of entries for each GP event and took out the qualifying events at worlds limiting skaters even further. So many good skaters so few international spots to compete at.

Anyway, CoR just crushed my hopes of having 5 Japanese men in the final. I hope Mao and Akiko will do better at NHK. If Akiko gets silver wll she be at GPF? As for Mao, I think if she fixes those URs esp the flip she'll score a lot better than what she's got so far.

I just learn that for GPF, we can have more than 3 entries from the same country as long as the skaters qualify for GPF. That sounds fair. I always feel sorry for those skaters who have the ability to rank top 5 internationally but are refrained from entering major international championships, simply because there are not enough spots for his/her country.

roma wrote:

PochinkoPotanko wrote:

I think only 6 is rather strict. If ISU wants to make the sport more popular, having 9 competitors should do alot of good and no bad.

Anyway, I hope more than anything right now that Mao can make finals this time!

This. 6 GPF entries isn't much. Maybe that's one of the reasons why the sport ain't that popular much except for the countries who can place a lot of skaters in main events. What's worse... they already limited the number of entries for each GP event and took out the qualifying events at worlds limiting skaters even further. So many good skaters so few international spots to compete at.

Anyway, CoR just crushed my hopes of having 5 Japanese men in the final. I hope Mao and Akiko will do better at NHK. If Akiko gets silver wll she be at GPF? As for Mao, I think if she fixes those URs esp the flip she'll score a lot better than what she's got so far.

yes, if Akiko wins the silver medal at NHK, she will surely make the GPF! And she has a good chance even if she places 3rd (it would depend on Gao's TEB placement...)

Mao2012 wrote:

roma wrote:

PochinkoPotanko wrote:

I think only 6 is rather strict. If ISU wants to make the sport more popular, having 9 competitors should do alot of good and no bad.

Anyway, I hope more than anything right now that Mao can make finals this time!

This. 6 GPF entries isn't much. Maybe that's one of the reasons why the sport ain't that popular much except for the countries who can place a lot of skaters in main events. What's worse... they already limited the number of entries for each GP event and took out the qualifying events at worlds limiting skaters even further. So many good skaters so few international spots to compete at.

Anyway, CoR just crushed my hopes of having 5 Japanese men in the final. I hope Mao and Akiko will do better at NHK. If Akiko gets silver wll she be at GPF? As for Mao, I think if she fixes those URs esp the flip she'll score a lot better than what she's got so far.

yes, if Akiko wins the silver medal at NHK, she will surely make the GPF! And she has a good chance even if she places 3rd (it would depend on Gao's TEB placement...)

Thanks for confirming Mao2012! And I agree with your predictions:

Quote :

1) Chan
2) Kozuka
3) takahashi
4) Machida
5) Fernandez/Amodio/Hanyu
6) Fernandez/Amodio/Hanyu

But with the exception of Pattie, Machida and Takahiko who've already earned their tickets, I honestly have no idea which of the rest will make it. Amodio has the most lowest chance at this point, but there's always so much surprised in GPS, I can never be sure even for Dai...he never mentioned it in public himself, but from reliable sources it seems he renewed his skating shoes, and has been having trouble adapting to them. He probabaly did so after JO, cause he was skating brilliantly then.

There were some rumors btw about Polina withdrawing from NHK because of this article which seems to say that she got injured so she will:

http://rsport.ru/figure_skating/20121108/629299254.html

Alot of Kaetlyn fans seemed overjoyed about this assuming she'll be Polina's replacement. But Polina hasn't officially announced withdrawing at this point so even if she did withdraw, it seems too late for Kaetlyn or anyone else to enter NHK instead of her (according to FSU folks, unless Polina announced that she'll withdraw by the 8th~9th of this month it was too late anyway). But it bothered me that some of Kaetlyn's fans kept on assuming Polina out without any sincere words on her injury, and they also went on assuming as if she won't drop out until the last minute cause the Russians didn't want other countrie's skaters to benefit from it, not to mention they also assumed JSF won't 'invite' Kaetlyn cause she's a threat to Mao, Akiko and Haruka...Some of her fans also said in another thread that Kaetlyn should be given another entry in GPS in place of some other skater who has no chance of making it to Finals even if they do not drop out! Their posts got so much on my nerves today! Accusing the Russian Fed and our Fed as if they were so cold and mean like that...purely all based on mere wishful thinking! One of them even had the nerve to say that JSF should let Kaetlyn enter NHK, because our Jpnse girls all got 'easy' assignments. If you were to ask me, nobody gets 'easy' assignments, and I'd say that SC was the most difficult assignment any non-Canadian skater can get with all that home advantage inflation going on!

I truely hope Polina is not that seriously injured, and can be well and fit by NHK!

PochinkoPotanko wrote:

Mao2012 wrote:

roma wrote:

PochinkoPotanko wrote:

I think only 6 is rather strict. If ISU wants to make the sport more popular, having 9 competitors should do alot of good and no bad.

Anyway, I hope more than anything right now that Mao can make finals this time!

This. 6 GPF entries isn't much. Maybe that's one of the reasons why the sport ain't that popular much except for the countries who can place a lot of skaters in main events. What's worse... they already limited the number of entries for each GP event and took out the qualifying events at worlds limiting skaters even further. So many good skaters so few international spots to compete at.

Anyway, CoR just crushed my hopes of having 5 Japanese men in the final. I hope Mao and Akiko will do better at NHK. If Akiko gets silver wll she be at GPF? As for Mao, I think if she fixes those URs esp the flip she'll score a lot better than what she's got so far.

yes, if Akiko wins the silver medal at NHK, she will surely make the GPF! And she has a good chance even if she places 3rd (it would depend on Gao's TEB placement...)

Thanks for confirming Mao2012! And I agree with your predictions:

Quote :

1) Chan
2) Kozuka
3) takahashi
4) Machida
5) Fernandez/Amodio/Hanyu
6) Fernandez/Amodio/Hanyu

But with the exception of Pattie, Machida and Takahiko who've already earned their tickets, I honestly have no idea which of the rest will make it. Amodio has the most lowest chance at this point, but there's always so much surprised in GPS, I can never be sure even for Dai...he never mentioned it in public himself, but from reliable sources it seems he renewed his skating shoes, and has been having trouble adapting to them. He probabaly did so after JO, cause he was skating brilliantly then.

There were some rumors btw about Polina withdrawing from NHK because of this article which seems to say that she got injured so she will:

http://rsport.ru/figure_skating/20121108/629299254.html

Alot of Kaetlyn fans seemed overjoyed about this assuming she'll be Polina's replacement. But Polina hasn't officially announced withdrawing at this point so even if she did withdraw, it seems too late for Kaetlyn or anyone else to enter NHK instead of her (according to FSU folks, unless Polina announced that she'll withdraw by the 8th~9th of this month it was too late anyway). But it bothered me that some of Kaetlyn's fans kept on assuming Polina out without any sincere words on her injury, and they also went on assuming as if she won't drop out until the last minute cause the Russians didn't want other countrie's skaters to benefit from it, not to mention they also assumed JSF won't 'invite' Kaetlyn cause she's a threat to Mao, Akiko and Haruka...Some of her fans also said in another thread that Kaetlyn should be given another entry in GPS in place of some other skater who has no chance of making it to Finals even if they do not drop out! Their posts got so much on my nerves today! Accusing the Russian Fed and our Fed as if they were so cold and mean like that...purely all based on mere wishful thinking! One of them even had the nerve to say that JSF should let Kaetlyn enter NHK, because our Jpnse girls all got 'easy' assignments. If you were to ask me, nobody gets 'easy' assignments, and I'd say that SC was the most difficult assignment any non-Canadian skater can get with all that home advantage inflation going on!

I truely hope Polina is not that seriously injured, and can be well and fit by NHK!

WOW, that's absurd. I don't think the Kaetlyn is a thred to the Russian or the Japanese fed. Not that I don't like her...It's so childish to think this way. From which website did you get these info from ?

I think she was talking about FSuniverse or GSForum, but I agree that both Mao and Suzuki have nothing to fear from Kaetlyn, she's just a girl, they are women on ice, and, if she skates good, she can push Mao and Akiko to skate better and make NHK a better competition!
Anyway, TEB looks really a weak competition for the men: as I said, Amodio has the best chance to win, considering the poor shape Weir, Joubert, Song, Abbott have shown in their past GPS, I think he actually can make the final, winning TEB, unless Hanyu wins NHK (probable thing, considering Takahashi's problems!). And, I think that we can also put Javier into the "secure" men in the final, I don't think he'll place 3rd or lower at NHK. Hanyu and Dai will fight for the last spot, I think... Or, if Jeremy wins TEB, they will both qualify even if they place 2nd and 3rd!

Well according to the source Kayo posted, Polina already WD

Mirai officially got added to NHK!!!

Alokya wrote:

Mirai officially got added to NHK!!!

Yey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is great news !

good for Mirai, she really deserved this second assignment!

Well, here's the ISU document with Mirai's name added to the NHK list:
http://isu.sportcentric.net/db//files/serve.php?id=3982

roma wrote:

Well, here's the ISU document with Mirai's name added to the NHK list:
http://isu.sportcentric.net/db//files/serve.php?id=3982

I'm so happy about this!!!!! I think most Jpnse figure fans including me would love to see her perform in our country again. And although I was thinking that Kaetlyn should be given a chance in NHK when you consider how she did in SC (still, inflated IMO)...it's some of her selfish fans whom I dislike not her...when you compare all that Mirai had accomplished in the past, a single surprise win at a home advantaged GPS competition is not enough to take away a second chance for Mirai.

Even if JSF did have the last word on choosing a replacement for Polina, and they chose Mirai instead of Kaetlyn because they felt the latter was more a threat to Jpnse ladies, I don't think anybody has much of a right to blame them because any other country's Fed would've done the same as well. Besides that, I think any skater has the potential of becoming a threat to Jpnse ladies, even those who didn't do so well in their first assignments. Take Brezina and Gracie again for instance...they were pretty messed up in their first assignments but did quite well in their second ones making the podium. Mirai hasn't been in that good a shape after Vancouver was over, but she too still has a chance as mush as Kaetlyn to make the podium in NHK, if not making Finals. We've already seen enough so far that anything can actually happen in GPS.

ddmm wrote:

WOW, that's absurd. I don't think the Kaetlyn is a thred to the Russian or the Japanese fed. Not that I don't like her...It's so childish to think this way. From which website did you get these info from ?

FSU, ddmm...haven't been there afterwards, but by now I assume Kaetlyn's fans there might be complaining about Mirai getting the spot for NHK. There were 2 topic threads I was referring to in my former post; one was titled 'Kaetlyn Osmond - Hope of Canada' which was obviously filled only with Canadian Kaetlyn fans, the other was titled 'Kaetlyn Osmond - Will/should she be given a second Grand Prix ?' which had a more rational discussion on the matter (but I can't access it anymore...they must've closed it or something).

This is great news, I'm so happy for Mirai!

As for Kaetlyn, while she was good and (unfairly) won SC, grand prix assignements are not given based on how you do at current grand prix, but are given according to last season or world rankings. This is why (IMO) Mirai is the right choice for NHK. Beside, I honestly don't see Kaetlyn receiving the same inflated score as she had at SC, so no, I don't think the reason for not choosing Kaetlyn, has anything to do with JSF being affraid of her.

As for Kaetlyn fans, they need to chill. The fact is, if any other skater had skated to such junior-ish program, they would NEVER receive such a ridiculously high score, IMO.

zarinaballerina wrote:

This is great news, I'm so happy for Mirai!

As for Kaetlyn, while she was good and (unfairly) won SC, grand prix assignements are not given based on how you do at current grand prix, but are given according to last season or world rankings. This is why (IMO) Mirai is the right choice for NHK. Beside, I honestly don't see Kaetlyn receiving the same inflated score as she had at SC, so no, I don't think the reason for not choosing Kaetlyn, has anything to do with JSF being affraid of her.

As for Kaetlyn fans, they need to chill. The fact is, if any other skater had skated to such junior-ish program, they would NEVER receive such a ridiculously high score, IMO.

I checked with some others in our Jpnse forum, and just returned to post the same. It seems that world rankings say alot in cases like this as you've pointed out, so I think we can assume that the replacement slot was given to Mirai, not because Kaetlyn won at SC. Especially when this isn't the first time they gave an empty slot to a skater who has less chances in making Finals according to the scores he/she already has compared to some other skater. It's nice to know they basically choose replacements in this way, cause as I've posted before, in the end you can never be sure what can happen in GPS. Nobody can ever say Mirai doesn't have a chance to make it to Finals, but Kaetlyn does. If all the other leading girls mess up, there's no telling how the outcome would be. But of course that's not what I'm hoping for to happen at NHK!

But should any of our girls mess up and lose their tickets to Finals at NHK, I would surely prefer Mirai to do well and make Finals rather than having Kaetlyn entering and doing the same. This is just a matter of taste, and also my admirance for skaters who've been competing much longer. I've always enjoyed Mirai's performances even when she gets battered with URs, because on the whole she skates neatly and her spins are simply beautiful. Even with all that great energy she had in her performances, Kaetlyn is (at the moment) a skater who's just not my cup of tea. I've been Mao's fan for quite a while now, and I've gotten so used to her neatness and smoothness...energetic but sloppy skaters never impress me however clean they seemed to have performed.

hmm, i may be the only one here who would rather sees kaetlyn at NHK trophy than mirai. simply because i don't enjoy mirai's skating anymore. her spins and speed on the ice are almost non-existent to me since there's something so diluted and untasteful about her programs. she gives me the impression that she doesn't skate to her fullest potential on purpose just by judging from the song choices and choreogaphy. i realized as a skating fan, after the vancouver olympics, spunkiness on ice just isn't my taste. i don't care if kaetlyn was overscored or unfairly won skate canada. she's a fresh new face and i find her skating appealing.

swan wrote:

hmm, i may be the only one here who would rather sees kaetlyn at NHK trophy than mirai. simply because i don't enjoy mirai's skating anymore. her spins and speed on the ice are almost non-existent to me since there's something so diluted and untasteful about her programs. she gives me the impression that she doesn't skate to her fullest potential on purpose just by judging from the song choices and choreogaphy. i realized as a skating fan, after the vancouver olympics, spunkiness on ice just isn't my taste. i don't care if kaetlyn was overscored or unfairly won skate canada. she's a fresh new face and i find her skating appealing.

I think the same way as you! I think anyone who medal at a GP should have the possibility to have another grand prix because the GPF itself is for the winners and medalists (in most part) or the grand prix! However, I don't really care if she doesn't get a second one this year. There is no hurry, she is still young. However, she deserves the spot more than Nagasu in my opinion. But I get why the JSF chose Nagasu instead, it's totally logic.

To me, Mirai deserves that second spot. I think she's been bypassed too many times already. However, if Alissa is really still not ready reading about her current setback and withdraws, then I hope she does so asap so that the spot can still get filled and that it'd be Kaetlyn. Makes NHK even more interesting.

if alissa isn't ready. i'm afraid she may be forced into retirement if she doesn't show up at nhk trophy. there are so many wonderful qualities to her skating.

fingers crossed for mao to win first at nhk trophy!

roma wrote:

To me, Mirai deserves that second spot. I think she's been bypassed too many times already. However, if Alissa is really still not ready reading about her current setback and withdraws, then I hope she does so asap so that the spot can still get filled and that it'd be Kaetlyn. Makes NHK even more interesting.

I completely agree, however if I were ISU I'd make a substitute list accordig to world ranking, and in case of withdrawal I'd pick whoever is first in line on that list, regardless of what the host country thinks or wants. This way everyone knows who's next in case someone withdraws and there's no "skater x got robbed" cries from the fans.

I don't think Kaetlyn should get a special treatment simply because she happened to win SC. There was a reason she was given only 1 gp, if she were a JGP or JWR medallist then that would be a different story. This has nothing to do with me not being her fan, I'd say the exact same thing for any other skater who'd be in Kaetlyn position. GP's are "awarded/given" to skaters according to certain critteria, if you don't meet this criteria, than wait until you do. IMO of course.

it's official that Alissa WD...so there is one more headcount open for now.
Let's wait and see.

NHK update: Alissa has withdrawn from NHK. No replacement announcement yet.

http://isu.sportcentric.net/db//files/serve.php?id=3987

Did she withdraw too late or can they still replace her with someone else?