Japan Nationals

OMG! I'm so exciting about Japanese Nats I wan't to see Mao again so badly, but men competition will be epic too!!!!!!

I agree with Pochi and Polosatik, the best oportunity for Mao to try the 3A is at Japanesse Nationals, if she succed it, she can go for it in next competitions, with more confident, if she doen't succed it, it doesn't hurt her to much

The SP is the best place for Mao's 3A, her FS layout is quite good, she doesn't need the 3A to win (Nats, 4CC, worlds), she needs a clean FS. BTW, I don't care to much about the 3Lz either, if she can jump it decently, it's ok for now, the most important is her 3F, if she got a strong 3F, she can use it for 3-3

GO MAO, you can do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

shar wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjW7-NcVheA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

This is one of her best 3A.

That's a great attempt, one of the best indeed! I think I agree with those who said she is likely to include it in the short program, not the long. Someone on goldenskate posted the base values of jumps in the long program of top skaters and Mao's 7 triple program is already the most expensive, her base value is higher than Yuna's 6 triples. She will loose on GOE and due to the edge call, but overall her LP score should be very comparable with Yuna and higher than everyone else. It is the SP where she will have a lower score than both Yuna and Carolina if everyone is clean, so to me it also makes most sense for her to attempt it in the short.
Go Mao

Not sure if this was already posted, but Mao is no 22 in the SP. So she's 4th in the 4th group (second to final group).

dangerous_angel_face wrote:

Not sure if this was already posted, but Mao is no 22 in the SP. So she's 4th in the 4th group (second to final group).

When SP is going to start?

roma wrote:

3A in practice. Looking pretty good to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq27K4NBCmw

What a pretty 3a! I hope Mao will try it in the SP, the 2a is her 1st jump and she really doesn't have anything to lose here.

polosatik wrote:

dangerous_angel_face wrote:

Not sure if this was already posted, but Mao is no 22 in the SP. So she's 4th in the 4th group (second to final group).

When SP is going to start?

Here is the practice/competition schedule: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/17663126/2012-12-03schedule.pdf
And another schedule: http://deep-edge.net/event_detail.php?No=590

According to both, ladies SP is on 12/22, 13:35-17:35 Japan time.
In the first schedule you can see times group by group, and it looks like Mao's 4th group is scheduled to start around 16:00 local time.

that was an absolutely breathtaking 3A, hope Mao will go for it soon!

babayaga wrote:

polosatik wrote:

dangerous_angel_face wrote:

Not sure if this was already posted, but Mao is no 22 in the SP. So she's 4th in the 4th group (second to final group).

When SP is going to start?

Here is the practice/competition schedule: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/17663126/2012-12-03schedule.pdf
And another schedule: http://deep-edge.net/event_detail.php?No=590

According to both, ladies SP is on 12/22, 13:35-17:35 Japan time.
In the first schedule you can see times group by group, and it looks like Mao's 4th group is scheduled to start around 16:00 local time.

Thank you!!!

Clear video of her 3A. She actually landed it twice
I really feel she is more secure about landing them Is it just me or it looks also like she has more speed when going for the jump?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsPZVS55n2o

Thank you for the clips and news.

Great 3As!! Mao, you are sooooooo great!! The second 3A clip clearly shows her air position and she's made it. She's acquired new technique. I'm crying for happiness that she's getting there and admiration for her great efforts.

Now the issue is if she can nail it at competitions. According to news articles, Mao said she would probably not attempt it at nationals because she didn't do run-throughs with 3A in practices.

http://mainichi.jp/sports/news/20121221k0000m050057000c.html
http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2012/12/21/kiji/K20121221004818940.html

Sato team is famous for its "homestretch" (oikomi) before competitions in which Taka and Mao do run-throughs repeatedly by taking turns. I can understand she'll be less confident to attempt 3A at nationals if she didn't do it with 3A at all in practices. I hope Mao takes it easy, don't rush. She's been making progress step by step and I hope she keeps her own comfortable pace.

I don't know how heavy this "homestretch" was for Mao this time because of her back pain. I'm worried too that she didn't see a doctor. She said she had radiofrequency treatment and it worked to relieve the pain though. I hope she will take a good care of herself. As she said her body is no longer very young.


ETA: Thanks Dani-chan for the clip. I agree she has more speed before jump!

linglang wrote:

Thank you for the clips and news.

Great 3As!! Mao, you are sooooooo great!! The second 3A clip clearly shows her air position and she's made it. She's acquired new technique. I'm crying for happiness that she's getting there and admiration for her great efforts.

Now the issue is if she can nail it at competitions. According to news articles, Mao said she would probably not attempt it at nationals because she didn't do run-throughs with 3A in practices.

http://mainichi.jp/sports/news/20121221k0000m050057000c.html
http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2012/12/21/kiji/K20121221004818940.html

Sato team is famous for its "homestretch" (oikomi) before competitions in which Taka and Mao do run-throughs repeatedly by taking turns. I can understand she'll be less confident to attempt 3A at nationals if she didn't do it with 3A at all in practices. I hope Mao takes it easy, don't rush. She's been making progress step by step and I hope she keeps her own comfortable pace.

I don't know how heavy this "homestretch" was for Mao this time because of her back pain. I'm worried too that she didn't see a doctor. She said she had radiofrequency treatment and it worked to relieve the pain though. I hope she will take a good care of herself. As she said her body is no longer very young.


ETA: Thanks Dani-chan for the clip. I agree she has more speed before jump!

thank you linglang~I am too busy to update all news since all westerners want to rush out things before Christmas
I think we don't need to worry about if she goes to hospital or not. sometimes they didn't say it didn't mean they didn't do it.
After I read one of article for Haruka, I understand that we don't know how often all of them go to see doctor or do physiotherapy.
all of them may have injury ...small ones...big ones, even the injury in Nice world of Yuzuru based on what he said is "he has the injury from when he was kid"
I think the team, not only Satos, also ppl from IMG will take care of her
for having 3A or not, I think we can know the answer from run-through for SP, since she said that in beginning of season that she won't decide that in 6 mins warm-up.

What u guise think, it was enough rotated? (big gif ahead :')

Dani-Chan wrote:

What u guise think, it was enough rotated? (big gif ahead :')

Yes, I think it is fully rotated. If she has the same level in competition, she will receive full credit and maybe +1 GOE, which is 9.5 points,

Has the competition started?

Mao_Asada_sunrise wrote:

Has the competition started?

Yes, I think the competition today starts with the ice dance. There's live updates here (but in Japanese):
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/channel/live/show/winter/1457 (Ice dance)

BTW, Men's SP will start in about 40-50 mins. Here's the live updates:
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/channel/live/show/winter/1458

any live links where we will be able to watch the competiton?

Keyhole TV has always worked for me in the past. Which channels?

For people that are watching - please keep me updated! I have two doctor's appointments tomorrow and can't watch, but I would love to see the play-by-play/first reactions out of you!

COHK wrote:

Mao_Asada_sunrise wrote:

Has the competition started?

Yes, I think the competition today starts with the ice dance. There's live updates here (but in Japanese):
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/channel/live/show/winter/1457 (Ice dance)

BTW, Men's SP will start in about 40-50 mins. Here's the live updates:
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/channel/live/show/winter/1458

I'm back after a few hours, so what were the results?

Mao_Asada_sunrise wrote:

COHK wrote:

Mao_Asada_sunrise wrote:

Has the competition started?

Yes, I think the competition today starts with the ice dance. There's live updates here (but in Japanese):
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/channel/live/show/winter/1457 (Ice dance)

BTW, Men's SP will start in about 40-50 mins. Here's the live updates:
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/channel/live/show/winter/1458

I'm back after a few hours, so what were the results?

It's still going, Shomo Uno just skated and he's second for now. Mura will be the first to skate from top contenders, still 3 skaters to go before him.

Mura 4-3, 3A, 3Lz, 84.48
Announcer said 3Lz might be a little bit earlier than the last half so it might not get x1.1 benefit.

Akio is on the ice!

Mura skated clean and got 84.48 for his SP! Congrats!

Akio is fun to watch. He's loved by Japanese figure skating fans so much.

ETA: Akio landed all jumps cleanly and 74.92!!

Go Tono!!

It's indeed an exciting competition. NOt only Mura landed a quad but Sasaki (an relatively unknown skater abroad) skated clean. Too bad Oda fell on his quad but his skating was gorgeous!

Oda 80.75

Taka starting