Cup of China 2008

Nice score for Miki, considering she underrotated 3F.

It's so rare to see her mess up a jump other than 3L in the combo! I think she is working on being able to land it right out of steps in order not to receive negative GoE. She's a fighter.
She looked very sad in the K&C. I hope she feels better soon, that was a good fight she put up.

YuNa seemed to skate with no mistakes, but the score is low for her standards. I wonder what happened. 3Lz was probably downgraded - it looked not nearly close to being fully rotated.

Laura was great!

I found a vid of Yu-na's practice of sp at CoC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imw0j_yA0YY

Thanks for the update inskate! Oh gosh...I completely forgot CoC started on the fifth. I also completely forgot that China is close in terms of time zones to Japan, and did not follow the event live as I did with SA and SC!

I'm really liking Ashley this year. Out of the "Fantastic Four" ladies medalists at the US Nats '08, she just might be the one with a fighting chance at going to the GPF (and 55 even with a fall is very impressive for a skater who has yet to be "recognized" by the judges and get those reputation points!

Weird seeing Yu-Na with 64 points when PBP'ers from most forums seem to agree that aesthetically speaking, it was a much better performance than at SA. The judges really seem to hate Mira Leung too. I thought she improved a great deal compared to past seasons but 40 points? Eek!

I will make sure I'll watch the FS live tho (haha), and good luck to all the skaters!

(I'm not surprised at all that the Zhangs are leading in pairs and D/S in dancing).

ETA: According to fans at the Yu-Na forums and FSU, Yu-Na was apparently dinged for UR on her lutz and an "e" for her flip. Hmm. Well, to be honest, I can't say I'm surprised. I already said this before, but ever since her SA performances, her flip has consistently been taken off from the outside when it used to be flat or slight-inside takeoff. I wonder why her flip has become this way, she seems much more fit and physically stronger this year.

ETA2: Thanks for the confirmation Cera on Miki's combo!

According to some ppl who watched the sp, Miki's 3-3 was fine, didn't look underrotated at all. rather, it was her 3F which looked UR and had a bad landing.

cera wrote:

According to some ppl who watched the sp, Miki's 3-3 was fine, didn't look underrotated at all. rather, it was her 3F which looked UR and had a bad landing.

Yes, this is what I meant by writing "It's so rare to see her mess up a jump other than 3L in the combo!" - that she usually has great jumps and only her 3L gets downgraded sometimes, so it's rare to see a messed up 3F. As I wrote, I think she's working on being able to land it right out of steps in order not to get GoE deduction, like it happened at SA.

I'm not really surprised at YuNa's deduction, either. Her toe jumps look definitely worse this season. I think judges were still willing to give her a benefit of doubt at SA, but not so much here at CoC. I think she plans to peak later in the season, though, and will certainly work on her jumps (and spins, which were sort of weak, especially the sit spin).

I missed Ashley and look forward to seeing her on YT.

hmm...according to Brian Orser in the practice vid above, she'd been focusing a lot on her jumps. But I think her team plan for her to peak later.

However, there has been a lot of furor lately over her flip jump in particular, and she did mention that she keeps close tabs on her competitors, on what they are doing and so forth. And so it is reasonable to assume that she would have come across mention of such perceived jump issues that she has. I believe this may have affected her. Note, I said may...because the jump that she reportedly had trouble on was not the flip but rather the lutz.

I'm happy that Miki's 3-3 is not downgraded!!!
I hope she can go for quad sal for FS!!

I just watched videos in better quality... Miki is so beautiful. I think I preffered the costume she wore at Hackensack, though... Not that this one is bad, I just think Miki looks stunning in wine-red dresses. 3-3 was great!

Did anyone see the Simpsons YuNa banner? I nearly died laughing.

Still no Ashley on YT.

Okami wrote:

I think I preffered the costume she wore at Hackensack, though... Not that this one is bad, I just think Miki looks stunning in wine-red dresses.

I totally agree with you about the costume!! I think that red dress suits her music more as well

Yu-na fans are acting like its the end of the world even though she still leads after the SP... I think their expectation is just tooooo extreme.

Congratulations to the top ladies! I enjoyed the programs quite a lot. Great to see Miki finally get her 3-3 ratified. And I agree that the red dress was stunning. Maybe she's keeping it for Worlds?

Quote :

Yu-na fans are acting like its the end of the world even though she still leads after the SP... I think their expectation is just tooooo extreme.

You should check recent posts on Golden Skate and Youtube. I think the poor Technical Caller will be forced to change name and move to Sahara or hide under some rock.

Not all YuNa fans are flipping out, though - I've seen some reasonable posts acknowledging the faulty technique and saying it's better that it got noticed now (when there's time to fix it) than risk YuNa getting a nasty surprise at Worlds or Olys (like it happened to Joubert and Weir).

I must say that I'm all and at myself, because I totally got the GP events' dates mixed up and I though TEB was scheduled for this weekend. I must be too eager to see Mao's programs already. The practice clips at least should be available soon?!

Good luck to all the skaters in the LP/OD/FD!

Oh, I forgot to add: I was surprised by Zhangs, they improved a lot!

Speaking of GoldenSkate, I feel like slapping the user fiercemao for continuing to add fuel to fire in the Mao vs. Yu-Na war. At the same time though, I'm still in disbelief at the number of people saying Yu-Na's flip this year is still textbook flat!

I guess with any sport, its the die-hard fanatics with close-minded opinions that ruin it for the majority. I remember a poster on one of Mao's 2008 Worlds LP clips saying something along the lines of "now I know figure skating is a real sport, since their fans constantly bicker just like in soccer, basketball, football, etc."

On a more serious note though, the inconsistencies with marking the elements is definitely bugging me ever since Worlds. I think it's time to remove the TS and the assistant, and have a more comprehensive "technical panel" of a few ppl...

ETA: Thanks a bunch cera for the link. Ashley looks VERY good - I hope she can nail her combo in the long!

Ah! Ashley's sp is up!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYnwPFo7cAc

clovera wrote:

Speaking of GoldenSkate, I feel like slapping the user fiercemao for continuing to add fuel to fire in the Mao vs. Yu-Na war. At the same time though, I'm still in disbelief at the number of people saying Yu-Na's flip this year is still textbook flat!

yes. I'm tired of it too.
the user fiercemao's bad languages at golden skate forums.
(first of all I don' like this username. it's not appropriate for the official forum.)
and goyunakim and others posting nasty vids on youtube.
all of them are just absurd. I hate them. that's it.


and Thank you cera!!
I'm sooooo looking forward to her SP!
I love this music very much.
Her performance is wow. I nearly cried at her spiral sequence.
go Ashley

Ashley is so sweet! Her program was very soft, lyrical I love it
I'm not a fan of Miki but her short program looks really good , but I disagree with you guys about her costume It's too busy for me.
Did Yu-Na have problems with flip before?

Congrads to Yu-na and Miki for gold and silver! Miki deserved higher points though... Too bad she didn't do the quad, but anyways... She smiles so nicely!

Ladies FS has just ended~!

Final Result:
1 Yu-Na KIM KOR 191.75 1 1
2 Miki ANDO JPN 170.88 2 2
3 Laura LEPISTO FIN 159.42 3 3
4 Ashley WAGNER USA 155.59 4 4
5 Susanna POYKIO FIN 148.03 6 5
6 Sarah MEIER SUI 142.31 7 6
7 Alena LEONOVA RUS 137.27 8 7
8 Katrina HACKER USA 134.95 5 8
9 Yan LIU CHN 118.07 9 10
10 Binshu XU CHN 116.59 11 9
11 Mira LEUNG CAN 114.05 10 11
12 Yueren WANG CHN 95.68 12 12

Free Skate:
1 Yu-Na KIM KOR 128.11 66.43 61.68 7.75 7.30 7.90 7.80 7.80 0.00 #12
2 Miki ANDO JPN 111.58 55.18 56.40 7.15 6.65 7.05 7.25 7.15 0.00 #11
3 Laura LEPISTO FIN 100.82 48.82 52.00 6.60 6.15 6.55 6.55 6.65 0.00 #10
4 Ashley WAGNER USA 100.19 50.11 50.08 6.25 6.05 6.25 6.40 6.35 0.00 #9
5 Susanna POYKIO FIN 98.03 49.23 48.80 6.25 5.80 6.10 6.25 6.10 0.00 #7
6 Sarah MEIER SUI 94.21 45.01 49.20 6.35 5.80 6.10 6.25 6.25 0.00 #6
7 Alena LEONOVA RUS 93.23 51.43 42.80 5.45 4.90 5.60 5.35 5.45 1.00 #5
8 Katrina HACKER USA 84.15 41.07 44.08 5.65 5.20 5.65 5.60 5.45 1.00 #8
9 Binshu XU CHN 79.57 42.13 37.44 4.95 4.30 4.80 4.65 4.70 0.00 #2
10 Yan LIU CHN 76.01 36.25 39.76 5.25 4.55 4.85 5.15 5.05 0.00 #4
11 Mira LEUNG CAN 73.29 35.13 38.16 5.05 4.55 4.75 4.80 4.70 0.00 #3
12 Yueren WANG CHN 61.02 28.42 33.60 4.50 3.90 4.30 4.30 4.00 1.00 #1

Unlike SA and SC, CoC was not a splatfest (especially compared to last year), so it was very enjoyable as a whole.

Yu-Na is unsurprisingly in first - her FS I felt was better here, and the elements were not as shaky too. I felt her score was a teensy bit higher than I expected, considering that there is one less spin this year for the ladies and the step-out on the 3Lz, but nevertheless very solid and complete program. She didn't look as tense here either. Wonderful expression and movements throughout.

Miki is in second. Aesthetically she did much better here - there was more freedom to her skating, her step sequence was very nice, and Miki had some big smiles throughout the entire program. I feel very happy for her!

Laura did OK - she popped a couple of jumps, but her SP lead and presentation secured her the 3rd spot.

Ashley continues to impress me. She was 4th here, but she just ATTACKED her program with so much speed, and a mix of desire and passion that all the other American ladies lack right now (although CaroZ and Mirai have injuries, and Rachael was just in her first senior assignment so I'll give them leeway). She kinda went crazy and full of fire in the step sequence near the end, but her energy is a nice change. Not to mention her FS costume is very interesting.

Fully-rotating a jump looks like the key to good scores this year. Best wishes to Mao when TEB comes up next week!

*When Miki's FS was over and the crowd were throwing flower/stuffed animals, one of the guests didn't have enough power to throw the stuffed toy, and it ended up landing near the judges' area!

*I'm actually glad Miki isn't actually challenging the quad in competition. I don't want her already problematic back/shoulder to go through any more injuries, and although she lands them in practice and does them well, it seems to be the only thing the Japanese media seems to care about. I doubt half of the general population even knows about Miki's physical condition, and how she isn't forcing herself to do the higher level spins like she did in the Olympic/06-07 season and choosing to stay healthy instead.

*ETA: Protocols are up. Oh wow, Yu-Na got +2.0 for her spiral. That's Sasha level +GOE for spirals... She got a "!" on her flip though, judges are definitely not giving her any doubts about her flip this time (didn't Orser express his annoyance about that in the SP?). Miki had both the loop in her combo and her flip downgraded. Ashley had two "e"s on her lutz too, like last season.

Congratulations to the medalists!

I'm watching dance now. W/P were surprisingly good!

I'm impressed with Miki'sprogress as well. It looks like she's taking a leaf out of Mao's book and trying to improve in all the areas (though her injury certainly doesn't make it easy).

Jeremy Abott just won the men's event, and by a huge margin, too!

And so, with Jeremy's victory, CoC concludes.

Now bring on TEB!

I had also expected more points. This is only the beginning of Miki's season. There's more to come...