Japanese Sectionals '10

It looks like GS and FSU have already covered this to an extent, but I'll just post results and whatnot for those who are interested and want to discuss.
I didn't cover Regionals as I have last season...just noticed that.

Eastern Sectionals
http://www.skatingjapan.jp/National/2010-2011/fs/east/index.htm

[Top 6 - Senior Men]
1. Yuzuru Hanyu 1 1 240.72
2. Hayato Odajima 3 2 174.73
3. Takuya Kondo 2 3 170.43
4. Akio Sasaki 4 4 156.60
5. Yuki Horiunochi 5 5 143.44
6. Naoto Saito 6 6 139.86

[Top 6 - Senior Ladies]
1. Mutsumi Takayama 3 1 125.76
2. Shoko Ishikawa 1 2 123.80
3. Mari Suzuki 2 3 120.39
4. Risa Mochizuki 4 4 113.42
5. Nana Takeda 6 6 106.85
6. Hikaru Nasuno 5 7 106.23

[Top 6 - Junior Men]
1. Kento Nakamura 1 3 155.60
2. Jun Suzuki 9 1 139.37
3. Fumiya Itai 3 2 138.39
4. Daisuke Isozaki 2 4 134.54
5. Eiki Hattori 7 6 124.37
6. Satoshi Nakamura 5 7 124.08

[Top 7 - Junior Ladies]
1. Risa Shoji 8 1 140.15
2. Roanna Sari Oshikawa 2 2 126.74
3. Karen Kemanai 4 3 125.71
4. Yuka Toyama 3 5 122.18
5. Haruna Suzuki 1 9 118.90
6. Honoka Kawanishi 5 6 118.55
7. Yuki Nishino 11 4 118.35

Western Sectionals
http://www.skatingjapan.jp/National/2010-2011/fs/west/index.htm
[Top 6 - Senior Men]
1. Takahito Mura 1 1 195.18
2. Kensuke Nakaniwa 2 2 189.78
3. Tomoyuki Koriyama 3 3 169.06
4. Yukihiro Yoshida 5 4 161.68
5. Junki Sano 4 5 150.02
6. Koshin Yamada 7 6 135.63

[Top 7 - Senior Ladies]
1. Kanako Murakami 1 1 176.93
2. Ayumi Goto 3 2 149.96
3. Yuka Kono 6 3 136.91
4. Ayane Nakamura 2 5 128.22
5. Aki Sawada 4 6 122.56
6. Shion Kokubun 7 7 119.85
7. Rumi Suizu 9 4 118.06

[Top 6 - Junior Men]
1. Ryuju Hino 2 1 192.53
2. Keiji Tanaka 1 3 173.93
3. Ryuichi Kihara 3 2 167.62
4. Yoji Tsuboi 5 4 154.45
5. Kosuke Nozoe 4 5 145.36
6. Sei Kawahara 6 6 135.05

[Top 6 - Junior Ladies]
1. Kako Tomotaki 3 1 143.24
2. Miyabi Oba 4 2 140.39
3. Yukiko Fujisawa 1 3 136.45
4. Rina Kondo 8 4 128.25
5. Ayaka Hosoda 6 7 126.29
6. Saya Ueno 5 9 124.88

Quick thoughts:
Score is inflated, but Yuzuru absolutely destroys the competition. Negative GoEs only came from the edge call on the flip; everything else received a +. Very impressive!
Strong SP from Kanako again, but the FS is still a tad inconsistent. Unlike NHK, there's no falls this time though and her 3T-3T is as solid as ever. Easily wins her event as well.
Not the best showing from both Takahito and Kento in their respective categories. Kento is still very up-and-down.
Yukiko ends up 3rd in her category, while Yuki has a major meltdown in the SP and was 7th overall @ Eastern Juniors. Risa also had a bad SP but was able to win her event.
Nana's remaining triples are the 3T and 3Lo...not good.

Jr. Nats will begin on the 26th!

Thank you, clovera!



Junior Nationals will be interesting!

Kanako has changed her FS costume and I like it better.
http://www.sanspo.com/sports/images/101107/spm1011072202005-p3.jpg

and it was her birthday yesterday.

Happy Birthday, Kanako!

coconut wrote:

Kanako has changed her FS costume and I like it better.
http://www.sanspo.com/sports/images/101107/spm1011072202005-p3.jpg

and it was her birthday yesterday.

Happy Birthday, Kanako!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KANAKO!

Anyway, about the costume, it looks only slightly better to me. Maybe I should see the front to decide for sure.

klarification wrote:

coconut wrote:

Kanako has changed her FS costume and I like it better.
http://www.sanspo.com/sports/images/101107/spm1011072202005-p3.jpg

and it was her birthday yesterday.

Happy Birthday, Kanako!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KANAKO!

Anyway, about the costume, it looks only slightly better to me. Maybe I should see the front to decide for sure.

AWWWWW!!!! Happy Happy Birthday!
Here's to a great season!

clovera wrote:

Jr. Nats will begin on the 26th!

This year, novice girls are really impressing, while some junior girls are out of shape. Top 3 girls of Novice Nationals, Kato, Mihayara, and Nitaya, have 5 kinds of triples with 2A-3T. At Jr. Nats, they are serious medal contenders. Only Risa could beat them?　Girls of junior age face various problems such as growth spurt, school,　future alternative, and so on.

On the other hand, Shoma could Kento in Junior men...? Anyway, Jr. Nats this year will be exiting.

I think that JSF might seriously consider to send Yuzuru, Kanako, and Haruka to Jr. World, if they cannot make the World team.

SAKURA wrote:

This year, novice girls are really impressing, while some junior girls are out of shape. Top 3 girls of Novice Nationals, Kato, Mihayara, and Nitaya, have 5 kinds of triples with 2A-3T. At Jr. Nats, they are serious medal contenders. Only Risa could beat them?　Girls of junior age face various problems such as growth spurt, school,　future alternative, and so on.

On the other hand, Shoma could Kento in Junior men...? Anyway, Jr. Nats this year will be exiting.

I think that JSF might seriously consider to send Yuzuru, Kanako, and Haruka to Jr. World, if they cannot make the World team.

I agree - the Kansai novice girls are very impressive, and score-wise they more or less matched (if not surpassed) the vast majority of the girls on the junior level. Yukiko and Yuki are as inconsistent as ever, so the junior ladies' event is really Risa's to lose at this point. I don't quite think Kako or Miyabi will be able to challenge Risa either.

For the men, I think most Japanese fans were betting on either Keiji or Kento as the favorite before the season started, but after seeing results from Regionals and Sectionals I do think Ryuju has just as much of a chance, if not better. And should any of them falter, Shouma has more than enough potential to swoop in and make the podium again.

As for Jr. Worlds, I'm not quite sure if the JSF will consider Kanako, because this season's required jump in the SP is the 3Lo. The ISU also decreased the level of points that a skater can receive from making the podium for Jr. Worlds, so I'm more inclined to think both her and Yuzuru will be chosen for 4CC instead unless they really want to go back and aim for a 2nd Jr. World title (in which case it'll be much easier for Yuzuru to accomplish than Kanako).

I really like talking about the upcoming Japanese juniors but I haven't been around to talk about this!

First off I noticed something odd in Yuzuru's FS at sectionals, I didn't notice until after his performance in Russia... at sectionals he got credit for two 3lz-2t combos! I'm pretty sure that's against the rules and I noticed it after Russia because the second combo was not counted there. I think maybe one of them was meant to be a 3f-2t? But at both comps the first jump was called a lutz, so strange!

I've really thought that maybe they'd consider Kanako for junior worlds again this year, mostly because they changed their way of ranking skaters on the website so they don't call them junior or senior anymore XD It's hard to say, I don't know if she can win against the juniors now but at the same time I'm sure the JSF wants to do all it can to get the most spots on the JGP that they can.

The junior nationals are going on now. I'm pretty worried about Kento

kitkat00 wrote:

I really like talking about the upcoming Japanese juniors but I haven't been around to talk about this!

First off I noticed something odd in Yuzuru's FS at sectionals, I didn't notice until after his performance in Russia... at sectionals he got credit for two 3lz-2t combos! I'm pretty sure that's against the rules and I noticed it after Russia because the second combo was not counted there. I think maybe one of them was meant to be a 3f-2t? But at both comps the first jump was called a lutz, so strange!

(

The problem at CoR was Yuzuru executed 3 types of triple jumps, 3T, 3A, and 3Lz. twice. At sectionals, the first jump was 4T, not 3T, so it did not violate the Zayak rule.

Now the Jr Nationals is on going. You can check the result live here.

http://www.skatingjapan.jp/National/2010-2011/fs/national_jr/

Kent is now top on the list, but Shoma has not performed yet.

Oh I see, thank you!

I am watching the results for junior nats and Kento does have the highest score but even so it's not a particularly great score also at eastern sectionals he also had a pretty good score in his SP and was a disaster in his FS. So I'm just worried for him in general :/ I don't know what's going to become of him after he ages out of juniors this year, he's a great skater who has a lot of potential and I wish he was doing better.

kitkat00 wrote:

Oh I see, thank you!

I am watching the results for junior nats and Kento does have the highest score but even so it's not a particularly great score also at eastern sectionals he also had a pretty good score in his SP and was a disaster in his FS. So I'm just worried for him in general :/ I don't know what's going to become of him after he ages out of juniors this year, he's a great skater who has a lot of potential and I wish he was doing better.

That's right. TES is 30, lower than Ryuju. He is not stable recently.

To my regret, it is very strict about video shooting at sports events in Japan, so we cannot expect to see any performances on YT.

Our only hope is Chukkyo Figure of Chukyo TV? We will be able to see some of figure skaters from Nagoya. I hope that other local TV stations, in particular in Kansai area, pay more attentions to this event. I really want to see novice girls from Kansai.


My explanation above was something wrong. I corrected it.

I heard that Kento's jump layout was 1A, 3Lz-3T, and 3Lo.
I'm worried about his FS tomorrow.

Who would make the Jr world team ....

Risa was great.
SP score was 56.56 with 3S3T 3Lo 2A!

Keiji is my favorite junior skater right now so I was so sad to see him place so low I think he can probably make up some points in the FS and I hope he finishes top ten.

I'm so happy for Risa, I was worried she'd do badly because it seems like all the other skaters I like haven't been doing that great so far!

Here are the results of SP
Men
1 Kento Nakamura 60.73 30.88 29.85 0.0 (1A 3Lz-3T 3Lo)
2 Ryuju Hino 58.33 32.28 26.05 0.0 (3A 3Lz3T so 3Lo) 3A landing not good
3 Shoma Uno 57.62 30.42 27.20 0.0 (3F2T 3Lo 2A) very good!
4 Ryuichi Kihara 51.99 25.34 26.65 0.0 (3Lo 3Lz3T 1A)
5 Daisuke Isozaki 51.45 27.20 24.25 0.0
6 Yoji Tsuboi 51.14 26.24 25.90 1.0
7 Jun Suzuki 49.57 25.32 24.25 0.0
8 Kosuke Nozoe 48.77 25.72 23.05 0.0
9 Fumiya Itai 47.45 22.10 26.35 1.0
10 Sei Kawahara 46.45 25.70 21.75 1.0
11 Kohei Yoshino 45.67 21.52 24.15 0.0
12 Kazuki Tomono 45.44 21.64 23.80 0.0
…

Kento’s 3A is unstable, so Shoma have a chance to win!

Ladies
1 Risa Shoji 56.56 33.28 23.28 0.0 (3S3T 3Lo 2A) perfect
2 Kako Tomotaki 50.20 29.56 20.64 0.0 (3Lo 3F2T 2A)
3 Roanna Sari Oshikawa 49.50 27.26 22.24 0.0 (3F2T 3Lo 2A)
4 Saya Ueno 48.86 28.26 20.60 0.0
5 Yuki Nishino 48.54 27.34 22.20 1.0 (3Lz fall 3Lo 2A)
6 Haruna Suzuki 46.76 26.40 20.36 0.0
7 Miyabi Oba 45.18 26.34 19.84 1.0 (3S2T 2A 3Lo) fall during the step
8 Karen Kemanai 44.88 23.40 21.48 0.0
9 Rin Nitaya 43.82 26.38 18.44 1.0 (3T3T 3Lo fall 2A)
10 Satoko Miyahara 43.74 26.66 18.08 1.0 (3S3T so 3Lo fall 2A)
11 Miu Sato 43.64 24.56 20.08 1.0
12 Saya Suzuki 43.22 24.90 18.32 0.0
…

Risa took a huge lead.
Riona, Novice Champion, could not get through FS.
Both Rin and Satoko fell once. For novice ladies, SP is a kind of a source of problem.

Top 6 finishers are invited to nationals.
I hope all the boys and girls could do their best!

Oh no! Riona Oh well, I was reading about US novice and junior competitions and many promising girls didn't even qualify for nationals at all. Since they're so young this can be a learning experience for them. It makes sense for the SP to be hard for novice kids since they hardly ever do it in competition. It would be cool for Shoma to win but then what would that say about the juniors They should let him do senior nats too!

I hope everyone does well tomorrow. I'd like to see Fujisawa and Keiji move up if they can.

I could not go to the competition, so I just summarize the information on FS on the net.
Today, top Jr skaters had problems of 3A, same as yesterday.

Result of FS　（Ｍｅｎ）

1. Ryuichi Kihara 123.75 64.95 58.80
3Lz3T 2A 3Lo 2A2T2T 3Lz(3F?)2T 3Lz 3F 3Lo

2. Kento Nakamura 115.27 54.27 62.00
3A shaky 3Lz F fall 2A3T 1A2T 3Lz2T 2Lo 3S

3. Ryuju Hino 104.64 54.44 51.20
3A fall 3A so 3Lz2T 2Lo 3Lz 3F 3T?2T 2A

4. Fumiya Itai 99.5846.58 54.00
3F3T 3Lo 3Lz 3Lz(hd)+1T 3S2T 2F 2A 2A fall

5. Keiji Tanaka 98.38 46.98 51.40
1A 1A 3Lz 3Lo 2F2T 3S2T2Lo 3T 2A2T

6. Sei Kawahara 97.37 52.97 5.40
2A 3F 3Lz fall 3Lo 3Lz3T hd ? 3F2T so hd 3S

7. Shoji Tsuboi 96.95 43.55 54.40
3A 3A fall 2Lz 2F 2Lo td 3Lz 2S 3T1T

8. Shoma Uno 94.42 46.02 52.40
3Lz 3F2T 3S fall 2A 3Lo fall 3F fall 3S2A fall 3T2Lo2Lo
(4 falls　 but full of speed!)

Total

1 Kento Nakamura 176.00
2 Ryuichi Kihara 175.74
3 Ryuju Hino 162.97
4 Shoma Uno 152.04 (he is not eligible for nationals)
5 Shoji Tsuboi 148.09
6 Fumiya Itai 147.03
7 Sei Kawahara 143.82

Kento won Jr Title. Congratulation!
But his jumps are still unstable.

Today's star was Kazuki Tomono. His program and performance is very famous for jr and novice figure skating fans. I heard that everybody at the rink, including judges, was burst into laugh. I really want to see his program!

kitkat00, today, Keiji's performance was not bad, but he popped 3A twice. orz

3A is really hard for him! He truly needs to work on it. I'm sad he didn't do well enough to qualify for senior nationals but I hope that his placement in sectionals will still get him 2 JGP events next year. I'm glad Kento won, I really wanted him to have a shot at Junior Worlds. Poor Shoma, all those falls...

kitkat00 wrote:

3A is really hard for him! He truly needs to work on it. I'm sad he didn't do well enough to qualify for senior nationals but I hope that his placement in sectionals will still get him 2 JGP events next year.

Ｔｈｉｓ　depends on the result of Jr World next year.
I'm a little bit worried about the result only with Kento, Kenichi and Ryuju...

kitkat00 wrote:

Poor Shoma, all those falls...

I heard that he fell during worm-up. This could affect his performance.

Here is the result of FS (Ladies)

Risa won by a wide margin.
She included 2 3Lz along with 2A3T. Great!

2nd and 3rd place winners, Miyabi and Kako, were not assigned to JGPS this year. They will probably be able to compete at JGPS next year (of course, it depends on the result of Jr World next year). Miyabi, who is training under Ms Monna, has 3Lo as the second jump, same as Miki. (Yes, she's also from Nagoya!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7plVYEJ7CNI

FS
Risa Shoji 101.86 54.90 46.96
3Lz so 2A3T 3F 3Lo 3Lz2T 3S 3T2T2T

Miyabi Oba 99.03 56.79 42.24
3S2T 2A3Lo 3Lz 3S 3T 3Lo 2A2T1T

Kako Tomotaki 97.08 55.40 41.68
3Lo2A 3F2T2Lo 3Lz 3T 3Lo 3S 2A2T

Satoko Miyahara 96.49 57.37 39.12
3Lz 3Lo 3Lz2T 2A3T2T 2A3T(>?) 3F 3S (great! highest TES today)

Yukiko Fujisawa 89.46 49.62 39.84
2A3T 3Lz2T 3F 3Lo 1Lz 2ft 3T 2A2T

Yuri Nishino 88.56 41.84 46.72
2Lz2T 3F so 3Lo 3Lz 2A2A 3T2T 3S

Karen Kemanai 88.09 44.73 43.36
2A so 3Lo 2Lz 3F 3T2T 3S 2A2T

Haruna Suzuki 87.92 45.76 42.16
3T2T 3F (2ft?) 3S 3Lo 2A 3T2T 2Lz1T1Lo

Saya Ueno 87.89 45.09 42.80
3F2T 3Lo 3T2T2T 3S (knee down) 3S2T 2A so 3T

Total
1.Risa Shoji 158.42
2.Kako Tomotaki 147.28
3.Miyabi Oba 144.21
4.Satoko Miyahara 140.23 (not eligible for nationals)
5.Yuri Nishino 137.10
6.Saya Ueno 136.75
7.Roanna Sari Oshikawa 135.62

Thanks for the update SAKURA!
Here is the results page (Japanese only) for those who are interested.

The ladies' field ended up pretty much as expected. Kako and Miyabi had strong showings at sectionals so it isn't that surprising to see them on the podium - Kako has been very solid this season, and Miyabi's edge jumps are so exciting to watch. Risa had a convincing victory here as well - I hope this will give her some momentum going into the JGPF.

The men were quite underwhelming, however. I do hope they'll be able to keep the Jr. Worlds and JGP berths; it'll be such a shame to see the Japanese men lose it yet again.

Good news for Keiji and Karen! I read that the top 8 junior skaters (not including novices) are being invited the the senior nats. Yay Keiji still has a chance at the JWC Hopefully he'll do nothing but work on his 3a for the next month.

I still think there's a very good chance of Yuzuru being sent to junior worlds and if he is I think he could win and keep the berths for them. I also have a feeling that Kako and Miyabi might not get JWC spots, it's too bad... I always liked how the JSF sent true junior skaters to junior events (unlike the US, where the winner of junior nationals is lucky if they get a JWC spot and might even not get a JGP spot!) but sometimes it just didn't work out for them so maybe they feel like they have to change things in order to keep their spots

SAKURA wrote:

2nd and 3rd place winners, Miyabi and Kako, were not assigned to JGPS this year. They will probably be able to compete at JGPS next year (of course, it depends on the result of Jr World next year). Miyabi, who is training under Ms Monna, has 3Lo as the second jump, same as Miki. (Yes, she's also from Nagoya!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7plVYEJ7CNI

Miyabi impressed me in that YouTube video. Her gymnastics background is really going to help her.

kitkat00 wrote:

Good news for Keiji and Karen! I read that the top 8 junior skaters (not including novices) are being invited the the senior nats. Yay Keiji still has a chance at the JWC Hopefully he'll do nothing but work on his 3a for the next month.

Yes, JSF decided to increase the number of Jr invitees. Keiji got another chance to skate before the end of the year. I want to see his 3A but I hope all the jr skaters enjoy skating.

kitkat00 wrote:

I also have a feeling that Kako and Miyabi might not get JWC spots, it's too bad... I always liked how the JSF sent true junior skaters to junior events (unlike the US, where the winner of junior nationals is lucky if they get a JWC spot and might even not get a JGP spot!) but sometimes it just didn't work out for them so maybe they feel like they have to change things in order to keep their spots

I agree with you. I think it is better for JFS to send the top three winners of jr nationals, but thinking about two seasons ago, when Japan got only limited number of entries, the strategy of USFSA makes a sense.

Regarding ladies, I don't worry. Both Kako and Miyabi are very consistent this year.

beppu wrote:

Miyabi impressed me in that YouTube video. Her gymnastics background is really going to help her.

Fuji TV will broadcast Jr nationals on Dec 12!
It lasts one hour, so we will be able to see only limited number of jr skaters. I really want Fuji tv not to show stupid promotion videos in order to show as many skaters as possible!
hope that we can see Miyabi's FS on TV and later on YT.

Video about Risa :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6uhAP5A6rE