Junior Grand prix 2011-2012

First Junior Grand Prix started today with the ladies. Here are the first results:

Ladies SP:

Ladies SP
1 Zijun LI CHN 55.09 31.49 23.60 5.96 5.57 6.04 5.89 6.04 0.00 #30
2 Polina AGAFONOVA RUS 54.60 30.34 24.26 6.11 5.89 6.18 6.04 6.11 0.00 #22
3 Ashley CAIN USA 49.14 26.02 23.12 5.61 5.50 6.04 5.82 5.93 0.00 #10
4 Gerli LIINAMAE EST 48.90 28.72 20.18 5.11 5.00 5.04 5.04 5.04 0.00 #15
5 Polina SHELEPEN RUS 47.92 26.66 21.26 5.36 5.32 5.25 5.39 5.25 0.00 #1
6 Yasmin SIRAJ USA 46.75 26.75 21.00 5.29 5.21 5.14 5.29 5.32 1.00 #5
7 Riona KATO JPN 42.12 23.07 20.05 5.14 5.00 5.04 5.00 4.89 1.00 #11
8 Josefine TALJEGARD SWE 41.46 21.72 19.74 4.86 4.89 4.93 5.00 5.00 0.00 #27
9 Lenaelle GILLERON-GORRY FRA 40.77 23.63 18.14 4.54 4.46 4.43 4.61 4.64 1.00 #26
10 Alina FJODOROVA LAT 39.38 22.12 17.26 4.43 4.21 4.25 4.32 4.36 0.00 #21
...
http://www.isuresults.com/results/jgplat2011/SEG003.HTM

The good news is that ISU is now uploading every single program on youtube after 5 minutes of the actual skate!! Here are all the videos from today:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL63B4AC3C1D4BED35

I'm very sorry for Miyabi Oba, she had a very rough skate. But Zijun Li and Polina Agafonova were very strong, both grew quite a bit over the summer. Enjoy them

Thanks for the links! Wow, I'm really surprised about Zijun, but not in a good way. Maybe it's the growth spurt but I feel her movements have lost a lot of the fluidity and softness that had previously impressed me so much. I also feel she appeared a bit slower than before. Also, the dramatic music doesn't suit her very much because she is more of a lyrical skater.

I enjoyed Polina Agafonova a lot, but dear, what a costume!
Zijun, well I don't like her jumping technique, flip looked strange to me and her lutz is the obvious flutz. And Adam's family is not a good choice for her. It shows all her weaknesses , like low speed, and luck of expression.

I really liked Polina Agafonova, she really sold the program, too bad about her 3S-3T<, but it was a fair call. I want to see her at the Euros and Worlds (but I agree about that costume). On the other hand, I believe the scores for Polina Shelepen were quite low. Her 3S-3T looked rotated to me(compared with Agafonova, at least), plus, she improved in terms of speed and overall quality in her skating. Maybe I am not objective because I always liked Polina S Her Lutz is gorgeous, as always
I really really want to see Oba fight for it tomorrow, I don't know what happened with her today. The other Japanese girl is too cute to be true. A shame about her mistake

Zijun seems to have grown a bit, which probably influenced the way she skated. A lot of skaters go through an "awkward" period when they get taller; it's difficult to skate gracefully when you have to pay attention not to splat because your center of gravity had shifted. That said, I don't think this music/choreo is doing her any favours, either. Still, she has good potential and I hope she continues to improve.

Polina A. - well skated. She has decent jumping technique, very nice speed and sells the program well. Her skating needs a bit more polish - her edges aren't very deep and she tends to telegraph her jumps - but that hopefully will improve with time.
Ugh, the costume color, though! It would be much better if it was deep red and without the glove.

Polina Sh. - she improved a lot since her debut and I love the music she skates to... I'm just not sure it's the bestfit for her right now. Poli-S's skating reminds me alot of a mix between yung Kimmie Meissner and Ashley Wagner - that bouncy style of skating when the skater can't seem to calm down and feel the music. Both Kimmie and Ashley eventually learned to slow down (shame that Kimmie retired the very same year) so I hope Polina does as well. Aside from that - nice skate. The costume could use a bit less material flopping around, though. It looks like Miki's "Scheherezade" costume mated with Daisuke's "Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto" one.

And had the Russian Federation banned the classical layback position or something? It seems the Russian ladies avoid it like plague recently. A shame, because they seem flexible enough to manage it without problems.

Yasmin Siraj - best transitions and spins variations / entrances, shame about the jumps. As much as I wish the choreographers would just give "Firebird" a rest for a few seasons, I have to applaud Yasmin's choreographer for at least picking not overused parts of the "Firebird" suite.

Miyabi Oba - aww, that was a good attempt at 3S-3T (actually fully rotated), but it looks like the fall just shook her out of her comfort zone. A shame, because otherwise it looks like she improved since last season and her program looks promising.

Riona Kato - a very promising skater, and quite graceful and expressive for someone so young. Nice layback. Aside from lipping, she has nice jumping technique - no telegraphing or mule kicks / weird arm positions. Yes, she still underrotates a bit, but that 's understandable for someone so tiny. The entrance into 2A was very difficult! On a purely superficial level, she had the best dress in the competition, IMHO.

Sui/Han - lovely as always, but I really hoped to see a new SP from them! This one is a bit juniorish.

Ryuju Hino - wow, he grew a lot. I'm happy he rotated all his jumps. It looks like his growth spurt affected his speed / stroking / spins quite a bit. He used to be an extreely fast spinner, but this time I thought he fell asleep on that camel spin. Hopefully he'll improve that soon. I have a bit of a soft spot since I saw a fluff on his rivalry with Yuzuru Hanyu back in 2006. Yuzuru hit a growth spurt sooner and was able to master upper-tie jumps sooner, but I hope Ryuju will catch up eventually!

That's all I watched for now.

great to have isu posting up all these vids. there are a lot of grateful figure skating fans, i'm sure - including myself!

too bad for yasmin siraj... she's my favorite from these ladies. nice to see a skater doing a flying reverse sit. not too many skaters doing that entrance variation for some reason.

i saw some pretty promising juniors in the men's field. jiaxing liu definitely stood out to me the most. he has wonderful skating skills to build on - best of the field. beautiful edging and great speed across the ice. shame about the opening fall on the triple flip, but he got tremendous height on both the 3f and 3lz! no flutzing or lipping either. the step sequence was the highlight of the program for me.

he zhang also showed nice basics and was one of the better spinners. his lutz was judged as a flutz so i hope he'll work on that. i'm a little 'meh' on his borderline hammer toe in the stretched leg position going into the flip and lutz. i always like the leg nice and low and in a 'broken' position.

that being said, i hope that these young men can do something in the future for chinese men's skating.

i also liked june-hyoung lee. there's a nice refinement to his skating, and the maturity in his body movement has a young taka feel to it. he could do with a bit more power in his jumps, but he's still young.

special mention to maksims kirilovs. he finished last of the twenty-two men for a reason, but i can't help rooting for the tall guy in a sport that demands a small stature.

Junior Ladies Free Skate:
1 Polina SHELEPEN RUS 105.48 59.53 45.95 6.07 5.54 5.79 5.61 5.71 0.00 #27
2 Zijun LI CHN 93.10 45.59 48.51 6.39 5.79 6.18 6.00 5.96 1.00 #28
3 Yasmin SIRAJ USA 88.51 43.38 46.13 5.82 5.61 5.79 5.86 5.75 1.00 #29
4 Gerli LIINAMAE EST 87.68 45.37 44.31 5.79 5.50 5.36 5.61 5.43 2.00 #31
5 Polina AGAFONOVA RUS 87.24 39.59 47.65 6.21 5.71 5.93 6.04 5.89 0.00 #30
6 Miyabi OBA JPN 86.69 46.59 40.10 5.29 4.82 5.14 4.89 4.93 0.00 #17
7 Ashley CAIN USA 83.81 35.35 50.46 5.96 6.18 6.54 6.29 6.57 2.00 #32
8 Tina STUERZINGER SUI 78.31 40.92 37.39 4.93 4.50 4.71 4.61 4.61 0.00 #24
9 Lenaelle GILLERON-GORRY FRA 78.03 40.97 38.06 4.93 4.46 4.82 4.79 4.79 1.00 #22
10 Josefine TALJEGARD SWE 76.02 35.56 40.46 5.07 4.89 5.11 5.04 5.18 0.00 #26

Result:
1 Polina SHELEPEN RUS 153.40 5 1
2 Zijun LI CHN 148.19 1 2
3 Polina AGAFONOVA RUS 141.84 2 5
4 Gerli LIINAMAE EST 136.58 4 4
5 Yasmin SIRAJ USA 135.26 6 3
6 Ashley CAIN USA 132.95 3 7
7 Miyabi OBA JPN 122.66 14 6
8 Lenaelle GILLERON-GORRY FRA 118.80 9 9
9 Josefine TALJEGARD SWE 117.48 8 10
10 Tina STUERZINGER SUI 116.02 12 8

Ladies FS Protocol

Polina S. bounces back to win the event, and I must say her layout gave me a bit of a chuckle. Last season she took full advantage of the revised Scale of Values and snuck in two 2A-3Ts (no 3-3s) to maximize her BV...which was in fact *the* highest out of anyone on the junior circuit last season. This time, she ditched the 2A-3Ts and replaced it with a layout that includes two 3-3s (3Lz-3T, 3S-3T) and five consecutive jumping passes after the halfway mark like Miki's Piano Concerto program. Pure number-crunching CoP efficiency right there.

I really enjoy Zijun skating and like her SP. She sells it rather well for me and this beautiful little things like air kisses are charming.
There's nothing special in her FS, but it is still constructed better than, foe example, Polina S free.

Ashley Cain's presence and expression are to die for. What a performer!

Eris wrote:

I really enjoy Zijun skating and like her SP. She sells it rather well for me and this beautiful little things like air kisses are charming.

^yes, she reminded me a little bit of Yuna's 'danse macabre' in that program
I really enjoyed it...

and Ashley Cain did get the highest PCS for her FS, I believe...

Risa placed 2nd in the free skate and 2nd overall at the JGP in Brisbane. She opened with a 3S-3T-2T!! Here's her program... I think I might be a definite fan now. She's just so lovely and her presentation is very mature. I just love her arms!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpdp11N8hYg

I've been watching her since last year and I was worried about all the URs and DGs she got, but she seems to be on the right track now. This was MUCH better than last year. She looks faster and more confident.

ETA: Here for the results and protocols... http://www.isuresults.com/results/jgpaus2011/

That was a lovely performance by Risa! She reminds me of Shizuka a lot. Though I wonder why she's placed second to Courtney Hicks who fell twice and who also got higher PCS than Risa?

aoi88 wrote:

That was a lovely performance by Risa! She reminds me of Shizuka a lot. Though I wonder why she's placed second to Courtney Hicks who fell twice and who also got higher PCS than Risa?

I agree... I think Risa's bad SP did weight in the balance overall, but I don't really see anything that fantastic in Courtney Hicks aside from a couple of big jumps and one very nice spin position at the end. I'm still scratching my head at the level 4 on the footwork... How the h*ll did she manage that... Yeah she went almost all the way down the ice on one foot, but it just looked plain ugly most of the time... just in that step sequence, I think I cringed 4 times, thinking she was going to fall flat on her face. She does have speed but overall, I think it just adds to her unfinished look. Anyway, I'm not a judge but I would give Risa the edge on PCS any day. She looks polished, mature and in control all the time (and it's not like she's slow either; in fact, she comes across as having very nice speed for a junior), and she presents and sells her program quite well, while Courtney looks like she could be skating to any other fast music that justifies a bit of flailing (sorry if that's a bit cruel but that's what it looks like to me). Risa would not have won overall anyway, but she should have won the free, IMHO.

I loved Risa's fs! I'm excited about Risa, her and Haruka are my favorite young japanese skaters. (I'm not sure if Haruka still counts as "young" in figure skating but. . .)

Seriously!
How come Risa did not place first in the FP!

Am dumbfounded!
Who's she? The new hope for FS in US...-_-
Her skating is so brusque and as chiyori suggested her skating is flat and unfinished!
and your arguments are justified - No need to apologize - I feel the same way about Courtney's skating!

Risa is so good - She has been improving and I'd keep an eye on her - She can be a major contender for Sochi! Well done Risa!
(Tidbit - Risa's FP got over 10000 views and 100 likes on YT - Even higher than the winner - She is such a star! )

aoi88 wrote:

That was a lovely performance by Risa! She reminds me of Shizuka a lot.

Yes, that's the same thing that I was thinking as I watched her, except that I think that she projects more feeling in her skating than Shizuka did...

such a shame that Hae-Jin Kim did not win a medal after leading in the short though but she was probably nervous being in that position for the first time and will likely do better next time...

I have no comment on Courtney Hicks except that hopefully as she transitions into the senior ranks she will learn to relate to music more...one can hope

As far as competitions go this was a really curious one, if anything.

I'm too lazy to check past protocols but I don't think we've ever seen the judges award Lv4s on footwork in a junior ISU event. Even if they have, they most certainly did not award Lv4s to this many skaters in the ladies' event...even on the senior circuit. And then we have both Courtney and Hae-Jin attempting the +3Lo in combination, and Vanessa regularly tacking the +2Lo in hers. I'm pleasantly surprised but caught off-guard that a steady stream of girls have been doing this beginning with last season. It's almost surreal, especially since it's de facto extinct for the men for years.

Glad to see Risa's still very consistent with her jumps! The 2A-3T and 3S-3T-2T can only do so much though to maximize the BV of a 6 triple program, especially when the repeated jumps are the 3S and the 3T. It's too bad results like this will continue to happen until the ISU can finally get their act together and reexamine how they score falls and pops.

The results at Brisbane were certainly interesting. Going back to the discussion about jumps and basics for a second, I think the situation in singles here certainly proves that as much as it is important to land the jumps, skating skills (especially the skater's speed) can have a huge impact on the PCS, and, in result, on the final results.

Not that treating jumps and basics as separate things has much sense, because those two things often influence each other. A skater with good speed and solid skating skills is more likely to fully rotate the jumps. Now, once they get their jumps solid, they can concentrate more on transitions and performance...
But it goes both ways. I've seen many skaters who had solid SS and consistent jumps, but once their jumps became unstable (due to injury or growth spurt) their overall skating suffered as well - they became slower, started skating on shallow edges and/or both legs more often, got rid of the transitions, etc..

Going back to the juniors... This was certainly an interesting batch of ladies! I agree with clovera, it was nice to see more ladies attempting 3Lo and 2Lo in combination. All in all, the top 6 is quite promising. They all have their own issues, but I hope they will be able to overcome them with time.

Courtney - I've had my eye on her since last season. I like her innovative spin and huge jumps. But, for the love of anything that is holy, could her coach please instruct her to take some dance/ballet classes and maybe do some figures? Her entire skating gave me the feeling of watching somebody balancing precariously on a high rope, with no safety net beneath. Exciting, but not in a good way. I was a bit surprised by her PCS - she has great speed and some transitions stuck into the program, but I expected that the lack of control and relation to the music will negate some of the positive aspects of her skating. Those split jumps for example - I love split jumps, but those didn't look pretty. And the lack of pointed toes... For a moment I was happy Uncle Dick does not do commentary anymore - he'd have to be carried out on a stretcher...

Risa - I like that she seems to be taking things step by step. So far her jumping layout is not the strongest - she attempts only 6 triples and repeats the least valuable ones - toe-loop and salchow. But she seems to be improving quite steadily. Her 3S-3T-2T ans 2A-3T are lovely, and working on 3F-3T could be very beneficial for her in the future. If she gets her 3-3s consistent and improves her flip this season, and then works on adding another 3Lz into her LP (aiming for 7 triple program repeating 3Lz and 3T), she could become a serious contender. Her jumping technique is quite nice - no wonky edges or the hammer toe, and she has very soft knees on the landing. What she lack is the speed going into the jumps (to avoid URs) and some more transitions to boost her PCS.

I'm feeling the Shiz vibes when I watch Risa as well. It's the strong basics and the understated elegance to her skating, I think. Her problem is she constantly under rotates her jumps (ironically a problem Shiz had as well). I'm not an expert on how to fix this kind of problem, but I think you're right, Okami, in that she needs more speed going into her jumps. She rotates quickly enough so I don't think slow rotation is the problem.

I'm not getting the Courtney hype either. I'm impressed by how fast the girl rotates during her jumps... and it's cool to see her going for interesting spin positions... but that's about it. She seriously needs to learn how to skate on edges and needs someone to work on her basic stroking. But seeing as her coach is John Nicks, I doubt she'll improve in these aspects of her skating. It was the same thing with Sasha. Mr. Nicks knew how to polish her, but the girl couldn't skate on edges to save her life and only actually found out about their use in garnering speed from pushing out of them when she went to Robin Wagner (not saying that Courtney should go to her as I get bad vibes from that woman). I don't know, that Courtney beat Risa on skating skills is just

ETA: Speaking of how Risa resembles Shiz on the ice, anyone else get Dai vibes when watching Yoji Tsuboi skate? I would be very, very surprised if Dai isn't a skater he looks up to.

periperi wrote:

I'm feeling the Shiz vibes when I watch Risa as well. It's the strong basics and the understated elegance

I think it's interesting that while a few of us see Shizuka in her skating, blogger/author Kelli Lawrence was reminded of Chen Lu.

periperi wrote:

ETA: Speaking of how Risa resembles Shiz on the ice, anyone else get Dai vibes when watching Yoji Tsuboi skate? I would be very, very surprised if Dai isn't a skater he looks up to.

His hairstyle does make him like like a mini Daisuke from some angles, especially during his SP
I definitely think that there might be some hero worship going on there...

So who are the favorites for Poland? Julia Lipnitskaya? Samantha Cesario?

ElleluvsL wrote:

I think it's interesting that while a few of us see Shizuka in her skating, blogger/author Kelli Lawrence was reminded of Chen Lu.

She does remind me a bit of Chen Lu, but her jumping technique and stroking are really similar to Shizuka's. LuLu was very fast, but she used the "speedy" stroking, while Shizuka generated speed by stroking more slowly, but on very deep edges. Risa's edging isn't yet as good as Shizuka but she generates speed in the same way.

Quote :

So who are the favorites for Poland? Julia Lipnitskaya? Samantha Cesario?

It's difficult to predict, because the field consists of a) unfamiliar skaters, b) the skaters who haven't competed in major international competitions yet, and c) the skaters who have improved quite a lot since their last international competition, so it's difficult to predict their scores.

But yes, I'd say Julia and Samantha are probably among the most likely to medal.

Julia has 3T-3T, 2A-3T, full set of jumps and amazing flexibility. Samantha has great choreography, good speed, attempts all types of triples (but flutzes and has no 3-3).

I think Satoko Miyahara might be in the mix. She looks [i]very[/] young, which might work against her, but she can spin in both directions, has a full set of triples, 3Lz-3T, 3F-3T, 2A-3T in the second half of the LP, and has received no edge calls in national competitions.

Here's her SP, "Por Una Cabeza": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVP_XuXqWyk
In another show, she landed 3F-3T: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v90QN4moA3I

Sadly, there's no video of her LP available online.

I would add two more girls that are likely to end up in top 5:

Juulia TURKKILA from Finland, she participated in the World Championship in Moscow this year. She only has two triples but has a good quality overall. Here is her LP from worlds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC4sju0bZac

Also, there is the other Russian girl Kristina Zaseeva. She is known for having good practices and then bombing in the competition, so there is not much hope. But if she skates clean she can do very well since she has all the triples and is also elegant. Here is her LP from a recent Russian local competition (Moscow open): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy3BJENTy-k
Nice program from her with only one fall

Is anyone watching the ladies short program?? Satoko just skated and apparently did very very well, her score is 56.46!!! Congratulations!!

Yup, I'm watching the isu page to see the scores. Congrats Satoko!

The videos are here: https://www.youtube.com/user/ISUJGP2011#p/u/0/GAuD9PJqq5g

They upload them pretty quickly, Satoko is currently the last one.

Thanks! Wow, thats' really quick. The folks who upload those videos are doing a great job!