Japanese Nationals 2013

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20131220/t10014006201000.html
According to NHK, Mao will decide whether she will attempt two 3A in FS or not after her SP and consultation with her coach.

From twitter, unofficial skating order of ladies' SP, last 2 groups:

女子SP 滑走順
Group 4: 19.宮原 (Satoko) -20-21-22-23-24.今井 (Haruka)
5G: 25.安藤(Miki)-26浅田 (Mao)-27-28-19.村上(Kanako)-30.鈴木(Akiko)
Mao will skate the 26th (2nd to the last group)

As for the skating order of men's SP, last 2 groups:
4G: 18Machida-19Mura-20-21Oda-22-23
5G: 24-25Yuzuru-26Dai-27Koz-28-29

linglang wrote:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20131220/t10014006201000.html
According to NHK, Mao will decide whether she will attempt two 3A in FS or not after her SP and consultation with her coach.

Sounds like a good plan. She can feel it out in her SP, and make the final decision before her FS. Nationals is the best place for her to see what's the best plan to go with. It's a foregone conclusion that Map will make the Sochi team, so taking chances here is a good gamble.

pearlyriver wrote:

When will the Chinese Championship take place? Last year, it took place around this time. I can't wait to see how Zijun is doing.

I'm not sure when will the Chinese National take place. However, I've been reading from one of the Chinese FS forums that Zijun is NOT listed as one of the competitors to the Chinese National. I don't know why she's not listed, but by not competing at Nationals, it doesn't seem to hurt her chances of going to Sochi...

Zijun Li is not on the entry list for Chinese National. And unofficial sources reported that she is no longer in the national team. And last time I checked she went back home and trained there after COC. She also got sick shortly after she went back home. I don't know about her current status though. But I still think she will make Sochi team.

un~~ bad and good news (??) about referees at Jpn national:

Our dear AMANO is listed, yet again, as one of the panel of officials for both ladies' SP and FS...
It's only that he'll serve as 'Assistant Technical Specialist'
http://www.jsfresults.com/National/2013-2014/fs_e/nationals/index.htm

Thanks COHK and Tianrushui. That's so sad to hear. I hope she can get through the growth spurt and keep impressing audiences like she did at Worlds 2013.
OMG, why do they have to assign Amano to the panel? Don't they have other qualified technical specialists?  

COHK wrote:

un~~ bad and good news (??) about referees at Jpn national:

Our dear AMANO is listed, yet again, as one of the panel of officials for both ladies' SP and FS...
It's only that he'll serve as 'Assistant Technical Specialist'
http://www.jsfresults.com/National/2013-2014/fs_e/nationals/index.htm

WHYYYYYYYYYY!!!!   

shar wrote:

COHK wrote:

un~~ bad and good news (??) about referees at Jpn national:

Our dear AMANO is listed, yet again, as one of the panel of officials for both ladies' SP and FS...
It's only that he'll serve as 'Assistant Technical Specialist'
http://www.jsfresults.com/National/2013-2014/fs_e/nationals/index.htm

WHYYYYYYYYYY!!!!   

Noooo, doesn't japan have other tech specialists?  

Amano again?????   ,may be it is their way to say Mao that she should not try 3a anymore. If Mao decides don`t do 2 3a in LP I hope she try 3a and 3-3.

chapis wrote:

Amano again?????   ,may be it is their way to say Mao that she should not try 3a anymore. If Mao decides don`t do 2 3a in LP I hope she try 3a and 3-3.

I still don't understand why he ratified the first 3a in the FS before deducting points for the fall, but marked her 3a in the SP as UR, when it was clearly more rotated than the one in the FS. What kind of game is he playing, and what is the point?

shar wrote:

chapis wrote:

Amano again?????   ,may be it is their way to say Mao that she should not try 3a anymore. If Mao decides don`t do 2 3a in LP I hope she try 3a and 3-3.

I still don't understand why he ratified the first 3a in the FS before deducting points for the fall,  but marked her 3a in the SP as UR, when it was clearly more rotated than the one in the FS. What kind of game is he playing, and what is the point?

What I really don't understand is how come such an unreliable, precarious technical specialist is still allowed to serve a technical panel.  

I wonder what kind of questions or if there were any questions given at the round table session after GPF ladies SP by the referee or other judges why the technical panel gave UR call to 3A.  There was obviously a disagreement between the tech panel and judges, which was shown in the TES score box on the screen. So judges especially who scored the 3A positively should feel tempted to ask why, why, why.

I really don't understand there is no accountability of tech caller/judges on their judgements for ordinal viewers. Allowing irresponsible judge like Amano to sit on the panel is indeed allowing figure skating to loose credibility even more and fan base even in Japan.

shar wrote:

If he's not at his best yet, Dai should stick to landing all of his triples, especially his 3a's. With his overall grade A skating techniques, that should keep him in 2nd or 3rd to make it to the Olympics. He should worry about his quads after Nationals.

yes i totally agree with you! I hope, he keeps that in mind!   

And do you also have some news on Mikis and Kanakos practise?

Haidogirl wrote:

shar wrote:

If he's not at his best yet, Dai should stick to landing all of his triples, especially his 3a's. With his overall grade A skating techniques, that should keep him in 2nd or 3rd to make it to the Olympics. He should worry about his quads after Nationals.

yes i totally agree with you! I hope, he keeps that in mind!   

And do you also have some news on Mikis and Kanakos practise?

ladies practice clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCMnIlE-wl0

Wow! Please watch Mao's triple axel at 0:30 in the video that shar has just posted...although she had problems in the landing, it was almost (not to say completely) fully rotated. And I mean fully rotated, not cheated by a quarter. If you don't consider the 1/4 prerotation (which is in fact permitted as far as I know) it's almost 3.5, while in recent competitions her axel was closer to 3.25 than 3.5. I might be wrong but I think that that axel was more rotated than most of the ones she's been jumping recently  

Judging from that video, Miki is in pretty good shape. Her jumps are pretty solid. She's landing 3Lz and a 3-3 combo. She's more of a threat now to the others than I thought. Akiko and Kanako are gonna have to skate clean if they want to be in the top 3, given that Miki goes clean too.

I have nothing against Miki at all but I just think... she's already been to 2 Olympics so it would be nice for Kanako to go to her first Olympics and Akiko to close her career on the big stage.

News this morning:
http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/winter/news/20131220-OHT1T00157.htm

"ソチ本番を見据え、今大会でも新しい衣装を試す計画もあるという。"
Time to try out for new costume! (though it doesn't say for SP or FS...)

Thanks for sharing the practice video! I appreciate that they showed all the ladies. I have a soft spot for Miki. I love her personality, and I love her even more for having a baby . I also enjoyed seeing Yukari as a reporter.

This may sound weird, but I enjoyed seeing Mao's lutz at 3:00. She may have a flutz, but it's a beautiful flutz. I thought the same thing at 2007 and 2008 Worlds (especially in the short programs).

BounceAround wrote:

Thanks for sharing the practice video! I appreciate that they showed all the ladies. I have a soft spot for Miki. I love her personality, and I love her even more for having a baby . I also enjoyed seeing Yukari as a reporter.

This may sound weird, but I enjoyed seeing Mao's lutz at 3:00. She may have a flutz, but it's a beautiful flutz. I thought the same thing at 2007 and 2008 Worlds (especially in the short programs).

Not sure but I think that was a flip. They didn't show the preparation but judging from the way she gains momentum before the take off I would say that's a flip. Forgive me if I'm wrong  

Well, JSF should make sure their skaters are scored really well considering it's Oly season. Unfortunately, if you compare it to other countries, they don't seem to do that. Just look at what the other skaters get at their own nationals. Like I'm seeing tweets on Javi's nationals SP at 97.91. I'd have thought it was perfect but I read later on he did 4S (step-out), 3Lz-3T and 3A. C/L got almost 75 for their SD at Italian Nationals... and so on. There don't seem to be too much pressure in other national competitions unlike the fierce one that's gonna happen in the next few days in Japan. I hope they get rewarded (well, skaters have to earn them first, of course).
---
Iceriver, I think you're right because it Mao was practicing that with 2x 3As, there will be no Lutz.

---

Oh, I just noticed in that practice clip when Mao was holding up her hand with a glove... it looked like it's a MaoMao brand. ^_^

朝日新聞スポーツ ‏@asahi_sports 13時間
今日は滑走順の抽選の前に、浅田、村上、鈴木、安藤の各選手が、

ずーっとおしゃべりしていたことが目にとまりました。

"Mao, Kanako, Akiko and Miki were chatting for quite a while before the drawing."   

They wwere having a good time   . What's the badge they were wearing on their blazer?

News about practice today:

http://www.daily.co.jp/newsflash/general/2013/12/21/0006587224.shtml

Mao was practicing Nocturne, landed 3A successfully.
Miki fell on a lz, but was successful with 3-3.

Competition is underway with Ice dance now

Will there be any live stream or will we have to wait for a rebroadcast?

[quote="pearlyriver"]Will there be any live stream or will we have to wait for a rebroadcast? [/quote

live stream for the last 2 groups of men's SP "should" be available here:
http://www.fengyunzhibo.com/tv/380789_1361122311044.htm
(starting at 19:00 Jpn time)

live score update (for men's SP) will be available here
http://live.sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/live/sports/figureskate_all/1963/?auto=1
(Note the site is in Japanese!)