2014 World Junior Figure Skating Championships

zarinaballerina wrote:

ballerinamao wrote:

zarinaballerina wrote:

ballerinamao wrote:

Da bin choi is the first south korean skater I have seen whose skating doesn't resemble kim

YES! I really, really like her. Hopefully she'll survive puberty and have a great career ahead of her. She's really cute.  

well to me her skating is not that catchy or memorable, but this is also only the first time i have seen her, maybe that will change with time, but she unlike the finnish one seems to hav the technical goods but artistically could improve alot

Well, she only turned 14 two months ago, so she's practically still a "baby".   I say give her time and I'm sure she can and will improve. But her TES is really great for someone so young.

And gosh Lena...     simply amazing. She's such a star.

yes she really does have the star quality, there is something I can't put my finger on with lena. karen chan also looks promising loved her biellman, great flexibility and position just the way I like it

Satoko was soooooooo close, only one point way from making the podium    

Oh come on judges!!!   We have a russian sweep, they put Satoko in 4th place.    

@ballerinamao, IMO, Satoko should've been in 3rd.

And Lena becomes the first lady in history, to defend her JrWCH title    , if I'm not mistaken...

They wanted a russian sweep, we are talking about less then a point, a tiny bit more pcs could have made the difference between 3rd and 4th place.
something I really noticed Satoko has the other girls lacked was polish and control

If frickin Medvedeva with bad SS, non-existing choreography, random and few transitions scores a full point more than Satoko's program (which is superior in every PCS category) than we might brace ourselves for Worlds, when Julia will score 5+ points than Mao/Caro. Heck, at this level, I even see Pogo beating Mao on PCS.

I'm a little tired of 'Russian style' of skating for the moment...their music choices are so similar (well, except for Elena)

Lady_in_black wrote:

If frickin Medvedeva with bad SS, non-existing choreography, random and few transitions scores a full point more than Satoko's program (which is superior in every PCS category) than we might brace ourselves for Worlds, when Julia will score 5+ points than Mao/Caro. Heck, at this level, I even see Pogo beating Mao on PCS.

Well the pcs has been a big joke for a while now, and sochi was just one big mess  

Protocols are up! I put them on the first post.

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I love Satoko's polish too. Like Mao, she doesn't rely on scrunchy, angsty facial expressions to interpret music. She actually uses her entire body to express music. It's one of her assets. She has a lot of ground to cover to reach CaroK's level of artistry, but I think Satoko is well on track in developing her own artistry. Her Poeta program had charming snappy finish to it that made me enjoy it. Did Tom Dickson choreograph it?

I wanted Satoko to medal this time; like Nam Nguyen, this is her 3rd junior world championships. I'm upset that she didn't make the podium by less than a point. She got dinged in a few jumps (3Lz-3T<, 3Lz<-2T-2T) and received FSSp3. She earned 59.25 for TES and 54.85 for PCS. E.Medvedeva received 59.73 TES and 55.98 PCS. Are their SS really that similar? I don't agree.   

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Yep, I believe Lena is the first and only skater to defend her junior world title!  

Lady_in_black wrote:

If frickin Medvedeva with bad SS, non-existing choreography, random and few transitions scores a full point more than Satoko's program (which is superior in every PCS category) than we might brace ourselves for Worlds, when Julia will score 5+ points than Mao/Caro. Heck, at this level, I even see Pogo beating Mao on PCS.

I still like to think that this BS has only been reserved for junior WCH. Worlds are in Japan, if Mao has a Sochi LP repeat and an awesome SP, no way they'll let anyone beat her. For years, the russian girls have dominated the juniors, they weren't allowing this to change, however senior worlds, a whole different matter.
There has already been a huge controversy with Adelina's score (though personally, I agree with her beating Yuna), they can't afford another one so soon. IF Mao is on, heck, then even Caro won't be able to beat her, if she has a meltdown, well, then she's easily beatable.

I honestly believe that we'll see Mao on fire in two weeks time, so no way will Lipnitskaya beat her, without yet another outcry. Though honestly, I don't get what everyone sees in her anyway.  

Lady_in_black wrote:

If frickin Medvedeva with bad SS, non-existing choreography, random and few transitions scores a full point more than Satoko's program (which is superior in every PCS category) than we might brace ourselves for Worlds, when Julia will score 5+ points than Mao/Caro. Heck, at this level, I even see Pogo beating Mao on PCS.

Have you ever seen Satoko's live, in arena? I did, and more than once. Much ado about nothing. She uses half of the rink for ice coverage, leaving short boards "untouched" for like 5-7 metres, i.e. basicall using half of the rink. This alone was a good reason to keep Liza's PCS down for a long time. There's not much scale in her movements, expressions and they do look "studied" rather then "felt" (like Chan's). Jumps are simply awful. They were even worse but they got better after she visited Kulik's school, but still compared to the field- they are just bad. I see plenty of figure skating reasons why judges did not award her with "senior" PCS for such skating. I wish people would bring something more in their argumentations except "Oh, those Russians.." It's getting old.  

zarinaballerina wrote:

And Lena becomes the first lady in history, to defend her JrWCH title    , if I'm not mistaken...

She is the first. She is also a record-breaker, the one who got the highest score at JrWCh, I guess.   
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Don't worry for Saitama . If Mao skates clean in both progs, she will win easily. Simple math- her BV is impossible to beat if she delivers.    

I will be attending (starting Tuesday 25th, with official practice).  

let`s talk wrote:

She is the first. She is also a record-breaker, the one who got the highest score at JrWCh, I guess.   
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Don't worry for Saitama . If Mao skates clean in both progs, she will win easily. Simple math- her BV is impossible to beat if she delivers.    

I will be attending (starting Tuesday 25th, with official practice).  

OMG, you're so lucky! And I heard it's very difficult to get tickets for FS competitions in Japan (especially if Mao attends). PLEASE post reports, if your time allows it.     

This is awesome for Lena, breaking all sorts of records left and right.    I hope she'll kick some serious butt next season and will leave (IMO) the overrated Julia in the dust.   

I had no idea that Satoko is not good in "real life". On TV she looks OK, yes her jumps are small, but the ice coverage looked OK. I'm not saying she should've won in Sofia, but IMO, she should've beaten Medvedeva, since she wasn't good either.

COHK wrote:

I'm a little tired of 'Russian style' of skating for the moment...their music choices are so similar (well, except for Elena)

But they are using music new at least for me, not carmen, sherezade, rachmaninov, tchaikovsky or latin rytim but Elena R.
I never heard the Lp music of Serafima and Evgenia before they used it, same with Alexandra P. and Yulia sp.

chapis wrote:

COHK wrote:

I'm a little tired of 'Russian style' of skating for the moment...their music choices are so similar (well, except for Elena)

But they are using music new at least for me, not carmen, sherezade, rachmaninov, tchaikovsky or latin rytim but Elena R.
I never heard the Lp music of Serafima and Evgenia before they used it, same with Alexandra P. and Yulia sp.

I guess I do prefer classical music over modern music for figure skating   . Or perhaps it was because all the Russian skaters were skating one after the other in the last group during FS. Then their music have similar 'tone' and skating styles seems to be quite similar.

I'd like to add a note about Satoko: I've never seen other Russian figure skaters live (well, except for A. Leonova), so I am not making any comparison here. I did have the chance to see Satoko live at 4CC this year, and I was touched by her FS performance. Even though she didn't have much facial expression like some other skaters may have, you can sense that she performed all the way through her movements and body. Maybe she's already reached peak during 4CC. And I think she's improved with both her programs throughout the season, which is something always great to see. I'd like to see her keep on developing, as much as I'd expected the same from any other current winners of the season.

One small suggestion I could think of for Satoko is that, perhaps she should skate with her boots covered, as she's rather tiny and she looks like out of proportion with her boots.

Even I like Satoko, her jumping technique is terrible. And no matter how good she will perform she won't be at podium if she won't rework her technique. She's not in Carolina range to win only by PCS, her edges are ok but speed is average and like let's talk pointed, she's like Liza skating in two corners. And to my surprise I liked Medvedeva more then Serafima and Lena yesterday. Lena was tight,she started to grow, Serafima jumps are not super quality, while Zhenya has good jumps and great quality on other elements,she had a fall and some weird landings but overall she was better then Satoko. Her skating is very smooth and elegant, her SS are better then Satoko for sure. And loved her 3-3 combos, very strong. I like Zhenya the most from Eteri girls,in my eyes she is better then Julia.

polosatik wrote:

Even I like Satoko, her jumping technique is terrible. And no matter how good she will perform she won't be at podium if she won't rework her technique. She's not in Carolina range to win only by PCS, her edges are ok but speed is average and like let's talk pointed, she's like Liza skating in two corners. And to my surprise I liked Medvedeva more then Serafima and Lena yesterday. Lena was tight,she started to grow, Serafima jumps are not super quality, while Zhenya has good jumps and great quality on other elements,she had a fall and some weird landings but overall she was better then Satoko. Her skating is very smooth and elegant, her SS are better then Satoko for sure. And loved her 3-3 combos, very strong. I like Zhenya the most from Eteri girls,in my eyes she is better then Julia.

This is why I hope she'd hire a jump (technical) specialist as her main coach. Her jumps have improved a tiny bit, but they're still awful.

I prefer Zhenya to Julia as well. To me, Julia's only wow thing she has, is her insane flexibility, everything else is just average. And IMO, if she hadn't been this flexible she wouldn't be anywhere near as popular as she is right now. I must say that while her Bielman spin (I don't know whether her variation is called Bielman   ) is great, I absolutely hate her I-spin. It looks so ugly when she pulls her leg so high, Sasha had the best I-spin. Just enough flexibility to make it wow and to keep it from looking ugly.

zarinaballerina wrote:

polosatik wrote:

Even I like Satoko, her jumping technique is terrible. And no matter how good she will perform she won't be at podium if she won't rework her technique. She's not in Carolina range to win only by PCS, her edges are ok but speed is average and like let's talk pointed, she's like Liza skating in two corners. And to my surprise I liked Medvedeva more then Serafima and Lena yesterday. Lena was tight,she started to grow, Serafima jumps are not super quality, while Zhenya has good jumps and great quality on other elements,she had a fall and some weird landings but overall she was better then Satoko. Her skating is very smooth and elegant, her SS are better then Satoko for sure. And loved her 3-3 combos, very strong. I like Zhenya the most from Eteri girls,in my eyes she is better then Julia.

This is why I hope she'd hire a jump (technical) specialist as her main coach. Her jumps have improved a tiny bit, but they're still awful.

I prefer Zhenya to Julia as well. To me, Julia's only wow thing she has, is her insane flexibility, everything else is just average. And IMO, if she hadn't been this flexible she wouldn't be anywhere near as popular as she is right now. I must say that while her Bielman spin (I don't know whether her variation is called Bielman   ) is great, I absolutely hate her I-spin. It looks so ugly when she pulls her leg so high, Sasha had the best I-spin. Just enough flexibility to make it wow and to keep it from looking ugly.

I agree with you. She still has time, it's better to fix now then struggle with it later. Because now with this system that skaters who has good technique,without UR and e are going to have an advantage. PCS won't help much in that case. I also find Julia's I-spin ugly, it's too much. Sasha had the best position in I and Y spins. No one toped that.And one more, I hope Kanako stays. Because after so deep field in ladies for years in Japan- Shizuka,Miki,Mao,Akiko and Kanako, now it's only Satoko and no one knows if she will be in top in seniors. But Kanako also have to do something with her technique, her UR hurts her a lot.