Cup of Russia 2008!

Held: November 20 - November 23, 2008
Where: Moscow (Venue: Ice Palace Megasport)
Results Page: http://static.sportresult.com/federations/isu-results/events/gprus08/

Event schedule (last page): http://isu.sportcentric.net/db//files/serve.php?id=1095


TEB was full of drama, but the GP series is not over! CoR and NHK next week will be crucial in who will be going to the GPF, and the men's/ladies' events are quite unpredictable this time around.

The men's event will be a free-for-all between the European men (Joubert, Preaubert, Verner, KVDP), and whether Jeremy Abbott can remain in peak form like in CoC where he won. There are other familiar faces such as Rippon, Chipeur, and Berntsson as well.

The ladies' event also has no clear-cut favorite. Kostner is a big question mark, as usual, as with Kimmie and Alissa who both have consistency issues. Fumie and Rachael are solid, but whether they could get the high scores or the top spot is yet to be seen. Sebestyen (aka Granny) and the three Russian girls just might surprise us as well. Not sure how Na-Young is doing this season so no clue about her.

Pairs will probably be a battle between the Zhangs and K/S, while Ice Dance will also be exciting as DomShab and D/W pave the way.

Welcome to what will probably be the closest GP event this season for the men and ladies!

ETA: Results page now up.

I think Jenni, Nana and Sarah withdrew no? And Alissa Czsiny got one of the spot!

Yep. Totally forgot about that, or that Na-Young was assigned to this event because of the withdrawals. I'll note that in the OP post. Geeze, this season is going haywire with all the roster changes

I just saw a short clip of Fumie during her practice at Russia, landing clean jumps. She seems to be in good condition.
And if she can finish in second or above, she'll be the first Japanese lady to make it to the GPF.
Good luck, Suguri-san!

Tat was talking about something very passionately with the other commentators of WebTV but I have no idea what the conversation is about. It sounded like arguing, almost.

The ladies in Group1 are warming up, but the focus is still on Tat and the commentators. They seem to be focusing their time on Na-Young and Alissa, so it probably has something to do with the withdrawals.

Alissa fell once, but a good program otherwise. It's nice to see a charlotte spiral as part of the sequence itself. She got 2 deductions...fall + time penalty? Not sure. Pleasant program from Alena. Impressive skate from Fumie. She collected the most flowers and gifts so far.

Fumie into first with 58.30, almost 5 points over Alissa. Group 2 on the ice now. It also looks like one of the Russian girls withdrew... Eek.

ETA: I think CaroK changed costumes...

Thanks for the update clovera

I can't wait to see Fumie's program! But I'm stuck at the office, sneaking peeks at the ISU's scores when no one is looking

I really hope Kimmie has a strong skate...

ETA: I read on another forum that Carolina K went back to last year's LP. We'll see where she stands in the short but I have a feeling this might be a Mao "change my feeling" new dress...

Ouch... Kimmie into 6th with 48.08 and... no falls? What happened? I hope I didn't jinx her...

No problem chiyori. I'm a nightowl so watching skating at midnight isn't a big deal for me. Haha.

Thoughts: First things first, congrats to Fumie and Rachael! Fumie showed the veteran spirit and confidence, and Rachael is solid.

That said, the judging in this competition is just...ugh. Rachael's step-out and 3-2 combo still garnered higher scores than at SA, with the underrotated 3f-3lo. Kimmie's jumps were definitely deemed UR (two of them, probably) so as a result she is placed lower than girls who fell. And CaroK...I personally thought that wasn't really better than her SC performance. Her scores I don't agree with at all, but I'll just leave it at that. Lol.

Lalalala~ Judges...are really not helping with how they are scoring!

Tat is going over the top performances on WebTV right now, but again, I have no idea what she is saying.

Congratulations to Fumie! I'm glad to see her delivering a clean program.

K/S, on the other hand, seem to have struggled a lot. Poor Yuko.

K/S. They are still in second though, so not too bad. I must say the Zhangs' scores were a bit . Very high marks.

Adam Rippon is in first so far in the men's event; group 2 is on the ice for their warm-up now.

Speaking of , KVDP's skeleton tights costume is rather...yeah. Haha.

Quote :

Speaking of , KVDP's skeleton tights costume is rather...yeah. Haha.

lol I'd love to see that.

I've always been a bit unsure about the Zhangs' scores. They have the big tricks, but I find them a bit lacking in all of the other departments. Can't see anything this time though as the ISU website just went on me and I can't accessed the detailed scores for pairs. What did the judges give them?

So sad for Yuko and Alexander... She's just so cute... Still, they're second but 9 points is a big gap... Anyway, hope they have a good LP.

Poor Jeremy... Popped jump and a fall on a spin.

I noticed that a lot of skaters gave up on either flip or lutz and choose to do a loop instead. Kimmie, Alban, Kevin... Troubles with fixing the wrong edge, I wonder? Attempting a 3L instead is a safer option, but I wonder if it's wise to leave fixing the edge for the Olympic season. It might be very difficult by then!

Joubert stole the show. Completely. He was definitely on today and feeling very confident. He even found the time to give Tat in the commentator's area a flying kiss before his SLSS. Tat was blushing and giggling for some time.

Men's SP results:
1 Brian JOUBERT FRA 86.10 47.90 38.20 7.70 7.20 7.75 7.65 7.90 0.00 #12
2 Tomas VERNER CZE 73.20 37.80 36.40 7.35 7.00 7.20 7.35 7.50 1.00 #11
3 Adam RIPPON USA 71.62 40.62 31.00 6.30 5.85 6.25 6.30 6.30 0.00 #5
4 Alban PREAUBERT FRA 71.60 39.20 32.40 6.50 6.20 6.45 6.55 6.70 0.00 #9
5 Kevin VAN DER PERREN BEL 69.68 37.88 31.80 6.50 6.05 6.40 6.45 6.40 0.00 #10
6 Jeremy ABBOTT USA 68.80 35.90 33.90 6.95 6.55 6.50 6.90 7.00 1.00 #8
7 Kristoffer BERNTSSON SWE 66.21 35.26 30.95 6.15 5.85 6.15 6.35 6.45 0.00 #4
8 Chengjiang LI CHN 62.95 36.30 26.65 5.75 4.75 5.40 5.40 5.35 0.00 #1
9 Alexander USPENSKI RUS 62.60 35.30 28.30 5.90 5.15 5.65 5.80 5.80 1.00 #2
10 Vaughn CHIPEUR CAN 59.60 31.90 28.70 5.95 5.50 5.60 5.80 5.85 1.00 #3
11 Artem BORODULIN RUS 58.84 29.44 29.40 6.05 5.55 5.85 5.90 6.05 0.00 #6
12 Sergei VORONOV RUS 58.50 27.00 31.50 6.50 6.10 6.10 6.40 6.40 0.00 #7

Joubert into the lead, obviously. His quad toe - triple toe was perfect, and so were the rest of his jumps (3A and 3Lz, I think). WebTV is showing the commentators again and interviewing the Russian skaters.

Thoughts: Aside from Joubert, I liked Rippon alot. Tomas's SP was fun too, but he had a fall and Jeremy made two consecutive errors - a poppled lutz and a fall during his sit spin. Preaubert's axis on the jumps were very tilted, but he still managed to land them cleanly, so kudos to him. KVDP didn't do so bad either, but his costume...I'm sure can be found in a costume shop before Halloween.

Can someone tell me about Brian's program? That's one fantastic score...

Congrats to him! Wow

ETA: you're quicker than me clovera... thanks!

chiyori wrote:

ETA: you're quicker than me clovera... thanks!

No problem. Not sure if you can access ISU still, but the Zhangs scored 67.06, if you were wondering.

I was wondering about that too, inskate, especially when you consider the extra jumping pass for the men. I would imagine it is easier for the men to fix wrong edge jumps than the women because of strength issues and variation in technique on the jumps. Some people like Takahiko seemingly fixed it and are solid on their jumps with just one off-season!

I guess different skaters have different priorities, a bit like how Mao opted to keep the flutz last year vs. Miki who changed technique and struggled for most of the 07-08 season. I do wonder how it'll play out in the olympic season though.

Final Results:

1 Carolina KOSTNER ITA
170.72 2 1
2 Rachael FLATT USA
166.06 3 2
3 Fumie SUGURI JPN
162.04 1 3
4 Alissa CZISNY USA
151.03 5 4
5 Alena LEONOVA RUS
145.93 7 5
6 Elena GLEBOVA EST
140.67 6 6
7 Julia SEBESTYEN HUN
131.54 4 10
8 Kimmie MEISSNER USA
131.36 8 7
9 Na-Young KIM KOR
125.95 10 8
10 Nina PETUSHKOVA RUS
125.61 9 9

Congratulation to Carolina Kostner and all the other skaters!

Congrats to the the medalists. Caro-K made a noticeable amount of mistakes - a fall, some wonky landings...but she skated with speed, and rotated her jumps (the 3fl-3toe being the crucial one), and that's what the system rewards. She's a very sweet girl though, and she sounds so cute in her interviews.

Rachael was the highlight today for me. She returned to her solid skating that helped her at Nats and at Jr. Worlds. She had a beautiful spread eagle in the program, as well as a camel donut spin in the opposite direction. It's a pity the judges aren't giving her better PCS, because her basic skating skills and footwork are far better IMO than CaroZ, who had similar PCS scores at TEB.

Oh Fumie...she started out strong, but she started popping jumps around the midway mark. It's sad to see her struggle on her spins, and she looked disappointed after the skate. Still, she was able to medal, so not bad, really.

Alissa fell twice, and Kimmie...Kimmie, Kimmie, Kimmie.

Protocols are up! Two of Alissa's jumps got the UR call. Hmm. A lot of Kimmie's spins and both of her spirals got level 1. Oh wow...

Poor Fumie... It looks like she felt the pressure after placing 1st in the SP... She looked so nervous. She could have won if only she skated as well as she did at Skate Canada... She's finally getting better PCS.

Congrats to all the medalists! This wasn't a well skated performance, jump-wise, but hopefully all the girls will improve in time for their next competitions.

I hope Fumie will make GPF! (It looks like Caro already did, Fumie is on the bubble).

Men's event has ended.

Final Result:
1 Brian JOUBERT FRA 230.78 1 4
2 Tomas VERNER CZE 222.94 2 1
3 Alban PREAUBERT FRA 219.08 4 3
4 Jeremy ABBOTT USA 217.48 6 2
5 Adam RIPPON USA 207.93 3 5
6 Kevin VAN DER PERREN BEL 199.13 5 7
7 Sergei VORONOV RUS 190.31 12 6
8 Kristoffer BERNTSSON SWE 185.07 7 9
9 Artem BORODULIN RUS 180.04 11 8
10 Alexander USPENSKI RUS 174.24 9 10
11 Chengjiang LI CHN 163.60 8 12
12 Vaughn CHIPEUR CAN 161.49 10 11

That was a really good competition, but the men's event has been quite exciting this season, so not too big of a surprise, I think. The top 5 all skated really well - not perfect, of course (Tomas doubled a few jumps, Brian had a bad step out on his quad), but still very enjoyable. Joubert in first of course means Tat is very happy. Tat being in Russia does make me wonder if Mao is indeed training by herself again with NHK being next week.

Next week is the NHK Trophy!

I have problems with my computer so i watched only men's,ladies and pairs short... I thought that Mao now in Russia? Am I wrong?

Quote :

I thought that Mao now in Russia? Am I wrong?

I think you're right... I seem to remember reading that she would have an intensive camp in Russia for the two weeks prior to NHK.

chiyori wrote:

Quote :

I thought that Mao now in Russia? Am I wrong?

I think you're right... I seem to remember reading that she would have an intensive camp in Russia for the two weeks prior to NHK.

Then it's alright! TAT and Mao together in Russia and hopefully they're training a lot!

chiyori wrote:

Quote :

I thought that Mao now in Russia? Am I wrong?

I think you're right... I seem to remember reading that she would have an intensive camp in Russia for the two weeks prior to NHK.

I thought that too!