(I'll update this as each event finishes)
Men's Freeskate Results
Protocols
Overall Results
* Honestly, the men were an absolute disaster - if you watch it, don't get your hopes too high for great skating.
Pairs Freeskate Results
Protocols
Overall Results
Ladies Freeskate Results
Protocols
Overall Results
Free Dance Results
Protocols
Overall Results
Showing posts with label Carolina Kostner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carolina Kostner. Show all posts
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Cup of China: A Preview
Pairs: This is possibly one of the deeper pairs fields on the Grand Prix so far, Zhang/Zhang, Kavaguti/Smirnov, Moore-Towers/Moscovitch, and Sui/Han likely being the major teams in contention for the podium. Zhang/Zhang led the field after the short program at Skate America and grabbed silver overall, despite not having competed in over a year. Moore-Towers/Moscovitch also medaled at Skate America and will obviously want to repeat that here, but I think it'll be more difficult this with the two Chinese teams and the Russians to contend with. Kavaguti/Smirnov have been World and Olympic medal contenders before and definitely have a good chance win over this field here if they skate well. Sui/Han are a very young team but they did well on the Grand Prix last season and won Junior Worlds for the second year in a row. They may lack finesse, but their big tricks can be absolutely massive, which often helps them shoot up the rankings. Americans Evora/Ladwig are an outside shot for a medal in my opinion, but a solid showing here would be a great way to build confidence going into Nationals.
Ice Dance: World bronze medalists Shibutani/Shibutani are the likely favorites for this event and look to win their first senior title of any kind here . Bobrova/Soloviev will probably be their main challengers for the gold. Beyond that, it's a bit more confusing with Carron/Jones and Coomes/Buckland having been World competitors and Lichtman/Copely who medaled at Junior Worlds last season. The newly formed team of Emily Samuelson/Todd Gilles will also be competing and I'm interested to see where they'll end up (Samuelson's former parter Evan Bates placed 4th at Skate Canada last week with his new partner Madison Chock).
Ladies: Carolina Kostner has to be considered the favorite at this competition. There's a few girls that could defeat her, but for most of them that will probably require mistakes on her part and excellent skates on theirs. Mirai Nagasu should be considered a threat, but her programs this season, especially her freeskate, are lackluster and she displayed very little fire at Skate Canada last week. If Mirai is on, I think she could take Carolina, but like Jeremy, it all depends on what's going on in her head. Kanako Murakami did extremely well on the Grand Prix last season (beating Kostner at Skate America even) and placed at the top 10 at Worlds; she reportedly is having boot problems but if she can fight through that, it's easy to imagine her medaling. Adelina Sotnikova is the 2011 World Junior Champion and will be making her senior GP debut at this event and will likely be a factor if her jumps stay together. Christina Gao will also be making her GP debut; I like her, but I'm not convinced she'll be in it for a medal. She does has a triple flip-triple toe that's been competition tested before though, so I don't think it's entirely out of the question.
Men: The battle for the podium here will be slightly less difficult than it was expected to be, due to Brian Joubert withdrawing because of a back injury he's been dealing with recently. It seems like there will be four main guys in contention, with a few possible spoilers should they falter. Jeremy Abbott is a fantastic all around skater, but how he places here will depend on his mental game; if he keeps it together he could come out with a massive score, but if he doesn't, he could end up off the podium entirely in this field. Artur Gachinski is lacking in some areas but can be a very consistent jumper and has a solid quad under his belt. Yuzuru Hanyu shocked many by placing second behind Daisuke Takahashi at Four Continents last season and while still developing (understandable because he's still only 16), has nice style and some absolutely gorgeous jumps. Nobunari Oda is not planning to attempt a quad here because of a knee injury he was dealing with a few months ago, which could make medaling here significantly more difficult with Gachinski, Abbott, and Hanyu competing; especially with all three planning to quad (to the best of my knowledge). Kevin Reynolds, as usual, has the potential to play spoiler here as he'll probably be attempting at least two types of quads, but he lacks consistency and often falls apart in the freeskate. Richard Dornbush also has a quad planned and can be a steady competitor, but unless the others really struggle, I think don't think his odds of medaling are great.
Icenetwork Livestream Schedule
Isu Event Page
Ice Dance: World bronze medalists Shibutani/Shibutani are the likely favorites for this event and look to win their first senior title of any kind here . Bobrova/Soloviev will probably be their main challengers for the gold. Beyond that, it's a bit more confusing with Carron/Jones and Coomes/Buckland having been World competitors and Lichtman/Copely who medaled at Junior Worlds last season. The newly formed team of Emily Samuelson/Todd Gilles will also be competing and I'm interested to see where they'll end up (Samuelson's former parter Evan Bates placed 4th at Skate Canada last week with his new partner Madison Chock).
Ladies: Carolina Kostner has to be considered the favorite at this competition. There's a few girls that could defeat her, but for most of them that will probably require mistakes on her part and excellent skates on theirs. Mirai Nagasu should be considered a threat, but her programs this season, especially her freeskate, are lackluster and she displayed very little fire at Skate Canada last week. If Mirai is on, I think she could take Carolina, but like Jeremy, it all depends on what's going on in her head. Kanako Murakami did extremely well on the Grand Prix last season (beating Kostner at Skate America even) and placed at the top 10 at Worlds; she reportedly is having boot problems but if she can fight through that, it's easy to imagine her medaling. Adelina Sotnikova is the 2011 World Junior Champion and will be making her senior GP debut at this event and will likely be a factor if her jumps stay together. Christina Gao will also be making her GP debut; I like her, but I'm not convinced she'll be in it for a medal. She does has a triple flip-triple toe that's been competition tested before though, so I don't think it's entirely out of the question.
Men: The battle for the podium here will be slightly less difficult than it was expected to be, due to Brian Joubert withdrawing because of a back injury he's been dealing with recently. It seems like there will be four main guys in contention, with a few possible spoilers should they falter. Jeremy Abbott is a fantastic all around skater, but how he places here will depend on his mental game; if he keeps it together he could come out with a massive score, but if he doesn't, he could end up off the podium entirely in this field. Artur Gachinski is lacking in some areas but can be a very consistent jumper and has a solid quad under his belt. Yuzuru Hanyu shocked many by placing second behind Daisuke Takahashi at Four Continents last season and while still developing (understandable because he's still only 16), has nice style and some absolutely gorgeous jumps. Nobunari Oda is not planning to attempt a quad here because of a knee injury he was dealing with a few months ago, which could make medaling here significantly more difficult with Gachinski, Abbott, and Hanyu competing; especially with all three planning to quad (to the best of my knowledge). Kevin Reynolds, as usual, has the potential to play spoiler here as he'll probably be attempting at least two types of quads, but he lacks consistency and often falls apart in the freeskate. Richard Dornbush also has a quad planned and can be a steady competitor, but unless the others really struggle, I think don't think his odds of medaling are great.
Icenetwork Livestream Schedule
Isu Event Page
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Skate America: Ladies Freeskate (Plus a few notes about the event in general)
Skate America as a whole was very underwhelming and, to be quite honest, extremely disappointing this year. It was probably a byproduct of the off season being so short this year and this being the first regular event for top skaters, but even so - I NEVER expected it would turn out to be such a mess. I was busy the day of the men's freeskate and the free dance; I still originally intended to do a writeup on the men, but after seeing the scores and hearing from a few friends what a complete and utter disaster it was, I decided to spare myself the pain of watching the men's freeskate at all (save for Denis Ten, who I'd heard had skated an all around decent program and I actually did enjoy it a good bit). I did watch some of the free dance and I was impressed with Asher/Hill, Pechalat/Bourzat, and Davis/White, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how much the latter two teams free dances develop as the season goes on.
As for pairs, I'm really impressed and pleased with Savchenko/Szolkowy for attempting a throw triple axel in their short program; while obviously, it didn't pay off in that segment, I love that they're continuing to push themselves to improve and it makes me respect them more than I already did. And also, I found their freeskate interesting and hope to see a clean version of it in the near future. One last thing before I get to the ladies - it was nice to see Zhang/Zhang back after a year away from competition! Even if their programs weren't my favorite so far this season, it was strange having such a veteran team away and I'm glad that they were able to come back so successfully. That said, let's get started!
Elene Gedevanishvili (Georgia): Pretty dress, (though I think it'd look even better if the skirt was a little longer, because of the ruffles.). Very nice, huge triple lutz-double toe to start, followed by a singled triple flip attempt. Double axel-double toe-double toe, good. Triple toe attempt popped into a double toe-double toe combo. An alright flying sit spin, then a triple lutz she had to hold onto. Nice triple salchow and Y spiral. Two footed triple toe, followed by a combination spin that had some nice positions. Footwork that had some good difficulty to it, but it was slow. I loved her camel positions in his last spin. There were some nice things in this program and it's really a shame about the pops - her jumps can be quite nice. TE 48.75 + PCS 49.46 = FS 97.61 + SP 42.91 = Total 140.12 (7th)
Valentina Marchei (Italy): Opened with an underrotated and two footed triple lutz attempt, followed by a nice triple flip. Triple salchow with a double three turn turn out between it and a double toe. Her spins weren't nearly as good as Elene's. Okay biellmann spiral, and a telegraphed triple lutz-double toe. Nice triple toe and a rough double axel. I really don't like the music or this program in general. Fall on an underrotated triple salchow that was somehow also telegraphed. Slow footwork and a poor spin to finish. TE 44.21 + PCS 48.77 Deduction - 1.00 = FS 91.98 + SP 43.19 = Total 135.17 (9th)
Joshi Helgesson (Sweden): Triple lutz-double toe, the latter of which was deemed underrotated. Underrotated triple loop that was also two footed (and the technical panel downgraded). Triple toe that was small but okay. Ugly catchfoot position in a spin, same for the spiral. Triple lutz, again small, and marked as underrotated. Triple toe-double toe, the triple was called underrotated. Alright triple salchow and another spin; it's positions and speed could be a lot better. Double axel-double axel sequence that was good. Footwork was kind of meh and the last spin was poor too. Her music got slow and heavy towards the end of the program. Not a good jumping day for her. TE 43.57 + PCS 45.38 = FS 88.95 + SP 45.03 = Total 133.98 (10th)
Ksenia Makarova (Russia): Her dress was a blinding shade of pink. Crash on her opening triple flip. She had nice speed over the ice. Triple toe-double toe was nice, followed by a underrotated triple loop. Very pretty layback position in her layback spin; biellmann could be better but it wasn't bad. Triple loop-double toe-double loop looked alright but they called the triple loop underrotated. Another underrotation on a triple salchow-double toe, followed by a fallout on a double axel and a handdown on a second double axel. Sudden music change to the Fox theme (the one from the beginning of Fox feature films) during a spin .. strange. Finished with a unimpressive footwork sequence and spin. I heard that Ksenia has a hip injury - I hope it heals well and soon! TE 45.20 + PCS 52.52 Deduction - 1.00 = FS 96.71 + SP 45.95 = Total 142.67 (5th)
Joelle Forte (USA): Opened with an okay triple lutz-double toe-double loop combo (double loop was underrotated), followed by a triple flip (underrotated) and a nice triple salchow. Her flying sit spin that slowed at the end and a double axel that was a little swingy on the landing. Her layback could be arched more (you might've noticed that I'm picky about laybacks and spirals, haha.). Extremely underrotated triple lutz that she fell hard on, followed by a nice triple toe-double axel sequence. Footwork wasn't particularly good and was on the slow side, and an underrotated triple salchow-double toe. Ended with an okay spin. A lot of underrotation marks, but I thought it was a pretty respectable effort for a skater on her first Grand Prix assignment ever. TE 45.43 + 46.41 Deduction - 1.00 = FS 90.84 + SP 48.86 = Total 139.70 (8th)
Viktoria Helgesson (Sweden): Those white fuzzy wrist cuffs on her costume..anyway, opened with a triple toe-double toe-double loop, she had to eek out that last landing. Fall on a triple lutz that looked bad from the takeoff and was underrotated. Held onto a triple loop and then a slow camel spin that did have some decent variations. Big pop on a flip followed by an average spiral sequence. Good double axel and then a combination spin that could use better positioning and speed. Okay triple loop (called underrotated) -double axel sequence. Handdown on her last triple salchow and her final spin was very slow. TE 44.41 + PCS 51.21 Deduction - 1.00 = FS 94.62 + SP 51.13 = Total 145.75 (3rd)
Haruka Imai (Japan): Nice triple loop-double toe to begin, followed by a triple lutz that looked nice but was called underrotated. I really like the way that she uses her arms; it's very graceful. The music changed from soft to very peppy... I preferred the soft, personally. Fall on a triple toe that looked under to me. Stepout on a triple loop, followed by a combo spin that traveled and slowed. Underrotated triple salchow-double toe and an okay biellmann spiral. Fallout on a second underrotated triple salchow and just held onto a double axel. Okay footwork and then a layback that had nice arch, but her free foot should be turned out and a nice doughnut position in the followed spin (though it could be a bit faster). It's too bad -she's pleasant to watch, even if I'm not a huge fan of the peppy music. TE 39.08 + 50.19 Deduction - 1.00 = FS 88.27 + 54.67 = Total 142.94 (4th)
Caroline Zhang (USA): Disappointing freeskate after a good short program. She had problems on almost every jump, save for her triple loops. Her lovely layback/pearl/biellmann spin is back, which is great to see. She said in the kiss and cry that she doesn't know what happened. TE 38.81 + 49.84 PCS Deductions -3.00 = FS 85.65 + SP 55.05 = Total 140.07 (6th)
Carolina Kostner (Italy): Pretty dress. Good triple loop and triple flip at the start. She has great speed over the ice (but not overly fast like she's seemed in the past to me.). An alright spiral sequence followed by a good double axel and a spin that was on the slow side. Double axel-double toe combination was nice. Triple toe-double toe, also nice; I wonder if it was an intended triple-triple though. Very nice triple salchow followed by her sole jumping mistakes, doing a double three turn out of a triple salchow on her triple salchow-double toe-double toe and singling the latter. Her footwork was fine and she finished with a couple of spins that were slow, though the second was a bit better. Good skate! I'm not a fan of her skating in general but this was nice; the music suits her. TE 55.45 + PCS 61.67 = FS 117.12 + SP 60.23 = Total 177.35 (2nd)
Alissa Czisny (USA): Opened with her planned triple lutz-triple toe combination, but the toe was clearly very underrotated and consequently downgraded. Fall on a downgraded triple flip attempt, also given an edge deduction. Held onto the following triple loop and her spiral after that was nice, as usual. Nice flying spin, though the camel position wasn't my favorite. Second triple lutz okayish, marked as underrotated, then a double salchow and a turnout on a triple salchow-double toe combination. Nice double axel-double toe-double loop, ending with a nice footwork sequence and two impressive spins, including a gorgeous layback/biellmann. TE 51.37 + PCS 62.91 Deduction - 1.00 = FS 113.28 + SP 64.20 = Total 177.48 (1st)
I personally am not a fan of either Alissa or Carolina's skating, but in my opinion, Carolina deserved the win much more than Alissa today. She DID have less technical content, but almost every single jump was extremely well done, while Alissa dealt with several downgrades, underrotations, and flawed landings. I know the numbers ended up being very, very close and it's not like Carolina hasn't won medals when I hadn't felt she'd earned them either, but regardless - this didn't sit well with me.
Freeskate Results
As for pairs, I'm really impressed and pleased with Savchenko/Szolkowy for attempting a throw triple axel in their short program; while obviously, it didn't pay off in that segment, I love that they're continuing to push themselves to improve and it makes me respect them more than I already did. And also, I found their freeskate interesting and hope to see a clean version of it in the near future. One last thing before I get to the ladies - it was nice to see Zhang/Zhang back after a year away from competition! Even if their programs weren't my favorite so far this season, it was strange having such a veteran team away and I'm glad that they were able to come back so successfully. That said, let's get started!
Elene Gedevanishvili (Georgia): Pretty dress, (though I think it'd look even better if the skirt was a little longer, because of the ruffles.). Very nice, huge triple lutz-double toe to start, followed by a singled triple flip attempt. Double axel-double toe-double toe, good. Triple toe attempt popped into a double toe-double toe combo. An alright flying sit spin, then a triple lutz she had to hold onto. Nice triple salchow and Y spiral. Two footed triple toe, followed by a combination spin that had some nice positions. Footwork that had some good difficulty to it, but it was slow. I loved her camel positions in his last spin. There were some nice things in this program and it's really a shame about the pops - her jumps can be quite nice. TE 48.75 + PCS 49.46 = FS 97.61 + SP 42.91 = Total 140.12 (7th)
Valentina Marchei (Italy): Opened with an underrotated and two footed triple lutz attempt, followed by a nice triple flip. Triple salchow with a double three turn turn out between it and a double toe. Her spins weren't nearly as good as Elene's. Okay biellmann spiral, and a telegraphed triple lutz-double toe. Nice triple toe and a rough double axel. I really don't like the music or this program in general. Fall on an underrotated triple salchow that was somehow also telegraphed. Slow footwork and a poor spin to finish. TE 44.21 + PCS 48.77 Deduction - 1.00 = FS 91.98 + SP 43.19 = Total 135.17 (9th)
Joshi Helgesson (Sweden): Triple lutz-double toe, the latter of which was deemed underrotated. Underrotated triple loop that was also two footed (and the technical panel downgraded). Triple toe that was small but okay. Ugly catchfoot position in a spin, same for the spiral. Triple lutz, again small, and marked as underrotated. Triple toe-double toe, the triple was called underrotated. Alright triple salchow and another spin; it's positions and speed could be a lot better. Double axel-double axel sequence that was good. Footwork was kind of meh and the last spin was poor too. Her music got slow and heavy towards the end of the program. Not a good jumping day for her. TE 43.57 + PCS 45.38 = FS 88.95 + SP 45.03 = Total 133.98 (10th)
Ksenia Makarova (Russia): Her dress was a blinding shade of pink. Crash on her opening triple flip. She had nice speed over the ice. Triple toe-double toe was nice, followed by a underrotated triple loop. Very pretty layback position in her layback spin; biellmann could be better but it wasn't bad. Triple loop-double toe-double loop looked alright but they called the triple loop underrotated. Another underrotation on a triple salchow-double toe, followed by a fallout on a double axel and a handdown on a second double axel. Sudden music change to the Fox theme (the one from the beginning of Fox feature films) during a spin .. strange. Finished with a unimpressive footwork sequence and spin. I heard that Ksenia has a hip injury - I hope it heals well and soon! TE 45.20 + PCS 52.52 Deduction - 1.00 = FS 96.71 + SP 45.95 = Total 142.67 (5th)
Joelle Forte (USA): Opened with an okay triple lutz-double toe-double loop combo (double loop was underrotated), followed by a triple flip (underrotated) and a nice triple salchow. Her flying sit spin that slowed at the end and a double axel that was a little swingy on the landing. Her layback could be arched more (you might've noticed that I'm picky about laybacks and spirals, haha.). Extremely underrotated triple lutz that she fell hard on, followed by a nice triple toe-double axel sequence. Footwork wasn't particularly good and was on the slow side, and an underrotated triple salchow-double toe. Ended with an okay spin. A lot of underrotation marks, but I thought it was a pretty respectable effort for a skater on her first Grand Prix assignment ever. TE 45.43 + 46.41 Deduction - 1.00 = FS 90.84 + SP 48.86 = Total 139.70 (8th)
Viktoria Helgesson (Sweden): Those white fuzzy wrist cuffs on her costume..anyway, opened with a triple toe-double toe-double loop, she had to eek out that last landing. Fall on a triple lutz that looked bad from the takeoff and was underrotated. Held onto a triple loop and then a slow camel spin that did have some decent variations. Big pop on a flip followed by an average spiral sequence. Good double axel and then a combination spin that could use better positioning and speed. Okay triple loop (called underrotated) -double axel sequence. Handdown on her last triple salchow and her final spin was very slow. TE 44.41 + PCS 51.21 Deduction - 1.00 = FS 94.62 + SP 51.13 = Total 145.75 (3rd)
Haruka Imai (Japan): Nice triple loop-double toe to begin, followed by a triple lutz that looked nice but was called underrotated. I really like the way that she uses her arms; it's very graceful. The music changed from soft to very peppy... I preferred the soft, personally. Fall on a triple toe that looked under to me. Stepout on a triple loop, followed by a combo spin that traveled and slowed. Underrotated triple salchow-double toe and an okay biellmann spiral. Fallout on a second underrotated triple salchow and just held onto a double axel. Okay footwork and then a layback that had nice arch, but her free foot should be turned out and a nice doughnut position in the followed spin (though it could be a bit faster). It's too bad -she's pleasant to watch, even if I'm not a huge fan of the peppy music. TE 39.08 + 50.19 Deduction - 1.00 = FS 88.27 + 54.67 = Total 142.94 (4th)
Caroline Zhang (USA): Disappointing freeskate after a good short program. She had problems on almost every jump, save for her triple loops. Her lovely layback/pearl/biellmann spin is back, which is great to see. She said in the kiss and cry that she doesn't know what happened. TE 38.81 + 49.84 PCS Deductions -3.00 = FS 85.65 + SP 55.05 = Total 140.07 (6th)
Carolina Kostner (Italy): Pretty dress. Good triple loop and triple flip at the start. She has great speed over the ice (but not overly fast like she's seemed in the past to me.). An alright spiral sequence followed by a good double axel and a spin that was on the slow side. Double axel-double toe combination was nice. Triple toe-double toe, also nice; I wonder if it was an intended triple-triple though. Very nice triple salchow followed by her sole jumping mistakes, doing a double three turn out of a triple salchow on her triple salchow-double toe-double toe and singling the latter. Her footwork was fine and she finished with a couple of spins that were slow, though the second was a bit better. Good skate! I'm not a fan of her skating in general but this was nice; the music suits her. TE 55.45 + PCS 61.67 = FS 117.12 + SP 60.23 = Total 177.35 (2nd)
Alissa Czisny (USA): Opened with her planned triple lutz-triple toe combination, but the toe was clearly very underrotated and consequently downgraded. Fall on a downgraded triple flip attempt, also given an edge deduction. Held onto the following triple loop and her spiral after that was nice, as usual. Nice flying spin, though the camel position wasn't my favorite. Second triple lutz okayish, marked as underrotated, then a double salchow and a turnout on a triple salchow-double toe combination. Nice double axel-double toe-double loop, ending with a nice footwork sequence and two impressive spins, including a gorgeous layback/biellmann. TE 51.37 + PCS 62.91 Deduction - 1.00 = FS 113.28 + SP 64.20 = Total 177.48 (1st)
I personally am not a fan of either Alissa or Carolina's skating, but in my opinion, Carolina deserved the win much more than Alissa today. She DID have less technical content, but almost every single jump was extremely well done, while Alissa dealt with several downgrades, underrotations, and flawed landings. I know the numbers ended up being very, very close and it's not like Carolina hasn't won medals when I hadn't felt she'd earned them either, but regardless - this didn't sit well with me.
Freeskate Results
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Skate America: A Preview
Here are my brief thoughts on who I suspect will be a factor at Skate America this weekend.
Pairs: World Champions Savchenko and Szolkowy should have no problem winning here. The bigger question is who else will be on the medal stand. Zhang and Zhang were out last season after an odd injury so it's hard to say how well they'll skate, but they've been among the best in the world for years and certainly shouldn't be counted out. Moore-Towers and Moscovitch, Russians Bazarova and Larionov, and possibly
Hausch and Wendes will all be looking to medal here as well.
Ice dance: Davis and White are the clear favorites to win, with Pechalat and Bourzat being pretty much a lock for silver. Who will get the bronze medal is more of the mystery - I'm leaning towards it being one of the two Canadian teams competing here (Paul and Islam and Ralph and Hill).
Ladies: There's a lot of ladies here who could potentially medal, but I think that either Carolina Kostner or Alissa Czisny have the most potential to win this event. Joshi and Viktoria Helgesson, Haruka Imai, Elene Gedenishvili, and Ksenia Makarova could all also be in the hunt as well.
Men: World medalist Takahiko Kozuka has to be considered the frontrunner here, with Florent Amodio being the most likely skater to challenge him. Michal Brezina is anything but consistent but he's managed to squish into 4th at Worlds twice, so it's hard to count him out. Last year's surprise medalist Armin Mahbanoozadeh will be looking to repeat here, with teammate and U.S. silver medalist Richard Dornbush will be competing at his first senior Grand Prix ever. Daisuke Murakami and Denis Ten are each a bit of a question mark, but if either go clean and others struggle, I could see one of them medaling.
Pairs: World Champions Savchenko and Szolkowy should have no problem winning here. The bigger question is who else will be on the medal stand. Zhang and Zhang were out last season after an odd injury so it's hard to say how well they'll skate, but they've been among the best in the world for years and certainly shouldn't be counted out. Moore-Towers and Moscovitch, Russians Bazarova and Larionov, and possibly
Hausch and Wendes will all be looking to medal here as well.
Ice dance: Davis and White are the clear favorites to win, with Pechalat and Bourzat being pretty much a lock for silver. Who will get the bronze medal is more of the mystery - I'm leaning towards it being one of the two Canadian teams competing here (Paul and Islam and Ralph and Hill).
Ladies: There's a lot of ladies here who could potentially medal, but I think that either Carolina Kostner or Alissa Czisny have the most potential to win this event. Joshi and Viktoria Helgesson, Haruka Imai, Elene Gedenishvili, and Ksenia Makarova could all also be in the hunt as well.
Men: World medalist Takahiko Kozuka has to be considered the frontrunner here, with Florent Amodio being the most likely skater to challenge him. Michal Brezina is anything but consistent but he's managed to squish into 4th at Worlds twice, so it's hard to count him out. Last year's surprise medalist Armin Mahbanoozadeh will be looking to repeat here, with teammate and U.S. silver medalist Richard Dornbush will be competing at his first senior Grand Prix ever. Daisuke Murakami and Denis Ten are each a bit of a question mark, but if either go clean and others struggle, I could see one of them medaling.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Worlds Ladies Freeskate and Final Results
Post freeskate interviews
Miki Ando (1st)
Yu-Na Kim (2nd)
Carolina Kostner (3rd)
Alissa Czisny (5th)
Rachael Flatt (12th)
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Europeans Results: Men and Ladies!
What an interesting few days it has been. Between Nationals and Euros', I've been going absolutely skating crazy! I apologize for not having them up yet, but my thoughts on the pairs, ladies, and men's U.S. Nationals freeskates will be up in the next few days. I did not do a free dance review, as it is by far the discipline that I am least well versed in and I had severe tunnel vision on regarding Alex and Maia Shibutani. For now though, I'll talk about the new Europeans singles champions!
Florent Amodio won the European men's title with a total of 226.86 after placing third in the freeskate. Brian Joubert (2nd with 223.01) and Tomas Verner (3rd with 222.60) each beat him in that segment, but not by enough to catch him after his lead from the short.
Freeskate Results
Protocols
Overall Results
More pics due to the ridiculous amounts of adorable that Flo exuded.
And here is his reaction to the news. If this isn't adorable, what is?
And his imperfect, but still pretty dang good freeskate.
Sarah Meier finished second in the freeskate to win the gold in her home country in what she's said will be her final competition. What a way to go out! She finished with a overall score of 170.60. Carolina Kostner won the free to move up to 2nd overall (168.54), while Kiira Korpi fell to 3rd (166.40) after finishing 4th in the free. Ksenia Makarova and Alena Leonova finished 4th (162.04) and 5th(154.31) overall.
Freeskate Results
Protocols
Overall Results
More pics due to the ridiculous amounts of adorable that Flo exuded.
And here is his reaction to the news. If this isn't adorable, what is?
And his imperfect, but still pretty dang good freeskate.
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