2014 Trophée Eric Bompard Mens FS 11/22

[matmuh]

ohh wow, i was kinda upset cause i missed mens free, cause went to see movie
now reading all thats written i am glad i did,The Hunger Games was great and kinda fitting movie for mens free , seems like everyone fought hard and Max is the victor
May the odds ever be on your favor folks

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

I'm actually happy for Kovtun, though.

I think it was the end of last season that I had predicted Kovtun would win at least one of his GP events this year and easily make the GPF, while everyone else kept saying "Oh he pops his quads all the time" etc. I think today's clean FS proves that he is a threat that I said he was (although I should reiterate that I still don't like him much as a person, lol). However, I certainly did NOT predict that this is how it would happen (Hanyu with 5 falls, Machida imploding).

It should be a huge confidence boost for Kovtun, knowing that he can jump from 6th to 1st (with help of course, but still).

 

[pandaatlarge]

Congratulations to Maxim! And... he remains UNDEFEATED this season!!! And look at who has defeated, reigning OG/WC/GPF Gold Medalist, OG Bronze Medalist and WC Silver Medalists!!! This is something very exceptional. Honestly I am impressed how he nails the quads, but I just hope he can improve the other less difficult jumps to have higher GOE rewarded.

 

[Sandpiper]

ohh wow, i was kinda upset cause i missed mens free, cause went to see movie
now reading all thats written i am glad i did,The Hunger Games was great and kinda fitting movie for mens free , seems like everyone fought hard and Max is the victor
May the odds ever be on your favor folks

More like everyone threw down their weapons and gave up... and Kovtun, after initially giving up as well, decided to give this whole fight thing another go.

 

[surimi]

wow. I must watch all of the men's programs tomorrow. Our TV didn't show anything except the SPs and ladies FS (I guess we've got the Netherlands Eurosport for some mysterious reason), ISU is geoblocked here, and the Russian Eurosport stream features the same stuff as here, snooker and boxing, ugh. Youtube it is then.

Completely agree with you. In Russia figure skating is very popular, but commentators annoy me terribly. I have the feeling that they are not in the subject and talking nonsense. I really liked the commentator on Eurosport2 - Zurankov

Be glad you get the coverage at least... and I wonder if your commentators tend to mention ladies' looks and weight once in a while, like ours do.

Now excuse me while I go prepare a decent little burial for my Men predictions. Does the ever end? This must be an exceptional season for surprise twists.

 

[Art&Sport]

I don't really understand why Richard Dornbush scored so low in the fp. After watching some of the top men's free skates, I'm puzzled. It looks to me like Richard fell on an attempted quad and had a hand down on another jump, but where did he lose so many points? He didn't seem to have any other obvious mistakes unless he left something out, or didn't get credit for repeating a jump or jumps that violated the rules. It seems from the PCS scores that Richard had PCS scores slightly ahead of Adam's.

I'm also completely confounded because why should Kovtun be garnering all of these high PCS marks (first of all he was held up above Adam in the sp). Why oh why Charlie White did you extend help to Maxim Kovtun of all singles men??? Try helping some of your own U.S. guys, like Max Aaron, please, if you must help a singles guy. Obviously, Kovtun benefited hugely in both his GPs because of faltering by other highly touted guys. Kovtun has clearly been working on smoothing out his jerkiness and trying to extend his arms and use his whole body. But his presentation skills are still overly studied and do not come from the inside out as naturally as Adam's and Denis Ten's artistic skills do. I found both of Kovtun's performances workmanlike and boring. I dislike Kovtun's Bolero sp music. Please skaters stop using Bolero!!! It is meant for one iconic use only and that already happened in 1984 with Christopher Dean's magic.

Denis Ten could have walked away with this title, and so could have Machida! Even Richard Dornbush could have if he apparently had landed his quad. Is it because Dornbush did not land a quad and some of the lower-ranked guys in the sp did, that Richard dropped so precipitously?! Please can somebody explain? I didn't see Adam doing a quad in his fp, although it was apparently a wise strategy for Adam to rack up points on as many elements as he could doing a 3-jump combo for his first jumping pass. I believe Adam had one fall on his second triple axel, but he must have gotten credit for the rotations. Still, unless the judges felt bad about not giving Adam more credit for his sp, I'm still not sure what enabled Adam to place 3rd in the fp, and Richard to drop so far? Can somebody please explain?

Denis seemed to have lost concentration after he fell on his quad attempt. He watered down so many of his jumps after that, I do not think it is fair he won a medal at all. But he did have a stellar sp, so I guess that's what carried Denis. It still does not explain Kovtun's OTT PCS scores and Richard's low scores for the fp and Adam's high scores for the fp. What a conundrum.

The only thing that seems clear to me at this point in the season is that no man under the current system appears to be able to skate consistently clean programs in either one event, or in two events they enter during the season (in Machida's case for example, since he did skate two nearly perfect performances at Skate America). This all points to the fact that the quad as required point-getter is killing men's figure skating.

 

[HanDomi]

I don't really understand why Richard Dornbush scored so low in the fp. After watching some of the top men's free skates, I'm puzzled. It looks to me like Richard fell on an attempted quad and had a hand down on another jump, but where did he lose so many points? He didn't seem to have any other obvious mistakes unless he left something out, or didn't get credit for repeating a jump or jumps that violated the rules. It seems from the PCS scores that Richard had PCS scores slightly ahead of Adam's.
.

He popped both 3A's also

 

[Mao88]

MEN'S FREE SKATE - VIDEOS & RESULT

1. Maxim KOVTUN (RUS) - 243.35 Free Skate, 2nd Copy
2. Tatsuki MACHIDA (JPN) - 237.74 Free Skate, 2nd Copy
3. Denis TEN (KAZ) - 236.28 Free Skate, 2nd Copy
4. Konstantin MENSHOV (RUS) - 233.22 Free Skate, 2nd Copy, 3rd Copy
5. Adam RIPPON (USA) - 225.42 Free Skate, 2nd Copy
6. Adian PITKEEV (RUS) - 219.38 Free Skate, 2nd Copy
7. Richard DORNBUSH (USA) - 219.27 Free Skate, 2nd Copy
8. Han YAN (CHN) - 216.85 Free Skate, 2nd Copy
9. Chafik BESSEGHIER (FRA) - 211.24 Free Skate
10. Douglas RAZZANO (USA) - 194.24 Free Skate
11. Florent AMODIO (FRA) - 193.00 Free Skate

 

[StitchMonkey]

I don't really understand why Richard Dornbush scored so low in the fp.

The rest of his content was a tad watered down. The base value was only 62.88 which was kinda result of lots of little things. For instance not triple triple combinations. He also got an edge call on his 3F+2T, and got less than 2 points total for GOE. So just kinda perfect storm.

 

[Blades of Passion]

Honestly I am impressed how he nails the quads, I just hope he can improve the other less difficult jumps to have higher GOE rewarded.

I dunno, his quads still aren't THAT consistent. Quads + Triple Axels get the biggest GOE reward and those are all he has to do in the SP, so I think he should keep focusing on them the most. 3 Quads + 2 Triple Axels in the LP already takes up the bulk of the jumping passes there as well. He doesn't attempt the Flip or Loop at all (including double loop for a 3-jump combo), so the big jumps + PCS are probably going to be his key to victory.

It's funny how in the Men's competition you don't need a Flip or Loop at all, but then in the Ladies' competition they are often both repeated in the LP as reliable point-getters.

 

[iceberg]

Congratulations to Maxim! And... he remains UNDEFEATED this season!!! And look at who has defeated, reigning OG/WC/GPF Gold Medalist, OG Bronze Medalist and WC Silver Medalists!!! This is something very exceptional. Honestly I am impressed how he nails the quads, but I just hope he can improve the other less difficult jumps to have higher GOE rewarded.

He defeated Hanyu's and Machida's unclean programs. But how about a clean Hanyu or Machida program?

 

[TuTU9678]

Fun fact: Adam Rippon has the 2nd highest TES!!
Oh what has gone wrong

That pretty much sums up the competition

 

[mikiandorocks]

wow. I must watch all of the men's programs tomorrow. Our TV didn't show anything except the SPs and ladies FS (I guess we've got the Netherlands Eurosport for some mysterious reason), ISU is geoblocked here, and the Russian Eurosport stream features the same stuff as here, snooker and boxing, ugh. Youtube it is then.



Be glad you get the coverage at least... and I wonder if your commentators tend to mention ladies' looks and weight once in a while, like ours do.

Now excuse me while I go prepare a decent little burial for my Men predictions. Does the ever end? This must be an exceptional season for surprise twists.

Portuguese eurosport commentators are obsessed with girls weight and height. Oh and also age difference in pairs. Last week they basically called Mirai Nagasu fat. This weekend the target was Charlene Guignard. So annoying.

 

[TuTU9678]

Maxim beat Hanyu, Denis Ten, MaChida, Misha Ge, Richard Dornbush, Menshov, Han Yan... finally I understood why Plushy is the greatest! His influence is overwhelmingly enormous in men's figure skating.

Maxim also beat Plushy in the Russian championships LOL

 

[cheerknithanson]

Portuguese eurosport commentators are obsessed with girls weight and height. Oh and also age difference in pairs. Last week they basically called Mirai Nagasu fat. This weekend the target was Charlene Guignard. So annoying.

Annoying? More like it's totally rude of them to do that!

 

[Hanmgse]

Wow Kovtun won again :shocked: I'm curious to see how he does on the GPF. Feel sad for Ten I really wanted him to win...

 

[figureskateobasan]

um, I woke up to see this. Really didn't expect Maxim to win all his GP assignments. What happened to Denis and Machida though...:no:

 

[makaihime]

wow! Big kudos to Kovtun for stepping it up while everyone faltered. I'm liking him more as a person Although....Kovtun has the best luck in his choice of GP events Wonder if his luck will continue in the GPF

Shame about everyone else though...I really wanted to see a clean Denis because I just absolutely love his LP this season. As for Machida, I thought I would like it more as the season goes on but so far, I'm still not really feeling his LP. But I'm in the minority here so I guess it's just my personal preference.

 

[Li'Kitsu]

He defeated Hanyu's and Machida's unclean programs. But how about a clean Hanyu or Machida program?

I'm not sure if that was a rhetorical question, but Kovtun wouldn't stand a chance against clean Machida and especially not Hanyu. Not against clean Fernandez either. Not so sure abut DTen though.

But honestly, Kovtun is the only guy qualifying to the GPF with full 30 points.The only other guy who might still manage that is Mura. This is actually kind of funny... kind of

 

[gravy]

He defeated Hanyu's and Machida's unclean programs. But how about a clean Hanyu or Machida program?

If Hanyu and Machida can't do a clean program when it counts, then pointing out this hypothetical scenario is moot.

(And yes, I obviously know about Hanyu's collision affecting his LP in CoC.)

This is kind of like that US ladies' thread: most people say Polina and Gracie are better skaters than Ashley, which is true. But unlike them, Ashley always hits so it's kind of pointless to play the "what if" card if they can't deliver on the big stage.