2017 Asian Open Figure Skating Trophy

The kangaroo makes an appearance because I think Kailani will medal!

Yuna SHIRAIWA (JPN)
Pictures at an Exhibition
In royal blue deep back, with sparkled snowflake on side

3Lz-3T
2A out of long spreadeagles
FSSp
StSq
3Lz< fall
3F< fall
CCoSp
chSq
3S
2A hangs on
LSp
3Lo

Very nice program (though with a lot of stop/starts) but she sort of lost her way in the middle a bit

Kaori SAKAMOTO (JPN)
Amelie (why did we only get the music graphic for the last two skaters? Rude.)
In two shades of green with silver sparkles running down the front

3F-3T
2A
StSq
FSSp
3Lz! turn out
3F
2A-3T hop out
3S-2T
ChSq
3Lo
FCCoSp
CCoSp

Beautifully presented!

Does this mean Sakamoto won?

Ender said:

Does this mean Sakamoto won?

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yes. She won the Gold, Yuna Silver and Kailani Bronze.

I enjoyed Rika Kihira's FS Program. Nice flow and her jumps are beautiful (that 3A, and her tano jumps ain't overdone). Of course, she can still improve artistically but she skated lovely enough here. :agree:

I also liked Mako's. She rather a little stiff but I think this is a nice program. :thumbsup:

YesWay said:

It becomes a conspiracy theory when people point at one occasion (or even a handful of occasions), where it may have happened (they almost invariably have no proof, when pressured)... and then try to say that's what's happening at EVERY competition.

When it ISN't happening at every competition...!

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To me, just seeing someone calling "early starter's low scoring" conspiracy is shocking.
During the 6.0 system, it was normal for judges to give low scores to skaters in early groups,
because 6.0 was the highest point limit,
they had to save some space for good skaters who skate later in the same competition.
So judges scored more cautiously to early starters.
And TV commentators regularly mentioned this practice to viewers,
and skaters were disappointed if they got early draws.

When the new system was brought in,
most of us thought we were not going to see this thing anymore
because under new one, judges are supposed to judge and score skaters individually.
However, not as much as before but we still see this happening
because they tend to score still cautiously early starters
as they have to give ridiculously high scores to skaters who skated in later groups
if they give big scores to those who skate in early ones.
which is understandable.

As for Mako's SP PCS,
if I say that she was singled out for some political reason,
that is the conspiracy theory, but I did not say that.
I thought the entire early group was lowballed only because they started early,
which still happens in competitions.

BTW I really hate any sort of conspiracy theory, and I hate reading someone insisting that
even though I know unfortunately the conspiracy happens,
like some Russian judges were caught when they tried to influence other judges
(especially Europeans) in past competitions, even big ones like Olympic games.

YesWay said:

It becomes a conspiracy theory when people point at one occasion (or even a handful of occasions), where it may have happened (they almost invariably have no proof, when pressured)... and then try to say that's what's happening at EVERY competition.

When it ISN't happening at every competition...!

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This is Yelim's and Mako's PCS in their FS.
Interesting to compare with ones in SP.

PCS of FS@Asian Open 2017

---------------------------------Mako--------Yelim
Skating Skills------------------6.58----------6.50
Transitions---------------------6.25----------6.08
Performance-------------------6.58----------5.92
Composition-------------------6.67-----------5.83
Interpretation of the Music----6.75----------5.75

As you see, Mako's PCS is siginificantly higher than Yelim's in every category
despite of the fact that Yelim's PCS is higher significantly than Mako's in SP.

______________________________________________________________
And this is the same comparison I posted before.
If you do not feel anything odd, I like to know why.

PCS of SP@Yokohana JGP 2016------Asian Open

Mako:
Skating Skills------------------6.71-----------5.67
Transitions---------------------6.31-----------5.33
Performance-------------------6.93-----------5.67
Composition-------------------6.82-----------5.42
Interpretation of the Music----6.79-----------5.22
total---------------------------26.91-----------22.08

Yelim:
Skating Skills-------------------6.18------------6.25
Transitions----------------------5.86-----------5.67
Performance--------------------5.96-----------5.92
Composition--------------------6.11-----------5.83
Interpretation of the Music----6. 07-----------5.75
total-----------------------------24.15----------23.54

Actually Yelim's PCS went down this time as well by 0.61,
but Mako's went down by 4.83

bluelutz said:

If you do not feel anything odd, I like to know why.

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If you feel there IS anything odd, I'd like to know why*

Please explain, in terms of the PCS criteria, if you think there is something wrong.
(ALL of the PCS criteria, for EVERY component).

Once you have presented your complete analysis of both Mako and Ye-lim, with reference to the criteria, and video footage... I'd also like to hear how you know what things ISU judges look for, when evaluating each of the criteria.

*Seriously. If you can make a proper case/argument, I'd love to see it.
I am actually highly cynical about judges and technical panels.
But I am 100x more cynical about claims made by figure skating fans.
And I do not "cry wolf" without real evidence, or a properly reasoned argument.

YesWay said:

If you feel there IS anything odd, I'd like to know why*

*Seriously. If you can make a proper case/argument, I'd love to see it.
I am actually highly cynical about judges and technical panels.
But I am 100x more cynical about claims made by figure skating fans.
And I do not "cry wolf" without real evidence, or a properly reasoned argument.

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Yes, I do understand your point.
Without seeing any performance video with clear quality,
it is not appropriate to judge the case like this as misjudged scoring,
Right.

It's a small event with 4-5 judges. Why so hung up on it?

largeman said:

The music in all the fancam videos I've seen sounded quite normal. It's just in the official stream and videos that the music sounds wonky and off. I think it could be the slight latency between the video sound source and the commentators' mic (both taking in the music)

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It sounded like they were getting their sound from 2 sources which somehow distorted itself to be a perfect tritone apart in pitch. It's the worst.

karne said:

so I wonder if there's a problem with the arena sound system because Andrew's Schindler's List sounded wonky too.

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I'm relieved you're not the only one who thought that. For a skater as artistic and musically aware as Dodds, when I heard his music, I was horrified by how disturbingly awful it sounded.

I was so exhausted after 10 hours by the side of the rink, and I slept for 10 hours after I went home. (I don't know how the Jr. ladies did it, 7am practices, 1pm competition, 9 for VC and gala end by 10.30pm, I hope they have a nap in between)

I am really impressed with Eun Soo's free program, its really awesome to see it live, and as always she did well with presentation and engaging audience. Her Ex program is making the audience WoW~ and Wa~ a lot, good job Misha for the choreography! :yes2:

YeLim have Lalaland for both free and EX program, how much does she (or her couch) love lalaland? But they are both very lovely to watch.

I really love Ex program which skaters have time to showcase something which they don't have time to show in the competition, i.e. How the dress flow when they are doing an extra long spread eagle or dancing like a pop star :luv17:

Both Kenji and Ryuju didn't manage to skate clear, we only manage to see the 4T during practice.
Ryuju was so good at fan service : after flying kiss, girls on the rink side are all crazy and malted
During the VC, Ryuju was only skating with one foot... but he still get to the gala.

If I have to vote for best dress of the event, I would definitely go for Kailani Craine! the whole top are sparkles! Look so expensive and well made. Every time she pass by, all I can hear are the clicking sound of cameras she did really well as well, her step sequence was well executed, need a bit more consistency for jumps.

Kaori was doing well, but she look a bit nervous during the competition, her jumps are better during practice. I love free the program, the choreography really takes time to express the frame of Emily, which she got rewarded with the highest PCS.

The sound in the venue is not good, we can hear the music, but I can't hear anything about scores, plus our side of the rink is very close to restaurants, so we could hear all kind of sounds from them, some fans have to watch live stream at the same time to find out the scores.

I am full of appreciation that the event is held in Hong Kong this time (although the venue sucks), I am sure it help promote figure skating at Hong Kong, and I hope that next time Hong Kong will have a better rink for skaters to skate at.

tsuyoboogie said:

Pairs SP results:

1) Su Yeon KIM / Hyung Tae KIM (KOR) 46.30
2) Narumi TAKAHASHI / Ryo SHIBATA (JPN) 42.78 Periscope video: https://twitter.com/boredjdc/status/893072940480081922
3) Miu SUZAKI / Ryuichi KIHARA (JPN) 41.24 Periscope video: https://twitter.com/boredjdc/status/893074613739020288
4) Paris STEPHENS / MATTHEW DODDS (AUS) 33.13

Result Details
Judges Score

Thank you to everyone reporting information and results, and sharing photos and videos from this event!

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Saw Narumi&Ryo's SP vid on Youtube and was surprised to see they went for 3loop as their solo jump (although Narumi popped hers, but still, props for them for having ambition!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz2Ou-Ffhb0

ETA: Watching Miu&Ryuichi now and they tried 3lutz! (Got the rotation, but Miu had an-almost-fall and -3GOE). Japanese pairs really trying to step it up with their sbs jump elements! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92rPQV2rAM8

Rika Kihira (JPN) landed a 3A and secured first place with 183.06, followed by Eun Soo Lim (177.25). It seems that neither of them will be available for the next Winter Games in South Korea as they are still competing as juniors.

Rika Kihira's free program:
https://twitter.com/ssdtomoaki/status/893734659745472512

Does anyone have a video link to Yelim Kim's FS from the Asian Open? It is the one I haven't seen from the junior ladies.

Ice Dance said:

Does anyone have a video link to Yelim Kim's FS from the Asian Open? It is the one I haven't seen from the junior ladies.

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https://www.pscp.tv/Meifil/1zqKVRDmQLXKB?



Finally got around to watching the junior girls' FS!
Eunsoo's free is absolutely stunning when she can go relatively clean on it. Now all she needs is a properly sized rink for her to go full speed into those amazing jumps of hers! Have no complaints about the end results though I still think Eunsoo's performance marks are still criminally low.:sarcasm:
Rika's 3A looks so so easy, especially when you can see it up close in the official stream. Amazing!! She also has no issues with edges for her lutz and flip. Unfortunately, I'm pretty disappointed by the choreography for her FS. It's just really boring to me with no special or unique touches to it.
There seems to be debate about Mako's PCS, but she definitely deserved her PCS for the FS. It was lovely to watch and fits her so much more than her SP. The spread eagle out of the 2A was gorgeous.:agree:
Yelim! I hope she wasn't disappointed by her scores because she has much to be proud of her for staying so stable with those backloaded rippons! Her last spin keeps getting messed up possibly because she's tired from all the jumps and running out of time, so I hope she can gain stamina before her first JGP showing as that's the last element the judges see so it should be good.

The level of the top 4 was so high already. JGP is going to be such a battlefield with the Russian ladies added in as well and I can't wait! Though of course I would be thrilled if I could have the opportunity to see Eunsoo live in Nagoya!


Also, huge thanks to the HKSU for a great job of running the event! I complained about the size of the rink, but there's not much that can be done about that. Otherwise, I enjoyed the rink for it's bright lighting from the windows. Made it look like it would be a wonderful place to practice in the morning or sit down to watch with a nice cup of coffee. They provided an official stream with a commentator and posted some lovely pictures on their facebook page! Going beyond the call of duty and it was wonderful. Hope this can foster more interest in figure skating in Hong Kong.

DorYiu said:

Kitty, you don't have to say sorry, it's a great sacrifice to not enjoy the program live, when it is right in front of you, we have to thank you for what you have recorded so far~ Who's your favourite so far?

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bluelutz said:

You did the great job! Thanks a lot!!
To be honest, your videos are better than I expected (Sorry, I do not mean to offend you)
If you can record tomorrow's Junior Ladies FS,
that would be great, since Senior FS will be on live feed.
but if you like to just sit down & enjoy, that would be perfectly understandable.
Thanks again and we really appreciate you work :clapper:

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tsuyoboogie said:

No need to apologize! You did such a great job recording so many skaters! It must have been exhausting~ I hope you can relax now and fully enjoy the rest of the competition. Thank you so much again for all your hard work!
EDIT: BTW, I really appreciate you recording and uploading the Jr. Mens final FS run-through. Yuto Kishina is one of my favorite Juniors, so I was quite sad to see him have such a difficult time in this competition. Seeing him land his 3A and 3Lz easily in that run-through video reassured me a bit about his upcoming JGP assignment.

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karne said:

Oh, don't apologise! I am so grateful we got any video at all. I'd rather you enjoyed the competition!

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You are welcome. Thanks for your support!