- Joined
- Jan 17, 2014
There's no way they're not sending Satoko, unless she's injured she'll be there and will most probably deliver. Satoko had been a Fed favorite for a while now.
The way I see it now Satoko's no longer Japan number 1(that's Rika) and not even number 2(that's Kaori) but she's still a strong number 3 until further notice.
Mai, as always, is number 4. :hopelessness:
But yeah, thank god Japan's situation is much less complicated. It's not complicated at all, actually. Rika is internationally unbeaten, Kaori is National Champion and did very well at the GP, Satoko also did well and is National bronze medalist. The only one who could've complicated the decision for Worlds this season was Wakaba but she got injured and had a tough season. Mai continues to be consistently unlucky and always an "almossssst got it" case. So the decision is pretty straight-forward.
No more 2018 Olympic team nightmares.
Tough stage for Mai. Satoko has the non jumps and PCS buffer and is solidly consistent. From a national perspective to retain spots, she is a natural choice as she can be depended on to rank in the top 6 in case the other two (Rika and Kaori), with much higher scoring potential, falters. Similar reason for why Rusfed will likely keep the spot for Sofia Samodurova. For Satoko, the pressure is a little greater as she is also naturally seen as the lead Japanese lady in terms of seniority and has to shoulder the reputation for having to be solid so her team mates can go all out with their riskier higher scoring potential programmes.