2017 Canadian Nats Junior Mens FS

hehe lots of Polish people in Canada so we are happy to welcome them when they skate like that

one of the coaches for one of the other skaters is Grigor Filipowski... forgive me for the bad spelling... when I heard the name I remembered he was a strong contender when i started watching skating... that will not make me look younger

cathlen said:

Great skate from Conrad! He can be a spoiler at JWC

ETA: He has very Polish surname. I don't know about his roots, but in Polish his surname means "eagle"

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4everchan said:

omg... steven won on PCS not on TES.. not sure i agree with this... i thought Conrad had more presence and maturity ... don't hear me wrong... WOW at Steven... i just thought Conrad skated just as well tonight...

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Yes, I don't agree with that. Steven is technically amazing, but he needs to work a lot on eye contact with the audience & the performance aspect. I hope the judges weren't blinded by the hype for him & the fact that he's from TCC. Not bashing Steven at all...what he can do at 12 is incredible, but I feel very bad for Conrad.

No matter the result... both these young guys show that there is some good talent coming up for Canada. Unlike many of the other young men here, these 2 were able to perform most of their elements under pressure, which is such an important thing. It will be fun to watch them progress... particularly Stephen because he has barely started growing and who knows what that will bring, while Conrad is closer to being done growing.

eta: don't worry, 4everchan, I remember Filipowski well from when he competed in the 80's as well. I was young and just discovering skating, but I remember him from Cincinnati in particular.

4everchan said:

hehe lots of Polish people in Canada so we are happy to welcome them when they skate like that

one of the coaches for one of the other skaters is Grigor Filipowski... forgive me for the bad spelling... when I heard the name I remembered he was a strong contender when i started watching skating... that will not make me look younger

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Yeah, he now goes by "Gregor" name, but in Polish it's Grzegorz. Something foreigners would have a problem to pronounce He's to this day the best male single skater Poland ever had. I know he coached Roman Sadovsky prior to this season, no idea who he is coaching now. (Btw. I wasn't even born when he has won bronze medal at Worlds I only watched his skates on yt)

silverfoxes said:

Yes, I don't agree with that. Steven is technically amazing, but he needs to work a lot on eye contact with the audience & the performance aspect. I hope the judges weren't blinded by the hype for him & the fact that he's from TCC. Not bashing Steven at all...what he can do at 12 is incredible, but I feel very bad for Conrad.

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yeah... i thought the magic flute was a bit too much for Steven at this point, especially the serious excerpts they chose.. some are much better suited.
Again, never I would trash the achievements of a 12 year old boy who has an immense talent. I have never seen anyone skate like this at 12 in the men's event.

Conrad can be proud to have delivered after hearing that huge score of Steven. 78 in TES for both of them... I bet that would place them quite high compared to the seniors field, if not on the podium... (even if we remove the bonus points)

Three berths for Junior Worlds for Canada this year.

Roman Sadovsky and Nic Nadeau are still age eligible, I believe. So, although they will be competing as seniors at nationals, it looks as though Conrad will be the only one from this event to go to Worlds. [Stephen having just turned 12 in December has yet another season to go before he is age eligible.]

i think he coaches jack dushenski... always a good idea to drop the "z" unless it's scrabble time

... you are a spring chicken no wonder you can stay up so late to watch skating ...

cathlen said:

Yeah, he now goes by "Gregor" name, but in Polish it's Grzegorz. Something foreigners would have a problem to pronounce He's to this day the best male single skater Poland ever had. I know he coached Roman Sadovsky prior to this season, no idea who he is coaching now. (Btw. I wasn't even born when he has won bronze medal at Worlds I only watched his skates on yt)

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i would indeed send those 3.... who said that Canada would be in trouble when my chiddy retires?

I think we will have quite a rivalry between those 4 boys...it will be like the women's event.... too many people for too few spots...

TGee said:

Three berths for Junior Worlds for Canada this year.

Roman Sadovsky and Nic Nadeau are still age eligible, I believe. So, although they will be competing as seniors at nationals, it looks as though Conrad will be the only one from this event to go to Worlds. [Stephen having just turned 12 in December has yet another season to go before he is age eligible.]

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mango???? how are you holding up????

4everchan said:

i think he coaches jack dushenski... always a good idea to drop the "z" unless it's scrabble time

... you are a spring chicken no wonder you can stay up so late to watch skating ...

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Hehe, I'm actually a sleepyhead I'll watch Jack's skate tomorrow, now I'm going to Good night everyone!

4everchan said:

yeah... i thought the magic flute was a bit too much for Steven at this point, especially the serious excerpts they chose.. some are much better suited.

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Interestingly, while there always seems to be concern to avoid music that's "too strong" for the younger girls , there seems to be a view out there to give boys "stronger, more masculine" pieces from quite a young age. Don't see much of the sprightly music for them. Stephen's Live and Let Die short program and Magic Flute FS seem to be kind of on the norm.

Interesting to get your reaction. For my part, I'd much rather this than the overuse of princessy music on the female side.

Editing to add: and better than getting stuck on perky and cute as Nam Nguyen seemed to have done. Shifting to mature and intense music is not coming easily for him.

4everchan said:

mango???? how are you holding up????

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Think the two of us may have overdone it already....and the seniors practices only start tomorrow!

TGee said:

Interestingly, while there always seems to be concern to avoid music that's "too strong" for the younger girls , there seems to be a view out there to give boys "stronger, more masculine" pieces from quite a young age. Don't see much of the sprightly music for them. Stephen's Live and Let Die short program and Magic Flute FS seem to be kind of on the norm.

Interesting to get your reaction. For my part, I'd much rather this than the overuse of princessy music on the female side.

Editing to add: and better than getting stuck on perky and cute as Nam Nguyen seemed to have done. Shifting to mature and intense music is not coming easily for him.

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Well, I don't mind the powerful... however in the magic flute, there is so much fun and brilliant music that would have been really good for Steven..

For instance : the papageno aria https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EKKRmoVOWE

Or the papageno and papagena duet.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87UE2GC5db0&t=47s

Both of these in instrumental versions (and that surely exists) would have been a lot of fun...

at least they didn't give him this

I'm here. I'm alive. Still a bit surprised by what went down.

This event reminded me very strongly of last year's senior ladies' final, with Alaine and Gabby practically nailing their programs. Funny enough, the final points difference between Alaine & Gabby is the same as that between Conrad & Stephen: 4.00 points.

I am in agreement with you guys that I don't know about Conrad losing on PCS by this much. Though I would like to point out that Conrad was also behind Stephen in PCS in the SP - and he had a fantastic SP.

Conrad's PCS on the JGP were also not high. As a matter of fact, though he skated a great FS at JGP Dresden and took the silver medal his PCS were ~3 points lower than the bronze medallist, a skater who didn't do a single 3A, and more than 11 points back of winner Jun Hwan Cha. I think his PCS suffered a bit nationally due to his performance at Challenge. Stephen's PCS went up ever so slightly (0.38) from Challenge so I wouldn't say the judges are blinded - this is the level they think he's at with a fall in a FS.

PCS is an area that Conrad already knows he must address. Perhaps with this judging the message is: get on it fast, dude.

In the conversation for a spot to go to Junior Worlds we must not forget Joseph Phan, last year's junior men's winner. (His PCS in winning that title were even higher than Stephen's tonight though his TES was much lower.) He's skating at the senior level, so we'll have to see his results before Skate Canada makes a final decision. Joseph hasn't successfully landed a 3A or a 4T in competition, as far as I know. So Conrad's got that going for him.

4everchan you're the music connoisseur here so I'll leave the analysis to you. But last season he was skating to warhorses so I think this is a step up perhaps. David Wilson did the choreo. I think the Canadian judges like David Wilson. But that's just my inner Patrick Chan fan coming out.

Some comments that I didn't want to stick into that analysis post

The fact that there's a 40 point difference between 2nd and 3rd place is a bit alarming. Central Ontario boys had the top 3 FS scores, and hold 4 of the top 5 spots. CO's tradition of strong men's skating continues. If any non-Canadian was curious, Patrick and Nam also skate for Central Ontario and other skaters who have represented the section include Brian Orser, Jeffrey Buttle, and Elvis Stojko, to name a few.

You all should check out Brandon Day's interview. He's got the right attitude.

I watched Aurora's SP and that was another impressive performance here. A 59 and change at the junior level is a great score!

Osmond4gold said:

I watched Aurora's SP and that was another impressive performance here. A 59 and change at the junior level is a great score!

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Aurora's an impressive junior lady.

I just read this and a lot has been explained: https://bevsmithwrites.wordpress.com/2017/01/17/conrad-orzel-his-head-in-the-game/

Besides, for the past week, Gogolev has been ill, suffering a fever and coughing his lungs out. All of this hasn’t helped the Gogolev magic. We’re not quite seeing vintage Gogolev, if you can say “vintage” and “12-year-old” in the same sentence.

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Per aspera ad astra.

Mango said:

I just read this and a lot has been explained: https://bevsmithwrites.wordpress.com/2017/01/17/conrad-orzel-his-head-in-the-game/



Per aspera ad astra.

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good article... conrad is something... wow... played with pretty much all quads already....