2017 Junior Worlds: Ladies recap | Golden Skate

2017 Junior Worlds: Ladies recap

gsk8

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Country
United-States
Russian and Japanese skaters have dominated in Ladies at Junior Worlds since 2009 and even have won all the medals since 2013 in this discipline. 2017 was no different as Russia’s Alina Zagitova topped the podium while Japanese skaters Marin Honda and Kaori Sakamoto earned the silver and bronze medals.

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The top three were just amazing and gave clean performances, packed with the maximum degree of difficulty: They all hit seven triples in the long and three triples in the short, obviously, they showed triple-triple combos and had level fours for the spins and footwork (only Sakamoto’s step sequence in the free was a level three).

What are your thoughts on the placements and performances?
 

gmyers

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 6, 2010
Based on the way this competition went Zagitova victory is an enormous shock and upset. Good for her for her shocking upset of Honda.
 

Daniel1998

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 4, 2015
Based on the current scoring system, Zagitova was the clear winner. She delivered two clean and technically challenging programs, so kudos to her.

That said, the performances I'm going to come back to over and over again to watch in the future are those of Marin Honda's. She has better presentation than many senior skaters and the jumps fit seamlessly into her programs. Regardless of what the scoring system and the judges have to say about her, she is the junior that speaks to me the most through her skating and is the one I always look most forward to seeing.

Also big props to Kaori Sakamoto on her clean skates and my Korean starlet Eunsoo Lim on her fourth place finish- with such a strong field, this was a great result for her in her first junior worlds and I can't wait to see how she develops in the future.
 

venx

Match Penalty
Joined
Jan 29, 2017
It was phenomenal competition - top 3 skaters were perfect, next two close to perfect (1 mistake).
Personal bests from strict technical panel all over the board and loud cheers from well entertained crowd.
I've never seen anything like this before - the level of female junior skating is skyrocketing! :yay:


ps. it only missed:
- other two Russian skaters stepping up and joining the party,
- Russian TV and Tatiana Tarasova commentary ;)
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Based on the way this competition went Zagitova victory is an enormous shock and upset. Good for her for her shocking upset of Honda.

Why was Zagitova's win "shocking" based on how this competition went? Zagitova skated well in both the short and long programs. So did Honda.
 

Interspectator

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 25, 2012
I really enjoyed the final group, especially Kaori, Marin and Eunsoo. Alina's skate was astounding too.
I guess I have a soft spot for the unbridled, unrefined powerhouse jumpers and Kaori is one of them. That and her speed really made me enjoy her performance. The way she lands with a long running edge is something I also like.
 

mrrice

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 9, 2014
I didn't see any of this event however, based on their scores, it appears that the US ladies did not skate well. We seem to have so many "Mid Level" skaters who can be great one week and then fold under the pressure the next. Did anyone here see our ladies perform? Neither of them made the final flight. That's not good. Were they just out skated or did they leave points on the ice?
 
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FlattFan

Match Penalty
Joined
Jan 4, 2010
I didn't see any of this event however, based on their scores, it appears that US ladies did not skate well. We seem to have so many "Mid Level" skater who can be great one week and then fold under the pressure the next. Did anyone here see our ladies perform? Neither of the made the final flight. That's not good. Were they just out skated or did they leave points on the ice?

Even if you send our 3 best seniors to compete with these juniors, it would be shocking if they come back with a medal. Our senior girls are no where near the medalists here. Our junior girls are even more hopeless.
 

frida80

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 13, 2014
I didn't see any of this event however, based on their scores, it appears that US ladies did not skate well. We seem to have so many "Mid Level" skater who can be great one week and then fold under the pressure the next. Did anyone here see our ladies perform? Neither of the made the final flight. That's not good. Were they just out skated or did they leave points on the ice?

Bradie was ok. She missed her combos in her free skate, but she was much better than last year. She's coming off a bad injury, so I think this was a fine result for her. She can build on it.

Starr was a last minute substitute with no real international experience. She did fine during the short but popped her axels in the long. She did no worse than Bradie did last year. Also both of them skates with Shin Amano as the asst tech specialist. Starr's a fighter and she takes her loses and comes back stronger. So I'm not worried about the two of them.

What's going to happen over the next few years is that the fruits of the bonus point system will eventually rise ranks and become more competitive. I refuse to be doom and gloom over one year of competition, when just last year we were salivating over Vivian Le. Off years happen, just be patient and we will have more "Nathans" in US ladies in the future.
 

frida80

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 13, 2014
I'm more concerned about Polina's meltdown. But I'll look past it since it was just one competition. Konstantinova was inconsistent as expected. Japanese ladies were rock solid. Eunsoo was a delightful surprise. It's a shame she'll miss the Olympics next year.
 

frida80

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 13, 2014
Furthermore, I think most Feds in addition to pushing tanos and backloading are going to push 3A and 4S/4T. Relying on clean programs is no longer going to cut it.
 

mrrice

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 9, 2014
Furthermore, I think most Feds in addition to pushing tanos and backloading are going to push 3A and 4S/4T. Relying on clean programs is no longer going to cut it.

This is true and I find it unfortunate. I guess it's fine for senior ladies but, I don't approve of it for juniors. These young athlete's have fragile bodies during their pre, and early teen years. It's like Tara and her hip problems. She blamed them on her triple loop, triple loop combo and I can say from experience that hip problems never completely go away until you stop skating.

Young athletes will often push themselves to the point of exhaustion to impress a Parent, Coach, or Friend. It is up to the Feds to set the standards and ethics for the skaters. I wish they'd do something about these programs that are empty for the first 2 minutes. Maybe they should offer a bonus for a skater who can execute a combo in every minute of their LP?
 
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frida80

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 13, 2014
This is true and I find it unfortunate. I guess it's fine for senior ladies but, I don't approve of it for juniors. This young athlete's have fragile bodies during their pre, and early teen years. It's like Tara and her hip problems. She blamed them on her triple loop, triple loop combo and I can say from experience that hip problems never completely go away until you stop skating.

Young athletes will often push themselves to the point of exhaustion to impress a Parent, Coach, or Friend. It is up to Fed to set the standards and ethics for the skaters and I wish they'd do something about these programs that are empty for the first 2 minutes. Maybe they should offer a bonus for a skater who can execute a combo in every minute of their LP?

I think good practices should be put in place to prevent these injuries. There was a thread that asked why Mirai wasn't injured like several other flexible skaters. I've found in dancing, if you watch do proper technique and don't over do it you can avoid injury. However as a younger skates, injuries were a badger of honor. If you didn't get them, you weren't working hard enough. If The Feds set good guidelines for teaching, it could save a lot of people later pain and agony and extend their careers.
 

hippomoomin

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 30, 2012
I thought gmyers was being ironic, because some folks mentioned it will be a total meltdown for all Russian ladies. :biggrin:
Why was Zagitova's win "shocking" based on how this competition went? Zagitova skated well in both the short and long programs. So did Honda.
 

hippomoomin

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 30, 2012
Bradie is a less successful version of Samantha Cesario. Both were 19 and sent to Junior Worlds. She has a nice line which I enjoy. but not sure how much better she can jump at 19.

Bradie was ok. She missed her combos in her free skate, but she was much better than last year. She's coming off a bad injury, so I think this was a fine result for her. She can build on it.

Starr was a last minute substitute with no real international experience. She did fine during the short but popped her axels in the long. She did no worse than Bradie did last year. Also both of them skates with Shin Amano as the asst tech specialist. Starr's a fighter and she takes her loses and comes back stronger. So I'm not worried about the two of them.

What's going to happen over the next few years is that the fruits of the bonus point system will eventually rise ranks and become more competitive. I refuse to be doom and gloom over one year of competition, when just last year we were salivating over Vivian Le. Off years happen, just be patient and we will have more "Nathans" in US ladies in the future.
 
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mrrice

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 9, 2014
Bradie was ok. She missed her combos in her free skate, but she was much better than last year. She's coming off a bad injury, so I think this was a fine result for her. She can build on it.

Starr was a last minute substitute with no real international experience. She did fine during the short but popped her axels in the long. She did no worse than Bradie did last year. Also both of them skates with Shin Amano as the asst tech specialist. Starr's a fighter and she takes her loses and comes back stronger. So I'm not worried about the two of them.

What's going to happen over the next few years is that the fruits of the bonus point system will eventually rise ranks and become more competitive. I refuse to be doom and gloom over one year of competition, when just last year we were salivating over Vivian Le. Off years happen, just be patient and we will have more "Nathans" in US ladies in the future.

Speaking of Vivian Le, what happened to her? It seems that she and Emily Chan have dropped off the map this year....
 
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