Alena Kostornaia

Apparently I'm very impatient to see Aliona skate again, because I have gone off to look up the schedule for NHK, to see how long it is before the first women's practice. And the answer is that I have to wait till Thursday. Oh well. It will certainly be another exciting weekend of skating!

Hoping to see this beautiful smile again this weekend!!
https://www.instagram.com/p/B5BXUVapqE1/

Alena is the only skater that makes me forget about Evgenia. To me figure skating should have a scoring system that performances like Alena's would win going away. Watching anything else is not figure skating in any form I enjoy.

The good news is I think Aliona has enough world standings points now to be in the 2nd group (last group) for the SP at NHK! Hopefully her PCS won’t be held back this time.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4Zqi9_BlN7/?igshid=bnvejb2kjs2j

With my daughter in Grenoble

Manue93370 said:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4Zqi9_BlN7/?igshid=bnvejb2kjs2j

With my daughter in Grenoble

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Lovely photo...

Manue93370 said:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4Zqi9_BlN7/?igshid=bnvejb2kjs2j

With my daughter in Grenoble

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2 lovely precious girls

it's so nice of her to take the time to take pictures with children who see her as role models !

Manue93370 said:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4Zqi9_BlN7/?igshid=bnvejb2kjs2j

With my daughter in Grenoble

Click to expand...

Awesome photo! :luv17: I'm glad Aliona always has time for her fans.

What was it like watching her skate live??

Some updates ahead of NHK Trophy!

1) Aliona skates first in the first practice group on Thursday afternoon (starts at 1:00pm local time)!
http://www.isuresults.com/schedules/gpjpn2019_PracticeGroupsAndMusicRotation.pdf

I wonder if we'll get some livestreamed practices...Or at least some practice notes on Twitter or something.
Since she's going first, she won't have much time to warm up her triple axel, so I wonder if she'll omit them from the run-through... :think: My guess is she'll do an FS run-through on Thursday, and then the SP run-through on Friday morning.

2) Here's the NHK (TV channel) listing of the ladies competitors:
https://www.nhk.or.jp/figure/entries/index.html?cat=2
For Aliona, it lists how she's done at JGP/Jr Worlds over 2017-18, and at the bottom it says "Winner of GP France. Last season, she won the Junior Grand Prix Final with a then-record score. Her strong points are her speed and dynamic movements, which she maintains until the end of the program." :agree:

3) Aliona won't have Daria there with her this time, but Alina will be with her again, and she seems like a good older-sister teammate, and Sofia will be there, and she and Aliona are very close too. So I think she'll have lots of fun in Japan too. :yes:

4) There wasn't a banquet after the competition at IDF, but there will be one at NHK. Can't wait to see all the pics!!

5) I wonder if Eteri will go to NHK Trophy... Japan is far away, so I'd understand if she doesn't, but she did show up for 1 of Anna's and 1 of Sasha's GP events, so it only seems fair for her to go... Plus, this is the last GP event so she doesn't have to be training someone for next week's competition. I guess we'll see!

6) I'm afraid to write what I hope for Aliona for fear that I might jinx her... But I really hope she does well at NHK!!
Right now Sasha and Anna seem to be more well-known in Japan because the Japanese media has been focusing on the quadsters, but since NHK Trophy will be broadcast live around primetime, Aliona really has an opportunity to win some more Japanese fans. :agree:

I guess I just hope she puts out two performances that she can be satisfied with!

Manue93370 said:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4Zqi9_BlN7/?igshid=bnvejb2kjs2j

With my daughter in Grenoble

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Awwwee. She should be a figure skater as well.

Well, I think the Ladies practice session should start in less than an hour, so I assume Aliona is already there, but I haven't actually seen any proof of her being in Japan.

Hopefully we'll get some videos and/or practice reports later! :yes:

In the meantime, here are some videos of Aliona from the IDF SP warm-up:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B4W9KrzJeMF/
https://twitter.com/machatoaisu/status/1190318879630856195?s=03

The speed she carries into her 3F+3T!!

Ok, they are there!! Daniil just posted a quick video on his IG story!
https://www.instagram.com/daniil_gleikhengauz/?hl=en

Aliona is using him as a column so that she can do arm exercises with a stretch band!

I'm starting to see some notes on Twitter now--Eteri is there!! ::yes2:

Warmup: 3S, 2A, 3Lo, 3F, 3Lz, 1A, 1A (as warmups). She is practicing the FS.

ETA:

Run-through:
3Afall
3Lz (fall maybe)
2A (2foot?)
spiral +3Lo
3F+3T rippon
3F+1Eu+3S
3Lz<<2ft
CCoSp
LSp

https://twitter.com/THEWORLD1889/status/1197366759906402304

The person commented "her condition looks pretty bad," but I'm not too worried. She probably just needs some time to get warmed up/used to the ice. :agree:

I guess she was unhappy again though and went to talk to Eteri, who "coached her passionately." Then she went back to warm up again.
https://twitter.com/ra_nuit/status/1197367817357578241

I'm so glad Eteri is there with her! I feel like Aliona draws a lot of psychological strength from her. :yes:

I'm watching the practice stream here with a VPN:
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/realtime/rt0001461.html

Aliona landed a 3A+3T rippon! See, I knew she just needed to get warmed up.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm watching the practice stream here with a VPN:
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/realtime/rt0001461.html

Aliona landed a 3A+3T rippon! See, I knew she just needed to get warmed up.

Batsuchan said:

I'm watching the practice stream here with a VPN:
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/realtime/rt0001461.html

Aliona landed a 3A+3T rippon! See, I knew she just needed to get warmed up.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm watching the practice stream here with a VPN:
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/realtime/rt0001461.html

Aliona landed a 3A+3T rippon! See, I knew she just needed to get warmed up.

Click to expand...

I am so glad that Eteri is with her to help give her confidence. Hopefully the Japanese fans will give our little angel some confidence too!! There better be a video of that combo or I will be mad!!

Hopefully Alena doesn’t feel too much pressure. All she needs to do is get fifth (although we all know that she wants the gold). I hope that she finds the same courage that she found at IDF!! Good luck to our angelic vampire!!

So I only found the practice live stream when the session was nearly done, but the camera person pretty much only followed Aliona around and ignored the other girls.

Full practice notes:
https://twitter.com/0409_Obi/status/1197374685853274112

Some pics:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B5HVqJYp0P5/

Here's a video of one of her 3A+2T's:
https://twitter.com/FCSp4GOE100/status/1197374826337329152

Since it was streamed, hopefully we'll get some more later, especially of that crazy 3A+3T! I'm sure that's not going into her FS, but it was quite a statement! :shocked:

I loved her practice outfit, and it looks like she got new earrings! :agree:

Also, it looked like she changed one of her combo spins a little bit, but I'm not 100% sure.

Ok, that's it from me for tonight. It wasn't a perfect practice by any means, but I'm pretty satisfied. :yes: The 3A's I saw that were good looked more secure (tighter axis) than at IDF. The one I saw that she fell on--it was pretty obvious that would happen because she didn't get the height she normally does.

ETA One more clip of a 3A+2T (a beautiful one) and with a smile!
https://twitter.com/bluerose173/status/1197379906532827136

Batsuchan said:

Ok, they are there!! Daniil just posted a quick video on his IG story!
https://www.instagram.com/daniil_gleikhengauz/?hl=en

Aliona is using him as a column so that she can do arm exercises with a stretch band!

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His inscription is "when you are a little column" Alyona giggles

Batsuchan said:

I'm watching the practice stream here with a VPN:
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/realtime/rt0001461.html

Aliona landed a 3A+3T rippon! See, I knew she just needed to get warmed up.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm watching the practice stream here with a VPN:
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/realtime/rt0001461.html

Aliona landed a 3A+3T rippon! See, I knew she just needed to get warmed up.

Click to expand...

Every single competition it’s something new from her and I love it! With the 4S on the planned elements for Kihira, do you think she’d throw in the 3A+3T for an edge if her SP score is lower? Kihira always has pretty high component scores and Aliona’s have been painfully low so I feel like she may be a bigger competitor than initially thought. Anyone have the technical totals for the two? Not that it guarantees Rika will actually land the 4S, which apparently from practice is still iffy, but, I’m getting nervous!