2019 4CCs: Ladies' FS | Golden Skate

2019 4CCs: Ladies' FS

gsk8

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Country
United-States
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In her debut at this event, Japan's Rika Kihira rose from fifth to capture the gold in the Ladies' discipline at the 2019 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships. Elizabet Tursynbaeva of Kazakhstan, who won the silver, became the first lady from her country in figure skating to earn a medal at an ISU Championship. Defending silver medalist Mai Mihara of Japan rose from eighth to snatch the bronze, edging teammate Kaori Sakamoto off the podium by a mere 0.33 point.

Kihira said she wanted to "give her all" to today's performance and "leave yesterday's mistakes" behind.

"I was able to keep my concentration, and these two factors were the reasons for my solid performance today," said the 2018-19 Grand Prix Final champion. "During this season, I learned how to keep my concentration in my free skating no matter what happens in my short program."

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What an intense competition! What are your thoughts?
 
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1111bm

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 31, 2016
So happy for Rika, love her skating, love that program and those 3As are always super exciting to watch. :luv17:
And how adorable was her collection of stuffed animals in all sizes in the KnC, and her sitting between them, hugging that huge bear that was the same size as her.

Would have wished for Kaori to have a more satisfying skate.

Heartbroken for Ting Cui, her skating is so beautiful and the way she’s committing to body moves using her whole body is fantastic.

Also disappointed for Eunsoo, but loved the fact, that she continued to perform and sell her program until the end.
Also :laugh: at Raf being secretive as always, trying to whisper into her ear by talking to the back of the KnC, and Eunsoo looking behind herself in confusion.
(but what is it with asian female skaters turning Raf’s brain to mush? I was surprised at how much he was comforting her when she came off the ice)
 

Bluediamonds09

Medalist
Joined
Sep 8, 2016
The US ladies..........wow. They HAD it. They had it on a silver platter. But alas, no, again.

Mai Mihara: way to fight back!

Lil Bet : keep going for the quad, it serves u well.
 

randomfan

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 31, 2014
I personally thought Rika was a bit overscored, but she was the winner no doubt; the only one in the final group who had a clean performance. Congratulations Rika!!

I'm very surprised but happy to see Elizabet win silver. That 4S attempt was really good and I'm glad she went for it here and not just wait until Universiade like she said she would. As we can see, it really paid off!

Great to see Mai rebound to win the bronze! Now she has all three 4CC medals :biggrin: I hope that she can finish the season on a high note at Universiade.

That 1A from Kaori was a big shock. It seems that she's having constant problems with that jumping pass (fall at GPF too). I hope that she won't be too upset at herself (although seeing her reaction in the Kiss & Cry tells me it's too late for that hope :cry:). It's really too bad, IMO she could have been 2nd, 3rd, or 4th.

I'm also surprised to see Bradie's scores not as high as I thought they'd be. I guess the judges decided to forget about national bias here. And it's really evident that Mariah isn't benefiting from the competition being in her home country. I really thought she'd be given higher PCS, but alas no. Anyways, I'm sad that they both weren't able to completely redeem herself from the Nationals FS, but since Worlds is the main goal, I hope they rest well and prepare hard for it!

Eunsoo was definitely nervous, but I think this was one of the best skates from her performance-wise. The look she gave to the judges was great! :laugh: Raf was very encouraging to her, so I hope they can work together to solve the issues.

Yelim was even slower than usual...but nevertheless she put on a decent skate to score pretty well. I'm glad to see that she has grown so much this season, and I hope she can train hard to establish herself as an even bigger contender next season.

Poor Ting, I guess the pressure really got to her. Like she said in her interview, I hope she can rebound well for Junior Worlds.
 

3dsushi

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
I just Looooooved Rika's Beautiful Storm:love:. I hope she uses this program again next year. It's just perfect for her.
 

Colonel Green

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 3, 2018
Country
Canada
So happy for Mai. Now she has complete collection of all color medals from 4CC ��
Though perhaps unfortunately she won them in descending order.

This was pretty much the reversal of that maxim that you can't win it in the short but you can lose it. Rika, Elizabet and Mai all did their best to lose it in the short, but they won it in the free, while all three of the short program small medalists fell off the podium.

I was thinking going in that Rika would try for a single triple Axel, since the value of the second Axel is only a couple of points. Smart strategy, and it paid off here. Onward to Worlds, where I think by now she has to be called the favourite, though she needs to stop creating the need for dramatic comebacks after the short program.

Crushed for Kaori. That was rough. Also sad for Bradie and Mariah.

I was really pleased for Veronik to have such a nice program (one pop aside). Her ninth-place showing here is her best ever at Four Continents (the previous was thirteenth, and that was at the 2014 competition that was in the shadow of the Olympics). Larkyn also had probably her best skate since 2018 Nationals, which is a nice note to end the season on.
 

Noxchild

Medalist
Joined
Feb 14, 2018
Country
Canada
Lil Bet got silver, not bronze!!

Very happy for Rika and Mai... but Kaori deserved a little more than what she got. 1 point and she woulda gotten silver :drama:

Honestly, overall a very lackluster and dismal competition, darling Rika aside. No one had two stand out or even clean performances. Idk, maybe it's just the post-Olympic lull but both Europeans and this weren't very impressive. I really hope everyone levels up at Worlds.
 

skatenewbie

Medalist
Joined
Mar 16, 2017
We will def see more attempt from Tursynbaeva which is interesting! She also play smart with all combo in 2nd half which is usual for Eteri student. She definitely has a shot for top 5 world if she lands that 4S perfectly, but her PCS is holding her back from medal, unless one of the top bombing. Also Korea barely missed 3 spot next year which is a pity!! I feel PCS judging here is not inflated much which is good. Kihira went clean but only got 70 which is same with Zagitova FS in European, Samodurova PCS there also higher than everyone but Kihira here. Well we can't really compare but it's almost always like that where Euros PCS is more inflated. The bad thing is this scoring might affect Worlds juding (which should not but what can we do lol)
 
Joined
Dec 9, 2017
I'm quite surprised that the judges recognized that Kihira had a more tentative performance here than at the GPF, and went lower on PCS. Of course, it could easily be "she didn't do two 3As this time!!!" but she does have more reputation now, too.

Congrats to her. Wish Kaori could have done better. Good for Tursynbaeva for attempting a quad.
 

eaglehelang

Final Flight
Joined
Sep 15, 2017
Rika said in the press conference that she had a similar injury last year. Did Rika injure her finger or hand last year?
 

doublequad

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 4, 2018
The FS was ... interesting. At least the home cooking PCS inflation wasn't too bad here. Can't believe lil 'bet attempted and got fully round (PR aside) on her 4S. that's really cool. if she lands that (consistently) it's an extra 4 or 5 points in TES easy and then PCS will increase to follow
 

rikaquegira

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 30, 2017
I'm quite surprised that the judges recognized that Kihira had a more tentative performance here than at the GPF, and went lower on PCS. Of course, it could easily be "she didn't do two 3As this time!!!" but she does have more reputation now, too.

Congrats to her. Wish Kaori could have done better. Good for Tursynbaeva for attempting a quad.

I don’t think Rika’s lower PCS had anything to do with her performance here honestly...
She skated kind of early in the group if you know what I mean. They were trying to keep the door open.
I do agree she seemed a bit tentative at times. Perhaps had to do with the fact of
- coming back from 5th
- injured finger during practice
- not being sure what her layout was going to be
- recent changes to the choreography
 

Interspectator

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 25, 2012
I'm so happy for Mai. She skated beautifully, the standing ovation she got from the crowd, I believe, was not just because she skated clean, but because her skating moves people. --Not in the same way as Mariah Bell or Rika Kihira, but in her own way. :luv17:
 

skatenewbie

Medalist
Joined
Mar 16, 2017
I don’t think Rika’s lower PCS had anything to do with her performance here honestly...
She skated kind of early in the group if you know what I mean. They were trying to keep the door open.
I do agree she seemed a bit tentative at times. Perhaps had to do with the fact of
- coming back from 5th
- injured finger during practice
- not being sure what her layout was going to be
- recent changes to the choreography
well overall PCS judging here is more cautious and not inflated much
 

readernick

Medalist
Joined
Dec 5, 2015
We will def see more attempt from Tursynbaeva which is interesting! She also play smart with all combo in 2nd half which is usual for Eteri student. She definitely has a shot for top 5 world if she lands that 4S perfectly, but her PCS is holding her back from medal, unless one of the top bombing. Also Korea barely missed 3 spot next year which is a pity!! I feel PCS judging here is not inflated much which is good. Kihira went clean but only got 70 which is same with Zagitova FS in European, Samodurova PCS there also higher than everyone but Kihira here. Well we can't really compare but it's almost always like that where Euros PCS is more inflated. The bad thing is this scoring might affect Worlds juding (which should not but what can we do lol)

4CC judging is almost always more conservative. This competition ( with the exception of my favorite Rika) was not great but still a lot better than Euros.

Happy for Elizabet. This was her best skate in a long time and the 4S was almost there but I think I would actually have scored her a bit lower compared to Mai or Kaori she isn’t the strongest SS or PCS wise. ( especially comparing her SS to the Japanese skaters).


Glad Mai got a medal she was so close to silver (I think she deserved silver) . The long program is a lot better than the short.

Sad for Kaori, Eunsoo, Mariah, Bradie and Ting. Hope worlds is better.
 

Harriet

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2017
Country
Australia
Gutted for Kailani. She fought so hard to keep it together until the end.
 
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