Worlds: Ladies FS | Golden Skate

Worlds: Ladies FS

gsk8

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Jun 21, 2003
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Alina Zagitova.jpg

Alina Zagitova of Russia pounced on the gold medal in the Ladies' event at the 2019 World Figure Skating Championships on Friday night in Saitama, Japan with nearly 13 points to spare. Elizabet Tursynbaeva of Kazakhstan took the silver, becoming the first lady from Kazakhstan to win a world medal, while Russia's Evgenia Medvedeva pocketed a redeeming bronze after what had been a rough season.

More....(quotes from top 10)

More surprises! Thoughts? It was a nail biter till the end. We had the first quad salchow landed in competition in the ladies division, as well as skating at a higher level of difficulty than ever before.
 
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lusterfan

Final Flight
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Mar 23, 2018
Two words: Oh, Kaori... :drama:

Rather than disappointed, she looked very determined though! And she finally got the PCS she deserves!
 

coldblueeyes

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Oct 25, 2014
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Brazil
I'm happy with the season Kaori had, hopefully her Fed can believe in the work she's putting out there.

Big competition for Lil'bet, and she seems to have adapted fantastically well to Eteri's work methods.

Great to see Alina with the gold, she more than deserved it. And very happy with Evgenia's competition, she has a lot ahead of her, and I hope we can see these two still in the world standings in the coming seasons.
 

evasorange

Final Flight
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Jan 22, 2015
PCS meting should be changed to Perfect Cheating System. It has almost no bearing on reality anymore. It’s used to boost skaters or hold them down. Alina is not almost ten points better then this field. I can’t take her hunched posture and frantic but somehow still slow movements that have no correlation to the music seriously as the best in the world. I can’t believe none of the Japanese ladies medal when they all are so strong and have such beautiful skating. I know I’ll never have the strength but sometimes I wish I could just quit women’s figure skating for good. It’s just a farce at this point.
 

coldblueeyes

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Oct 25, 2014
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Brazil
PCS meting should be changed to Perfect Cheating System. It has almost no bearing on reality anymore. It’s used to boost skaters or hold them down. Alina is not almost ten points better then this field. I can’t take her hunched posture and frantic but somehow still slow movements that have no correlation to the music seriously as the best in the world. I can’t believe none of the Japanese ladies medal when they all are so strong and have such beautiful skating. I know I’ll never have the strength but sometimes I wish I could just quit women’s figure skating for good. It’s just a farce at this point.

Not like the japanese ladies helped themselves, though? I love Kaori, but she lost an entire jumping pass in the FS. And Rika, well, pop and fall. She could have won worlds.
 

lusterfan

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 23, 2018
Rika: invalidated axel in the short, fallen triple axel in the long, skating in the 2nd to last group (this shouldn't matter but it unfortunately does)
Kaori: donating an entire triple flip

They could've easily gone 2-3 or even 1-3, but they had costly mistakes that others did not have.
 

sheetz

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 10, 2015
Sure the scoring is suspect, but this was still a pretty exciting competition!
 

Interspectator

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Dec 25, 2012
The skating was of amazingly high difficulty and a Quad Sal!! :shocked: First ever landed in Ladies senior competition. What a benchmark Elizabet has put down for her country and herself.

I'm very sad about the placement of Team Japan but they each had a chance, had they skated clean in the short and the long. -It's so harsh and they did not get any sort of home advantage I feel.

About the programs themselves, I believe the skating quality of team Japan was the strongest in this competition. -Though I am admittedly biased to this style of effortless and deep-edged skating. Kaori, Satoko and Rika were so beautiful to watch. I'm proud of them, but disappointed on their behalf, as I know they felt that expectations were high for a medal. I want to give them all a hug and THANK them for being so wonderful.

Evgenia and Alina were also under tremendous pressure and fought through like warriors. I can only sit amazed at their determination and grit.
 

evasorange

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 22, 2015
Not like the japanese ladies helped themselves, though? I love Kaori, but she lost an entire jumping pass in the FS. And Rika, well, pop and fall. She could have won worlds.

Well even with the fall on the triple axel I never would have given Evgenia 2 points higher PCS then Rika. Evgenia did well but I fell like the first half of her program there is very little connection to the music and it’s just basically going from jump to jump. Rika from
The start feels that music and interpretations it so beautifully. Also I don’t know the goe breakdown but there’s no way Alina should get higher jump goe then Kaori or Rika imo And I’m no fan of Satoko but Alina getting 4 whole pcs points higher is just...how can it be justified?
 

Ichatdelune

Long live the Queen and her successors
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Mar 22, 2018
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South-Korea
I'm just going to say I'm elated that Korea got two spots back, and my darling squirtle Eunsoo did that under immense pressure and with an injury. And now I'm fleeing the battlefield :scard7:
 

Katie0906

On the Ice
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Mar 21, 2018
I cant believe rika did'nt medal here but so happy for the podium finished what a redemption for Alina and Evgenia, im happy for elizabtleth too that 4s was amazing.
 

Interspectator

Record Breaker
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Dec 25, 2012
I also want to add the technical panel was VERY lenient for the entire last group. Lots of iffy jumps with landings that were clearly UR got a pass.
 
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lappo

Final Flight
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Feb 12, 2016
Beyond happy for Alina!!! :luv17:
Also congrats to Lil Bet for a great achievement!
 

ramed

On the Ice
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Dec 2, 2016
Country
Russia
Big competition for Lil'bet, and she seems to have adapted fantastically well to Eteri's work methods.
You must be kidding. She is from Eteri's group from the beginning. Her mom decided Orser would be a better choice but when that didn't work out, Bet went back to Eteri. Go figure!
 

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
This was a crazy strong and close competition with a ton of fist pumps for so many strong skates!

Congrats to Alina on her world title and Tursynbaeva for hanging onto silver (with the first ever quad in seniors) and Medvedeva claiming bronze (and sticking it to the naysayers).

I will say Alina's jumps were good but not her best and some of the GOE is crazy. The program also felt unrefined. But she definitely deserves the win and I'm glad she showed up those who counted her out. Great bounce back season after last year's disappointment at Worlds. You could tell she was nervous but held it together.

Elizabet was stellar - way to hang on to the quad ... the adrenaline was pumping and the following jumps were a bit uncontrolled but then she settled in and delivered. For a moment I thought the judges weren't going to give it to her after seeing Sakamoto's PCS and assuming they really wanted a Japanese lady on the podium but the 4S couldn't deny her the medal she rightfully deserved for this competition. First world ladies medal for Kazakhstan! Denis would be proud. :)

Medvedeva has her best competition of the season - although her GOE was high for many jumps (esp her lutz which might have deserved a !), her PCS was on point and Kihira/Sakamoto were scored generously anyways. She's come a long way from a poor Russian Nationals and a disappointing Grand Prix. While I miss Tukt, Medvedeva didn't squander the opportunity and has the hardware to show for it. Her roar at the end was the best.

Nice comeback from Kihira but her PCS was still rather high - she fell and she didn't have the ease in her program she showed at the GPF. Amazing to get the 3A+3T though! Too bad about the 3A fall - she could have had silver with just a double axel! But seriously -3s for a 3A with a super obvious lean and a fall? Come on judges.

While I feel bad for her missing the flip and dropping off the podium, Kaori was *hugely* overscored on PCS - she was tight in a couple jumps and popped a flip - and that doesn't translate to a PCS personal best for me (or things like 9.50 for PE). Gutted for her, but I'm very glad it did not surpass Tursynbaeva or Medvedeva who deserved the podium way more, IMO.

She went from a previous PCs personal best of 68.00 to 73.26?!?! Man, I thought Japan was more neutral/less biased when it came to scoring their own skaters but between Hanyu/Uno's SP PCS yesterday and Kaori's ridiculous jump in PCS today that has been sorely disproven.

At least Kihira's PCS didn't prop her up over Medvedeva/Tursynbaeva and Miyahara's PCS was way too low - the lowest of the Japanese ladies? When she had a small stumble and the others had a fall and a pop? And is a much better skater in general than those two? Come on.

Fabulous skates by Tennell - one of the skates of the competition, for me - and Samodurova too! And kudos to Gabby for a decent skate (darn those pops), a big smile and ensuring 2 spots for Canada (it wasn't Alaine's best by far but kudos to her for making the FS to help the cause).
 

coldblueeyes

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Oct 25, 2014
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Brazil
You must be kidding. She is from Eteri's group from the beginning. Her mom decided Orser would be a better choice but when that didn't work out, Bet went back to Eteri. Go figure!

I know she is?! But it's not like it simple and easy to transition--most likely this time easier than some, because she already knew how Eteri works. I have some qualms against Eteri, I won't lie, but when the skater can give the results under her tutelage, it shows greatly.
 

eaglehelang

Final Flight
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Sep 15, 2017
You must be kidding. She is from Eteri's group from the beginning. Her mom decided Orser would be a better choice but when that didn't work out, Bet went back to Eteri. Go figure!
The actual reason for that was for 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia coaches were not allowed to coach non Russian students.
So, Elizabet had to find another coach.
Then she had all this visa problems to get into Canada.

She could have gone back to Eteri after 2014 OG was over or whenever the restriction was lifted, but she didnt
 

randomfan

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 31, 2014
Really great redemption for Alina. The season started off so well and then just kept going downhill. To finish with two clean programs and a big smile is so heartwarming! I basically gave up on seeing a day when I'll agree with her scores, but more importantly, congratulations!

My first thought when seeing the result: Kazakhstan has not two, but THREE spots!!! :yahoo: (though they probably don't need the third one) But anyways, Elizabet has been on the senior circuit for quite a while now, so to see her finally step it up and shock the world like that in just 2 months was pretty epic. I'm really looking forward to what will happen next season.

Also great to see Evgenia on the podium. Her struggles this season made us all count her out for the World team, and yet she kept her promise and did everything she could here to get on that podium. The best part is, Evgenia looks so happy with everything (I still vividly remember how stressed she looked during the GP). P.S. her reaction when she saw the point gap between her and Rika was so adorable! :laugh:

Which leads me to the next one...IT WAS SO CLOSE! Rika missed the podium by a mere 0.31, which must be very frustrating for her. It's too bad that her winning streak had to end at the Worlds in Japan, but she should still be very proud of establishing herself as a top contender this season. Thank you Rika, for giving us so many wonderful performances, and I hope WTT will be a nice closing for her.

Kaori was the only one here who I really, REALLY wanted on the podium (I honestly didn't mind who the other two were). So obviously I was upset to see her pop her money jump in the final moments of the program. But that score is absolutely ridiculous, and it scares me to see just how crazy the judges might have gone had she skated it cleanly. Don't get me wrong - she's one of my favourites, but we already have so many overscored skaters lately and we really don't need more. Well, there's no doubt she'll be frustrated for the costly mistake, so all I can hope is that she won't be too hard on herself.

I'm relieved to see that Satoko still made the top 6. But the word "relieved" just comes to show how wild this season was for her. We were so sure she'd be one of the most serious contenders for Worlds, but then the whole narrative changed - she dropped from Japan #1 to #3 in a span of 3 months. And looking at her PCS in this HOME Worlds, it does indeed seem like JSF has dropped her. I hate to admit this (and the word "dropped"), but that seems to be what is happening, especially considering the huge boost they gave to Kaori. I hope Satoko won't be too discouraged by this and continue to fight!

Bradie's skate was pretty amazing if you ask me. Honestly, she gets so much undeserved hate like many of the U.S. skaters do (Gracie, Ashley, Karen, the list goes on...) so naturally that got me really rooting for her. The look on that face said it all, she was absolutely determined to make a statement here and she did. It must be a lot of pressure being U.S. #1, which explains why she looked more relieved than anything after finishing. Good job!

Poor Sofia, she skated so well until the pop at the end. It wasn't too disruptive, but she was lagging behind her music which made the choreo sequence not nearly as effective as it was supposed to be. I'm not sure what her tears at the end meant (happy? sad?) but either way, she still did very well here, and for the whole season too. It's basically a given that she won't be going to WTT, so at least she didn't end her incredible season on a bad note. I hope she takes a nice rest now. :)

Mariah was tentative throughout, but at least she made no major mistakes. She did very well considering how difficult this week has been for her, and at least the judges were finally not too stingy with her PCS. The program is very beautiful and she didn't drop the performance even with her nervousness. I just want to say, even if the U.S. did not get three spots, they have two very talented skaters to be proud of. I hope the issue with Eunsoo can be settled on good terms.

Speaking of which, I'm very proud of Eunsoo for what she put out today. I mean, anyone who followed her throughout the season shouldn't be surprised at all. She always struggled to nail a clean FS, and considering that she dealt with not only the pressure of Worlds but also of the drama happening, this was actually a solid performance. Also, congrats on bringing that second spot for Korea back!

Gabby has also been through a lot this season, so it's only natural for her to be satisfied with what she put out here. I hope that she can really enjoy WTT, and then rest well until next season, so we can keep seeing a happy Gabby. :cheer2:
 

P44

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 29, 2018
She went from a previous PCs personal best of 68.00 to 73.26?!?! Man, I thought Japan was more neutral/less biased when it came to scoring their own skaters but between Hanyu/Uno's SP PCS yesterday and Kaori's ridiculous jump in PCS today that has been sorely disproven.

Judges are not even japanese
 
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