2018 Four Continents Ladies SP

[Globetrotter]

4CC have never been generous. Maybe they should.



Very true.

Why not see it as 4CC being closer to realistic PCS scoring while what happened in Moscow for Euros was whacked?

 

[Globetrotter]

Funny how Satoko has a higher TR mark than Kaori....
I think Kaori should be leading after the SP...

I am actually not surprised. Satoko has better entry and exit seamlessly flowing from one element to the next and refined upper body movement. Kaori’s TR are relatively weaker and not at Satoko’s quality. SS wise, nothing further needs to be said and I don’t think anyone beats Satoko at IN and musical structure appropriateness - not even CaroK IMO. I will say Mai Mihara is bring lowballed here. She has better SS and TR than Kaori. Scores should be far closer and I will have Mai overall at least 1 point above Kaori in PCS simply by the SS and TR.

 

[Shayuki]

I am actually not surprised. Satoko has better entry and exit seamlessly flowing from one element to the next and refined upper body movement. Kaori’s TR are relatively weaker and not at Satoko’s quality. SS wise, nothing further needs to be said and I don’t think anyone beats Satoko at IN and musical structure appropriateness - not even CaroK IMO. I will say Mai Mihara is bring lowballed here. She has better SS and TR than Kaori. Scores should be far closer and I will have Mai overall at least 1 point above Kaori in PCS simply by the SS and TR.

Great analysis! Apart from the slight over-the-top praise for Satoko IN, I agree with everything completely.

 

[Aino]

I am happy for Mai's successful skate. I just love her style! I think it looks well like tango, I don't understand those who say that she isn't mature enough for that program. Hoping she will win!?

 

[Alifyre]

Ok now that I have some time to go back and watch -- does anyone have any recommendations from the first groups? I wish I had seen them live but getting up at 4am for skating only happens for absolute faves.

 

[Globetrotter]

Great analysis! Apart from the slight over-the-top praise for Satoko IN, I agree with everything completely.

Clearly Satoko had taken her time out when she could not practice jumps to work on her basic SS and interpretive skills. She is no Zhenya who just has this special flair to catch the audience’s attention into her performance but makes up for it with a more introspective style that works well. Just a bit surprised that her jumps (3R, backend 3T) have visibly improved rotations and are leaving less room for doubt. Wonder what they practiced after Jpn Nats.

 

[TunaKeem]

Mai killing the program with the new heavy bang, we love a heavy bang!!

Think her program component scores could use a little bump for SS and TR but its fine she is still within podium and her FS has been amazing all season. I hope she gets at least a 140 if she skates clean!

 

[matmuh]

Clearly Satoko had taken her time out when she could not practice jumps to work on her basic SS and interpretive skills. She is no Zhenya who just has this special flair to catch the audience’s attention into her performance but makes up for it with a more introspective style that works well. Just a bit surprised that her jumps (3R, backend 3T) have visibly improved rotations and are leaving less room for doubt. Wonder what they practiced after Jpn Nats.

i am not surprised one bit!! she works a lot on her jumps despite many wants to believe otherwise, she was making progress until her injury, regarding her progress, i think there are few factors, nerves (she said her jumps are better at practice but when she is nervous during competiton it gets worse), timing (she said her timing at take off was off today hence the UR on lutz), new diet program (she gained weight when she was off ice, forgot how much though ), addressing her bone density issue

 

[Sabrina]

Why was Alaine scored so low?

 

[yume]

Why not see it as 4CC being closer to realistic PCS scoring while what happened in Moscow for Euros was whacked?

I didn't say the opposite. Not generous=realistic judgement or sometimes a bit underscoring.

 

[mrrice]

Why was Alaine scored so low?

Why is Mariah Bell's score so high??

 

[jenaj]

Satoko has the best SP this season by miles. Her jumps aren't great - but what she does with her blades and music is beyond reproach. I don't really care who is "the best" by tallying up some arbitrary points - she's doing something very special on the ice.

She has the best long program, too.

 

[yume]

She has the best long program, too.

Hmmm no.That's Wakaba.

 

[AngelENTL]

Very happy for Kaori! Though apparently the minority opinion, I think her SS are generally underrated. Flow, edges, and speed are great - looks like "effortless power" to me. I think her posture could be better, but I don't think that really falls under SS. Hopefully this will become more of a prevailing opinion in time for the Olympics.

 

[brightphoton]

Can anyone tell me what happened to this Chinese skater Zijun Li? Did she retire?
She used to be China's top skater and she went to Mishin to train.

 

[Crossover]

Hmmm no.That's Wakaba.

I somewhat agree but whether which program is best is all very subjective up to viewers. Satoko's LP is also very good and polished.

On the other hand, I wished Satoko recycles her Star Wars program because it was used only for the half of last season due to her injury, and it is a masterpiece possibly to get more mass appeal especially to casual Olympic fans. Moreover, the characters that she portrays in her programs are overlapped.

 

[Crossover]

Can anyone tell me what happened to this Chinese skater Zijun Li? Did she retire?
She used to be China's top skater and she went to Mishin to train.

She's not retired, but said in the early season she had to withdraw her GP assignment because of her injury. I'm not sure how serious the injury was because she didn't participate in Nationals as well. Moreover, Zijun seems to have been busy doing other things such as opening a new ice sport center in China dedicated to her!

 

[chopinskate]

Satoko for OGM 2k18!

 

[Ares]

Hmmm... she must of gotten a jump under-rotated. Maybe the 3T on the combo.

The sad fact is that her 3T here had more air rotation than any 3T in combination of Medvedeva that is possible to find considering that she can make as much 3/4 of first revolution on the ice (she rotates on the toe pick and sometimes on her whole blade to achieve that and she does it swiftly so most people don't notice). :disapp: It really begs for a change when skater who does proper technique but slightly misses the mark which Chartrand did here (or sometimes even do not) gets severely punished but another skater gets disproportionately rewarded for inherently flawed technique all the time. Absolutely dumb & biased. I am convinced that in the past skater would get toe-axel call and downgrade or at very least poor GOE for that but not anymore (for selected ones).

 

[Globetrotter]

i am not surprised one bit!! she works a lot on her jumps despite many wants to believe otherwise, she was making progress until her injury, regarding her progress, i think there are few factors, nerves (she said her jumps are better at practice but when she is nervous during competiton it gets worse), timing (she said her timing at take off was off today hence the UR on lutz), new diet program (she gained weight when she was off ice, forgot how much though ), addressing her bone density issue

You are right. Her jumps may never be big but they have visibly improved over the years. This just highlights how important accurate and consistent judging is. With Satoko regularly getting dinged and low GOEs on her jumps, it forced her to work on them. The backend 3T now has much less of the cheated pre rotated look which is kudos to her team’s focus. She’s a hard worker, so the caution is to stay healthy and not overtrain to injury. She’s probably the most underrated competitor because she’s so introverted.