2020 Four Continents: Ladies' Short Program

[gsk8]

Rika Kihira of Japan took the lead in the Ladies' Short Program ahead of USA's Bradie Tennell and South Korea's Young You at the Wakiki Mokdong Ice Rink on Thursday night.

Defending champion Kihira opened her "Breakfast in Baghdad" with a solid triple Axel and followed up with a strong triple flip-triple toe and triple Lutz. The footwork and spins were all graded a level 4 and all elements received positive grades of execution (GOE), and the Japanese champion scored 81.18 points.

"I'm very happy with my jumps, but they were not a 100 percent yet and I'll keep working to make them better for the free skating," said the shared the 2019-20 Grand Prix finalist. "I still have practice in the next days and I will determine the program content then. For now the quad Salchow is looking good. I'll keep practicing it and depending on my condition, I'll determine my final content for the free skating."

More...

What do you think of the current placements? Any surprises or disappointments? Which were your favorite performances?

 

[KatGrace1925]

Looking at the standings, I really am excited for all the long program performances. That should be quite exciting to see who ends up on the podium.

 

[Elucidus]

Looking at the standings, I really am excited for all the long program performances. That should be quite exciting to see who ends up on the podium.

Good for you. I just can't enjoy the competition where all top skaters have immunity to UR calls. I want to see real fair fight between strong competitors - not judging circus. How exciting can be to anticipate podium placements when they are determined by judges before? Rika will win if she don't fall more than once or twice. Quality of her jumps won't matter. Good luck enjoying rigged judging - it seems soon ice dance will look more unpredictable for me.

 

[lzxnl]

You think it's better that girls with incorrect edges and their own uncalled URs (some are called, not all) that get STATE BACKING to keep jumping unclear edge lutzes are any better? And that atrocious pre-rotated full blade takeoff that visibly drops the amount of rotation in the air? That, barring any major mishap, the same three girls are generally going to be on the podium, and that it's only a matter of the order? And that a skater can pop a jump, fall twice and still score 225? When a country's skaters are making errors and then their fed starts complaining when any points are being deducted from their precious skaters' scores, I didn't see you trying to defend justice. Every competition, there's a horde of us GS users that decry your bias.

Rika isn't immune to UR calls. ACI, her FS 3A and 3Lz (I believe) were called UR. NHK, her 3F-3T was called UR. At nationals, her 3A-3T was also called UR. You don't seem to follow the skaters that you complain about.

 

[hippomoomin]

Bradie slayed her sp again. I hope she can skate clean in the LP.

 

[Elucidus]

You think it's better that girls with incorrect edges and their own uncalled URs (some are called, not all) that get STATE BACKING to keep jumping unclear edge lutzes are any better? And that atrocious pre-rotated full blade takeoff that visibly drops the amount of rotation in the air? That, barring any major mishap, the same three girls are generally going to be on the podium, and that it's only a matter of the order? And that a skater can pop a jump, fall twice and still score 225? When a country's skaters are making errors and then their fed starts complaining when any points are being deducted from their precious skaters' scores, I didn't see you trying to defend justice. Every competition, there's a horde of us GS users that decry your bias.

Rika isn't immune to UR calls. ACI, her FS 3A and 3Lz (I believe) were called UR. NHK, her 3F-3T was called UR. At nationals, her 3A-3T was also called UR. You don't seem to follow the skaters that you complain about.

This is this and that is that. I could argue with what you said but I don't want do it now since it will be offtopic here. Let's just avoid personal attacks and keep discussing only what is related to this competition only. And, within that particular competition what I said remains as unpleasant truth - whether you don't like me or "my agenda" - or not.

 

[heartyxo]

Well I think pretty much everyone did great. There seemed to not be too many falls, which is good to see. I'm rooting for Rika to win and Bradie to medal but I love Wakaba, Kaori and Young too!

 

[Silvia451]

With every competition I enjoy watching Young You more and more. She seems very fast, at least to my untrained eye.

I'm also happy for Rika, she transmits a lot of joy, despite the weird music.

 

[brakes]

One word: WOW!

What an amazing day of ladies' skating - perfect Rika Kihira with a pack of fantastic ladies at 4CC, followed with perfect Kamila Valieva and wonderful Russian juniors. Today has had Olympics level of performance and excitement, BRAVO LADIES!

 

[Dreamer57]

Wakaba was my favourite today.

And the sound quality of her SP track almost distracted me from her beautiful program ._.

I really enjoyed Karen's performance too!

 

[rosy14]

You think it's better that girls with incorrect edges and their own uncalled URs (some are called, not all) that get STATE BACKING to keep jumping unclear edge lutzes are any better? And that atrocious pre-rotated full blade takeoff that visibly drops the amount of rotation in the air? That, barring any major mishap, the same three girls are generally going to be on the podium, and that it's only a matter of the order? And that a skater can pop a jump, fall twice and still score 225? When a country's skaters are making errors and then their fed starts complaining when any points are being deducted from their precious skaters' scores, I didn't see you trying to defend justice. Every competition, there's a horde of us GS users that decry your bias.

Rika isn't immune to UR calls. ACI, her FS 3A and 3Lz (I believe) were called UR. NHK, her 3F-3T was called UR. At nationals, her 3A-3T was also called UR. You don't seem to follow the skaters that you complain about.

Standing ovation !

 

[gsk8]

I was impressed with Glenn yet again. All elements were a level 4...if only she had landed her double Axel...Here's hoping she will do better Sat!

 

[Greengemmonster]

Wooooohoooooo my favorites are one and two!!!!! I may never be this happy about figure skating ever again so I'm going to celebrate like a crazy lady!!!!!! Woooooooot

Bradie was wonderful! Smooth and expressive, full of sass.

Rika...... Well Rika is perfect and my love for her knows no bounds. That beautiful Lutz is back and the 3A was gorgeous. Baby girl performed her heart out. The way she moves her body to that song

Now if they could both just listen to me and keep their leads I will be there happiest figure skating fan there is.

 

[sailormoon]

Kihira included the triple Lutz in the short program for the first time in this season. She has been avoiding the jump because of a left-leg injury, which surprisingly did not negatively affect the triple Axel that she has nailed at every competition.

 

[Greengemmonster]

I've had my celebration now I am going to grizzle.

WTF was with the lowballing of Rika on GOEs? Some of the ones on her spins were criminal. Was it some half hearted protest against her?

"We know you will win the SP but we will give you the lowest GOEs we can muster"

������

 

[lariko]

Alas, blocked atm because of WMG content. Hopefully they will unblock it later

 

[Greengemmonster]

Alas, blocked atm because of WMG content. Hopefully they will unblock it later

Are you from Canada?

Weird because I had to pretend I was from Canada in order to watch the broadcast!

 

[KatGrace1925]

Good for you. I just can't enjoy the competition where all top skaters have immunity to UR calls. I want to see real fair fight between strong competitors - not judging circus. How exciting can be to anticipate podium placements when they are determined by judges before? Rika will win if she don't fall more than once or twice. Quality of her jumps won't matter. Good luck enjoying rigged judging - it seems soon ice dance will look more unpredictable for me.

I don't understand where you think the rigging was, seems to me the results shook out right where they should have. If you're going to accuse things of being rigged why don't you just call out who you think will be on the podium, and what you think wasn't called so we can see if you did correctly predict what the "rigged" podium was going to be.

 

[KatGrace1925]

I've had my celebration now I am going to grizzle.

WTF was with the lowballing of Rika on GOEs? Some of the ones on her spins were criminal. Was it some half hearted protest against her?

"We know you will win the SP but we will give you the lowest GOEs we can muster"

������

I agree, I was confused by the protocols and the low GOE's she received for beautiful elements.

 

[lariko]

Are you from Canada?

Weird because I had to pretend I was from Canada in order to watch the broadcast!

Yes, I am in Canada, I am looking at the archived playlist, not the livestream. It must have a piece of music that a bot recognized as copyrighted. Hopefully, it will get unblocked once someone looks at it and checks music rights. Pairs are fine.