This was a competition this past weekend in Central Ontario. Jeff Buttle, Meghan Duhamel, Nobunari Oda, and others competed in the senior categories, and lots of interesting up-and-comers in the Junior, Novice, and pre-novice categories.
Good heavens, Nobu beat Jeffrey! Oda did a seven triple program with two triple Axels, one in combination. Are we going to have to revise our Olympic predictions?
Was Jeff's first element supposed to be a quad toe? (He tripled it and also got a -1 GOE).
Good event for Meagan Duhamel. She came within a fraction of a point of upsetting Yoshie Onda in singles and got first (of two finishers) in pairs. Do you know why Langlois and Hay withdrew?
Jeff opened the Sing, Sing, Sing short program with an attempt at Quad Toe, he popped it and turned it into 2Toe/2Toe, he then tried 3Axel, and fell on the cheated attempt, he had good height in his 3Lutz but it was a slightly 2 footed landing although well covered up.
Nobunari skated to a really entertaining program to the Barber of Seville and there was no contest. He had a great 3Axel, strong 3Lutz/3Toe and good 3Flip. He had a bobble on one or two of his spins but was able each time to self-correct and finish the spin with minimal loss of speed.
I was struck by how similar Meagan Duhamel and Yoshie Onda's skating styles are. They are both very strong willed, athletic competitors. It was a close call between 1st and 2nd placements both in the short and long.
I suspect though, Yoshie will pay considerably more attention to line and form, transistions, all the in-between things, number of revs in spins etc. and skating to her music rather than through her music before she next competes. Without the attention to detail she is just throwing away what could be very important points and the difference between making the Japanese Olympic Team or being left at home. :think:
I see that Canadian junior champion Patrick Chan got fourth in the long program and sixth overall. Is he someone to watch for the future?
According to the score sheet he attempted a triple Axel, but only got a 3.30 base value, and a -2.10 GOE. That seemed strange to me. If he completed all three and a half revolutions, it seems like he should have got full base value. If he didn't, why wasn't it downgraded to a double?
Yeah, Nobu beat Jeff, though according to Jeff, he always skates like crap at Thornhill (more info here, in a Globe and Mail article from Monday . So considering this was apparently better than last year... yikes!
And yeah, I'd say that Chan's one to watch - wasn't he in like 3rd after the QR or SP at Jr. Worlds this year? That's not too bad, especially for his first international competition!
Hee hee, the season starts soon... just 34 days till the Japanese Cheesefest!