Event: Golden Spin of Zagreb & GP Final

[allekha]

This weekend we have two events: Golden Spin of Zagreb, a Challenger series event, and the Grand Prix Final.

Schedule and how to watch

Comments

[allekha]

Just finished catching up on men's and women's SP.

Keegan Messing: Cute program, some parts seemed a little nervous while others were nice and loose. The spread eagle near the beginning was lovely. Props to whoever threw him the Woody doll.

Junhwan Cha: I forgot that he does a -3Lo combo since not a lot of men do them, so that was a nice surprise. I love clock motifs in skating and I love his step sequence. It's a lot of fun to watch.

Nathan Chen: Having fewer jumps in the SP compared to the FS seems to give him time to show off his dance training and he does more with his feet. There was a lot of energy in it - I felt like he was enjoying himself. Not a fan of his music, though.

Shoma Uno: I think the step sequence looked a bit better than it did at SCI (but that was after he'd had a nasty fall). I like Shoma, but his PCS confuse me sometimes even after seeing him live.

Sofia Samodurova has a pretty costume. I like the red edging on her skirt, and it moves nicely when she jumps.

Elizaveta Tuktamysheva: I'm not a fan of her programs, but I like just watching her skate. The more I see her jump axels, the more confused I get about her technique. It's like she's just making a lazy-looking turn, doesn't pull her arms back at all (they were in front of her torso when she was going into it!), and then bam, she's done 3.5 revolutions. (Sometimes a little wobbly, like today, but still.) How does she do it? And her last jump was timed absolutely perfectly.

Rika Kihira: Gorgeous little angel floating on the ice. I think this music is maybe a little too slow/gentle for her or this choreo, but either way - she had a lovely skate. And her smile afterward when she saw her scores was so cute.

Satoko Miyahara: Always a very lovely skater, but jump issues aside, I don't think she was quite on and with the music today :(

Kaori Sakamoto: An elegant skate for her. I still think the program is a bit generic and boring, but her costume really suits her (especially with her hair down). Nice save on her first spin.

[aratama]

Yeah, I have no hate for Shoma but him getting consistently higher IN/PE/CO scores than Nathan is pretty ridiculous. It's not a lot of points, but last season's GPF was veeeery close between them so tiny differences can become important. And I love Nathan's music! It's a lot of fun and suits his quick-on-his-feet, humorous style really well.

Tuk's 3A was UR so I'm fine with the scores there, but I keep seeing people justify the difference in GOE between her and Kihira as difference in prep time, and I don't really agree? They skate for about as long before jumping, Kihira is just better at hiding it, which I think has a lot to do with Tuk's rigid arms and the strange way she takes off into the jump. Mishin clearly knows what he's doing, but her arms are really, really strange. Mao's 3A arms were kind of weird too but I've never seen anyone do a 3A that way. I like Tuk a lot and hope she'll upgrade the other jumps in her SP, 3Lz and 3F-3T or even 3Lo-3T would stabilize her scores much more than the 3T-3T she does.

I would be so excited for Brezina and Tuk to medal, so I'm looking forward to the FS a lot.

[allekha]

TBH, I often haven't understood Nathan's PCS, either. Last season, I could never remember a single thing about his free program even seconds after I watched it, other than... he did jumps? His choreo sequence was spread eagles? (Even with his SP, as soon as I saw Kevin Aymoz's program with the same music, I wished Nathan had done something more like that in terms of choreo.) I do think his programs this year are doing a better job at displaying his dancing skills, though, and I don't know if he's actually doing less two-footed skating, but it sure feels like it. And he looks like he's having more fun when he's skating.

Yeah, I've seen speculation about whether some the GOE spreads on Elizaveta's 3A could be due to some judges not knowing what to think of her weird arms. When she landed the one at Skate Canada, it looked odd, but I swear she's using her arms even less as the season goes on. I read that she is supposed to have upgraded her free program layout... I guess we'll see tonight. Would definitely be nice if she could medal here.

[aratama]

Honestly PCS don't make sense and have never made sense as absolute values, and I'm a 6.0 fan by heart, so I'm satisfied as long as they make sense comparatively, I guess! And Nathan tends to lose his commitment to the choreography in the FS, the judges are incapable of adjusting PCS on a short notice so... My contention is only that if Shoma ends up winning by 0.5 PCS this time around, that makes very little sense.

Even with his SP, as soon as I saw Kevin Aymoz's program with the same music, I wished Nathan had done something more like that in terms of choreo.)

We have to agree to disagree! And judging from how many Nemesis-lite and Nemesis-inspired programs I'm seeing this season, choreographers must have quite liked it too.