Events for the Week of Oct. 15 - 21


2018 SKATE AMERICA

Postby Jonas » Tue Oct 23, 2018 3:55 pm

Watched the men's and ladies' FS in real-time.

MEN:
-- Nam Nguyen was the highlight of an otherwise hot mess of a first group. He nailed two nice quad Salchows, but lost seemed to lost steam in some of his later jumping passes. I'd guesstimate he left close to 10 base value points in some omitted rotation. He'dve been closer to the bronze medal had he rotated those. What's more worrying to me is that he doesn't appear to me to have improved much in the speed and power department since his stellar senior debut four years ago. He was a fresh, promising new face four years ago, but a full Olympiad later, he's had at least two coaching changes and two slummy performances at his last two appearances at Worlds.

-- Sergei Voronov, at 31, still can't be counted out. IIRC, RUS will have three spots at the '19 Worlds and he can easily still nab one w/a solid skate. He's added 4loop to his arsenal.

-- Vincent Zhou finished 3rd in the FS, but the carrots cost him the bronze overall. I thought the calls were legit, plus his overall speed and power are just not up to snuff relative to the other skaters. This program could be stellar if he cranked up the speed and cleaned up the rotations.

-- Michal Brezina struggled mightily w/his quad attempts during much of the last Olympiad, which is why he seemed to get lost in the shuffle. He went 2 for 3 here this week; the one he did in the FS was particularly good. I'm surprised he didn't retire after Worlds, but he still seems excited to compete -- and this medal would probably reaffirm his decision to continue.

LADIES:
The eventual medallists closed out the ladies' event and put on quite the show, each delivering one stellar FS after the next.

-- Kaori Sakamoto seems to have corrected her jump mishaps from her Challenger event and, boy, did she put the heat on her countrywoman.

-- Satoko Miyahara followed in kind with an even more impressive performance. Her jumps weren't as big as Sakamoto's, but it really does look like she's worked on them. No question on the rotations this week. What helped her seal the deal is her overall performance quality -- attention to details, musicality, etc.

-- Samodurova -- clean as a whistle herself. Skating to an upbeat Christina Aguilera song, I hope to see her put a little more stank on this performance, but very good outing here. Well deserved bronze.

-- Bradie Tennell once again showed her fight in the FS. Decent recovery, but there were some clear carrots, which cost her technically. Like I've said earlier this season, Bradie has improved the PCS side of the house, but she's also a skater whose overall performance suffers in direct correlation to the success of her jumps.

Your thoughts...
Jonas
 
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Re: Events for the Week of Oct. 15 - 21

Postby chuckiem » Wed Oct 24, 2018 6:03 pm

Voronov's 4lo was <<. Not even close. I find it hard to get excited about his skating. He does the jumps, yeah, but he doesn't add much in the way of performance. Props to him for skating at his age, but to me, he's boring, although he's a tad more palatable than Samarin. Don't count on him getting a spot at Worlds, though. The Russian fed seems to prefer younger skaters for the major events.
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