Monday, January 31, 2011

Asian Games preview


Just when you thought you'd had enough figure skating to last a life time. This week throws more at us with the skating events of the Winter Asian Games in Astana & Almati, Kazakhstan. The Winter Asian games is a multi-sport event similar to the winter olympics, with a few extra events such as Bandy and Ski-orienteering.

The event is somewhat overshadowed by the four continents championships taking place soon after in Taipei but there are several well-known faces competing.

Ladies -Kanako Murakami, Haruka Imai (Japan) Min-Jung Kwak, Chae-Hwa Kim (Korea) Anastasia Gimazedinova (Uzbekistan) Bingwa Geng (China)
Mens - Denis Ten (Kazakhstan), Takahito Muram Tatsuki Machida (Japan), Nan Song (China)
Pairs - Sui & Han, Pang & Tong (China) plus pairs from Thailand and Kazakhstan
Ice Dance - Cathy and Chris Reed (Japan) plus pairs from China, N Korea & Kazakhstan

See the full list of skating participants here.
The event schedule is as follows
Thursday - Short dance, Pairs SP, Mens SP
Friday -  Ladies SP, Mens FS
Saturday - Ladies, Dance and Pairs Free

Sunday, January 30, 2011

New medallists in US men's nationals.


The US has a new champion, allbeit in familiar face Ryan Bradley. He is joined on the podium by two skaters making their senior debut at the senior nationals, 2010 JGP champion Richard Dornbush in second and 2009 US junior champ Ross Miner in 3rd. 2 time and reigning US champ Jeremy Abbott had to settle for 4th place.

This posed the US world team selection committee a dilemma, to go with young and fairly inexperienced men for the world team with a view to building to Sochi 2014 or with experience and reputation, aiming to keep the US's 3 mens spots at Worlds? The margin between Miner and Abbott was only 0.19 of a point.

The Worlds selection commitee went with the 3 'inexperienced' medallists.  Abbott, Adam Rippon and Armin Mahbanoozadeh were named as alternates but given tickets for the four continents championships in February.  A wise and fair choice in my opinion. A post-olympic year is the time for nurturing new talent. The men's US podium hasn't changed much over recent years. Now may be a much-needed changing of the guard.

Full results at icenetwork.com
Place Start No. Name Short Program Free Skate Total Score
Place Score Place Score
1 22 Ryan Bradley, Broadmoor SC 1 80.39 4 151.51 231.90
2 15 Richard Dornbush, All Year FSC 7 67.71 1 157.85 225.56
3 19 Ross Miner, SC of Boston 6 67.99 2 156.36 224.35
4 20 Jeremy Abbott, Detroit SC 2 78.39 6 145.77 224.16
5 14 Adam Rippon, SC of New York 9 66.26 3 153.78 220.04
6 16 Armin Mahbanoozadeh, Washington FSC 8 66.77 5 148.28 215.05
7 21 Brandon Mroz, Broadmoor SC 3 71.61 9 141.88 213.49
8 17 Keegan Messing, Alaska Assoc of Figure Skaters 4 69.79 8 143.50 213.29
9 12 Jason Brown, Skokie Valley SC 11 64.32 7 144.44 208.76
10 18 Douglas Razzano, Coyotes SC of Arizona 5 69.61 10 137.15 206.76

Potential not quite reached.

The words of coach Frank Carroll so often speak painfully true.

"So near and you gave it away. I'm sorry." 

Before Mirai Nagasu took to the ice for her free skate the master coach said - "You're the best skater in the world, believe it." When she is skating her best Mirai can indeed beat the best skaters in the world. Her short programme at the World Championships last March showed that. However she still seems unable to grasp the opportunity and hold onto a gold medal with two winning performances.

Watching Mirai can be a painful business as rather like Sasha Cohen you know she has all the potential and talent in the world. You just don't know if she will put it out on the ice when it counts. You want her to, so badly.

Having finally had the chance to watch her free skate thanks to the kind folks on youtube.  The mistakes she made were not big ones- an edge call, one rotation downgrade and a flukey loss of balance on the entry to her flying spin. But in the deep competition of US figure skating they meant a potential gold turned into a bronze and a spot on the world team turned into the painful role of team alternate.

So is she the best skater in the world? We probably won't get to see this year. She may not have quite the class or elegance of an olympic standard Yu-Na Kim but even her 'mistake-ridden' free skate from Nationals was a darn site better than 5 of the 6 skaters in the final group at Europeans this week.

Mirai will have to regroup quickly. Despite missing out on a ticket to Tokyo she will be at the Four Continents championships in Chinese Taipei in just 2 weeks time. She will have the opportunity to face off again with her opponents at home and also the likes of Mao Asada and Miki Ando. If she can hold her nerve and skate upto the level of her potential, she could win gold, and that would make the world team selection committee turn their heads.

I searched Mirai's name on twitter today and the feed with comments of people who will be disappointed not to see her skate in Tokyo. The fiery teenager who is known for speaking her mind had this to say on the matter.

"I can't believe I messed up on a spin! A spin, I didn't attack the program as much as I wanted to. In the beginning I was nervous. I'm a perfectionist, so if I'm not satisfied, or every single run through isn't perfect, I let that get to me instead of going out there and attacking. I just let my nerves get the best of me." 

She's about as straight-talking as her 72 year old coach!

Across the Pond

Last night the medals were decided in 3 of the 4 disciplines at the US championships in Greensboro. Alissa Csizny became the first multiple-time US champion since Michelle Kwan.  Unlike her first win 2 years ago she came back from a deficit in the short programme to win the free skate and take gold. She was helped along the way by somewhat sub-par skates by silver medallist Rachael Flatt and bronze medallist Mirai Nagasu. As the US still only has 2 ladies spots to worlds, Mirai will sadly miss out on a trip to Tokyo.

See a great NBC fluff on Alissa and coverage of her short programme on youtube, here.

In the Ice Dance the team from Canton, Michigan ruled the roost with Meryl Davis & Charlie White easily winning their 3rd gold, followed by training mates Alex and Maia Shibutani and Madison Chock & Greg Zuerlin. In pairs Caitlin Yankowskas & John Coughlin took their first title with the 2010 olympians following in 2nd (Evora &Ladvig) and 3rd place (Denney & Barrett).

The Men's event closes the championships tonight. Meanwhile the teams nominated  for ISU championships in Ladies, Pairs and Dance are listed below. The US is bucking its past trend and sending it's A-team to both Four Continents and Worlds. View full results from the US Champs here.

LADIES
2011 World Championships
Alissa Czisny
Rachael Flatt

Alternate 1 - Mirai Nagasu

2011 Four Continents Championships
Alissa Czisny
Rachael Flatt
Mirai Nagasu

2011 World Junior Championships
Christina Gao (5th Sr Ladies)
Courtney Hicks (1st, Jr Ladies)
Agnes Zawadzki (4th, Sr Ladies)


PAIRS
2011 World Championships
Evora/Ladwig
Yankowskas/Coughlin

Alternate 1 - Denney/Barrett

2011 Four Continents Championships
Denney/Barrett
Evora/Ladwig
Yankowskas/Coughlin

2011 World Junior Championships
Cain/Reagan (1st, Jr Pairs)
Andrews/LeDuc (3rd, Jr Pairs)


ICE DANCING
2011 World Championships
Chock/Zuerlein
Davis/White
Shibutani/Shibutani

Alternate 1 - Hubbell/Hubbell

2011 Four Continents Championships
Chock/Zuerlein
Davis/White
Shibutani/Shibutani

2011 World Junior Championships
Bonacorsi/Mager (2nd, Jr Dance)
Cannuscio/McManus (3rd, Jr Dance)
Lichtman/Copely (1st, Jr Dance)

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Vive La France!

20 year old Florent Amodio won his first european title in Bern tonight, and that wasn't the only good news for France. Former world champion Brian Joubert fought his way back from his disappointing 7th place short programme to take the silver medal. These two will take on Canada's Patrick Chan and the men from Japan in Tokyo in March.

Brian may once again be slightly miffed to be beaten by another skater without a quad, but his own medal and clean free skate should restore a bit of much lacking confidence after a poor olympic season. This is now the 9th straight time Brian has competed at Europeans and come away with a medal on every occasion.

Bronze went to a well deserving Tomas Verner


FPl.NameNationPointsSPFS
1Florent AMODIO

FRA
226.8613
2Brian JOUBERT

FRA
223.0171
3Tomas VERNER

CZE
222.6052
4Kevin VAN DER PERREN

BEL
216.5945
5Artur GACHINSKI

RUS
216.0736
6Samuel CONTESTI

ITA
204.8869
7Konstantin MENSHOV

RUS
202.62144
8Michal BREZINA

CZE
201.39210
9Javier FERNANDEZ

ESP
199.65117
10Alban PREAUBERT

FRA
196.15108
11Peter LIEBERS

GER
189.00911
12Paolo BACCHINI

ITA
178.341213
13Adrian SCHULTHEISS

SWE
178.191512
14Kristoffer BERNTSSON

SWE
172.58821
15Anton KOVALEVSKI

UKR
169.331914
16Jorik HENDRICKX

BEL
168.391319
17Kim LUCINE

MON
167.972015
18Viktor PFEIFER

AUT
164.831720
19Javier RAYA

ESP
164.682117
20Denis WIECZOREK

GER
163.602216
21Zoltan KELEMEN

ROU
160.502318
22Laurent ALVAREZ

SUI
159.451623
23Maxim SHIPOV

ISR
158.281822
24Stephane WALKER

SUI
137.642424
25Maciej CIEPLUCHA

POL
FNR25
26Moris PFEIFHOFER

SUI
FNR26
27Ali DEMIRBOGA

TUR
FNR27
28Justus STRID

DEN
FNR28