Here's your half-dozen takeaways from 2018 Skate Canada International...
+
Liza comes through with the
win, but just barely
Elizaveta Tuktumysheva landed a
humdinger of a triple axel in the SP. She also crashed to the ice on the same
jump in the FS. In an event with such strong competition at the top, “The
Empress” needed both of those 3As to slam dunk her way to first place
all-around. Since she didn’t manage that, she had to settle for victory by less
than half a point over newcomer Mako Yamashita. Of course none of that matters
when you’re collecting GP points…
+
Speaking of that newcomer…
We know the pool of talented
skating ladies runs deep both in Russia and in Japan, but with Yamashita’s
clutch performance—senior GP debut, poised to medal, skating last—the 15
year-old who already performs a convincing Madame Butterfly FS has given
notice that she’s ready to take on the more seasoned athletes (which, somehow,
20 year-old Satoko Miyahara has already become). Yamashita will get a chance to
qualify for the Grand Prix Final when she competes at Rostelecom Cup in a
couple of weeks.
+
The “Best Week Ever” award goes
to…
Put it this way: Keegan Messing
got engaged, then ended up in first place after the SP at his home country
event, then held his own well enough (while skating last, no less) to
claim his first-ever GP medal, a silver, at age 26. Not too shabby for a guy
who jumps and spins like a powder keg… but also tends to look like his fingers
have been glued together whenever he takes the ice.
+
James/Cipres take the reins!!
And speaking of late bloomers—it’s
taken eight seasons and six trips to the podium, but Vanessa “Best in Unitard”
James and Morgan “Please Come to a Complete Ending Pose Next Time” Cipres
finally got some GP gold when they won Skate Canada this year.
(Moore-Towers/Marinaro, who I predicted for gold, settled for bronze in another
extremely close points battle with China
+
Near the top in Ice Dance:
Something old (and Russian), something new (and French), and something Canadian
bouncing back in starry, starry blue
While Gilles/Poirier nearly took
themselves out of the medals with their boards-skimming-in-a-bad-way Rhythm
Dance, another team of veterans—Sinitsina/Katsalapov, who’ve only made it to
Worlds once, three seasons ago—showed up in 2015 form and actually outskated
Hubbell/Donohue in the FD. Meanwhile, the #2 French team of Lauriault/LeGac
proved the best of the pop-infused FDs as their Bruno Mars medley took them to
a solid 4th place finish. They had previously finished no higher
than 6th in a GP event. (Perhaps they got a mental boost from a sort
of “home ice” advantage; Lauriault was actually born in the competition’s host
city of Laval Quebec
+ Last but not least, some Notes
of a Musical Nature…
o The good (Wakaba Higuchi’s SP to “Energia” by Sofi Tukker, which
I ordered from the library shortly after hearing it)
o The bad (Mako Yamashita’s SP, which is a surprisingly irritating
version of “Una Voce Poco Fa (Barber of Seville)”)
o And the please don’t do that! (Boikova/Kozlovskii’s FS,
which takes the perfectly lovely Pas de Deux from act II of The Nutcracker
and interrupts it partway through for an excerpt from the Snow Queen’s music
from earlier in the same ballet. Just… no.)
2 comments:
Post a Comment