NHK Trophy 2009

[MQSeries]

SP results are up.
http://www.isuresults.com/results/gpjpn09/index.htm


Joubert is leading the men. Abbott is second and Weir is 3rd.

I like Joubert's program. He may not be the most naturally talented skater out there, but he's one charismatic French man :) A turn out on the 3lutz in an otherwise clean skate. Joubert's costume was actully tasteful, LOL. Hope he skate well in the LP.

Weir had added a couple more diva-ish moments to his SP choreography since he debuted it last month. I don't know. It just not my cup of tea, especially that final "I'm fierce" movement at the final pose. There's a place for that kind of performance but I would rather not see it at an actual competition. But that's just my opinion. Otherwise it was a very clean skate from Johny.


Ashley Wagner is the surpised women's leader, with Ando in second.

[Isk8NYC]

Watching the ladies' short program on icenetwork during lunch. Man, Ashley Wagner came to play - her spins are incredible. She fought for that triple flip/double toe combination - bravo! Triple axel looked cheated on the landing. Loved the entire program, start to finish as well as the costume. Wow, wow, wow!

There were a lot of falls and mistakes by the earlier skaters, but now I'm into the last few skaters so it should get really good.

The floating feathers in the Kiss-and-Cry area are distracting. There, I said it.

[MQSeries]

She [Wagner] fought for that triple flip/double toe combination - bravo! Triple axel looked cheated on the landing.


Triple axel? ;)

Have you seen Weir's SP? I'm curious as to what people think of his performance.

[AgnesNitt]

......delete.......

[AgnesNitt]

Men's results are up.
Joubert, Abbot, Weir
http://www.isuresults.com/results/gpjpn09/CAT001RS.HTM

[icedancer2]

Men's results are up.
Joubert, Abbot, Weir
http://www.isuresults.com/results/gpjpn09/CAT001RS.HTM

After the SP.

[AgnesNitt]

After the SP.

Honestiy I thought the results were Joubert, Wier, Abbot, but I guessI jumped the gun. Thanks.
So it's really Joubert, Wier, Brezina?

(And I don't like Joubert particularly, his jumps are fantastic, but there's not much in between. Weir's footwork was a bit disappointing this year, but the rest of his choreography has expression)

[MQSeries]

Final men's results are in:
1. Joubert
2. Weir
3. Brezina
4. Takahashi
5. Abbott
6. Rippon

Joubert: congrats on the win. He'll need to skate much better than this though, because this performance was not as good as the two GP winning performances from Noburi Oda and wasn't as technically strong as old man Plushy either. Brian's 4t looked solid here so he should really put two in his LP and leave out the 4S since he has been tripling that a lot. Both of his flips received the wrong edge call so I wonder why he didn't do two lutzes instead. Choreographically I was kind of disappointed that the program came from the ice-dancers Albena and Maskim. The opening heart-pounding movement was lifted from Yagugin's and the program as a whole looked empty to me.

Weir: ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Johny seems to like to do these introverted LPs, but they put me (and probably also the judges) to sleep.

Brezina: Wow, that was a great performance from a newly minted Senior man. Landed everything clean. A minor quipple was that he tended to hunch over on some of the jumps landings. Overall nice presentation. A great future if he can keep this up.

Takahashi: Nice dancer-like movements on the ice but faltered on too many jumps.

Abbott: WHOA NELLLY, What happened out there? Jumps completely went AWOL for the first half of the program. But aside from that I thought the program had too many "I'm emoting" moment and just too many flowery arms movements. Abbott has great flow across the ice but I often find his choreography and presentation just to be on the pretencious (sp?) side.
(Yuka looked lovely as his coach.)


** Thank GOD for utube :)