I was too upset to write anything on Mao earlier because of the results, and decided it would be better if I waited a couple of hours. Wrong. I am still mad at the results. I decided to make two screen captures: one of her triple axel landing, and another of her triple toe landing.
Axel:
Toe:
Even through the blurriness, anyone with eyes can see that both of these are 1/4 turn under-rotated, deserving a <. However, Mr. Amano seems to think that she has landed forwards and gave her << for both. The axel in the SP was landed forward. These two jumps today were not. Although she never let it on, Mao was clearly struggling with her personal life after the earthquake, and her coach, Nobuo Sato, told the press she was so depressed she couldn't eat properly, and lost 10 pounds. For someone who was probably barely 100 pounds to start with, that is a lot of weight to lose in such a short amount of time. You could see how weak and frail she was out there, and her physical strength seemed to be gone. It was her mental strength, in my opinion, that got her to fight through her LP.
Now the PCS scoring was ridiculous. I realize she was in the second to last group and they needed to "leave room" for other skaters, but come on - Leonova? That is laughable. Had Mao placed above Kostner in the SP (which she should have if Kostner's 3F had been <) and skated in the final group, there is no doubt in my mind her PCS would have been at least 62.
Mao's lutz looked improved, and had anyone else done that jump the same way she did, they probably wouldn't have received an edge call. I'm tired of these double standards. I hope Mao gets plenty of rest and Taka cheers her up so she can be healthy and motivated for next season. I also hope she doesn't do too many shows/cheesefest competitions (Japan Open) so she has enough time to be fully prepared and knock everyone's socks of at her GPs. Like I said earlier, I want her to keep her LP so she doesn't have to waste time getting a new one, but she REALLY needs a new and better SP. Maybe Japanese music to honor Japan.
Thanks for the screenshots. I was a bit more divided on whether the 2A-3T deserved a << but your screenshots make it clear that it too was a <.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I hope Mao will follow in Kozuka's footsteps and try out Marina Zoueva for choreography next season.
Yes it was the unfortunate two-footing, which strangely happened after she landed on one foot, that made it really unclear on what was going on.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Zoueva would be a good match, and the judges seem to reward her style...