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2019 NHK

Preview

by Klaus-Reinhold Kany

The NHK Trophy is named after Japan’s only public media (especially TV) organization Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) which has transmitted this skating competition for many years and is the main sponsor. This year, the Trophy is the last of the six Grand Prix. The site of this competition changes every year, similar to Skate America. This year it is held in the Olympic city of Sapporo, where it has been organized already in 1998, 2011 and 2016. Sapporo is the capital of Hokkaido, the northernmost of the four big Japanese islands, and has a population of about 1.9 million. The distance to Tokyo by air is about 520 miles, The event is held in the Makomanai Ice Arena with 11,000 seats, which was built for the figure skating events and some ice hockey games of the Olympic Winter Games of 1972. Many spots for the Grand Prix Final are still open, and in all four categories top skaters are competing, therefore the tension is high and the event has been sold out for a long time.

In the men’s competition, Japan’s superstar and multi-millionaire Yuzuru Hanyu leads the field, especially after his excellent performance and victory at Skate Canada. Everything but a clear victory of the 2019 World silver medalist (behind Nathan Chen who has already two vicories) would be a big surprise. Several skaters have an eye on the two other medals: One of them is Jason Brown who was second at Skate America. Another silver medal would almost guarantee him a spot for the Final in Torino, Italy. Another medal candidate is Kevin Aymoz from France who won bronze in his home town of Grenoble.

Two skaters from Russia also have medal chances: The Cup of Russia surprise bronze medalist Makar Ignatov wants to capture a small chance to reach the Final in his first Grand Prix season. „Oldie“ Sergei Voronov reached the Final in 2018 and 2019, but was only sixth in France this year and seems not as strong any more. The second U.S. skater and reigning Junior World Champion Tomoki Hiwatashi was fifth in France and hopes to reach at least this position again in Sapporo. In good shape the two other Japanese skaters Sota Yamamoto and Koshiro Shimada also hope for good results, as well as the Israeli Alexei Bychenko. The two Canadians Conrad Orzel and Roman Sadovsky were not stable and consistent in their first Grand Prix, finishing only 11th and 10th and hope to be better this time.

In the ladies event, a battle between two Russian and one Japanese skaters for the victory may be expected. Alena Kostornaia from Russia won in France mainly because of her triple Axels, but also because of her excellent style. She beat the reigning World Champion Alina Zagitova there, but without Zagitova’s mistakes the race between these two may be close. Rika Kihira is the best jumper in Japan and also has the triple Axel in her repertoire – and she may have a bit of a home advantage in Sapporo. If everything runs normal, these three should win the medals and qualify for the Final all three. Outsider chances for a medal might have Eunsoo Lim from South Korea or the third Russian skater and reigning European champion Sofia Samodurova. The three U.S. skaters do not seem to be strong contenders for a medal. Starr Andrews might be better than Karen Chen and Meagan Wessenberg. 

Four times World Champions Gabriella Papadakis & Guillaume Cizeron are the hot favorites in the ice dance competition after winning their home event in Grenoble in an outstanding way. They are chasing one world record in points after the other even if the ISU does not call them „World Record“. The other dance teams know that they can aim only for silver and bronze if everything remains normal. Charlene Guignard & Marco Fabbri from Italy will try to win silver after being third in France. The same is true for Alexandra Stepanova & Ivan Bukin from Russia, who had been second at Skate America. Both couples can hope to qualify for the Final together with the French team.

The other couples have only limited chances to win a medal. The rising British couple of Lilah Fear & Lewis Gibson, third in Canada nevertheless hope for a surprise. Another rising team is from the U.S.: Christina Carreira & Anthony Ponomarenko want to move forward and to come as close as possible to a medal. And a third team has become very strong lately: Shiyue Wang & Xinyi Lui from China were fourth at the Grand Prix in their home country. The only Japanese couple Misato Komatsubara & Tim Koleto withdrew from the NHK Trophy a week before the event. Koleto wrote that Komatsubara had a concussion in August and after the Cup of China some symptoms returned.

In the pairs competition there is also a highly favorized team: The reigning World Champions Wenjing Sui & Cong Han from China are expected to win their second Grand Prix after being successful in China. If Kirsten Moore-Towers & Michael Marinaro from Canada take the silver medal, they would be happy because this would probably qualify them for the Final after being second at their first Grand Prix in Canada. But there are other strong teams: Anastasia Mishina & Aleksandr Galliamov, the reigning Junior World Champions from Russia, had won the Grand Prix in France and want to show that this was not a nine-day wonder.

The Italian pair of Nicole Della Monica & Matteo Guarise was not yet very good in their first Grand Prix in China after a long injury break in the summer, but they hope for more in their second Grand Prix. Two U.S. teams and former U.S. champions also want to show that their shape is going up and that they are candidates for another U.S. title in January: Alexa Scimeca Knierim & Chris Knierim were fourth at Skate Canada, Tarah Kayne & Danny O’Shea placed sixth at the Cup of China, but both teams have a lot of room for improvement.

2019 Cup of Russia

LADIES EVENT

MEN'S EVENT

PAIRS EVENT

ICE DANCE EVENT

Shiseido Cup of China 2019

LADIES EVENT

MEN'S EVENT

PAIRS EVENT

ICE DANCE EVENT

2019 Skate France International

Grenoble, France

The 2019 Internationaux de France de Patinage, in the University and 1968 Olympic City of Grenoble, in the Alps of Southeastern France is the third Grand Prix of this season. The rink is called "Pole sud“ (South Pole) and is about two miles south of downtown. Grenoble has no airport because of surrounding mountains. Therefore all skaters, coaches, officials and spectators who come by plane, arrive at Lyon airport, which is about 50 miles northwest of Grenoble, and go to Grenoble by bus, train or car in about one hour.  This is the third year this competition has been held in Grenoble. <more>

Liubov Iliushechkina & Charlie Bilodeau Show New Type of Press Lift at Skate Canada International

by George S Rossano

The Canadian pair team of Liubov Iliushechkina & Charlie Bilodeau presented a new form of press lift in their free program at the 2019 Skate Canada International in Kelowna, BC.

The ISU (rule 619) divides listed lifts into five groups with the following definitions, with hand to hand lifts being group 4:

Group One - Armpit Hold position
Group Two - Waist Hold position
Group Three - Hand to Hip or upper part of the leg (above the knee) position
Group Four - Hand to Hand position (Press Lift type)
Group Five - Hand to Hand position (Lasso Lift type)

The Lift’s Group is determined by the hold at the moment the Lady passes the Man’s shoulder.

 In Groups 3–5 full extension of the lifting arm(s) is mandatory.

Rule 619 also states:

Partners may give each other assistance only through hand-to-hand, hand-to-arm, hand-to-body and hand to upper part of the leg (above the knee) grips. A change of hold means going from one of these grips to another or from one hand to another in a one hand hold. Changes of hold during the lift are permitted.

The takeoff of this lift (shown below) highlights an interesting ambiguity in the rule.

The lift meets the requirement for a legal hold (hand-to-arm) but does not meet the definition of a group 4 lift (hand to hand), or any other group for that matter.  If anything, this hold starts off looking closer to an armpit hold (group 1) than anything else. But it's clearly not hand to hand.

Nevertheless, the technical panel called this a group 4 lift; and there you have it, a new hand to arm group 4 lift is created.

To paraphrase Humpty Dumpty in "Through the Looking-Glass":

“When I use a rule,” the Technical Panel said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make rules mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said the Technical Panel, “which is to be master—that’s all.”

Like Captain Barbossa's comment about the pirate code in Pirates of the Caribbean, it seems for the ISU "the code (rulebook) is more what you'd call 'guidelines' than actual rules."

2019 Skate Canada International 

Kelowna, BC

The second Grand Prix in 2019 is Skate Canada International in the wine city of Kelowna, British Columbia. The biggest star is the two time Olympic gold medal winner Yuzuru Hanyu from Japan who plans to compete in Canada again a bit more than one month after his first competition at Autumn Classic in Oakville near Toronto. A huge crowd of Japanese fans are therefore heading to Kelowna and many hotels are booked out. If the student of Brian Orser does normal no other competitor should be able get as many points as him. But several other skaters hope for silver and bronze medals, for example European bronze medalist Matteo Rizzo from Italy, the two Canadians Nam Nguyen and Roman Sadovsky, Brandon Kerry from Australia and the second Japanese skater Keiji Tanaka. Russian skater Mihkail Kolyada had to skip the whole fall season because he has to undergo a sinus surgery and is replaced by Julian Yee of Malaysia. U.S skater Camden Pulkinen gives his senior Grand Prix debut.  <more>

2019 Skate America 

Las Vegas, NV

Current Replay Systems Not Up To Task of Insuring Accurate Calls

The 2019 Junior Grand Prix Series 

The seven 2019 Junior Grand Prix were a great success for the hundreds of skaters who competed and won a lot of experience for their later career in seniors. Russia once again was by far the most successful country and won 15 of the 24 spots for the Junior Final, the USA only two. Most Junior Grand Prix are attended by less than 300 spectators, but a huge exception was the event in Tcheliabinsk in Russia where more than 5.000 spectators came every day. All programs were transmitted with livestreams on the ISU channel and can be watched again on Youtube. <more>

Lake Placid Junior Grand Prix Draws Premiere Juniors From All Over Globe