Kiira-Korpi.net

From 9 to 12 of February, at Valtti Areena in Vantaa (Finland), Kiira will take part in Nordics 2012. Regarding Senior Ladies Skating, five nations will be represented: Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Luxembourg.

SP  Ladies on 10/02 (from h. 18.10)

FS Ladies on 12/02 (from h. 14.15)

Entries

http://www.isuresults.com/results/ec2012/SEG007.HTM

http://www.isuresults.com/results/ec2012/CAT005RS.HTM

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnWWTApuxa8

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7BCV-tHR_s&feature=share

http://www.isuresults.com/results/ec2012/SEG006.HTM

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wSILNrSLP8

http://www.figureskatingresults.fi/results/1112/YLSM2012/CAT017RS.HTM
http://www.figureskatingresults.fi/results/1112/YLSM2012/YLSM2012/SEG031.HTM

http://www.figureskatingresults.fi/results/1112/YLSM2012/SEG031.HTM

Totally, Kiira finished overall in 5th place.

will be updated…

Results

FPl.	Name	Nation	Points	SP	FS
1	Mao ASADA	JPN	183.25	1	1
2	Alena LEONOVA	RUS	180.45	2	2
3	Adelina SOTNIKOVA	RUS	169.75	3	3
4	Sofia BIRYUKOVA	RUS	166.07	4	4
5	Kiira KORPI	FIN	160.92	5	5
6	Haruka IMAI	JPN	154.76	6	6
7	Agnes ZAWADZKI	USA	149.38	7	8
8	Amelie LACOSTE	CAN	148.48	9	7
9	Rachael FLATT	USA	147.63	8	9
10	Christina GAO	USA	117.77	10	10

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaebutwZjSY

Well, first season’s competition has gone. What can we say?

First of all, Kiira’s physical conditions look alright: she appeared in a good shape, it seems she’s got through her problems to foot and back, from this point of view first competition went quite good, we couldn’t reasonably hope more than this. Past year, at this moment Kiira already had two fixtures behind (Nebelhorn and Finlandia Trophy), so for now it just wasn’t fair expecting much more from her.
After that, I must admit Kiira’s performance it’s been a little bit disappointing: as easily predictable, Flip (Kiira loves this jump like a turkey loves Thanksgiving Day…) and even Lutz are vanished, but in my opinion that’s been a wise decision, ‘cause it’s unprofitable inserting in a program kind of jumps so stodgy to her. I think the real problem is that nothing else substituted these jumps: only two triple jumps in a senior program are too few, her final score wasn’t so bad, but the fact is that level of technical skills this year is really very high, because of enormous improvements of some athletes like Ashley Wagner, Alena Leonova, Akiko Suzuki, in addition to well known Carolina Kostner, Mao Asada, Alissa Czisny, without forgetting new promising russian girls like Sotnikova, Tuktamisheva, Biryukova… unfortunately, Technical Elements are too much important in modern skating, and for current judging system. We can debate if this kind of judgment could be right or wrong, but at the moment that’s the way.

Possible solutions? Maybe more combinations (3T+3T wasn’t so good in Sapporo, but she’s able to execute it for sure, or 3S+2T+2Lo, as suggested by Anna in a previous comment, or 3Lo+2T+2Lo, already performed by Kiira in the past season), or more triple jumps she rarely fails, like 3S and 3Lo. Nowadays, it’s impossible reaching higher scores without less than four-five triples in a FS: her summer work on choreography done in Toronto with Shae-Lynn is definitely amazing, Kiira is simply haunting on the ice, and her devastating beauty is always reflecting in Components score, but this is not enough to compete for the podium. I think she absolutely needs to improve her skating skills.

For example, this is FS program presented by Elena Glebova, performed in her last weekend’s victory at Merano Cup, here in Italy (congratulations, Elena):

2A
3Lo
3T+2T+2T
3S+2T
LSp3
SlSt2
ChSp1
3S+2T
2A
3T
FSSp2
CCoSp4

I think this could be a very fitting program for Kiira too, and it could easily assure her more than 100 points, as Elena did.

What’s your opinion about it, guys?

(P.S.: Personally, I did like so much the black dress of FS, whereas for the one dressed in SP I honestly save only the yellow colour…)