Crystal Skate

Mako Yamashita, the girl who almost defeated two Russian powerhouses The first leg of the ladies' competition might have turned some worlds upside down, but you never say it's done until it's done in figure skating. Starting off well in the short programme is one thing, but maintaining positions after the free skate is the real test. And so, here is how the skaters did in Laval yesterday. The first skater was Daria Panenkova  from Russia. She skated to Lara Fabian's You're Not From Here , and unfortunately finished behind the music. Not a lot of speed for Daria, but she did end most of her jumps beautifully. Score: 117.13  -> 168.54 . Yura Matsuda  had better presentation skills than the Russian, but the technical content is not at the same level yet. Even though she made no mistakes, she had too many doubles in her routine compared to Daria. Score: 104.24  -> 157.59 . Alaine Chartrand  brought the arena to their feet with her rendition of Sunse...

Looking confident - Elizaveta Tuktamusheva of Russia Grand Prix events are always good at shaking the ice and turning expectations upside down, and that's pretty much what happened during the ladies' short programme. Was the biggest news of the night Evgenia Medvedeva finishing on 7th place or Elizabeta Tuktamysheva finishing in 1st? At 21, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva  is already a Russian veteran, which is crazy. Maybe it's for that reason (belonging to the 'older' generation) that many people have written her off. So she thought she'd write herself back into the story by starting to jump 3Axels. Boy, was it worth it! She jumped it, she landed it, it was glorious. Score: 74.22 . Wakaba Higuchi 's short routine has the potential of being one of the most interesting ones of the season. However, I feel there's a long way to go until that point. As so many skaters, she struggles with looking relaxed while there are still jumps to be done, and that r...

The ladies' competition in Beijing was a topsy-turvy affair, with quite the plot twists occurring in the free programme. They made the top five skaters of the short look quite different from the top five skaters of the long. Here are my thoughts on some of the best programmes of this weekend: SHORT Elizaveta Tuktamysheva  got me excited because this was the first time I saw her in quite a while. Her short seemed a lot more composed than last time I saw her (which was last season), but it still only managed to get the 5th place despite being technically flawless. Perhaps the heavy Pisando Flores  was to blame; some of the other skaters' themes were easier to connect to. Her score was 67.10 . Alina Zagitova  made her senior Grand Prix debut in Beijing. Her short was definitely notable, but I personally think she still needs to work on her facial expressions as she wasn't conveying the desperation of Black Swan . She's got great body movements though. It was a surpri...