ISU GP#6 - NHK Trophy - Osaka, JPN - 24-26 Nov. 2023

[Elizabeth]

The entries, by discipline, can be found here: https://results.isu.org/events/fsevent00117440.htm

The time and practice schedule: https://results.isu.org/schedules/gpjpn ... hedule.pdf

Osaka will be 14 hours ahead of Eastern Time.

[Elizabeth]

Wesley Chiu has been assigned to fill the vacancy at NHK Trophy left by the withdrawal of Daniel Grassl


The vacancies in the Pairs event, with two withdrawals, have been filled by Lucrezia Beccari / Matteo Guarise of Italy and Chelsea Liu / Balazs Nagy of the USA:

[Elizabeth]

A new assignment for the Women following the withdrawal of Bradie Tennell of the USA - Lea Serna of FRA who is competing currently ad the Grand Prix de France:

[Elizabeth]

There has been a withdrawal in the Men's event

[Elizabeth]

And the vacancy in the Men's event has now been filled -



The two men representing Estonia are brothers. I thought that this might be a first for the GP but apparently it has happened on at least one other occasion with brothers competing against each other, but in ice dance - Attila & György Elek of Hungary competed at the GP de France 2006. In terms of siblings, the Helgesson sisters both competed at Skate America in 2010 and Mao and Mai Asada both competed at Skate America 2006.

[Elizabeth]

Mark Hanretty announced at the end of the Gala in Espoo that Ted Barton will be doing the commentary for the NHK Trophy on the ISU YouTube stream.

The links will be coming up on the channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/SkatingISU

With the time difference, the competition will actually start late on Thursday evening and on Friday evening for those of us in the Eastern Time Zone. In this time conversion chart you can find ET 6th from the top:

[Elizabeth]

Skate Canada's press release about the team going to Osaka: https://skatecanada.ca/2023/11/five-ski ... he-season/

Five Skilled Skaters Head to Osaka to Compete at Final Grand Prix of the Season
November 20, 2023/by Skate Canada

OTTAWA, ON (November 20, 2023) – Five talented skaters are set to compete at the NHK Trophy, which will mark the sixth and final stop of the ISU Grand Prix series circuit. The event, which will take place in Osaka, Japan from November 24-26, 2023, will feature Canadian athletes in the men’s, pair, and ice dance categories.

In the men’s category, 2023 Cranberry Cup International silver medallist Wesley Chiu will be looking to improve on his results from Skate Canada International, where he set a season’s best score to finish seventh overall.

Pair skaters Kelly-Ann Laurin and Loucas Éthier will also have big goals for the event after winning their first Grand Prix medal last season and fininishing fifth at 2023 Skate Canada International.

Completing the Canadian delegation will be ice dance duo Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac who captured silver at the 2023 Budapest Trophy, and very recently competed at the Grand Prix de France.

The competition begins on Friday, November 24 with every discipline performing their short program/rhythm dance. All medals will be awarded on Saturday, November 25 as all disciplines will perform their free program/free dance. The event wraps up on Sunday with the exhibition gala.

[Elizabeth]

Overview of the competition (all time local to Osaka)


The start orders are not yet posted.

Ted Barton will be doing commentary on the ISU YouTube stream.

[Elizabeth]

The links for the individual parts of the event are already in place on the ISU YouTube channel. The times you see should be for your time zone.
Day 1
Rhythm Dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT4ErkIBBl4
Women SP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPs6rGBgJu8
Pairs SP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfa6e_HSLnc
Men SP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTQIwar1M3M

Day 2
Free Dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GmS5wcvl0I
Women FS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U_Jpza6GZU
Pairs FS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-T-hRwIyIs
Men FS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXmjimVZQVI

Day 3
Exhibition Gala: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phqwsaZwpoI

Here's the ISU preview: https://isu.org/figure-skating/news/new ... teParam=15

UPDATE:
The Entries/Start Orders/Results location: http://www.isuresults.com/results/season2324/gpjpn2023/

[Elizabeth]

Practices have been going on while we were sleeping - the competition begins this evening for those of us in the Eastern Time zone


Start orders for the RD and SPs

[Elizabeth]

A view inside the rink before the competition began




Day 1 of competition

[Elizabeth]

The first event was the Rhythm Dance - the results at the top may be closer than some expected



The top 3



Press conference photo

ISU press release: https://isu.org/figure-skating/news/new ... teParam=15

[Elizabeth]

A bit of a surprise in the placements after the Women SP, especially since there are skaters hoping to make the GPF among those competing here.


The top 3


From Jackie Wong (RockerSkating):

A few (of many) Final scenarios:
+ Pinzarrone guaranteed if 1st or 2nd
+ If the standings stay, Sumiyoshi, Pinzaronne qualify
+ If Thorngren wins + Pinzarrone is 4th or lower, Sumiyoshi, Thorngren qualify
+ If Lee wins + Pinzarrone is 3rd & wins tiebreak, Lee, Pinzaronne qualify

Press conference photo

ISU press release: https://isu.org/figure-skating/news/new ... teParam=15

[Elizabeth]

Event #3 of the first day - the Pairs SP - the results:


The top 3


GPF scenarios from Jackie Wong:

If these standings hold tomorrow, Hase/Volodin and Hocke/Kunkel go to the Final, and then tiebreak between Beccari/Guarise and Pavlova/Sviatchenko

Ghilardi/Ambrosini guaranteed to Final if they finish 2nd, or would be a 3-way tiebreak if they finish 3rd

Press conference photo

ISU press release: https://isu.org/figure-skating/news/new ... teParam=15

[Elizabeth]

The 4th & final event of Day 1 - the Men SP - the results:



Now that's a reaction to his Season's Best score by Yuma (and his closest competitor had yet to skate)


The top 3


Press conference photo

The ISU press release: https://isu.org/figure-skating/news/new ... teParam=15

[Elizabeth]

If you want to watch the events, the full streams are available on the ISUYouTube channel, as well as the replays of some individual top skaters in each discipline.

If you prefer to watch the ISU stream on CBC, here are the CBC Sports archive links - ISU stream with CBC watermark - commentary by Ted Barton

Rhythm Dance - http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2286824003880
Women Short - https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2286833731744
Pairs Short - https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2286838339870
Men Short - https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2286854211571

I watched the RD and the Men SP live but caught some sleep in between and then watched the Women and Pairs

[Elizabeth]

Day 2 began at 9:50 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 24th for those of us in the Eastern time zone due to the 14 hour time difference.

[Elizabeth]

The results of the Free Dance were a surprise to some



As were the overall results



Fear and Gibson became the first GB skaters to win a Grand Prix (in any discipline).

Amazing core strength in this Corpse Bride program from Lauriault & Le Gac

The top 3


A podium selfie

Press conference photo

ISU review article: https://isu.org/figure-skating/news/new ... teParam=15


Unofficially, here are the GPF qualifiers:

2023/2024 Grand Prix Final Qualifiers Ice Dance
1. Gilles / Poirier 30
2. Chock / Bates 30
3. Guignard / Fabbri 28
4. Fear / Gibson 28
5. Fournier-Beaudry / Sørensen 26
6. Lajoie / Lagha 26

And the Alternates
Allison Reed / Saulius Ambrulevičius
Evgeniia Lopareva / Geoffrey Brissaud
Juulia Turkkila / Matthias Versluis


Next week Fear and Gibson will have to defend that title at British Nationals and then travel to Beijing for the GPF - talk about jet lag potential!!

[Elizabeth]

The 2nd event of Day 2 was the Women Free Skate which also produced some unexpected results.

The FS results



The overall results


The top 3



Press conference photo

ISU Review article: https://isu.org/figure-skating/news/new ... teParam=15

Some stats from Jackie Wong (RockerSkating) -

US women 1-2 on GP Figure 10 times:
2023 GPJPN Ziegler (G), Thorngren (S)
2016 GPUSA Wagner, Bell
2012 GPUSA Wagner, Gao
2003 GPUSA Cohen, Kirk
2002 GPUSA Kwan, McDonough
2001 GPUSA Kwan, Hughes
2000 GPUSA Kwan, Hughes
1997 GPUSA Kwan, Lipinski
1996 Final Lipinski, Kwan
1996 GPUSA Kwan, Kwiatkowski

So, excluding the Grand Prix Final, it is the first time it has happened in an individual GP event held outside the USA.


Unofficial qualifiers for the GPF
Kaori Sakamoto
Isabeau Levito
Loena Hendrickx
Hana Yoshida
Nina Pinzarrone
Rion Sumiyoshi

And the alternates
Chaeyeon Kim
Lindsay Thorngren
Niina Petrokina

[Elizabeth]

The third event of Day 2 was the Pairs Free Skate.

The results



Overall results


The top 3


A podium selfie

Fun press conference photo

The ISU review article: https://isu.org/figure-skating/news/new ... teParam=15

Unofficial qualifiers for the Grand Prix Final
Deanna Stellato-Dudek / Maxime Deschamps
Minerva Fabienne Hase / Nikita Volodin
Lia Pereira / Trennt Michaud
Sara Conti / Niccolo Macii
Annika Hocke / Robert Kunkel
Rebecca Ghilardi / Filippo Ambrosini

And the alternates
Maria Pavlova / Alexei Sviatchenko
Lucrezia Beccari / Matteo Guarise
Cheng Peng / Lei Wang

[Elizabeth]

The crowd was very excited today - they came equipped with many national flags, as usual. So many of the skaters commented on the size of the crowds and the level of support.
This was after the skate of the very first man in the free program - the last of Day 2. He was from Japan as you might guess


The free skate results


The overall results


The top 3



Fun press conference photo

ISU review article: https://isu.org/figure-skating/news/new ... =0,0,0,0,0

Unofficial GPF Qualifiers
Adam Siao Him Fa
Ilia Malinin
Kao Miura
Yuma Kagiyama
Shoma Uno
Kevin Aymoz

And Alternates
Shun Sato
Sota Yamamoto
Lukas Britschgi

[Elizabeth]

The Exhibition Gala program is below - it starts just after midnight tonight in the Eastern Time zone. I will be available to watch live or later on the ISU YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phqwsaZwpoI