In other news:

Japanese Nationals were held over the weekend.
Kozuka won both the short and free. National's inflation, of course, but he did score over 87 for a quadless short. Oda came in second and Takahashi continues to struggle but did manage a second in the free and a podium place. None of these guys manages a quad, but all of them tried it. 10.0 for guts.

Miki Ando apparently had a fantastic free skate to grab the title from Mao. Mao herself seems to be over the wrost part, but there's still a lot of room for improvement. Even with Nats inflation it is impressive to note that 4 women scored over 110 for the free. Japanese Nats can only be rivaled by the Russian teenagers (see later). I am so thrilled for Miki. There are a lot of parallel between her career and Brian's. Both tend to not-get-the-respect they deserve, but neither of them is giving up. Imagine - she is only 23 and seems to have been around forever. I am also thrilled for Mao. Never write a champion off, right?

How come in a country with such depth for both men and ladies there is no decent pairs team (Tran is not Japanese, is he?)?

Also this week - Russian nationals. A great debut for V/T (I realize they were competing in Russian cup but it is not the same scale). Can't wait to see them on actual television, rather than youtube. I guess that would be Tokyo. K/S are also champions, not to be written off, but I hope they can come to Bern strong, because I have a feeling they might not be Russian no. 1 no more and this is their best chance to defend their European title. My, the Russians will put a strong squad into Sochi.

Kokhlova, I'm afraid, won't defend her Euros medal - she and new partner only came in fourth. I guess Andreev is done shopping for a country, though I dont quite get why he left Canada. I wonder what state the Italians are in (they had withdrawn from their own Nationals) - P/B are the hot favorites for the Euro title.

Men's competition continues to be a mess. How come no one can step into Plushy's boots? Konstantin Menshov, the Russian quad-king, managed to grab the title in a completely uninspiring skate, but good for him. Do you know he is almost Plushy's age and this is his first national's MEDAL? But I think Kevin VDP will be the oldest competitor in Bern. He is 28.

Now the girls (and I mean girls) are something else - I think their triple-count rivaled the Japanese ladies. Unfortunately, most of these girls aren't even old enough for Juniors. Hope they can go through puberty well before Sochi, cause we need some good ladies in Europe. 14 y/o Sotnikova won the title, so I guess Leonova and Makarova will be going to Euros.

And I think we are set for Bern.

Lonnie

Thanks for the write up, Lonnie!

I didn't know F/S withdrew from Italian Nationals. I thought he was injured...

Russian Nationals:

Saransk 2010 / 2011

Man
1. Konstantin Menshov
2. Artur Gachinski
3. Zhan Bush


Ladies
1.Adelina Sotnikova
2.Alena Leonova
3.Elizaveta Tuktamisheva

Pair
1.Tatiana Volosozhar / Maxim Trankov - BTW the polish commentator said they did a fantastic job
2.Yuko Kavaguti / Alexander Smirnov
3.Vera Bazarova / Yuri Larionov

Dance
1.Ekaterina Bobrova / Dmitri Soloviev
2.Ekaterina Riazanova / Ilia Tkachenko
3.Elena Ilinykh / Nikita Katsalapov

Hungarian Championship review with VIDEOS!!!
(if u want me to translate, just tell me

http://skaterfan.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/papirformat-hozott-a-mukorcsolya-es-jegtanc-orszagos-bajnoksag/

Euros participants:
Ladies: Viktoria Pavuk, Katherine Hadford
Men: Tigran Vardanjan
Ice Dance: Nora Hoffmann-Maxim Zavozin, Zsuzsanna Nagy - Máté Fejes
no pairs enrty this year

Here is the translate:

http://skaterfan.wordpress.com/english/figure-skating-and-ice-dance-national-championships-2011/

ok, I have to make a post about Canadian Nationals that ended yesterday. Chan had a really spectacular performance at the free with two quads, one in combo with triple toe-loop and....the score he got for the free...is 197. I think it's a little bit toooooooo much. I don't want to say it but if Chan skates like that and judjes score like that (they gave him 9 to 10 in the components) Brian can hope to silver. But for gold I 'm not so confident

Chan's free skate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPcPTXUh1uA

Uuhh, I have to say Chan is an unbeatable...He should skate really poorly that Brian could win. And of course there are many other top skaters, like Takahashi and Oda. But I hope Brian does his job very well in Bern and then can be confident in Japan...

197????

As much as I dislike Mr. Chan, and his skating really doesn't do anything for me, I have to give him credit for actually putting on ice what he promised. It was a great performance and worthy of his best mark ever, although 197 is way excessive, of course. Should he skate like this in Tokyo he would win, of course, and no one can dispute that he is worthy.

As for Brian's posium chances - lets wait for Satuday and see.

Lonnie

To me, Chan's score is more than a little excessive--it's majorly excessive, lol. Of course, one needs to realize that this is the Canadian Nationals and, with any Nationals competition, the scores usually are over the top. However, he did deliver what he said he would. The thing which irks me most about his programs is that he has a habit of not timing his jumps and major elements on the important beats of the music. Typically, he lands/performs them one or two seconds behind the music. Yet, when the scores come up he gets big points for presentation. Let any other skater try to work it that way and they'll get slammed every time. If the guy is as musical as everyone brags that he is, then, he should be able to land those elements on the beat, every time.

Mary C.

Just a reminder- US Nationals are this week. However, the senior events don't start until Thursday.

Thursday Jan 27
3:30 p.m.: Senior pairs short program
7:15 p.m.: Senior ladies short program

Friday Jan 28
3:00 p.m.: Senior short dance
7:30 p.m.: Senior men's short program

Saturday Jan 29
10:45 a.m.: Senior pairs free skate (Early groups only, late groups will be shown live on TV and will available on-demand only)
12:35 p.m.: Senior free dance (Early groups only, late groups will be shown live on TV and will available on-demand only)
6:40 p.m.: Senior ladies free skate (Early groups only, late groups will be shown live on TV and will available on-demand only)

Sunday Jan 30
1:35 p.m.: Senior men's free skate (Early groups only, late groups will be shown live on TV and will available on-demand only)

IceNetwork, I still hate your site with a passion.

Ryan Bradley has just won US Nationals!!
Waiting for videos now!!!

1 22 Ryan Bradley, Broadmoor SC 1 80.39 4 151.51 231.90

here is the SP. love the jumps!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOuuvksxOp8

unfortunately he's right about "one year too late"

RYAN BRADLEY IS A NATIONAL CHAMPION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is this the craziest season ever or what? Ryan Bradley, US champion. Jeremy Abbott off the world team. So is Nagasu, while Alissa Czisny wins both nationals and GPF (who would have bet money on that?). 28 year old menshov wins Russian nats while the ladies title goies to some teenager not eligible for worlds. Kozuka winning Japanese nats. Mao Asada out of GPF. Kevin VDP laboring all season, then coming up a close forth at Euros. Oh, and Chan landing quads while Brian skates to classical music, and the European men's champion wins without a quad for the first time since, what? 1998 for sure, maybe 1997.
Has hell frozen over? Those who just came back from Bern probably agree about that...

Anyway, Yay for Ryan, who's a sentimetal favorite of mine. Never give up!

Lonnie