Hello darlings!
Apologies to those who read my blog, for the lack of recent posts. I have recently started at a new job and finishing up the other contract has really drained me. The free time I had in between was spent catching Zs and watching a backlog of American TV, in hopes of just switching my brain off and recharging. Also, I seem to be going through an uninspired lull- going through the motions with nothing greatly exciting to rouse my spirits. I have a BIG holiday coming up real soon and the momentum for that has been steadily rising, so I am foreseeing a slew of posts running up to my departure for The Philippines. Also, any excuse to write a post on skincare essentials for an Asian summer- SPF 15 won't cut it. And although I'm only going to be gone for two weeks, I need to readjust my routine to fit what I am assuming to be excruciating 40-degree weather. Anyhow, let's move on!
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| Mao Asada, skating to Tchaikovsky's seminal 'Swan Lake' (Getty Images) |
What a weekend it has been in Osaka! The ladies' event at the Four Continents Championships was crammed to the top with fantastic skates, and equally sloppy showings that it really did highlight who wants to go for Sochi. Without the likes of Kim Yu Na, Ashley Wagner and the Europeans, the field was open for Mao Asada and Akiko Suzuki to dominate- and THAT THEY DID, resulting to a Japan 1-2-3 finish.
The undefeated Asada finally incorporated her signature triple axel in her programs and successfully landed a blinder in her FANTASTIC short program. Skating to Gershwin's 'I Got Rhythm', the two-time World champion swapped her 2A for her signature element and scored an astounding 74.49 points, just a few marks away from her all-time best. Team Sato had timed her season well enough to start her upgrade in the run-up to the World Championships in March. Mao is already showing early signs of Olympic fire and her win at the 4CC is a great booster for her- not only in ranking, but also mentally and emotionally. Her second attempt at the 3A was unsuccessful in her free programme, but despite three UR calls and only four clean triples, she still garnered 130.96 and a cumulative score of 205.45- just .05 shy of her Olympic score. I really do wish she would either work on her salchow or swap with with a solo 3T instead because she either strains to land it or she doubles. That said, she later commented that her free programme performance was actually on par with her practice run-through and so she was satisfied with the result. To be fair, barring the stellar performances from her teammates, she actually didn't need much to win the title, especially with her comfortable lead in the short. She seems to be coming back on a better form, and we can only hope that Team Asada goes from strength to strength from here on end.
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