Erik Hai

YouTube video by Фигурное катание Софья Муравьева. Женщины. Короткая программа. Казань. Гран-при России по фигурному катанию 2025/26

My favourite short program skate from this weekend wasn't from the Grand Prix, but from Russia. Mura's delivery of Carmen here is the best I've seen her do this program yet. Sadly, she faltered in the free and didn't make the podium. Kaori's FS at NHK qualifies as my favourite FS.

Bassist Miho actually goes all the way back to Destrose, and founded Lovebites with another Destrose veteran, drummer Haruna (aka Harupi) to form Lovebites, so it was a shock when she left since she was one of the band's founders.

YouTube video by Zilqy 【Zilqy】Carry On (Music Video)

I did not know Post-Melodic Nu-Metal was a genre. Zilqy is a new group with Miho from Lovebites and Toki from Aldious. Unfortunately Toki's departure from Aldious is probably the end of them as a continuing band. They had been struggling for several years after R!N had to leave as their vocalist.

I suspect this was all about Raf and giving his skater a medal here. The ISU runs on colonialism and nepotism.

YouTube video by Skating ISU Yuna AOKI (JPN) | Women Free Skating | NHK Trophy 2025 | #GPFigure

On the good news side, Yuna had a redemption skate after her disastrous SP skate. Despite missing a combo on her opening jump and doubling another planned triple, hers was one of the more memorable free skates.

YouTube video by Skating ISU Young YOU (KOR) | Women Free Skating | NHK Trophy 2025 | #GPFigure

And You Young. Personally, I think Young's scores were held back in both the SP and FS. She was flat out robbed and deserved to be on the podium, which she missed by only 0.15 points.

YouTube video by Skating ISU Loena HENDRICKX (BEL) | Women Free Skating | NHK Trophy 2025 | #GPFigure

Loena:

YouTube video by Skating ISU Sofia SAMODELKINA (KAZ) | Women Free Skating | NHK Trophy 2025 | #GPFigure

Samo:

YouTube video by Skating ISU Kaori SAKAMOTO (JPN) | Women Free Skating | NHK Trophy 2025 | #GPFigure

The final results from NHK:
🥇 227.18 Sakamoto Kaori 🇯🇵
🥈 200.00 Sofia Samodelkina 🇰🇿
🥉 198.97 Loena Hendrickx 🇧🇪
4th 198.82 You Young 🇰🇷
5th 186.69 Sarah Everhardt 🇺🇸
6th 183.31 Aoki Yuna 🇯🇵

Both the SP and FS were plagued by falls, there were few clean skates. Here's Kaori:

Japan's Mone Chiba claims women's title at Skate Canada International Mone Chiba of Japan wins the women's competition at Skate Canada International with a total score of 217.23.

And Mone's winning FS is here:

Madeline Schizas finishes 9th at Skate Canada International Madeline Schizas of Oakville, Ont., places ninth in the women's competition at Skate Canada International.

Final results from Skate Canada International:
🥇 217.23 Chiba Mone 🇯🇵
🥈 209.77 Isabeau Levito 🇺🇸
🥉 203.09 Nakai Ami 🇯🇵
4th 195.07 Bradie Tennell 🇺🇸
5th 192.05 Lara Naki Gutmann 🇮🇹
6th 182.85 Aoki Yuna 🇯🇵

CBC only has Maddie's FS up at the moment.

Unfortunately it has the same digital glitches as the live-stream.

Japan's Mone Chiba leads after short program at Skate Canada International Mone Chiba of Japan sits in first place after the women's short program at Skate Canada International with a score of 72.29.

Mone was just posted:

Montreal's Sara-Maude Dupuis sits in 8th after short program at Skate Canada International Sara-Maude Dupuis of Montreal scores 60.41 in the women's short program at Skate Canada International in Saskatoon.

The only skate CBC has posted so far is Sara-Maude:

At the end of the short program at Skate Canada, the standings are:
1st 72.29 Chiba Mone 🇯🇵
2nd 71.80 Isabeau Levito 🇺🇸
3rd 68.11 Lara Naki Gutmann 🇮🇹
4th 66.55 Nakai Ami 🇯🇵
5th 65.55 Bradie Tennell 🇺🇸
6th 64.58 Aoki Yuna 🇯🇵

Saiki has something important to tell you:

Since the YouTube ISU broadcast of Skate Canada is geo-blocked in Canada (go figure...), I'll have to watch it on CBC. I don't know what visibility CBC videos will have for other countries if/when I post them.

I don't even want to talk about the scoring here other than it was worse than usual.

YouTube video by Skating ISU Amber GLENN | Women Free Skating | Cup of China 2025 | #GPFigure

Amber landed a nice triple Axel to start her FS.

YouTube video by Skating ISU Alysa LIU | Women Free Skating | Cup of China 2025 | #GPFigure

And Alysa:

YouTube video by Skating ISU Rinka WATANABE | Women Free Skating | Cup of China 2025 | #GPFigure

Seems I forgot to post the final results from Cup of China.

🥇 214.78 Amber Glenn 🇺🇸
🥈 212.07 Alysa Liu 🇺🇸
🥉 198.63 Watanabe Rinka 🇯🇵
4th 197.88 Anastasiia Gubanova 🇬🇪
5th 195.43 Shin Ji-a 🇰🇷
6th 188.06 Matsuike Rino 🇯🇵

Maybe I was just too 💔from Rino's 6th place finish.

Here's Rinka:

The scoring here was atrocious, I have to say. The Skating Skills (SK) in particular.

Full results:

YouTube video by Skating ISU Yi ZHU | Women Short Program | Cup of China 2025 | #GPFigure

I also really liked Yi's SP. There was only one fall in the entire women's SP competition - Anna Pezzetta. She's in 9th, behind Yi in 8th. Hana is dead last and she has me really worried after this and her last two outings - Kinoshita and Nebelhorn.

✂️ Rino skating skills 11 seconds · Clipped by Erik Hai · Original video "Rino MATSUIKE | Women Short Program | Cup of China 2025 | #GPFigure" by Skating ISU

My favourite moment from the SP was this:

YouTube video by Skating ISU Alysa LIU | Women Short Program | Cup of China 2025 | #GPFigure

Alysa is out in front. I just don't like this dress, it does not give Olympic season vibes at all.

YouTube video by Skating ISU Rinka WATANABE | Women Short Program | Cup of China 2025 | #GPFigure

Rinka also landed a 3A, although with a wobbly landing.

YouTube video by Skating ISU Amber GLENN | Women Short Program | Cup of China 2025 | #GPFigure

Amber landed a nice 3A, but stumbled on her combination jump.

I stayed up last night to watch the Women's SP at Cup of China, but was so tired after I went straight to bed. The results are:
1st 74.61 Alysa Liu 🇺🇸
2nd 74.01 Watanabe Rinka 🇯🇵
3rd 73.04 Amber Glenn 🇺🇸
4th 68.01 Shin Ji-a 🇰🇷
5th 66.28 Anastasiia Gubanova 🇬🇪
6th 65.91 Matsuike Rino 🇯🇵

YouTube video by Skating ISU Ami NAKAI | Women Free Skating | Angers 2025 | #GPFigure

Ami's technical excellence propels her to gold. I'm not at all surprised, I've watched Ami for 3 years in juniors.