julie27

Thanks for your thoughts, moncoeur! I like your point about Jessica's crossovers. It's a good opportunity for her to revisit basic technique. Regarding the side-by-side spins, they were in excellent sync at Liberty, but not here. Jess has been getting her job done on the triple flip, and I was really glad to see him land his in the SP here. The throws aren't perfect, but they are being landed. So good things are happening, though there is still a huge amount of work to do in many areas.

And truly, I don't how moncoeur sees it, but they are pretty much where I thought they would be. I didn't expect much from them this year given the big difference in experience, but I see a lot of potential if they look at this as a long-term project. Sebastien has very good skating skills and should make a great senior-level partner in the future, IMO.

It occurred to me while watching their videos, that Nebelhorn was probably his first real international competition. He and his former partner didn't do any JGP's, so apart from some club comps (like Liberty) I don't believe he has ever skated outside Canada, and club comps aren't the same as ISU competition. So in his first official international competition, he found himself in the senior ranks, up against V/T, the possible future OGM's. I think he (and they, as a team) did pretty well.

His relative inexperience affects the team as a whole, so they will have to learn together, but as you say moncoeur, that could be really good for Jessica in terms of improving her own technique.

There's no way they can be compared to Denney/Coughlin who are both former national senior champions and have attended Worlds with their previous partners. Caydee and John had many senior elements down solidly with their former partners, plus they're very familiar with World-level competition. D/C should achieve success far more quickly. Jess and Sebastien will have to approach this as a long-term project, but there's nothing wrong with that, IMO. It would have been a shame to see him retire (due to having aged-out of juniors). Glad he can continue to pursue his skating goals.

moncoeur

I agree completely with you. They are definitely where they should be as a new couple and one half completely new to senior. Long term project for sure!

BigBlueEyes

Kind of a sad day today: TheRecord - K-W skaters win gold in Estonia

It had to happen soon or later. I guess Bobak & Beharry are the next big thing. They’re a good team and all, but still.


I don’t think I agree. You don’t even have to compare them to Denney & Coughlin. Bobak & Beharry are already really good and have been skating together about the same length of time as Jess and Sebastien. Sebastien and Tara finished ahead of both of them and their old partners at Junior Canadians last year. The American team who finished in second in Estonia just started skating together this year too. Both of these teams had higher scores than Jess & Sebastien did in Nebelhorn. I’d expect a lot better from a former world medalist.

julie27

Bobak/Beharry and the new American team of Simpson/Blackmer both had higher LP scores at JGP Estonia than Lawrence/Swiegers had at Nebelhorn. I doubt, though, that these two new junior teams are better overall than Paige and Rudi at this point.

My guess is that scores were inflated at the junior event, relative to what those teams would have received at a competition like Nebelhorn, skating against top-level senior competitors like Volosozhar/Trankov.

A more direct comparison is to examine Paige/Rudi's Nebelhorn scores against Jessica/Sebastien's. Paige and Rudi beat them (to be expected), but not by a huge amount.

I hope that Bobak/Beharry and Simpson/Blackmer continue to progress, show consistency over time and succeed at the senior level, but only time will tell. Same with Dube/Wolfe. (Lawrence/Swiegers too! I really like them.)