Chapter 118: Any potential can be harnessed through piecing together.
Feng Simai's short program should be considered a success.
After he finished his performance, it rained toys all over the place again. Yang Yiyan, carrying a bag of toys, stood on the stands above the waiting area and threw them directly onto the sofa.
Xia Yuezi witnessed the whole process. Her smile looked somewhat indulgent. She turned around and looked at Feng Simai, who was still greeting the fans. She went up and took the initiative to pick up the doll and put it away.
"You handled your emotions better this time than before, and your footwork was also smoother."
Meng Xin followed behind him, chatting about the show they had just performed.
Feng Simai unscrewed the sports drink, took a sip, and couldn't hide his joy: "I'm quite familiar with Russian ice, and since I'm in pretty good shape today, I naturally blended in with the music."
The scores were also released during their conversation.
With a technical score of 49.72, a program content score of 42.97, and a short program score of 92.74, it is currently ranked first.
This score isn't too surprising, considering that Feng Simai had already scored over 50 technical points with the same setup during the regional competition.
During the off-season, while everyone else was pushing the limits, he was desperately trying to increase his own health.
This time, he added two single jumps to the second half of the short program, keeping his free skate setup unchanged, in order to challenge his physical limits and adjust his setup for the Olympics. After all, this is the last season he can use to test his skills.
Fujiwara Yoshino, who followed, landed a 4F+3T jump. Although he landed on both feet at the end, it didn't stop him from scoring over 100 points in the short program and securing a top-three finish. If no one else had a breakout performance, he could even have secured first place.
Lin Ye was extremely envious of this score, and disregarding the coach's advice, he insisted on going for 4LZ+3T, only to land on his bottom on the ice, sending his teammate into the top three of the short program.
Holding the little panda given to him by Yang Yiyan, Feng Simai couldn't help but cover his face and complain: "He was already trembling with fear in his 4LZ form, but he still had to add a jump to the end. That 3T form definitely has to be demoted."
Xia Yuezi, who had the same little panda in her hand, agreed with the analysis: "If he abandons 4lz+3T and puts the consecutive jumps on the next quad jump, he might still have a chance to compete with Fujiwara Yoshino."
As a result, he not only fell on his first jump, but it also affected his subsequent movements. The real-time scoreboard on the big screen mercilessly recorded everything. After adding up the points deducted for the rating, Lin Ye's successful quadruple jump was essentially wasted.
I wonder how the foreign coach in Harbin felt seeing this scene. Anyway, Coach Ma and Xia Yuezi, who were on site, were speechless with shock at the score.
Meng Xin couldn't help but nudge Xia Yuezi with her elbow and whispered, "Thinking about it now, it was quite farsighted of you not to let Simai touch the other four-star jumpers."
Back when the four-star jumps were just starting to surge in popularity, Xia Yuezi had already ordered Feng Simai not to have any illusions about the advanced four-star jumps, and to just stick to the 4T and 4S and live his life.
One reason is that Feng Simai never progressed beyond the advanced level four of foot periarthritis in another timeline, and even worsened his ankle injury.
Another reason is that Feng Simai has become a skater known for his stability and speed. If he were to completely lose his original stability by trying to land advanced quadruple jumps, it would be a losing proposition for someone with a low P score.
After all, in the judges' eyes, over the course of a season, it is obviously more desirable to clean only one program with a high four-week rating, rather than to clean every program or have only minor mistakes in a low four-week rating.
Moreover, Feng Simai can now complete three or four sets with double 3A scores. The difference between 3A and the base score of two lower-level four sets is about two points. If the quality is high enough, the final score may not be much different from that of a lower-level four sets with a negative GEE.
To put it more bluntly, if Feng Simai can complete a decent double 3A set (three or four), the final technical score he gets might be equivalent to five low-level four-week scores. Combined with his already decent program content score, he can still maintain his status as a top-tier contestant, but it will be difficult for him to climb any higher.
Fortunately, Feng Simai only went through the worst period of his rebellious phase. He still harbored the dream of becoming a world champion, but after competing for a season, he was defeated by reality.
On the third day of the finals, six gold medals will be awarded. According to Beijing time, Chinese ice hockey fans will need to keep their devices on to watch the live broadcast from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Unlike previous years, both the youth and adult women's singles events were scheduled for the very end of the competition.
Xia Yuezi glanced at the time. Feng Simai and Yang Yiyan had been separated by about five hours. They had prepared lunch boxes with Meng Xin in advance and brought them to the competition venue.
While the children were warming up backstage, Xia Yuezi stood in the aisle to watch.
Perhaps Lin Ye was already heartbroken by the short program, so she went all out in the free skate and jumped 4LZ+3T again.
This time, the gamble paid off.
Xia Yuezi looked at the jump score, which had exceeded 19 points on the real-time scoreboard, and secretly clicked her tongue in amazement. No wonder everyone in the men's singles wanted to become a jumper. It was indeed quite profitable to gamble on a successful jump.
Before Feng Simai took the stage, Lin Ye was still ranked first, with his score breaking the 260 mark.
In fact, Feng Simai's highest score this season has reached 276. Although there is still a margin of error of more than ten points between the two, Feng Simai's difficulty is far less than Lin Ye's. If he makes a mistake on any jump, he may hand over the opportunity to stand on the podium to someone else.
Although Feng Simai once said that as long as there was a Chinese flag on one of the three flagpoles, it didn't matter who stood on the podium, he was unwilling to give up a chance with a high probability of winning.
Feng Simai had already conveyed the message through Kausten in his choice of music for this free skate.
He was wearing a vest, had his white shirt sleeves pulled up to his elbows, and black leather gloves. He was fixing his slicked-back hair with hair gel. Give him a top hat and a cane, and he could probably turn the ice rink into a disco stage.
His selection this time was jazz, consisting of two pieces by Czech composer Antonín Dvořák: Jazz Etude No. 6 and Romance.
Although composed by the same composer, the two pieces have somewhat different melodic styles, making their combination quite challenging.
The first thing to sound was the mixed violin and piano music of "Romance," which had very typical Romantic characteristics. Feng Simai had one hand behind his back and the other hand slightly raised, as if inviting someone to dance.
He slid backward in that position, took a step forward, and entered 4S at the moment the violin note was drawn out.
From the moment Feng Simai completed the long jump, Lin Ye, sitting in the first place, couldn't help but applaud, a faint wry smile on his face.
If he's in such good form, he probably won't get the bronze medal.
The melody of "Romance" is very gentle. Many classical music lovers listen to it alone at night, and then do the preparatory movements for a waltz by themselves, and dance a duet in their room.
The most famous performance of this piece was probably a concert where a violinist and a pianist performed it together, and Feng Simai's "Romance" used this version.
His gliding speed was fast, but his upper body movements were very gentle, as if after going through thick and thin, he still chose to hold hands with his lover and stroll on the bridge. The European-style streetlights lit up, reflecting a shimmering expanse on the river.
Up to the first half, the performance style of this show was very similar to last season's "By the Lake Baikal".
Feng Simai glides and gathers strength before his quadruple jump. Although there is no difficulty in entering the jump, his take-off is different from most men's singles jumps. He does not rely on brute force to increase the height of the long jump, but uses inertia and speed to make his jump full of visual appeal.
The two people on the bridge did not speak, but stood side by side in the middle of the bridge, quietly holding hands, enjoying the passage of time and their increasingly firm feelings.
The moment the final piano note faded, accompanied by a drawn-out violin melody, the program abruptly stopped, like a pink bubble being popped. Many viewers looked disappointed, and even the contestant himself raised his left hand to his ear, palm facing outward.
Then the piano music started again, but this time the sound was not the languid, dreamlike kind that could easily lull one into a trance; instead, it was light and cheerful, as if someone were dancing on the piano keys.
Feng Simai slowly tightened her outstretched hand, placed her index finger on her lips, and smiled, still savoring the moment.
He circled his head with his hand, then quickly twisted and slid it out, entering a footwork sequence.
Since the melodies of the two pieces are somewhat different, let's pick out the parts that can be combined and piece them together into a theme that Feng Simai can master.
Their main style is romantic, so they use dreams to express it.
The first half weaves a beautiful dream with "Romance," in which you can encounter all the wonderful things you can imagine.
However, dreams are time-limited; people cannot live in a dream forever. When you first come out of a dream, you may feel a sense of loss.
But Feng Simai directly discarded this feeling and replaced it with a romantic approach—to continue dreaming in reality.
The rhythm and harmonic characteristics of "Jazz Etude 6" and samba, featuring slapstick rhythms and weak beat accents, make you want to sway along the moment the music starts.
If you ask what the difficulty of this program is, it's probably the control of the rhythm during the performance. If you're not careful, you might go off-beat in the first or second part, causing the movements and timing to be off.
Of course, there may also be physical requirements for Feng Simai. When he did the last 3F, he used one hand to support himself on the ice, and when he landed, he used his hand as a support point, and his other leg circled around on the ice, making a step. Finally, he stood up with his super strong core.
Xia Yuezi couldn't help but chuckle at this action.
When people are pushed to the limit, they'll unleash all their potential.
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