Chapter 53 First Fight
After completing his debut in the Fodi Cup, He Hui moved on to compete in another B-level competition, the Finland Cup.
What neither He Hui nor Lin Xiaoman expected was that this Class B competition held in the small town of Espoo in southern Finland would actually attract many of the world's top figure skaters.
"Turles and Anna have both signed up for the competition. You will face off head-on."
Lin Xiaoman looked at the list, not knowing whether to say that this unexpected encounter was a coincidence or a bad luck.
He Hui said calmly: "That's good. We don't have the chance to compete against each other in the race."
He Hui and Tours avoided the competition perfectly this year. But as the only two active 3A players in women's singles, they are strong candidates for the podium in Sochi.
I originally thought that the first encounter might be at the Grand Prix Final, but I didn't expect the showdown to be brought forward to the beginning of the season.
"Okay." Lin Xiaoman reminded worriedly, "Turles's program content score is definitely a level higher than yours, and she also has a double 3A free skate, you can't be too optimistic."
He Hui nodded: "I know the hope is slim, but I want to see how far we are from each other."
Lin Xiaoman raised her eyebrows. Since her own apprentice was eager to find something to beat, she couldn't stop him, right?
When He Hui was drawing lots, he noticed another familiar figure and sat down next to that person.
"Chu Miao!" He Hui patted her shoulder, "You actually came to the Finland Cup as well!"
"Just accumulate more experience. There are very few Malaysians participating in the Winter Olympics, so the national team takes it very seriously." Li Chumiao replied.
"I hope you can become the light of Malaysia in the Winter Olympics!" He Hui blinked and sent her blessings.
Li Chumiao shrugged and said nothing.
He Hui's fortune can only be described as not as good as the best but better than the worst.
——She was drawn to the last group and was the third to play. Anna was the first and Tours was the last.
*
The Russian athlete's strategy this season is to put more jumps in the second half.
When He Hui saw that Anna put all three jumps in the second half of the short program, her mouth opened wide.
"Can it still be operated this way?" He Hui exclaimed.
Lin Xiaoman: "The rules don't say no, right?"
"Hmm..." He Hui touched his chin, "I always feel that Anna's program seems a bit unbalanced."
“But the scores look good.”
As soon as Lin Xiaoman finished speaking, Anna's score appeared on the screen.
——67.01 points.
Indeed, without 3A, this is a very competitive score.
But He Hui was not scared. After a little preparation, she came on stage and started her "Appasionate Sonata" with full confidence.
3Lz+3Lo and 3A were completed in succession with high quality.
Driven by the emotionally passionate music, the audience soon applauded, giving He Hui feedback with even more enthusiastic rhythm.
Encouraged, He Hui perfectly presented the second half of 3F, maintaining an indomitable momentum and presenting the audience with a perfect straight-line step sequence of fast tempo and incredible difficulty.
......
After the Wudi Cup, He Hui was actually not very satisfied with the content score of his program.
Objectively speaking, her pace, connection, choreography and performance this year have been significantly upgraded under Mary's arrangement compared with the youth group's programs.
But in terms of program content points, she remained stagnant.
Maybe she was indeed one season behind others, or maybe her nationality was not convincing enough, but she wanted to fight for it with continuous perfect performance. Even if the improvement each time was only a little, she was at least on the right and promising path.
He Hui thought about it and his eyes drifted away into the distance.
"The scores are out." Lin Xiaoman's voice called He Hui back, "72.17 points, more than one point higher than last time."
He Hui was more concerned about the specific composition of the technical and content scores, and looked at the screen carefully again.
——Technical score 42.99, program content score 29.18.
There has been a slight improvement in both GOE and P scores!
"It seems like there is a glimmer of hope." He Hui sighed.
But the ray of light that slipped out from the clouds was quickly blocked by another dark cloud floating over the horizon after seeing Tours' show.
Tours' performance was truly dazzling.
He Hui once secretly watched Tours' game. At that time, she was still a rookie who was trying to catch up with the opponent and break through 3A.
Looking at it now, Tours’s performance has reached a new level.
The music Tours chose was "Carmen", and the whole program exuded a sexy, dangerous and charming feeling.
Moreover, in order to try to make up for the loss of technical points due to the lack of quadruple jumps in the free skating, Tours arranged two jumps, including a series of advanced triple-triple jumps, in the second half of the short program while retaining the program arrangement as much as possible.
Tours is also a rare player with good edge. The 3F at the beginning is undoubtedly the inside edge, and the 3Lz+3Lo at the beginning of the second half is obviously the second jump of the outside edge plus the full circle.
The final 3A brought the short program to a clean end.
Turles is 20 years old this year. He debuted in 3A at the age of 14, won all the championships in the youth group and then moved up to the group. At the age of 16, he won the gold medal in the Vancouver Olympics.
But in the first season after winning the gold medal, she went through a difficult growth period. But compared to other players who had a bad performance that was not good enough, she recovered quite quickly.
Thanks to the good foundation laid by the coaching staff in the early stage, Toews slowly picked it up after losing one and a half seasons in 3A.
Tours' strong comeback after going through the ups and downs has made her the undisputed number one in the adult group.
"This program's BV alone is 1.43 points higher than yours." Lin Xiaoman quickly calculated, "The completion rate is also very high, and GOE is definitely a must."
He Hui nodded absentmindedly.
After all, she is the strongest female singles player who has been glorious throughout the entire Olympic cycle, so there is no suspense about Tours' score.
The technical score was 45.73 points, the program content score was 35.08 points, and the total score was 80.81 points, once again reaching the 80-point mark.
Keep in mind that this is the score given at the beginning of the season when the judges are tight-lipped. After a whole season of carefully polishing the short program, Tours' score in the Sochi Winter Olympics will only go up a level.
The pressure on He Hui suddenly increased, and she could not afford any mistakes in this free skating.
She hadn't been this nervous in a long time.
Previously, the opponents were all of the same age who started from the same starting line. Their GOE and P scores were not much different. As long as they had absolute difficulty in jumping, they would be sure to win.
And now this seemingly hopeless situation is really annoying.
"What? Are you finally feeling the pressure?" Lin Xiaoman teased.
Although He Hui didn't want to admit it, her heart was indeed beating violently.
"I feel a little unsure," she said.
"Giving in before the game is not your style." Lin Xiaoman used provocation.
Upon hearing this, He Hui's low morale immediately rose: "I'm not giving in! Wait, I will work hard to clean it up!"
Lin Xiaoman smiled with relief.
*
After the short program competition, everyone's focus fell on the two strong candidates for the championship.
Tours has a double 3A set configuration. Although He Hui has an extra 4T, he is at a disadvantage in program content points.
The first to take the stage this time was Tours, her confident smile was very contagious.
Her free skating piece was The Phantom of the Opera, which is a well-known piece in the figure skating world, but has not yet seen a large-scale collision with the song.
After all, after the ban on vocal repertoire was lifted in Sochi in 2014, "The Phantom of the Opera", with its countless moving passages, has become increasingly one of everyone's first choices.
He Hui was the next to take the court after Tours, and she had to watch the entire game from the sidelines.
Toews started with two triple-A hits.
The first one is a 3A+2T combination jump, which is worth 9.8 points; the second one is a 3A single jump, which is also worth 8.5 points.
The quality of both series of jumps was very high, and the GOE was increased to around 1 point.
But what surprised He Hui the most was that after completing the two jumps, Tours started to do continuous rotations. Moreover, her bow turn and jump-swallow style were perfectly integrated into the music, which aroused applause from the audience.
Tours actually arranged all five jumps in the back row!
Tours's shining performance on the court stunned He Hui on the sidelines.
"Don't look at it." Lin Xiaoman whispered beside him.
She was afraid that He Hui's mentality was unstable, which would affect her performance on the next stage. Not only would she completely lose the chance to compete for the gold medal, but it would also be of no benefit to the slow growth of her program content points.
"It's okay." He Hui was stubborn and no one could pull him back. "Only by knowing yourself and the enemy can you win every battle."
Seeing that persuasion failed, Lin Xiaoman stopped talking and carefully recorded the performance of He Hui's biggest opponent.
There are five jumps scheduled in the second half, which means that Tours' performance will be very fast-paced.
The two series of jumps that were raised were both very difficult. The 3Lz+3T with double Choctaw and the 3Lz+2T+2Lo with double Mohawk made the audience burst into applause.
The last three single jumps were almost as soon as one landed, a new one took off, and they all raised their hands.
3F, 3Lo, and 3S are not difficult at all in Tours.
He Hui's eyes were dim and difficult to read. Tours's high GOE was not just due to the number of years he had been racing on the field.
More importantly, after this calculation, Tours' BV is only 8.7 points less than He Hui's.
The coefficient of the free skating program content score is 1.6, while the coefficient of the short program is 1, which means that according to the difference in scores given to the two by the referee during the short program, these 8.7 points can be recovered at once.
No, I can't count anymore...
He Hui sighed silently in her heart. Tours' perfect performance obviously increased her psychological pressure.
All she could do before going on stage was to calm down completely and not listen to what Tours' score was.
He Hui was afraid that she would involuntarily count the points and then calculate the points she needed to catch up. This was a good way to break down the game, but now it was too close to the competition time and she needed to concentrate completely.
She chose to completely block out all sounds, take deep breaths, adjust her mindset, and calm herself down to focus on the show she was about to present.
Inhale, exhale——
The slightly chilly air from the ice rink rushed into He Hui's lungs, helping him to wake up physically.
He Hui stood in the middle of the ice rink, lowered his head, and hugged his body tightly with his arms.
She has an advantage in technical points, and the first thing she needs to do is to present each of her jumps and program choreography to the judges 100%.
As long as her technical score and completion quality are high enough, the judges usually won't let the program content score go too far.
He Hui took a breath again and waited quietly for the music to start.
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