Chapter 97 Peak Showdown
Compared to the tense atmosphere among the fans outside the venue, the two contestants passing each other backstage exuded a calm atmosphere.
He Hui and Ophelia Park looked at each other as they walked forward, and they each nodded slightly in greeting before leaving.
No one looked back, no one stayed.
Tan Ling, who grabbed a spot in the finals as the sixth place among the quadruple jump reserve candidates, hugged her arms and shivered.
"It's so cold." Tan Ling felt that the temperature where He Hui and Ophelia met had dropped by several degrees!
After fighting the first round without any expression, the two men entered into preparation mode.
He Hui put on headphones and immersed himself in his own spiritual world as usual, mobilizing every muscle in his body to slowly warm himself up.
Although the focus of the short program for He Hui is almost entirely on performance, her serious attitude does not allow any low-level mistakes to occur on the field.
Tan Ling turned his gaze to the other side of the venue.
Ophelia was stretching her legs to exercise her flexibility while talking to Anderson, and she looked relaxed.
*
"CCTV, CCTV, you are now watching the live broadcast of the women's short program of the 2016 Grand Prix Final in Marseille, France. I am your old friend, commentator Bai Ying."
"Before the game starts, let's take a look at the highlights of He Hui's three games this season."
Since CCTV regrettably missed the live broadcast of He Hui's amazing six-week debut at the Finnish Cup due to schedule conflicts, every game since then has been a struggle to overcome various difficulties and strive for the best treatment.
The reason, of course, is He Hui's growing influence and the difficulty of his leap.
Of course, in arranging the live broadcast content, the directors also put a lot of thought and energy into presenting He Hui.
Because it is a highlight collection, He Hui's several jumps were edited together densely, creating an effect of powerful strength that is somewhat suffocating.
"I randomly turned on the TV and was stunned by the free quadruple jump! Can anyone tell me which girl this is?"
"He Hui is the figure skating master! She has performed all five quads! She has never lost in a major competition. I will give you stable happiness. Welcome to join us!"
"It's my long lost girl! Hahahaha~"
"The six finalists for this Grand Prix final are He Hui, Ophelia Park, Lana Sergeyeva, Olya Petrova, Yuko Egami and Tan Ling."
Tan Ling, who has experienced the changes in opponents, is the most qualified person to speak out about how fast and drastic the changes in the figure skating arena are.
Apart from her, the other five people either had four weeks or three and a half weeks!
The athletes who competed on the same stage in the Sochi cycle disappeared one by one in the crowd. Tours and Anna announced their retirements one after another, and Eriko Sanada, who had previously been the top female athlete in Japan, also faced the impact of the development barrier this season, with fluctuations in jumping and ups and downs in performance.
"The first player to go on stage is our country's Tan Ling!" Bai Ying paused and said, "She is the only player in this competition who can only perform a triple jump."
Tan Ling shook her head, trying to get rid of these sad emotions.
The fact that she was able to stand on the stage that symbolizes the highest honor of the season with just a triple jump doesn’t it just demonstrate her top-notch jumping and skating level and her performance ability that is deep and full of experience?
What's more, in the short program, there is no difference between her and most of the contestants, and everyone is on the same starting line.
Tan Ling gained confidence in herself, took a deep breath, put on a smile and got ready.
When the music started, Tan Ling's expression changed and she began to perform her short program.
With a raise of his hand and a kick of his leg, he pulled people directly into the world created by Tan Ling.
He Hui watched very seriously backstage, cheering and applauding for every jump and landing of Tan Ling.
"Tan Ling's jumping is very stable now, and her skating and performance have also improved a lot." He Hui sighed.
Lin Xiaoman nodded: "She can now do a 3Lz+3Lo combo without getting caught on the wrong edge or losing the loop. This is the best triple jump."
Time flies, and Tan Ling has gone from being at the bottom of the development ladder to now having the top configuration for triple jumps.
After the performance, Tan Ling raised the corners of her mouth, obviously looking very satisfied.
Tan Ling's final short program score was also good, 70.21 points, which broke her personal best and reached the 70-point mark.
So as soon as she returned to the backstage, Tan Ling gave He Hui a big hug.
"I actually have this day!" Tan Ling leaned on He Hui's shoulder, her voice thick with nasal tone, "I actually reached 70!"
"Why can't this day come?" He Hui asked back.
"Hey, you're right."
After Tan Ling, it is Yuko Egami who will challenge 3A in the short program.
"I won't be surpassed immediately, right?" Tan Ling sighed as he looked at the opponent's lineup this season.
He Hui stood by her friend unconditionally: "She also needs to be perfectly clean, but her success rate in three and a half weeks is not very high."
Tan Ling grinned and stood shoulder to shoulder with He Hui, watching everything on the field.
Yuko Egami's opening act is three and a half weeks, and the preparation time is long, which makes people anxiously await the result.
Jump, spin, and land.
Snap——
After trying to stabilize her core, Yuko Egami fell to the ice rink.
"This week number...?" Tan Ling touched his chin and fell into thought.
"It shouldn't be enough, right?" He Hui continued the guess, and he and Tan Ling looked at each other, confirming each other.
I don’t know if it was the mistake in the first jump that made Yuko Egami mentally unbalanced, or if she was a little nervous after entering the finals after being promoted to a higher group for the first time, but she actually made mistakes in the subsequent consecutive jumps.
The landing of the 3F in the first jump was unstable, which directly resulted in the originally planned 3Ts becoming 2Ts.
"No, I didn't curse her." Tan Ling hurriedly distanced herself from the matter.
In order to avoid the wrong edge of the hook, Yuko Egami chose 3Lo for the third move, which was quite good this time.
Due to two mistakes, Yuko Egami's short program score was actually lower than Tan Ling's.
He Hui glanced at Tan Ling dimly.
"I really didn't curse!" Tan Ling almost swore to the sky on the spot, "I'm not that kind of person!!"
He Hui curled her lips and smiled: "Well, I believe you."
The next player to come on stage was Lana Sergeyeva, who didn't perform Triple A, and her single Triple F was caught on the wrong edge.
"Congratulations, you've moved up another place." He Hui joked, successfully eliciting a roll of the eyes from Tan Ling.
"But Olya Petrova has a 3A record, and she's been playing very steadily this season." Tan Ling sighed as she spoke, "That's all I can do."
What Tan Ling said reflects the feelings of many athletes who will never be able to perform a quadruple jump in their entire lives.
Competitive sports are always cruel but real.
As if in response to Tan Ling's words, Olya Petrova's 3A was successful on the court.
Then, the triple triple jump and single jump were also perfectly completed. This is a clean program, and the configuration is comparable to He Hui.
"I think her level of accomplishment is not as good as yours." Tan Ling said.
He Hui remained silent and watched the referee's scores come out.
——75.21, this is quite high for a newcomer.
He Hui stood up silently, warmed up, and walked to the corner.
"Aren't you going to watch Ophelia's?" Tan Ling turned her head and asked.
"She doesn't have 3A."
He Hui calmly gave the opponent a critical hit, causing Tan Ling to raise an eyebrow and give a thumbs up.
Ophelia Park is still very popular, and she received overwhelming cheers from fans as soon as she entered the stage. Otherwise, the fans of the two people would not be disgusted with each other outside the court.
She sweetly smiled a standard American smile showing eight teeth, greeted everyone around her, and once again caused cheers on the field.
But Ophelia's short program was exactly as Comet said, without triple axel and without core competitiveness.
In order to narrow the gap between herself and He Hui, Ophelia arranged all three jumps in the second half to obtain a 1.1x bonus coefficient.
After all, she is a player who has four quadruple jumps in reserve. Ophelia's triple jumps are not only in rippon posture, but also have a considerable height.
Judging from the scoring, the judges are also very optimistic about Ophelia.
This made Ophelia's fans at the scene quite excited, as they obviously saw hope of competing with He Hui.
"Ophelia Park's short program score was 72.01 points, only three points lower than Petrova's," Bai Ying explained. "She is He Hui's strongest opponent in this Grand Prix Final. It seems that she is in good shape in this competition."
When the fans saw the score, they waved their flags and cheered even louder, and even Bai Ying's microphone at the scene could pick up the clear and audible live sound.
"Ahhh, why? I still can't understand why Ophelia has so many fans!"
"To be honest, apart from the quadruple jump, Ophelia's skating and performance are pretty average, right? It's just a bonus brought by her nationality!"
"But Ophelia's quad jump is so cool to watch! It's more fun to watch when there's competition. I'm just watching for fun."
"Stop arguing, the girl is on stage!! Look at the girl stunning the audience~"
He Hui glanced at Ophelia's score just now, her expression did not change, and her emotions did not fluctuate. She shrugged her shoulders and relaxed her arms, and the whole process was no different from before.
Seeing He Hui's relaxed expression, Bai Ying smiled and said, "He Hui's short program piece this season is Mozart's Rondo in D Major. Let's look forward to her performance."
He Hui stood still and danced lightly to the lively piano music. Her steps were agile and the cheerful atmosphere could be felt through the screen.
On the premise that the short program is not difficult, He Hui has shortened the preparation time for the take-off compared to last season.
Accompanied by Mozart's piano music, He Hui spun lightly on the field, drawing beautiful arcs. When no one expected it, he entered with a difficult move and then soared into the air at high speed.
Moreover, she raised one hand high with a beautiful posture and jumped effortlessly.
"He Hui's opening 3A was executed beautifully!"
He Hui spun lightly on the ice to the brisk rhythm. She also added two playful little jumps which were very appropriate to the occasion. As the emphasis fell, they touched the hearts of ice fans.
The other two jumps were in the second half, but He Hui did not slow down and continued to speed across the ice rink.
This time, the series of jumps was still completed under the extremely compressed preparation time before the jump, and its success caused a burst of exclamations.
“The 3Lz+3Lo combo is very easy.”
"The quality of 3F is very high, and you can see that the goe is basically +3."
The light and infectious "Rondo in D Major" ended, and He Hui bowed out with a smile.
As if they were battling with Ophelia's fans, the screams in support of He Hui were deafening.
As usual, Lin Xiaoman greeted He Hui with a hug after she finished skating: "You skated well."
"Of course." He Hui curled her lips.
He Hui's proud little expression was completely recorded by the kiss & cry camera, and screams were heard again at the scene for no apparent reason.
"Ahhh, my goose girl, my baby, so cute!"
"I think 80 points is definitely no problem! It seems like He Hui made no mistakes in her short program."
The judges scored very quickly, and before the previous wave of applause from the audience had died down, the next wave of screams came.
"He Hui from China scored 85.05 points in the short program."
Bai Ying: "Congratulations to He Hui for ranking first after the short program! Let us look forward to tomorrow's free skating! Dear audience friends, we will see you there."
Backstage after the short program, the two championship candidates met face to face again.
Ophelia Park forced a slightly exaggerated smile and stretched out her arms to hug He Hui.
"Congratulations, you skated really well."
He Hui readily went up to him and smiled sweetly in return.
"Thank you, you too."
Tan Ling, who was watching from the side, shuddered for some reason.
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