Mid-term figure skating Grand Prix results

I was deeply involved in using my invention- the HTML table- to chart the results after four completed stops in figure skating's Grand Prix series: Skate America, Skate Canada, Cup of China and Trophee Eric Bompard. However, when I went to find the data to complete a column in the table for Grand Prix points attained, voila, there was a table with all the data I wanted already in one place. Hey, who am I? And a very interesting table it is indeed: Grand Prix of Figure Skating 2007/2008 Entries/Results -"unofficial"- Ladies

Firstly, I wondered why "the Japanese" skaters even bothered with Skate America. Well, firstly, "the Japanese" skaters actually avoided Skate America like the plague: only Miki Ando and Mai Asada from Japan competed in Skate America. That answered my second question as well: why Miki Ando, the currently reigning ladies world champ, did not avoid the early confrontation with Kimmie Meissner, the just previous world champ ("the battle of the world champs" as US media billed it)? Easy: in intelligently avoiding Skate America, Mao Asada of Japan scheduled her two Grand Prix competitions at Skate Canada and Skate France. Similarly, Yu-Na Kim of South Korea scheduled her two competitions in China and Russia. I do believe that Miki Ando saw Kimmie as the least of all the threats.

That's not the end of Miki's concerns still: Mao Asada took gold (and 15 Grand Prix points) in both her events; Kimmie has one gold and one event to go; Yu-Na has one gold and one event to go. Another fall like her fall in the short program at Skate America, and Miki could well miss out altogether on the Grand Prix final, considered by most as essential to preparedness for the world figure skating competition in March.

Mai Asada seems to have accepted the mathematical improbabilities of Grand Prix final participation associated with her eighth place finish at Skate America and apparently (from the table) has dropped out of the series altogether.

There's much more to be gleaned from the table, but, like most of the world, I am into sports for the entertainment value: statistics is my life. So, let's just wait and see how the table fills itself out. You can obtain the full results at each Grand Prix event by clicking on the country in the "designated event" row in the link above.

And lest I end without using my invention- the HTML table- here are some photos from Skate America:

Miki Ando of Japan skates during the Ladies Short October 27, 2007 at Skate America

Miki Ando of Japan falls during the Ladies short program at Skate America

Mai Asada of Japan during the Ladies short program at Skate America October 27, 2007

Elene Gedevanishvili of Georgia competes in the ladies short program at Skate America

Emily Hughes competes in the ladies short program at Skate America

Caroline Zhang of the US surprised all with a third place finish at Skate America

Emily Hughes of the United Sates competes in the Ladies Free Skate at Skate America October 28, 2007, finishing fourth

Mika Ando took silver at Skate America

Photo sources: (in order) Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Tom Mihalek; Yahoo! News/Getty Images/Nick Laham; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Tom Mihalek; Yahoo! News/Getty Images/Nick Laham; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Bradley C Bower' Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Bradley C Bower; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Bradley C Bower; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Bradley C Bower

Italy won the FIVB Volleyball World Cup in Nagoya, Japan November 16, 2007 by defeating Team USA 25-20 25-18 27-25

I've not finished my digging here and the event is already a week passed. More . . .

Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Koji Sasahara

USA Volleyball Team's Lang Ping

Wikipedia on Lang Ping USA Volleyball team coach Lang Ping (center in blue) coaches during a not altogether common USA victory over Cuba November 3, 2007, at the FIVB Volleyball World Cup 2007 in Hamamatsu, Japan. Team USA won 20-25 25-21 25-18 20-25 15-11.

Photo source: Yahoo! News/oops

In the longest final since the WTA adopted the best-of-three-set format, Justine Henin in Madrid yesterday prevailed over Maria Sharapova 5-7 7-5 6-3

Story But the event produced some unusually good photos of Maria as player.

Please click here or on the photo for more of Sharapova's WTA Championships

Photo source: Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Victor Fraile

Nice, Ana

Ana Ivanovic of Serbia celebrates her 20th birthday with a win against Kutzy during the WTA Championships in Madrid November 6, 2007. (Still needs to stop ego-trippin' and get her head back into the game. I so fear the window of opportunity for her is not as wide as she may imagine it (nearly the whole of the bottom half of the women's draw of the US Open was filled with players with every intention to step through that same . . . window.) )

Photo source: Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Andrea Comas

News Flash! October 28, 2007: the Ms. Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia punches ticket to WTA Championships with Linz final win

Photo source: Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader

Marx, one more time

In Marx' view, Russia was not the country to lead the world into the next dialectical stage of social evolution; that was a role for a more industrialized economy than Russia's then very agrarian economy. Anyway, gone now are all the statues of both Marx and Lenin (who extended Marx to the then realities of the world that the more highly industrialized nations were going nowhere near the next stage of anything at that time), but also now gone is agrarian Russia. A world power kneels, but a world power yet notwithstanding.

My point? I have no point, 'ceptin' maybe the role many Russian women in sports are embracing to provide a positive uplift to their county. They are nurturing and building a sagging Russian spirit with heartfelt strength and determination. They chose this role now seemingly freely.

Because I was busy with other chores during one of the last televised tennis matches featuring the tennis star, I was intently listening to rather than watching the match. Especially at the end of the match, the commentators just flatly said that it was time for Elena Dementieva to consider hanging it up. And they were adamant.

On October 14, 2007, in Moscow, Elena Dementieva (with what I was told was the worse serve in all of tennis) defeated Serena (with, unquestionably, one of the most powerful serves in all of tennis) 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 to leave the Kremlin Cup in Russian hands just this one more time. And to show it no fluke, the day before Dementieva defeated her formidable home sister Dinara Safina 6-1 6-0 in the semis while Serena defeated Svetlana "Kutzy" Kuznetsova 7-6 (7-2), 6-1. This story gives the view going into the finals: Serena to meet Dementieva in Moscow final

Please click here or on the photo above for more pictures. In the photo are (from left) Elena Dementieva, Moscow's Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and Serena.

Photo source: Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Grigory Dukor

USA Volleyball: quickly up to snuff

I do have one more story before I can truly jump current in women's sport, but as I research I thought I'd better kinda' condition your mindset to things underlying current events (and to prevent culture shock.) This USA Volleyball media release contains just about all the grit and grill on Team USA going into the FIVB World Cup 2007: notably, the return of Logan Tom, Tayyiba's new hyphenated last name that her recently updated bio (in the story) gives no details on (as opposed to way too much detail on Danielle's), and the mind of the coach going into the competition (important stuff): Team USA Announces Women’s World Cup Preliminary Roster At left backmost to foremost, Danielle Scott-Arruda, Tayyiba Haneef-Park and Logan Tom of Team USA in Hamamatsu Japan November 4, 2007.

The million dollar pot of gold at the end of this . . . vault

Actually, I kind of didn't tell the whole truth: I will be returning immediately to Osaka and the various cities of Japan where the FIVB Volleyball World Cup is currently underway (some cities got it, some cities don't got it.) But two quick stories before jumping current with FIVB volleyball , the WTA Sony Ericsson Championships currently underway in Madrid, and the new figure skating season. As it would turn out Yelena Isinbayeva would have to share the cool mil with none other than the real Sanya Richards (not that sickening-as fourth rated wanna' be Edwards clown from the Osaka 4x100m plop into golden embarrassment) in, instead, a truly inspiration story in women's sports (on the real side, grab 'dem hankies'): Yelena Isinbayeva and Sanya Richards share million dollars jackpot

Yelena Isinbayeva competes during the ISTAF athletics meeting in Berlin on Sunday, Sept. 16, 2007

Tatyana Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia

Yelena Isinbayeva vaults for the gold and the pot of gold

She's over!

Gold!

Yelena Isinbayeva (L) of Russia and Sanya Richards of USA share the gold at the end of the rainbow

Photo sources: (in order) Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Herbert Knosowski; Yahoo! News/oops; Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Herbert Knosowski; Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Herbert Knosowski; Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Herbert Knosowski; Yahoo.com: Photo by Andreas Rentz/Bongarts/Getty Images

Osaka '07: Beepin' Beijing: full circle

Finally, then, I am back to the photo that began my extended consideration of some of the results of the 11th IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Osaka, Japan several weeks ago: an image of what actually became the podium for the marathon run the last day of the championships: Kenya's Catherine the Great, the PROC's second of two women's medals (Chunxiu Zhou), and Japan's successful last hope not to become the second only host to be shutout of the medals (Reiko Tosa). I have been repeatedly chided for my penchant for the mundane (inappreciation of the allusion), but Catherine's "nodders": shooting for the stars.

Photo source: Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus

Osaka '07: Africa shortens the distance: Kenya's Janeth Jepkosgei 800 meter gold

Already highly touted for the incredible achievements in international distance running, Africans from Africa are now gaining more in the intermediate and shorter distances. This is incredible and exciting to see: Africa's success at any level on the international scene can but provide a worldview to its own inner dynamics of the moment; even, perhaps, a light. (Kenya was second to the United States in overall medals won in Osaka and ahead of third place Russia.)

Janeth Jepkosgei of Kenya celebrates winning the Women's 800m Final on August 28, 2007

800 meter podium: (from left) Morocco's Hasna Benhassi, silver, Kenya's Janeth Jepkosgei, gold, Spain's Mayte Martínez, bronze (there were no Americans in the finals)

Hasna Benhassi of Morocco, 800m silver

Janeth Jepkosgei repeated in Stuttgart September 23, 2007

Photo sources: (in order) (share site: encoding, Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images); gulf-times.com; bladi.net; Yahoo! News/(oops)

Osaka '07: Bahrain's Maryam Yusuf Jamal: 1500 meters gold

Please click on the photo for more images from the 1500 meter run.

Photo source: Yahoo! News (with particulars digitally encoded)