Okay, this was a weird weekend

Most of the weekend was just normal level of wacky, surprising top threes at Japanese Nationals, Sinitsina & Katsalapov not even making the top three at Russian Nationals, and such. Then came this morning. The Russian Europeans team seemed momentarily confusing, until they clarified Sotnikova and Bobrova & Soloviev will get test skates to get themselves on(although no mention of Volosozhar & Trankov; are they still not ready?). The Japanese team, on the other hand, was actually making sense when it was named half an hour ago(except that they probably should name the Reeds even if they don’t have the tech minimums yet; they’re pretty close and there are opportunities to get them). And then minutes later Tatsuki Machida has sends the events of the week off into the deep end by announcing he’s retiring. Immediately. Apparently didn’t tell the Japanese federation, since they’d just named him to the World team despite his having come in fourth (sensible enough a thing to do, at least if you don’t know he’s about to retire!). Though hearing just now about them forcing him to go to the GPF and it interfering with his academic career already, maybe it’s a hard decision that he feels he has to make.
Still, it’s sad to see him go just as he was really breaking through. But we’ll always have this year’s Skate America: