Lambiel vs Othman-Swiss National Mens Champion
Lysacek vs Weir-U.S National Mens Champion
Cohen vs Meissner-U.S National Womens Champion(if you believe Cohen shows)
Buttle vs Sandhu-Canadian National Mens Champion
Oda vs Takahashi-Japanese National Mens Champion
Marcoux and Buntin vs Dube and Davison-Canadian National pairs Champions
Pang/Tong vs Shen/Zhou vs Zhangs-Chinese National pairs Champions
Petrova/Tikhonov vs Obertas/Slavnov-Russian National pairs Champions
Mao Asada vs Fumie Suguri-Japanese National Womens Champions
other
Looking around the skating World at the moment there are a number of disciplines that have 2 countrymen who are both contenders at a global level, or are evenly matched and look set for a fierce battle for their National title. Which will be the best battle for the National title this year?
I voted for Takahashi-Oda. Actually, the men seem to be where the excitement is this year. In the U.S. there will be a lot of interest in Weir versus Lysacek, too.
Yeah the mens has the most excitement as far as inter-country duels IMO. Weir has won the last 3 U.S titles but has been beaten by Lysacek at the last 3 World/Olympic events. Takahashi and Oda went back and forth last year, Takahashi only won the Olympic berth when Oda was deducted of points AFTER the competition at Nationals, yet they sent Oda to Worlds instead of Takahashi. Buttle has dominated Sandhu overall in Canada and internationaly the last 2 years, but Sandhu has beaten Buttle at the last 2 Skate Canada events so is not totally out of challenge to Buttle. Sandhu's ego gets the better of him when speaking of Buttle and the two dont seem too fond of each other these days. Othman has alot of untapped potential and will be ready to challenge World Champion and Olympic silver medalist Lambiel for the Swiss Championship.Originally Posted by Mathman
I voted Takahashi-Oda, but I would add one more name into the mix: Takahiko Kozuka. His scores at Chuubu regionals were very high. Although his style isn't as polished as Takahashi's or Oda's, he's quite consistent and tends to get high PCS from the Japanese judges. At Japanese Nationals two years ago he was first after SP, in front of Honda, Oda and Takahashi (bombed the LP and ended up fourth behind Honda, Nakaniwa and Oda, though). He was quite good at 2005 Nationals as well.
The battle for the ladies title will be just as exciting, if not more, as there is a lot of contenders for the 3 spots at 2007 Worlds.
I voted for the chinese pairs simply because it is very possible that they will sweep the world medals and i don't think there is any other discipline set out in the above list that has that level of competition.
Ant
I am surprised nobody else saw the Lambiel-Othman battle as the best. I was the only one to vote for that.
I don't think many people have seen Othman perform, or know very much about him.
Do you really think that he is at the level to challenge the reigning world Champion and Olympic silver medallist?
a)Lambiel is very vurnerable this year with all his injuries. It is sad but I fear the worst for him this year. The poor kid cant ever seem to get healthy and it just seems to get a bit worse each year for him.
b)Othman has alot of untapped potential I think. Maybe he will be the Arakawa of this quadrennial.
I voted "Other" because I wanna see who steps up for the ladies at US nationals... We've seen most, if not all of the above combos, so I won't be truly surprised by any of those outcomes.... What I am looking forward to is seeing which of the teen dream queens claim the top prize at US Nats with Kwan out and Cohen a big ??? mark.
barring any horrible illness, retirement, or injury, Evan and Johnny are going to be the most exciting rivalry for the next four years... at least for me!
The reason I did not include that is I dont see Meissner being seriously challenged at all for the U.S title, especialy with Cohen and Kwan likely out, now that she is coming off her World title and burgeoning with confidence. In fact even if Cohen and Kwan were there, assuming neither did any GP events which of course they arent, I would still favor Meissner to win going in, although obviously she would have some real competition then. As it is though I dont see who even comes close to challenging her right now. If it is a battle that in itself would be a surprise and drama-worthy IMO.
I agree... I think in my original post I couldn't articulate your point & deleted the whole Kimmie question... I'm not so sure if Kimmie is a lock on the nationals title.
All those girls can jump (even if Kimmie can do a 3axel, will she? will Alissa calm her nerves and skate cleanly?). All of those girls need polish & maturity on ice. I'm interested in seeing who, if any, developed the second mark over the summer and how they compare as a group.
This we haven't seen in the US in a looonnnggg time... a totally fresh crop of ladies skaters. I can't even remember the last time... Maybe late 80s??? It should cool & interesting to see how that all shapes up & shakes out at Nationals...
Everyone else I've seen and while it will be fun to see them skate against each other, won't be all that dramatic, imo...
Doesn't Othman still have to get a trilpe axel? And i don't think he's had any success with the quad either. If he wants to play it big on teh senior circuit he'll need one of those two jumps in order to boost his score.
Ant
I understand what you are saying but I believe he has alot of untapped potential. Also as his horrable performances at Skate Canada showed Lambiel is far from his best now. He probably scored about 20 points below his potential in both short and long programs at Skate Canda due to all his mistakes/lost elements, impact on PCS, etc.....
In a word, no. I love Othman, his style, his fluidity, and his spins. He can be a stunning skater, and his LP at Skate Canada was my favorite of all the men's, and was greatly appreciated by the audience, who gave him a partial S.O. However...no quad....no 3A....shaky at times on the 3Z....two-footed jumps at times.....level 2 footwork....NO, he is not ready yet to challenge Lambiel. Lambiel, even at a bad event like SC, routinely gets 7s (some 8s) for PCS marks...Jamal is in the 5-6 range, with a few marks being just over 6. He is still young, and he is markedly improved from last year, when he'd been fighting injuries so much. But he's not at that level yet. I hope he gets there, because he's a favorite of mine.
Meanwhile, I am most looking forward to the Russian men's nationals...Griazev vs. Klimkin vs. Dobrin vs. Uspenski vs. Voronov. I think Voronov is the biggest dark horse of the five, but all five are closely matched technically, and all have histories of inconsistancy. Bring on the Russian men!
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks