Finlandia Trophy

[gsk8]

8 - 10 Oct in Vantaa, Finland

International Senior Competition in Figure Skating for Ladies, Men and Ice Dance.

Announcement

[NMURA]

Japanese athletes

Akiko Suzuki
Daisuke Murakami

[sigrid]

John and Sinead Kerr will debut their programs here

[dorispulaski]

http://www.usfigureskating.org/Athletes.asp?id=216

US entries:
Dance The Hubbells
Men Grant Hochstein, Jonathan Cassaar
Ladies Amanda Dobbs

Pechalat and Bourzat are also competing.

[glam]

In the ladies competition the reigning World bronze medalist Finland´s Laura Lepistö, Kiira Korpi
(bronze medalist at the 2007 Europeans) and young challengers Alisa Mikonsaari and Cecilia Törn will
face the winner of the Finlandia Trophy 2008 Japan´s Akiko Suzuki, as well Russian´s Alena Leonova
and Ksenia Makarova.

In speculations the strongest competitors in Men´s event will be Italian´s Samuel Contesti and
Sweden´s Kristoffer Berntsson. Finland will be represented by Ari-Pekka Nurmenkari, Valtter Virtanen
and 16-years old Viktor Zubik who is participating for the first time in Men´s event.

In the Ice Dance competition the attention will be focused on the latest reform. Starting from this season
Ice Dance event will consist only of two instead of three disciplines, Short Dance and Free Dance. The
British couple, siblings Sinead Kerr and John Kerr, will defend their last year’s victory. The Kerrs will
face the French Nathalie Pechalat – Fabian Bourzat, who placed fourth at the World Championships in
March. Finnish couple at Finlandia Trophy will be Henna Lindholm and Ossi Kanervo.

http://www.stll.fi/@Bin/1604211/First+press+release.pdf

[Shaba22]

Hungary

Ice Dance: Nora Hoffmann / Maxim Zavozin

[SamuraiKike]

Entries are online! : http://www.stll.fi/finlandia_trophy/entries/

MEN:
AUT Manuel Koll
FIN Ari-Pekka Nurmenkari
FIN Valtter Virtanen
FIN Viktor Zubik
ITA Paolo Bacchini
ITA Samuel Contesti
JPN Daisuke Murakami
POL Maciej Cieplucha
RUS Artur Gachinski
RUS Konstantin Menshov
RUS Sergei Voronov
RUS Ivan Tretiakov
SWE Kristoffer Berntsson
UKR Vitaliy Sazonets
USA Jonathan Cassar
USA Grant Hochstein

Contesti as frontrunner with a showdown of the top russian men fighting for the lone spot at Worlds.. great.. Plus I cant believe Berntsson and AriPekka still want to compete.

LADIES:
BLR Viktoria Liakhava
EST Elena Glebova
FIN Kiira Korpi
FIN Laura Lepistö
FIN Alisa Mikonsaaari
FIN Cecilia Törn
JPN Akiko Suzuki
RUS Sofia Biryukova
RUS Alena Leonova
RUS Ksenia Makarova
SWE Linnea Mellgren
USA Amanda Dobbs

Again a battle of the russian senior ladies, not as interesting as the juniors but still Akiko can easily win this.

DANCE:
BLR Lesia Valadzenkava - Vitalii Vakunov
DEN Katelyn Good - Nikolaj Sorensen
FIN Henna Lindholm - Ossi Kanervo
FRA Nathalie Pechalat - Fabian Bourzat
GBR Sinead Kerr - John Kerr
GER Stefanie Frohberg - Tim Giesen
HUN Nora Hoffmann - Maxim Zavozin
HUN Zsuzsanna Nagy - Mate Fejes
ITA Federica Testa - Christopher Mior
RUS Kristina Gorshkova - Vitali Butikov
UKR Siobhan Heekin-Canedy - Alexander Shakalov
USA Madison Hubbell - Keiffer Hubbell

Kerrs vs PechBourzat!! really nice.. Is the Shakalov guy representing Ukraine the same that used to compete for UZB some seasons ago??

[ankka]

Entries are online! : http://www.stll.fi/finlandia_trophy/entries/


Again a battle of the russian senior ladies, not as interesting as the juniors but still Akiko can easily win this.

Uhm... I'd say the Finnish ladies will give her hard time winning that tho :D

[SerpentineSteps]

Uhm... I'd say the Finnish ladies will give her hard time winning that tho :D

I'm not saying that that's impossible, but, given that Laura's injured and that Akiko beat Kiira 3 times out of 3 last season (CoC, Olympics, WC), I think that it's likely that Akiko will take this one.

[Meli_Huber]

I´m so intrested in the senior debut form Frohberg/Gießen. Ver good JGPs results last year, than very very good ISU Junior Competions and to the end a not so good JW, but for her first season togehter, it was great!

So I really want to see, where she place in the Senior ranks....

[AnnaTheMusician]

I'm not saying that that's impossible, but, given that Laura's injured and that Akiko beat Kiira 3 times out of 3 last season (CoC, Olympics, WC), I think that it's likely that Akiko will take this one.

That was last season I hope Kiira has better programs now, at least she sounded quite confident and positive in last Taitoluistelu (Figure skating) magazine interview.

[MikiAndoFan#1]

I'm not saying that that's impossible, but, given that Laura's injured and that Akiko beat Kiira 3 times out of 3 last season (CoC, Olympics, WC), I think that it's likely that Akiko will take this one.

Plus, Akiko is more consistent than either Laura and Kiira. But I would love to see Laura win this!

[Nadine]

I just came from IN, after watching Jonathan Cassar again (he caught my eye during 2010 Nationals), and I'll be cheering on Jonathan to do well here. He has a lovely lyrical quality to his skating, though he does need to get his jumps together, but performance wise he's a looker. Such a softness & beauty to his skating accompanied with those soulful eyes and the grace of a gazelle.

Lol, and yes, what a showdown it will be between the two Russian men!! (8^o Who wants it more...

[Binthere]

Cannot wait to hear about the Kerr's programs. So glad they are continuing to compete this season.

[champs]

I'm looking forward to how Biryukova will do in her probably first major international competition.