- Joined
- Nov 12, 2009
Oda has been a Gold medal contender all season long. And any pregnancy news close to Worlds wouldn't stress him out this time.
Vener has done well but his COR win was more given circumstantially than earned. He subsequeant performances at the GPF and the Euro were not great. He hasn't done a quad combo yet so that could be iffy and hurting more than helping. But yes I understand he has better chances of landing on the podium with a best skate and some meltdowns at the top than the rest of the field.
In contrast, Joubert has pulled himself up late in the season, as has our current World Champion whose TES have been abysmal at times. Kozuka, OTOH has been up and down, but within the big league score range.
Oda's scores this season have not been all that great. I really think he needs the quad to land on the podium. Kozuka this season has passed him, moved ahead, so now Oda is Japan's #3 and I think that will hurt him a bit. Joubert got lucky at Euros that his SP score was as high as it was, and he only beat Verner by half a point there as it was, and that was a "pull up" performance for him and not a great showing for Tomas so I really think their chances are pretty much the same. Further, Tomas has been skating better this season as a whole, so he might be heavy edge to Joubert at this point, unless Joubert is totally clean with the quad combo in the SP. Joubert's silver at Euros was a triumph for him this season, while Verner's bronze (and total score half a point lower than Joubert) was a bit of a disappointment , so I'm not sure Joubert will even beat Amodio at Worlds.
Last edited: