I thought about it. But who could it be? Something happened to Cheremnykh/Butenko as they WD from the junior cup. Others have no experience in seniors and time to prepare a senior program, also many are not senior-eligible.
Those are the top junior pairs, based on the results from JGP events:
Anastasia Chernyshova/Vladislav Vilchik 184.81
Taisia Shcherbinina/Artem Petrov 184.35
Kira Domozhirova/Ilya Vegera 183.47
Alisa Blinnikova/Aleksei Karpov 179.43
Varvara Cheremnykh/Daniil Butenko 177.20
Maiia Shegai/Igor Shamshurov 176.46
If Shegai/Shamshurov can compete in seniors, I am pretty sure that the top three (Chernyshova/Vilchik, Shcherbinina/Petrov and Domozhirova/Vegera) could manage too. And if they don’t have senior program, let them compete with junior program. Even with one lift less, I am pretty sure they would manage to beat some of the senior pairs. E.g., I don’t think Kuleshova/Sled are better than those juniors.
(Your worry that they may not be senior eligible is hilarious. Come on. Russian skating federation has been giving so many exceptions in the past, that I am pretty sure they would manage to justify giving a pass to any of those junior pairs. If they wanted…)
