Here we go!!!
Since I haven’t seen the vast majority of routines yet, I decided to go purely with my gut. I didn’t even look up the PB’s or World Standings or anything.
I know this is going to backfire, but hey!
With the Ladies, I kinda dug myself a hole when Sam mentioned in the ladies thread that he had put Carolina at the top of his predictions, and I posted the following reply:
I so want to do the same, but I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to.
There again, I haven't seen anybody's programmes yet. So, I don't have a
specific reason to think they will be the better than Carolina's...
OK, then! I'm having Caro on top too!
CaroLiza_fan
I know fine well she isn’t going to win, but I can but dream.
I knew who I was putting in my Top 5, and the order. The dilemma I had was over who to have as my alternate. It was between Bell, Radionova and Tursynbaeva. I know Lena didn’t have a great time last season, but I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.
Next I put a skater I like to champion on GS, Nastya Galustyan. And I rounded off my Top 10 with the spoiler in the field – Mikhailova, who has just come up from Juniors.
When it came to the Men, I remember that Yuzu doesn’t normally score as high at the start of the season as he does when at the Majors towards the end of the season. So, I went with Chen to win.
But, just in case Yuzu does get off the blocks running, I put him in 2nd.
I was always putting Kolyada in 3rd. But, I dithered over what order to put the 3 guys I wanted to round off my Top 6 in. Ten either scores very high, or else very low; there is no in between. Ge is very enjoyable to watch, but the judges don’t seem to appreciate it as much as we do. And although Aliev has done a good few international competitions at Senior level, he has been concentrating on Juniors the past couple of seasons, and it may take a while to adjust.
That said, I rate Aliev, so I put him into 4th. Just in case he does do well, I put Ten into my final scoring position, and Ge as my alternate. I probably should have had Nguyen or Hochstein as my alternate, but I am living in hope that the judges will finally start to appreciate Misha.
And, no. Putting Lazukin towards the bottom has absolutely nothing to do with me being jealous of him for having Liza as a girlfriend.
I just rate the others more.
Everybody knows I’m a Russophile anyway, but I really can’t see an alternative to an all-Russian podium in Pairs. And I am probably being harsh on Séguin / Bilodeau, but I really wanted to put Marchei / Hotárek and Ziegler / Kiefer in my Top 5.
Ice Dance was surprisingly straightforward. I knew exactly what order I was going to put everybody in, except for 3rd and 4th positions. I dithered between Gilles / Poirier and Stepanova / Bukin or a long time. But, in the end, I opted for the latter couple because, well, it is Russia we are in after all.
Notice that I didn’t say I “wanted” to put them in this order. I like Kuzmich / Sinicyn, and so would have preferred to put them higher than last place.
So glad to be playing the Predictions Game again. It has been too long.
Caroliza_fan
CUP OF RUSSIA
Ladies
1. Carolina KOSTNER, ITA
2. Evgenia MEDVEDEVA, RUS
3. Wakaba HIGUCHI, JPN
4. Mirai NAGASU, USA
5. Kaori SAKAMOTO, JPN
Just for fun:
6. Elena RADIONOVA, RUS
7. Elizabet TURSYNBAEVA, KAZ
8. Mariah BELL, USA
9. Anastasia GALUSTYAN, ARM
10. Valeriia MIKHAILOVA, RUS
11. Mae Berenice MEITE, FRA
12. Nicole SCHOTT, GER
Men
1. Nathan CHEN, USA
2. Yuzuru HANYU, JPN
3. Mikhail KOLYADA, RUS
4. Dmitri ALIEV, RUS
5. Denis TEN, KAZ
Just for fun:
6. Misha GE, UZB
7. Nam NGUYEN, CAN
8. Grant HOCHSTEIN, USA
9. Deniss VASILJEVS, LAT
10. Moris KVITELASHVILI, GEO
11. Andrei LAZUKIN, RUS
12. Daniel SAMOHIN, ISR
Pairs
1. Ksenia STOLBOVA / Fedor KLIMOV, RUS
2. Evgenia TARASOVA / Vladimir MOROZOV, RUS
3. Kristina ASTAKHOVA / Alexei ROGONOV, RUS
4. Valentina MARCHEI / Ondrej HOTAREK, ITA
5. Miriam ZIEGLER / Severin KIEFER, AUT
Just for fun:
6. Julianne SEGUIN / Charlie BILODEAU, CAN
7. Marissa CASTELLI / Mervin TRAN, USA
8. Sumire SUTO / Francis BOUDREAU-AUDET, JPN
Ice Dance
1. Maia SHIBUTANI / Alex SHIBUTANI, USA
2. Ekaterina BOBROVA / Dmitri SOLOVIEV, RUS
3. Alexandra STEPANOVA / Ivan BUKIN, RUS
4. Piper GILLES / Paul POIRIER, CAN
5. Alisa AGAFONOVA / Alper UCAR, TUR
Just for fun:
6. Charlene GUIGNARD / Marco FABBRI, ITA
7. Rachel PARSONS / Michael PARSONS, USA
8. Betina POPOVA / Sergey MOZGOV, RUS
9. Marie-Jade LAURIAULT / Romain LE GAC, FRA
10. Nicole KUZMICHOVA / Alexandr SINICYN, CZE
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