OK, I’m doing things a bit differently this time.
Firstly, I am going to split my predictions. I will do Ladies and Pairs now, and Men and Dance tomorrow. This is partly because I want to get some more countries into my TV schedule post for Eurosport this morning before the Ladies SP starts. But it is mainly because I don’t want to copy over the Entry list tables and edit them, and then have to do it all over again once the SP Start Order tables become available (why could they not have done the Start Order draws for all the categories in one go?!)
Because the entries are so big, and the first SP starts in a few hours, I am not going to do all the scientific stuff I normally do. Instead, I am going to go more with how I feel. And it is going to produce some very strange results!
With the Ladies, I decided to throw all caution to the wind and go with the podium order I wanted to see. I know, hoping for Caro to get second after a year out is asking a lot, but I have a lot of faith in her. Too much, probably!
As you all know by now, I don’t like Zhenya’s FS. I find it boring. So, even though I know fine well that she will win, I have put her off the podium in 4th.
For my final scoring position, I was dithering between three young skaters. Lecavelier, Rajičová and Kučvaļska. Let’s face it, any of them could get into the Top 5. In the end, I went with Laurine, purely because she has the highest absolute PB, and it was scored this season, whereas the other two scored their absolute PB last season.
When looking at the absolute PB’s, Rodegheiro and Hendrickx were between Lecavelier and the other two. But, Roberta hasn’t had a great season so far, and I have a feeling that Nicole and Angelīna will have the better of Loena because they are more experienced at competing at the top end of the Majors than Loena is.
To round out my Top 10, I put Helgesson and Weinzierl, two skaters that are experienced at fighting for Top 10 positions at Europeans, and could prove to be dark horses for a Top 6 finish.
With Pairs, I knew exactly who was going to make up my Top 10 and pretty much what order I was going to put them in.
Yes, I am taking a chance by putting Dušková / Bidař in the Top 5 in their first Major at Senior level. But I don’t care! They are my children and I am proud of them! And I would have put them on the podium if I hadn’t started thinking about the points I am going to lose from the Ladies!
The only real problem was deciding what order to put the 2 Italian partnerships and James / Cipres in.
The two Italian partnerships are so well matched, and have practically identical absolute PB’s which were both scored at Nationals last month. And it was a toss up which way round to put them. But, I have a real soft spot for the lovely Miss Marchei, as well as a soft spot for the Czechs. So, I put Vale and Ondřej in front.
I was all for putting the French partnership behind the two Italian partnerships. But then I discovered that their absolute PB was not only 5 points higher, but they actually achieved it (and another score that was practically identical) this season. So, I had a swift change of heart!
Ziegler and Kiefer were always going to be next. But, I got a surprise to find that a partnership I had never come across before had the 10th best absolute PB. To be fair, I knew the guy (Souza-Kordeiru) from his previous partnership, but had never heard tell of the girl (Petranović).
This put a real spanner in the works, as I had been mentally preparing for a tough choice between three partnerships (Butkute / Ermolaev; Esbrat / Novosolev; and Jones / Boyadji) as to which to have rounding off my Top 10.
In the end, I threw caution to the wind and went for my eldest daughter (who is older than me) and her much younger French partner.
There’s nothing like nostalgia! And I want to see her make a point to those that prevented her from competing at the Olympics in 2002. :agree:
The Men and Ice Dance will follow tomorrow morning.
Caroliza_fan
EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
Ladies
1. Anna POGORILAYA, RUS
2. Carolina KOSTNER, ITA
3. Maria SOTSKOVA, RUS
4. Evgenia MEDVEDEVA, RUS
5. Laurine LECAVELIER, FRA
Just for fun
6. Nicole RAJICOVA, SVK
7. Angelina KUCHVALSKA, LAT
8. Loena HENDRICKX, BEL
9. Joshi HELGESSON, SWE
10. Nathalie WEINZIERL, GER
Pairs
1. Aliona SAVCHENKO / Bruno MASSOT, GER
2. Evgenia TARASOVA / Vladimir MOROZOV, RUS
3. Ksenia STOLBOVA / Fedor KLIMOV, RUS
4. Natalia ZABIIAKO / Alexander ENBERT, RUS
5. Anna DUSKOVA / Martin BIDAR, CZE
Just for fun
6. Vanessa JAMES / Morgan CIPRES, FRA
7. Valentina MARCHEI / Ondrej HOTAREK, ITA
8. Nicole DELLA MONICA / Matteo GUARISE, ITA
9. Miriam ZIEGLER / Severin KIEFER, AUT
10. Zoe JONES / Christopher BOYADJI, GBR
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