You know, for the Ladies, I was tempted to just copy my predictions for the GP Final. The problem was that they didn’t work out too well. Especially with Radionova’s poor showing.
So, although the top was largely similar to the GP Final positions, I did do a bit of shuffling. I still put Pogo on top, but this time I put Zhenya into 2nd (again, because I know fine well she will win).
The problem was who to put into the remaining Top 10 positions. I knew who they were going to be, but I kept changing my mind over the order. In the end, I decided to put my faith in Lena and put her into bronze (rather than silver). Then I had my Maria in 4th.
The complicating factor was adding in the Juniors. I had used my scientific method at the Junior GP Final, and got it completely wrong. So, this time, I went with my gut.
The first decision involving a Junior was a real gut-wrencher: which way round to put the Udmurt girls. In the end, I went with the one from the capital. Sorry Liza, but Alina is just in too good form at the moment compared to you.
For the remaining 4 girls I wanted to put in the Top 10, I knew what order I wanted to put three of them in. I just wasn’t sure where to put Sima, as it has been a while since I saw her. However, as it turned out, the order I had put the other 3 in just happened to be absolute PB order (according to fskate.ru). So I thought “sod it, since the others are in absolute PB order, I’ll slot Sima in according to her absolute PB as well”.
I’ll probably regret not putting Konstantinova in my Top 10, but there were just too many girls that I could have put in the Top 10.
When it came to the Men, I knew the 7 guys I was putting at the top, and in what order. Except for one thing – which way round to put Aliev and Samarin in 3rd and 4th. At the Junior GP Final, I put Samarin in 1st and Aliev in 2nd, and they finished the other way around. So, this time, I put Aliev in front of Samarin.
After Kovtun in 7th, I hadn’t a clue what order to put the rest in. So, I kept them in absolute PB order.
With the Pairs, I knew who I was putting on the podium. But, there was an awful lot of mind changing over what order to put them in. Normally I would put Kavaguti / Smirnov at top, but we all saw Yuko having bother getting off the ice at the Skate Canada. And there were still question marks over her fitness at the Cup of China.
We haven’t seen Stolbova / Klimov this season, and Tarasova / Morozov winning the GP Final really threw the cat amongst the pigeons.
In the end, I went with the order I would go for all things being equal.
For the two partnerships I was putting in 4th and 5th, it was a toss up which way round to put them because they are so well matched. Like, there was only a point between their absolute PB’s. But, they both scored their absolute PB’s at last year’s Nationals, so putting them the way round that they finished was good enough for me.
The next 2 partnerships on the absolute PB list were spaced out enough to not justify a change. But the 2 partnerships that I was putting in 8th and 9th were in a similar situation to the partnerships in 4th and 5th. Both scored their absolute PB’s at the Junior GP Final a couple of weeks ago. So, I used the same logic as previously.
For the rest, I was not familiar enough with them. One of them (Poluianova / Selkin) competed at a single Junior GP this season, where they finished 4th. So I had them completing my Top 10, ahead of the partnerships I have never heard tell of. Since I couldn’t even find any scores for Zhuk / Britkov on ISU Results or Stats On Ice, I put them at the bottom.
Dance was really hard. I knew exactly who was going to be in my Top 5, but it was so hard to choose an order. Bobrova / Soloviev were definitely going on top, but there is not much to choose between the other four couples. Tiff and Jon had lower absolute PB’s than the others, but they are rapidly improving and I wouldn’t put it past them getting on the podium.
Bukin / Stepanova seemed the sensible choice for second, so I went for them. With Ilinykh / Zhiganshin / Sinitsina / Katsalapov (my goodness, I wrote them in order of their old partnerships before realising and correcting it!), I don’t like putting one couple on the podium and the other not. So, I took a chance with our favourite English / Australian partnership.
For the rest, I hadn’t a clue. But, since I’ve seen Evdokimova / Bazin this season (at the Cup of Russia), but haven’t seen the others, I put them as my alternate.
I always liked Stavitskaya as a Singles skater, so even though it is a brand new partnership that none of us have seen before, I put her higher than I would if it was anybody else.
Davankova was brilliant when she was partnering Bobrova’s husband in Pairs. But, I have no idea what she would be like as an Ice Dancer. And her partner has a pretty low absolute PB from his previous partnership with Ekaterina Bocharova.
So, I decided to put Stavitskaia in 7th, with Davankova in 8th.
Wrote far too much here, so the Japanese will be a bit more rushed than I would have liked.
Caroliza_fan
RUSSIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
Ladies
1. Anna POGORILAYA, МОС
2. Evgenia MEDVEDEVA, МОС
3. Elena RADIONOVA, МОС
4. Maria SOTSKOVA, МОС
5. Alina ZAGITOVA, МОС
Just for fun
6. Elizaveta TUKTAMYSHEVA, С/У
7. Anastasia GUBANOVA, СПБ
8. Serafima SAKHANOVICH, СПБ
9. Alisa FEDICHKINA, СПБ
10. Alena LEONOVA, СПБ
Men
1. Mikhail KOLYADA, СПБ
2. Sergei VORONOV, МОС
3. Dmitri ALIEV, СПБ
4. Alexander SAMARIN, МОС
5. Artur DMITRIEV, С/К
Just for fun
6. Alexander PETROV, СПБ
7. Maxim KOVTUN, М/С
8. Ilia SKIRDA, МОС
9. Alexey EROKHOV, МОС
10. Vladimir SAMOILOV, МОС
Pairs
1. Yuko KAVAGUTI / Alexander SMIRNOV, С/Т
2. Ksenia STOLBOVA / Fedor KLIMOV, МОС
3. Evgenia TARASOVA / Vladimir MOROZOV, МОС
4. Kristina ASTAKHOVA / Alexei ROGONOV, МОС
5. Natalja ZABIJAKO / Alexander ENBERT, СОЧ
Just for fun
6. Anastasia MISHINA / Vladislav MIRZOEV, СПБ
7. Alisa EFIMOVA / Alexander KOROVIN, МОС
8. Aleksandra BOIKOVA / Dmitry KOZLOVSKII, С/Т
9. Alina USTIMKINA / Nikita VOLODIN, СПБ
10. Anastasia POLUIANOVA / Maksim SELKIN, ПРМ
Ice Dance
1. Ekaterina BOBROVA / Dmitri SOLOVIEV, МОС
2. Alexandra STEPANOVA / Ivan BUKIN, МОС
3. Tiffany ZAHORSKI / Jonathan GUERREIRO, МОС
4. Elena ILINYKH / Ruslan ZHIGANSHIN, МОС
5. Victoria SINITSINA / Nikita KATSALAPOV, МОС
Just for fun
6. Sofia EVDOKIMOVA / Egor BAZIN, ТОЛ
7. Maria STAVITSKAYA / Andrey BAGIN, МОС
8. Vasilisa DAVANKOVA / Anton SHIBNEV, МОС
9. Ludmila SOSNITSKAIA / Pavel GOLOVISHNIKOV, МОС
10. Anastasia SAFRONOVA / Ilia ZIMIN, СПБ