This is something new for me – predicting on a Junior competition. Like, apart from the first Youth Olympics, I only really started watching Juniors with last year’s Junior Worlds.
In the Ladies, it was a no-brainer for who to put to win. I may not like Polina T’s style of skating, but it scores VERY well. Personally, I prefer Sotskova. But, she is behind Tsurskaya in all versions of the PB list.
Admittedly, Maria is higher in both the ISU World Standings and ISU Season’s World Rankings, but that is purely because she has more competitions counting towards them. They both did 2 Junior GP’s, the Junior GP Final, and Russian Championships this season. But that is all Polina T has done. Maria also has a Challenger event, as well as 2 previous seasons of results counting towards the ISU lists.
I have to admit, I was torn over the remaining Top 5 positions. Going purely by the numbers, it should have been straightforward, because there are big gaps between their absolute PB’s. BUT, then there is the fact that Tursynbaeva and Sakamoto have been on my radar longer than Shiraiwa. And, hence, I have liked them longer.
Although she is in the middle with a lot of breathing space either side of her when it comes to absolute PB’s, Tursynbaeva is much higher than the other 2 when it comes to both the ISU World Standings and World Rankings. With Shiraiwa, it was obvious why she was the lowest in the World Standings, as before this season she had only done one international competition – last season’s Bavarian Open.
But it wasn’t obvious why Tursynbaeva was so much higher than Sakamoto, as they have both been very busy the past few seasons. And then it hit me – it was because Elizabet has done Junior Worlds twice, whereas Kaori has only done it once. And Junior Worlds, like Senior Worlds, is worth more points. (Plus Elizabet was 2 places higher than Kaori at last year’s Junior Worlds).
So, with this in mind, I kept Yuna and Elizabet in the absolute PB order.
Sakamoto’s absolute PB was actually only half a point higher than Diana Nikitina’s. Both were achieved this season. But, despite doing a lot more competitions than Sakamoto, Nikitina is a lot lower down both ISU lists. So, I kept her as my 6th place alternate, rather than moving her up.
I have to be honest, as was the case when doing my research for Europeans, I was VERY disappointed to see that Anastasia Galustyan was so far down the list. Before doing the research, I had every intention of putting her on the podium. But when she was only 7th in the absolute PB list, and detached from 6th, I couldn’t justify it. That said, she is right and high on both the World Standings and World Rankings lists.
For the rest, I kept them by absolute PB order. There were only 4 of them whose names I recognised, and their absolute PB’s put them outside the Top 10. So, too low to be in contention for a Top 6 place.
With the Men, there were far too many names that I had never heard tell of before. In fact, I had only heard tell of five of the skaters – the four that are probably going to occupy the top places, and Adrien Bannister. And it didn’t help that only 7 of them are on the ISU World Standing and ISU Season’s World Ranking lists.
I was torn over the top 2 places. It should be a fight between Aliev and Yamamoto. But, what way around to put them. I have been a long time fan of Yamamoto (ever since I saw his “Thunderbirds” gala routine a few years back). But, this just seems to be Aliev’s year. Aliev has the higher absolute PB by just over 5 points and, significantly, he beat Yamamoto in the Junior GP Final.
For the next 2 places, I kept it according to absolute PB. In all honesty, even if he hadn’t been ahead in all the different types of PB, as well as the ISU World Standing and ISU Season’s World Ranking lists, I would have put Deniss ahead of Roman. I like him, and the fact that he is putting his small country on the map in a category that it has never been known for.
As I said, of the rest of the field, there is only one skater I have even heard tell of. And when I ordered them by absolute PB, there were 3 guys between him and the Top 4. So, seeing as I knew nothing about them, I kept the absolute PB order for the rest of the field.
The Argentinian skater is a total mystery. Stats On Ice have nothing on him, and his ISU Bio even states in the notes “No information except for the music information was submitted.”
In Pairs, there was no way I was not going to put my children at the top of the predictions! Proud adoptive father here! :agree:
I know, apart from the ISU World Standings, this goes against all the numbers. But, I don’t care. Anna and Martin should have been at Europeans, and winning this would more than make up for it.
Of the rest of the field, I could only find information for 5 of them. And, although they were all at Junior Grands Prix that I watched, I can’t actually remember them. So, I kept them in absolute PB order.
With Dance, I have to be honest. Despite the competition results saying that I had seen quite a few of them during the Junior GP Series this season, none of the names rang any bells with me.
Well, the couple with the highest absolute PB did sound vaguely familiar, and when I looked at their results list I realised that that was probably because they had got to the Junior GP Final. But the other Russian couple, who had an absolute PB that was less than a point lower than Skoptcova / Aleshin. Nope.
So, the entire Ice Dance field was left ordered by absolute PB. Because I hadn’t a clue!
Caroliza_fan
YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES
Ladies
1. Polina TSURSKAYA, RUS
2. Maria SOTSKOVA, RUS
3. Yuna SHIRAIWA, JPN
4. Elizabet TURSYNBAEVA, KAZ
5. Kaori SAKAMOTO, JPN
6. Diana NIKITINA, LAT
Just for fun
7. Anastasia GALUSTYAN, ARM
8. Vanna GIANG, USA
9. Ji Hyun BYUN, KOR
10. Xiangning LI, CHN
11. Fruzsina MEDGYESI, HUN
12. Anni JÄRVENPÄÄ, FIN
13. Annika HOCKE, GER
14. Lucrezia GENNARO, ITA
15. Juni Marie BENJAMINSEN, NOR
16. Alexandra HAGAROVA, SVK
Men
1. Dmitri ALIEV, RUS
2. Sota YAMAMOTO, JPN
3. Deniss VASILJEVS, LAT
4. Roman SADOVSKY, CAN
5. Jun Hwan CHA, KOR
6. Koshiro SHIMADA, JPN
Just for fun
7. Tangxu LI, CHN
8. Adrien BANNISTER, ITA
9. Ivan SHMURATKO, UKR
10. Yunda LU, CHN
11. Camden PULKINEN, USA
12. Adam SIAO HIM FA, FRA
13. Kai Xiang CHEW, MAS
14. Mark GORODNITSKY, ISR
15. Lauri LANKILA, FIN
16. Mauro CALCAGNO, ARG
Pairs
1. Ekaterina BORISOVA / Dmitry SOPOT, RUS
2. Anna DUSKOVA / Martin BIDAR, CZE
3. Alina USTIMKINA / Nikita VOLODIN, RUS
4. Justine BRASSEUR / Mathieu OSTIGUY, CAN
5. Ying ZHAO / Zhong XIE, CHN
6. Sarah ROSE / Joseph GOODPASTER, USA
Just for fun
7. Irma CALDARA / Edoardo CAPUTO, ITA
8. Yumeng GAO / Bowen LI, CHN
9. Su Yeon KIM / Hyungtae KIM, KOR
10. Anastasia POBIZHENKO / Dmytro SHARPAR, UKR
Ice Dance
1. Anastasia SKOPTCOVA / Kirill ALESHIN, RUS
2. Anastasia SHPILEVAYA / Grigory SMIRNOV, RUS
3. Marjorie LAJOIE / Zachary LAGHA, CAN
4. Chloe LEWIS / Logan BYE, USA
5. Anzhelika YURCHENKO / Volodymyr BYELIKOV, UKR
6. Emilia KALEHANAVA / Uladzislau PALKHOUSKI, BLR
Just for fun
7. Guoste DAMULEVICIUTE / Deividas KIZALA, LTU
8. Maria GOLUBTSOVA / Kirill BELOBROV, UKR
9. Julia WAGRET / Mathieu COUYRAS, FRA
10. Francesca RIGHI / Pietro PAPETTI, ITA
11. Charise MATTHAEI / Maximilian PFISTERER, GER
12. Viktoria SEMENJUK / Artur GRUZDEV, EST
thank you!! 
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