This is a relatively new/young field as several of the teams are in one of their first senior seasons or one of their first seasons together. This is Kavaguti and Smirnov's only assignment this season and they should be able to easily pull off a gold medal, provided they are back to their full form. If Kavaguti and Smirnov are skating at full capacity look for a 20 point or more gap between 1st and 2nd place. Lawrence and Swiegers skated to personal best scores at Skate Canada and if they repeat that here they should end up on the podium. Takahashi and Tran won bronze at NHK earlier this season but they'll need to step up their scores here to guarantee another podium placement. They have had a long season already with 2 Junior Grand Prixs and 1 Grand Prix under their belt and we'll see if their stamina can hold out. Evora and Ladwig need a podium finish here and their scores keep them in the mix. If they can land their jumps, they have the best lifts in the world and can really rack up the points in that category. Their performance scores were also low at their last event and I know they can connect more to each other and the programs and hopefully pull that score up. Gerboldt and Enbert are in their 2nd international competition together but they won their first assignment and could step onto the medal stand.
My podium predictions are:
Gold: Kavaguti/Smirnov
Silver: Lawrence/Swiegers
Bronze: Takahashi/Tran
My USFSA Fantasy Team is:
A) Kavaguti/Smirnov
B) Lawrence/Swiegers
C) Gerboldt/Enbert
Information on all the teams is below.
Paige Lawrence/Rudi Swiegers, CAN: They finished 4th at World Juniors last season. They placed 7th at their Grand Prix debut at NHK Trophy last season. They won bronze at Skate Canada earlier this season with personal best scores across the board.
Stefania Berton/Ondrej Hotarek, ITA: They finished 11th at the World Championship with personal best scores across the board. This is their Grand Prix debut.
Narumi Takahashi/Mervin Tran, JPN: They finished 5th at Four Continents last season. They are the reigning World Junior Silver medalists. They won two silvers at their Junior Grand Prix assignments earlier this season, qualifying them for the Junior Grand Prix Final. They won bronze at NHK with a personal best short program earlier this season.
Katarina Gerboldt/Alexander Enbert, RUS: They are in their first season together. They won Coup de Nice, an international B assignment, earlier this season. This is their Grand Prix debut.
Yuko Kavaguti/Alexander Smirnov, RUS: They finished 4th at the Olympics with a personal best short program, won bronze at Worlds and are the reigning European champions with a personal best free program and total score. They also won bronze at the World Championships in 2009 and a silver and bronze at Europeans. They won silver at both of their assignments last season to qualify for the Grand Prix Final where they placed 5th.
Tatiana Novik/Mikhail Kuznetsov, RUS: They placed 2nd and 5th at their two Junior Grand Prix assignments last season to qualify for the Junior Grand Prix Final where they placed 4th. This is their Grand Prix debut.
Amanda Evora/Mark Ladwig, USA: They placed 10th at the Olympics with personal best scores in the short and free programs and 9th at the World Championships. They placed 7th and 5th at their Grand Prix assignments last season. They finished 5th at Cup of China earlier this season.
Britney Simpson/Nathan Miller, USA: They placed 5th at the World Junior Championships last season. They placed 3rd and 4th at their two Junior Grand Prix assignments last season and qualified for the Junior Grand Prix Final where they placed 6th. They finished 6th in their Grand Prix debut at Skate Canada with personal best scores across the board.
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