Kozuka put out strong programs earlier this season to win a gold medal in his first Grand Prix assignment with personal best scores. If he can repeat that here, he should be able to reach the podium again and he can qualify for the Final with a medal of any color. Brian Joubert runs hot or cold and he tends to run into errors especially in his long program. If he can put less focus on the quad and maintain focus for the other elements in his program and skate clean, he'll make the podium at this event. Kevin Reynolds put up huge numbers at Skate Canada and became the first skater to hit two quads in a short program. If he can nail the elements in his free skate that are not quads, he should be a podium threat here. Florent Amodio and Brandon Mroz also have the ability to land on the podium. Most of the top skaters here have consistency problems and whoever can put together the cleanest programs will win a medal.
My podium predictions are:
Gold: Takahiko Kozuka
Silver: Brian Joubert
Bronze: Kevin Reynolds
My USFSA Fantasy Picks are:
A) Takahiko Kozuka
B) Kevin Reynolds
C) Jinlin Guan
Information on all the skaters is below.
Kevin Reynolds, CAN: Reynolds finished 11th at Worlds with a personal best free skate score and won bronze at Four Continents with a personal best short program. He finished 8th and 6th at his two Grand Prix assignments last season. He finished 4th at Skate Canada with a personal best total score earlier this season.
Nan Song, CHN: Song placed 6th at the Four Continents Championships with personal bests in the short program and total score. He is the reigning World Junior silver medalist after a personal best score in the free skate. He won silver at last year's Junior Grand Prix Final. He finished 10th in his Grand Prix debut at Skate America.
Jinlin Guan, CAN: He is the 2008 World Juniors Bronze Medalist. He placed 9th at last year's Cup of China in his Grand Prix debut and placed 17th at last year's world championships. He finished 8th at Cup of China earlier this season.
Florent Amodio, FRA: Amodio finished 12th at the Olympics with a personal best short program and 15th at Worlds. He finished 9th and 4th at his two Grand Prix assignments last season. He won bronze earlier this season at NHK Trophy with personal best free skate and total scores.
Chafik Besseghier, FRA: Besseghier had personal best scores in his Junior Grand Prix assignment in 2008. This is his Grand Prix debut.
Brian Joubert, FRA: Joubert won bronze at Europeans, placed 16th at the Olympics and won a bronze medal at Worlds. He is the 2004, 2007 and 2009 European champion and has medaled at Europeans every year since 2004. He has won one gold medal at Worlds, two silvers and two bronzes. Last season on the Grand Priz, he finished 4th at Trophy Eric Bompard and 1st at NHK before withdrawing from the Grand Prix Final. He finished at 4th at Cup of China earlier this season.
Peter Liebers, GER: Liebers finished 25th at last seasons World Championships. His lone Grand Prix stop last season was Trophy Eric Bompard where he finished 10th. He has competed in two international B events this season coming in 3rd and 4th. He finished 9th earlier this season at Cup of China.
Takahiko Kozuka, JPN: Kozuka placed 8th at the Olympics and 10th at the World Championships. He is the 2006 World Junior Champion and the 2009 Four Continents bronze medalist. His 2009 Grand Prix season included a silver medal at Rostelecom Cup and a 7th place finish at NHK Trophy. He won gold at Cup of China earlier this season.
Zoltan Kelemen, ROU: Kelemen finished 29th at the Olympics, 32nd at Worlds and 19th at Europeans with personal best scores across the board. This is his Grand Prix debut.
Anton Kovalevski, UKR: Kovalevski finished 24th at the Olympics, 16th at Worlds with a personal best short program score, and 13th at Europeans with personal best free skate and total scores. He finished 12th at Rostelecom Cup last week.
Brandon Mroz, USA: Mroz finished 4th at Four Continents last season. He finished 7th at Rostelecom Cup and 8th at Skate America last season. He won silver at Cup of China earlier this season.
No comments:
Post a Comment