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Monday, February 7, 2011

European Championships Recap

Men: Florent Amodio won Europeans in his first try and finished ahead of countrymate Brian Joubert to prove that this young skater has arrived in the senior ranks.  Joubert was able to come back after his lackluster Grand Prix season and claim the silver medal here.  Tomas Verner had a solid outing to take the bronze medal but arguably underperformed here compared to his Grand Prix results.  Kevin van der Perren put up solid scores to finish in 4th and rising Russian star Artur Gachinski rounded out the top 5.  Michal Brezina made his debut for the season and seems to still be recovering from his injury.  He wasn't able to match his results from last season but was able to finish a respectable 8th.  With some additional time to rehab and train his programs he should be able to move up the ranks for Worlds.  Alban Preaubert rounded out the top 10 and showed the strength and depth of the French team taking 1st, 2nd and 10th.

I had one correct medal prediction (Joubert won silver) and picked all three medal winners.

Ladies: Sarah Meier went out with a bang and was able to win her first European title in front of a home crowd in her last competition.  Carolina Kostner had some problems with her short program but was able to come back in her free skate to win the silver medal.  Her injury is likely continuing to plague her as the season goes on, but there is a break before Worlds which should let her take some time to get healthy.  Kiira Korpi was able to continue the momentum from Trophee Eric Bompard and capture the bronze medal and continue the rise of Finnish ladies.  Despite a coaching change, Ksenia Makarova was able to put out solid performances and finish 4th, ahead of countrymate Alena Leonova.  Ira Vannut of Belgium is a young skater that was able to impress and finish 7th.  She was only 16 points from the podium and she is definitely a skater to watch out for in the coming years.  Elene Gedevanishvilli was not able to repeat her finish last season and land on the podium, but she did finish 8th in a relatively strong field.  Unfortunately, none of the top skaters were able to improve their total scores from earlier in the season. 

I had no correct medal predictions, but I did pick two of the three medal winners (Kostner and Korpi)

Pairs: Savchenko and Szolkowy were able to continue their streak on top and regain their European title.  Defending champions Kavaguti and Smirnov fell to second but greatly improved upon their Rostelecom Cup score.  Bazarova and Larionov were able to rebound from their poor Grand Prix Final and Russian Nationals performances and claim the bronze medal here.  They were still a good ways back from the top two teams but they are a young team and have a lot of nice qualities.  If they can get more solid on their jumps, their scores will improve.  Gerboldt and Enbert finished 4th and are only in their first year as a team, but they were 20 points from the bronze medal.  The Russians have seemed to regain some of their dominance in pairs, finishing 2nd, 3rd and 4th here and their top team was ineligible to compete at this event.  Kadlecova and Bidar of Czechloslovakia are continuing to make a name for themselves in the senior ranks with a 7th place finish.

Kavaguti and Smirnov's total score pushed them ahead of Pang and Tong to have the 2nd best score for the season and make them a strong contender at Worlds.  Bazarova and Larionov also improved their total score and are only 5 points behind Pang and Tong in seasons best.  Gerboldt and Enbert were able to make the list at number 8 and should have no problem with a top 10 finish at Worlds.

I correctly picked all the medalists in the right order.

Dance: Pechalat and Bourzat have continued their winning season with their first European title.  Bobrova and Soloviev are also continuing their success with a new short dance that lifted them to the silver medal.  In their final season the Kerr siblings were able to come back from a shoulder injury that sidelined them during the Grand Prix and take the bronze, only 1 point from the silver medal.  Reigning world junior champions Ilinykh and Katsalapov are having a great debut senior season with a 4th place finish that had them only 2 points from the podium.  Their other young teammates Riazanova and Tkachenko showed Russia's dominance in dancer with a 6th place finish.  Between these three teams and the three teams that swept the Junior Grand Prix Final, the Russians should have a strong dance contingent for the Olympics in Sochi.  Faiella and Scali continue to struggle with costume issues and were only able to finish 5th here.  Hoffman and Zavozin also finished a disappointing 8th after a great Grand Prix season.

Pechalat and Bourzat slightly increased their total score and are within 4 points of Davis and White.  Bobrova and Soloviev's Europeans score has put them in 3rd place for the season and the Kerrs are closely behind in 4th.  The young Russians have taken the 6th and 7th spots and Faiella and Scali have landed in 8th place.  It will be interesting to see how these scores hold up after Four Continents when some of the young North American teams who had great performances at Nationals have a shot at the international judges again.

I had one correct medal prediction (Pechalat and Bourzat won gold) and picked all three medal winners.

Overall:  I had 5/12 exact medal predictions and 11/12 medal winners.  My USFSA fantasy team finished in 33rd place.

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