Risa Shoji of Japan took home two medals last season and qualified for the JGP Final where she missed the podium on a tiebreaker. She finished 5th at Worlds and will be looking to improve on that result this season to make a name for herself in a tough field at home. Two Americans will also be in the medal hunt. Vanessa Lam won gold at her lone assignment last season. She'll need a medal here to receive a second assignment and set her up for a Junior Worlds assignment against a deep field of junior ladies back home. Courtney Hicks is the reigning national junior champion. She is already being compared to Sasha Cohen and has striking lines and interesting spins, including one she invented herself called the Tw-Hicks. She finished 6th at Junior Worlds, her first international assignment. These three ladies are pretty evenly matched and it should be a tough event if they all skate clean.
My podium predictions:
Gold: Vanessa Lam
Silver: Risa Shoji
Bronze: Courtney Hicks
Bios of the competitors:
Brooklee Han, AUS: She finished 21st at Junior Worlds. She placed 10th at JGP Great Britain and 17th at JGP Germany last season. Her personal best is 107.20. She is 16 years old.
Chantelle Kerry, AUS: This is her JGP debut. She is 15 years old.
Jaimee Nobbs, AUS: She placed 20th at Four Continents. She finished 16th at JGP Japan last season. Her personal best is 90.83. She is 16 years old.
Victoria Huebler, AUT: She placed 17th at Junior Worlds. She finished 13th at JGP Austria and 12th at JGP Czech Republic. Her personal best is 113.63. She is 16 years old.
Alexandra Najarro, CAN: She finished 25th at Junior Worlds. She placed 10th at JGP Romania and 7th at JGP Great Britain. Her personal best is 136.41. She is 18 years old.
Chaochih Liu, TPE: She placed 24th at Four Continents. She finished 19th at JGP Japan last season. Her personal best is 112.49. She is 18 years old.
Anita Madsen, DEN: She finished 29th at Junior Worlds. She placed 14th at JGP Japan and 24th at JGP Czech Republic. Her personal best is 96.33. She is 16 years old.
Sindra Kriisa, EST
Beata Papp, FIN: This is her JGP debut. Her personal best is 117.32. She is 16 years old.
Bahai Taleb, FRA: She finished 11th at JGP Czech Republic last season. Her personal best is 111.11. She is 14 years old.
Sumika Yamada, HKG: She finished 32nd in the preliminary round at Junior Worlds. She placed 21st at JGP Japan and 25th at JGP Great Britain last season. Her personal best is 78.57. She is 16 years old.
Risa Shoji, JPN: She placed 5th at Junior Worlds. She won gold at JGP Japan and silver at JGP Czech Republic last season to qualify for the JGP Final where she placed 4th. Her personal best is 155.23. She is 15 years old.
Haruna Suzuki, JPN: This is her international debut. She is 14 years old.
Reyna Hamui, MEX: She finished 28th at Four Continents and 24th in the preliminary round at Junior Worlds. She placed 20th at JGP Austria last season. Her personal best is 92.03. She is 17 years old.
Medelaine Parker, NZL: She finished 23rd in the preliminary round at Junior Worlds. This is her JGP debut. She is 15 years old.
Hae-Jin Kim, KOR: She finished 28th at JGP Germany. Her personal best is 80.61. She is 14 years old.
Alexandra Deeva, RUS: This is her JGP debut. She is 14 years old.
Polina Korobeynikova, RUS: This is her international debut. She is 15 years old.
Yi Ching Ng, SIN: This is her international debut. She is 15 years old.
Sandra Kophon, THA: Her personal best is 76.92. She is 17 years old.
Courtney Hicks, USA: She finished 6th at Junior Worlds. This is her JGP debut. Her personal best is 150.92. She is 15 years old.
Vanessa Lam, USA: She won gold at JGP Czech Republic last season. Her personal best is 156.41. She is 16 years old.
Excuse me, but I've got to say something about Hae-jin Kim...
ReplyDeleteThis year, she won gold 146.83 at New Zealand Winter Games(on August 13th). She earned 139.61 and won gold at Asian Figure Skating Trophy (on August 25th), Also, she does 3-3 combos... Last year, she finished the 26th at JGP Germany. But she was sufferring an injury at that time. Now, She is healthy and she is one of the most promising skaters in Korea. I dare to say she is one to watch this season :)
I agree with you that she is one to watch and scored well at these two events, but often the B events are overscored compared to JGP events. I think this will be a tough event and it will be really interesting to see who will come out on top as there are quite a few skaters who could jump on to the podium if one of these ladies makes a mistake.
ReplyDelete