Friday, November 18, 2011

Trophee Eric Bompard: A Preview

Ice Dance: Virtue/Moir will be competing here and are certainly the favorites to win. I'm glad to see that Pechalat/Bourzat are competing after his bout with the flu - they'll likely take silver. I'm curious to see how close to Virtue/Moir they can get and am looking forward to seeing their free dance again. The battle for bronze looks like it will be between Cappellini/Lanotte and Ilinykh/Katsalopov both of whom have already won bronze on the Grand Prix this season (although Ilinykh reportedly hurt her knee last week at NHK Trophy, so it remains to be seen how healthy and ready to compete she will be here.).

Pairs: I think Volosozhar/Trankov shouldn't really have any trouble winning here. Bazarova/Larionov also could place quite well here, but Bazarova often underrotates, two foots, or simply falls on their jumps, so I don't think a silver is a given for them. Duhamel/Radford and Evora/Ladwig look like they could be in it for the bronze. Also, Stolbova/Klimov medaled at Junior Worlds twice consecutively and  finished 5th at Skate America last season and could be ones to watch out for here.

Ladies: Carolina Kostner, Alissa Czisny, and Elizaveta Tuktamisheva have all won a Grand Prix already this season. I think Alissa and Carolina might have the edge due to their stronger PCS, but if they falter technically while Elizaveta is clean or near it, her jumps could put her ahead. Kanako Murakami struggled at her last Grand Prix, but her skating is looking more mature this season. If she can keep her jumps together, she might just be able to grab a medal here.

Men: Patrick Chan will almost certainly leave with the gold here; I'm curious to see how he is scored here in comparison to Daisuke Takahashi's from NHK. It's a bit of a toss up when it comes to who else will medal. Michal Brezina won Skate America, but his score wasn't very impressive, he did not attempt a quad (though he has stated that he definitely plans to try some here) and he isn't the most consistent of skaters. Nobunari Oda is a consistent jumper and has begun to land quads again, but is still coming back from his knee issue. Florent Amodio did not start his season off well at all and will want to get things back on track here; if he gains back the consistency he had last season in addition to at least rotating his quad, he could be a factor. Nan Song surprised just about everyone by snagging the bronze at Cup of China with an impressive technical performance in the freeskate. I'm kind of doubtful that he'll be able to duplicate that here, but if he goes clean, it could definitely be interesting. Lastly, Adam Rippon (my personal favorite at this event) is another one that has medal potential, but he'll likely need others to make mistakes in order for him to do so - he struggled with his triple axels at Skate Canada and while he's attempting a quad lutz, I'm not sure he'll be able to pull it off on competitive ice quite yet.

Event Page
Icenetwork's live stream schedule

No comments: