In the French Grand prix event, a “French top”
will be reached in the dance event with Pechalat/Bourzat trying to get their
second Bompard victory this week. Last year they got silver in the same
competition behind Virtue/Moir who seem to be unbeatable by anyone except
Davis/White. The French team won’t compete against the Canadian champions until
the grand prix final (I am assuming that they will qualify, but that’s pretty
sure considering they already have 15 points and will need just 11 more) so I
don’t think they will have any problem going for gold. Anyway, as
Pechalat/Bourzat said in a interview published on icenetwork.com, being third
in the world is not enough for them. From this year they are challenging the
first positions trying to get closer and closer to the Zueva’s team. What they
showed at Cup of China two weeks ago was really promising. They had a 69 points
short dance, 3 points less than Davis/White and just a point less than
Virtue/Moir, and a 100 points free dance, 4 points less than both teams.
Future competitions will show if they are truly
challenging other couples, for sure they are challenging themselves with
difficult and intricate programs.
At Skate Canada, another team was very close to
beat Virtue/Moir in the short dance. Cappellini/Lanotte scored just 0.01 point
less than the Canadians in the short getting their personal best. The
competition got hotter in someone’s mind as both teams were skating to Carmen
in the free dance, one team coached by Marina Zueva, the other by Igor Shpilban.
Actually Virtue/Moir were on another level and the short was a bad accident for
them. However the Italians have improved a lot both technically and
artistically and have a chance for a silver at Trophee Bompard and for the
final.
The bronze medal could be assigned to
Riazanova/Tkachenko of Russia who medaled at Skate Canada well behind
Cappellini/Lanotte, or maybe Hubbel/Donohue who were fourth at Skate Canada as
well.
Both teams had some troubles on technical
elements, but I personally judge Hubbel/Donohue artistically superior so if
they have fixed those elements in the past weeks, I think they will be in
front.
PODIUM PICKS
Gold: Pechalat/Bourzat (FRA)
Silver: Cappellini/Lanotte (ITA)
Bronze: Hubbel/Donohue (USA)
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