photo by eelinpaas
This is the week of Skate Canada international that will take place from the 25th and the 27th at St. John. In this event, Canada will try to take gold in all te categories. A Canadian win is much expected in the dance and pair event, where Virtue/Moir and Duhamel/Radford will hardly be obstructed.
As always in the grand prix series, Virtue/Moir will face their contestants no sooner than the final, but it will be interesting to see if the olympic champions will keep up with Davis/White who excelled at Skate America this past couple of days, or if they will present the same technical troubles they had at Finlandia Trophy.
Duhamel/Radford will have no problems getting to the highest spot of the podium as well. Podium contenders are Berton/Hotarek who finished fifth at Skate America, and Sui/Han who skipped almost the entire last season due to injury.
The ladies competition is more anyone's game as Yuna Kim, the world medalist assigned to Skate Canada, will skip the fall season. Kaetlyn Osmond, being the defending champion, is a valid candidate to the title but a foot injury could prevent her from that.
Akiko Suzuki of Japan may fight for gold too, but maybe Julia Lipnitskaya will be the frontrunner here considering her technical abilities. Besides, Lipnitskaya has started her season strong, defeating the same Suzuki at Finlandia Trophy.
The men's event will probably be the toughest of all, with the presence of Hanyu, Chan, Oda and Abbott.
Patrick Chan has used his audience to weak grand prix performances in recent years and last season he disappointed at Skate Canada as he lost the title to Javier Fernandez. This week Yuzuru Hanyu may defeat the Canadian champion, but will need a strong jumping performance (which he delivered two weeks ago at Finlandia Trophy) in order to make up a components score gap.
Nobunari Oda started the season brilliantly, winning at Nebelhorn Trophy with a renewed style and magnificent quads.
PODIUM PICKS
Men: 1. Yuzuru Hanyu, 2. Patrick Chan, 3. Nobunari Oda
Ladies: 1. Julia Lipnitskaya, 2. Akiko Suzuki, 3. Kaetlyn Osmond
Pairs: 1. Duhamel/Radford, 2. Berton/Hotarek, 3. Sui/han
Dance: 1. Virtue/Moir, 2. Weaver/Poje, 3.Riazanova/Tkachenko
Nobunari Oda started the season brilliantly, winning at Nebelhorn Trophy with a renewed style and magnificent quads.
PODIUM PICKS
Men: 1. Yuzuru Hanyu, 2. Patrick Chan, 3. Nobunari Oda
Ladies: 1. Julia Lipnitskaya, 2. Akiko Suzuki, 3. Kaetlyn Osmond
Pairs: 1. Duhamel/Radford, 2. Berton/Hotarek, 3. Sui/han
Dance: 1. Virtue/Moir, 2. Weaver/Poje, 3.Riazanova/Tkachenko
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