Ashley Wagner is the front runner of this
competition. She looked almost unbeatable early in the season winning both
Japan Open and Skate America. At her first grand prix she struggled a little
bit in her short program two footing her solo jump (a triple loop) but gave a
mesmerizing performance in the free getting a score around 127, the best season
score of the ladies so far (she has the best season overall score too).
She has grown dramatically from last year and
since Nationals she started to collect success after success.
She will need just a bronze medal for assuring
the grand prix final qualification, but I think that she could easily go for a
more satisfying ranking.
Second at Skate America, Christina Gao will fight
for the final too, especially after the
result of Cup of Russia in which Murakami and Sotnikova, who were contenders
for the final, didn’t have a great showing.
She is very elegant and soft on the ice, if she
skates clean as she did at Skate America she has good possibilities of landing
on the podium here.
Going for a podium position, two Russian girls
will challenge against the Americans.
Julia Lipnitskaya impressed at Cup of China
where she won the silver behind Mao Asada. As she is just 14 she lacks of
maturity and will need an extra polish in her skate and choreography in the
future. At Cup of China she earned 57 in the components score, which is a good
score for a first senior appearance, but will be probably five or six points
lower than Wagner’s. Anyway, she is very consistent and has a difficult jumping
content featuring triple lutz-triple toe and double axel-triple toe.
On the other hand, Elizaveta Tuktamisheva, a
slightly older Russian skater, didn’t repeat her astonishing grand prix of last
year, but she placed fourth at Skate
Canada due to an injury recovery and growth spurt.
The field is not so competitive, so she can be
a podium contender here.
PODIUM PICKS
Gold: Ashley Wagner (USA)
Silver: Julia Lipnitskaya (RUS)
Bronze: Elizaveta Tuktamisheva (RUS)
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