- Joined
- Jan 11, 2008
This thread will be moved to the Competition Forum approximately five days prior to the start of the event.
Entries as of 3/18/19:
Entries as of 3/18/19:
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AUS | 1 | Ekaterina ALEKSANDROVSKAYA / Harley WINDSOR |
AUT | 1 | Miriam ZIEGLER / Severin KIEFER |
CAN | 2 | Kirsten MOORE-TOWERS / Michael MARINARO and Evelyn WALSH / Trennt MICHAUD |
CHN | 2 | Cheng PENG / Yang JIN and Wenjing SUI / Cong HAN |
CRO | 1 | Lara PETRANOVIC / Antonio SOUZA-KORDEIRU |
CZE | 1 | Hanna ABRAZHEVICH / Martin BIDAR |
PRK | 1 | Tae Ok RYOM / Ju Sik KIM |
FRA | 1/2 | Vanessa JAMES / Morgan CIPRES |
GER | 2 | Minerva HASE / Nolan SEEGERT and Annika HOCKE / Ruben BLOMMAERT |
GBR | 1 | Zoe JONES / Christopher BOYADJI |
ITA | 2 | Nicole DELLA MONICA / Matteo GUARISE and Rebecca GHILARDI / Filippo AMBROSINI |
JPN | 1 | Miu SUZAKI / Ryuichi KIHARA |
RUS | 3 | Evgenia TARASOVA / Vladimir MOROZOV, Natalia ZABIJAKO / Aleksandr ENBERT and Aleksandra BOIKOVA / Dmitri KOZLOVSKI |
ESP | 1 | Lara BARQUERO / Aritz MAESTU |
USA | 1 | Ashley CAIN / Timothy LEDUC |
As of january 13th, only 19 pairs can enter. Compared to the 28 pairs from 2017 and 2018 edition, the number of expected entries is significantly lower this year, because of some retirements (the czechs, israelis, koreans, hungarians (supposed retirement for them)) and the poor results of North-American teams last year, which allows Canada and USA to send only one pair.
Only 3 other pairs have some chances to get their tickets : the britishs Jones/Boyadji, the israelis Kops/Tsoglin (they were close to reach both TES segments at Golden Spin) and a second french team.
Given the unknown status from swiss pair Chtchetinina/Scherer, we’ll not see more than 21 or 22 teams on the ice in Saitama.
Pairs who meet the SP TES only : Camille MENDOZA / Pavel KOVALEV (FRA), Zoe JONES / Christopher BOYADJI (GBR)
Pairs who meet the FS TES only : Dorota BRODA / Pedro BETEGON (ESP)
Here’s the list of 2019 competitions where the skaters can earn their TES for Worlds. In brackets, the skaters concerned. In bold, the ones who obtained these TES.
- European Championships, Belarus (Mendoza/Boyadji, Kops/Tsoglin)
- Four Continents Championships, USA
- Bavarian Open, Germany
- Ice Mall Cup, Israel
- Challenge Cup, The Netherlands
Zoe and Chris finally reached these short program TES at Bavarian Open! Welcome to Saitama :luv17:
So Hanna Abrazhevich & Martin Bidař are gonna compete at Ice Mall Cup and Challenge Cup or is it just where they can compete?
Zoe and Chris finally reached these short program TES at Bavarian Open! Welcome to Saitama :luv17:
Some preliminary thoughts on podium contenders:
The Big Three
In a short program where everybody skates well (as if!), you'd expect these three to be in the final flight for the free skate, and they'd be most people's default choices for the podium, in some order.
James/Cipres
Strengths: Undeniably the team with momentum this season; great performance ability; programs people love.
Weaknesses: Used to be the throws, particularly in the short program, but they seem to have fixed that by getting rid of the cool-but-too-difficult entry; that -1 deduction for the end of the free program, which so far hasn't mattered, but in a knife fight it might.
Tarasova/Morozov
Strengths: They have probably the highest-quality elements in the field when executed properly; after midseason course correction, their programs are now tailored to what they can do well.
Weaknesses: Side-by-side jumps; they let mistakes get to them.
Sui/Han
Strengths: Great programs; all-around quality elements and performance ability; don't let mistakes get to them.
Weaknesses: Side-by-side jumps; late start compared to everybody else.
The Chase Pack
The teams that will be angling to be the fourth team in the final flight, assuming the top three skate well in the short, and from there the plan would be to skate well in the free and hope one or more of the top teams flames out (a strategy that has already worked for Peng/Jin and very nearly worked for Moore-Towers/Marinaro earlier in the season).
Peng/Jin
Strengths: The best pairs short program of the season (yes, that's objective fact ); generated a lot of momentum for themselves in the Grand Prix season, which was kind of a breakout for them after being very much "the third Chinese team" for their first two seasons.
Weaknesses: Side-by-side jumps.
Zabiyako/Enbert
Strengths: Strong all-around on the elements, had a very good Grand Prix series (up until the Final, at least, but that was a flukey mistake).
Weaknesses: Are they even going to be here? And if they are, they'll have lost a lot of training time to injury, unlikely to allow them to be in top form.
Moore-Towers/Marinaro
Strengths: KMT's sheer determination; their side-by-sides are some of the more reliable in the field, particularly now that they've stopped the over-ambitious three-jump combination.
Weaknesses: Unbalanced talent level between partners; lifts.
Boikova/Kozlovskii
Strengths: Team on the rise; programs play to the best of classical Russian tradition.
Weaknesses: Their free skate scores are on the lower end compared to what others in this group have achieved; these two feel destined for the Worlds podium, but maybe not quite yet.
Della Monica/Guarise
Strengths: Solid all-around.
Weaknesses: It's been a bit up-and-down for them this season; small fed, so if it's close between them and one of these other teams, it's likely to break against them.
Such a shame that France has 2 spots but only 1 pair
Yes, and it's even more frustrating that everybody knew only 3 french pairs had registered. They skated, thought they reached the minima, and some weeks after realized it hasn't count. French Fed asked for a derogation for Euros, which has been refused. At this time it was probably too late to send Hamon/Strekalyn and Mendoza/Kovalev to another competition, and now Strekalyn is injured and for Mendoza/Kovalev we don't know (unfortunately they are often injured too - and often snubbed by French Fed too).
One more topic to add to the French Fed's amateurism trial, after the announcement of a fake GP final in France and - it's still the worst they did IMO - when they forgot to register a speed skating athlete to 2014 Olympics