Preview - World Championships

So this week marks the start of the 2011 World Figure Skating Championships, now held in Moscow instead of Nagano after the devastating events in Japan. So who are the contenders to watch?

Mens

Reigning Champion: Daisuke Takahashi
Forerunner for Gold: Patrick Chan
Potential Challengers: Amodio, Kozuka, Takahashi, Joubert, Brezina

Patrick Chan is definitely the main contender for this event - his performance at Canadian Nationals included a quad toeloop in his short and TWO quad toes in his long, and he's going to want to match that in Moscow. However, I suspect his competition will come from the 2014 kids, Florent Amodio and Michel Brezina, who have a history of consistency in competition that Chan does not. Brian Joubert, Takahiko Kozuka and reigning gold medalist Daisuke Takahashi will also be trying to take the gold. The mens event is undoubtedly one of the most exciting of the whole competition as it is notoriously hard to predict, especially with such a deep field.

Pairs

Reigning Champion: Qing Pang and Jian Tong
Forerunners for Gold: Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy
Potential Challengers: Pang/Tong, Volosozhar/Trankov, Basarova/Larionov

The pairs event seems to be a two-horse race between Pang and Tong and Savchenko and Szolkowy. The Germans won at the recent Grand Prix Final by over 20 points; however, their lack of jumping consistency may be their downfall. The Russian team will also be the main challengers hoping to take a home gold - both Basarova/Larinov and Kavaguti/Smirnov have a good chance, but all eyes will be on Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov. It'll be interesting to see if their gamble in partner-swapping paid off - their sizable win at their only competition so far, the Mont Blanc Trophy, seems to suggest so!

Ladies

Reigning Champion: Mao Asada
Forerunner for Gold: Yu-na Kim (?)
Potential Challengers: Asada, Csizny, Kostner, Ando, Flatt, Murakami

This ladies event marks Yu-na Kim's return to competition after her gold medal win in Vancouver, but how will she fare after a whole season out and a messy split from coach Brian Orser? Mao Asada has had a very mixed season but she's been known to pull a winning performance out when it's been least expected, so she might take a surprise gold. Also hoping for a medal will be Alissa Csizny, riding high on her Grand Prix Final win, and her teammate Rachael Flatt, as well as Japan's Miki Ando and Kanako Murakami.

Ice Dance

Reigning Champion: Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir
Forerunner for Gold: Virtue/Moir
Potential Challengers: Davis/White, Pechalat/Bourzat

This is also a event which marks a return to competition; it is Virtue and Moir's first full competition of the season, as they were forced to withdraw from both Grand Prix assignments, Canadian Nationals and the long program of Four Continents due to Virtue's injury struggles. It'll be interesting to see if Davis and White have managed to leapfrog over their training mates due to their extra practice time - after all, they've always been a very close second! Pechalat and Bourzat will also be fighting for a medal, fresh after their huge win at Europeans.

So that's my predictions/round-up - who are your picks? Also I've posted the dates and times of each event below - enjoy! I'll also be blogging about each event and live-tweeting.

World Championships (Moscow Times)

Monday, April 25
14:00 Qualification round: Men

Tuesday, April 26
12:00 Qualification round: Ice dancing
15:30 Qualification round: Ladies

Wednesday, April 27
13:00 Men's short program
18:30 Pairs short program

Thursday, April 28
13:30 Men's free skating
18:30 Pairs free skating

Friday, April 29
13:30 Ladies short program
18:30 Short dance

Saturday, April 30
13:30 Ladies' free skating
18:30 Free dance

Sunday, May 1
14:00 Exhibition

Ready for Worlds

Worlds starts tomorrow and, as with all post-Olympic Worlds there is a real chance for some skaters who are usually low down in the top ten to potentially gain a medal. Here's my preview.

Men

Notable Absences: Evan Lysacek, Johnny Weir, Evgeni Plushenko, Tomas Verner, Stephane Lambiel
Potential Medal Hopes: Nobunari Oda, Daisuke Takahashi, Takahiko Kozuka, Brian Joubert (though, as someone noted on Twitter, it depends which Joubert shows up!), Jeremy Abbott (same situation as Joubert), Patrick Chan
2014 Kids to Watch: Adam Rippon, Michal Brezina, Denis Ten, Florent Amodio

Ladies
Notable Absences: Joannie Rochette
Potential Medal Hopes: Yu-na Kim, Mao Asada, Miki Ando, Mirai Nagasu, Rachael Flatt, Akiko Suzuki
2014 Kids to Watch: Ksenia Makarova, Mirai Nagasu

Pairs

Notable Absences: Shen/Zhao, Volosozhar/Morosov
Potential Medal Hopes: Pang/Tong, Zhang/Zhang, Mukhortova/Trankov, Savchenko/Szolkowy, Kavaguti/Smirnov
2014 Kids to Watch: Denney/Barrett

Dance

Notable Absences: Domnina/Shabalin, Belbin/Agosto, Delobel/Schoenfelder
Potential Medal Hopes: Virtue/Moir, Davis/White, Faiella/Scali, Pechalat/Bourzat
2014 Kids to Watch: Cappellini/Lanotte

Agree/disagree? Comment below!

Over and out

So the last medal has been decided! Yu-na could not be a more deserving champion. What a performance! Between her and Mirai, Rachael, Mao's triple axels and of course Joannie, it was quite a competition. Thoughts and analysis potentially coming soon...and now just got the gala to look forward to!

Speaking of looking forward to (Worlds), Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto have announced that they're joining Lysacek and skipping Torino. This means that the Olympics was probably Tanith and Ben's last competition; we'll miss them!

Rostelecom; what'll happen?

That's right, it's time for some predictions from Rostelecom Cup of Russia! THough considering how unexpected the TEB results were (Savchenko/Szolkowy in third!) my predictions will probably spectacularly wrong.

Mens

Mens is probably the hardest to predict, since who knows how Evgeni Plushenko will do? It's his first competition since his success at the Torino Olympics, and he's been looking very solid in competition, but how will he fare against Johnny Weir and Takahiko Kozuka? They're the three skaters I predict for a podium position, now that Patrick Chan has withdrawn. Others to watch at the event will be Kevin van der Perren and Florent Amodio, who will be making his senior Grand Prix debut.

Ladies

Mao Asada will be hoping to to win after Kim beat her hands down in Paris. It'll also, reportedly, be the last performance of her current short program to "Masquerade", as she plans to change it after this event to her exhibition piece, "Caprice". The two skaters that will surely be rounding off the podium are her fellow teammates and supporter at Trophee Eric Bompard Miki Ando, and the American Ashley Wagner, who recently started her own Youtube vlog series I think another skater who might manage to sneak up to a podium place is Alena Leonova, who recently won the Findlandia Trophy. I also have to wish Jenna McCorkell luck; according to her Facebook, she had huge difficulties obtaining a visa to come to the event and so I hope all that effort doesn't go to waste for her.

Ice Dance

All eyes are going to be on Meryl Davis and Charlie White, especially now that Domnina and Shablin have withdrawn from the event. Their team mates Vanessa Crone and Paul Poitier will also be at the evnt, and will be likely to make the podium, unless the Italian couple, Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte get in the way. I think these three will be a cinch for the podium, but Ekaterina Rubleva and Ivan Shefer might also have a shot. They also have an advantage as they're skating in front of their home crowd, but trying saying that to someone like Brian Joubert!

Pairs

Again, it'll most likely be a home victory in this event; Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov will be looking to improve on last year's silver medal. However, they'll have stiff competition from Pang and Tong, who won the Grand Prix Final last season. The bronze medal has Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker's name on it; they'll be competing at the event for the first time. This'll be an exciting event, seeing how these pairs fare.

I'm going away this weekend (to Paris, again!) so won't find out whether these predictions were correct or not until Monday.

Predictions for Worlds - Ladies

Ladies is possibly the most mundane prediction to do, unfortunately. It's pretty much a guarantee that it'll be a Yu-Na/Mao showdown in LA, and I'm leaning towards it being Yu-na's year. Her performances have been getting huge scores all season (she set a new world record of 72.24 points in the short program at 4CC) and she's definitely proved she has the assured consistency for a win. However, Mao is almost as like to defend her title, so it'll definitely be a two-woman race for the gold. Joannie Rochette also could get gold; she did beat Mao Asada at Trophee Eric Bompard this season, and came 2nd at 4CC. The European contenders are Carolina Kostner, who'll be hoping to bounce back from her second place finish at Europeans, and Laura Lepisto, who should be flying high on her surprise win there; there's always a chance she could buckle under the pressure, however. Miki Ando and Fumie Suguri will also be competing for a long shot at the podium, though frankly it's unlikely it'll get anywhere.

Program of the Day is Mao Asada's winning FS from last year's World Championships. Her comeback after she face-plants on that triple axel is quite astounding, a definite winners performance. Could she repeat it this year? You can watch it here. I always aim to find a video that I can embed but there is not a single one of her FS which does not have "embedding disabled by request"!