2019 ISU Grand Prix Final Preview & Predictions

Who will win the next round of Hanyu vs. Chen?  What would surprise us LESS than a Ladies sweep of Russian teenagers?  Can anyone challenge Papadakis/Cizeron in ice dance? WILL anyone challenge Sui/Han in pairs?

In other words, it’s time for the ISU Grand Prix Final of 2019! Below are my predictions for the way each group of 6 will shake out by the end of the weekend in Turin, Italy:

MEN

Gold: Yuzuru Hanyu (JPN)

Silver: Nathan Chen (USA)

Bronze: Alexander Samarin (RUS)

4^th: Dmitri Aliev (RUS)

5^th- Kevin Aymoz (FRA)

6^th- Boyang Jin (CHN)

I could never tire of either Hanyu OR Chen’s skating, but I’m going with Hanyu here because I’m not sure Chen can beat him at this peak time in both the skating and collegiate worlds.

LADIES

Gold: Alena Kostornaia (RUS)

Silver: Alexandra Trusova (RUS)

Bronze: Anna Shcherbakova (RUS)

4^th- Alina Zagitova (RUS)

5^th- Rika Kihira (JPN)

6^th- Bradie Tennell (USA)

Perhaps this will be the event where components get scored a bit more accordingly? Let’s hope so, as the PCS gap between Kosto and Sasha should at least be large enough for Shcherbet to jump through :)  Consider this, as it has been in previous years, a dress rehearsal for Russian Nationals, happening about 3 weeks from now.

PAIRS

Gold: Sui/Han (CHN)

Silver: Boikova/Kozlovskii (RUS)

Bronze: Peng/Jin (CHN)

4^th- Mishina/Galliamov (RUS)

5^th- Moore-Towers/Marinaro (CAN)

6^th- Pavliuchenko/Khodykin (RUS)

I’ll be honest and tell you that, at this point in the season, I do not know my Mish/Gall from my Pav/Kho and am seriously considering a sequel to my post about differentiating between the top Russian teen ladies…

DANCE

Gold: Papadakis/Cizeron (FRA)

Silver: Sinitsina/Katsalapov (RUS)

Bronze: Stepanova/Bukin (RUS)

4^th- Hubbell/Donohue (USA)

5^th- Chock/Bates (USA)

6^th- Gilles/Poirier (CAN)

This is how I predict it will go; if my less-than-qualified eyes were in charge of placement and all skated without egregious mistakes… I’d probably move Step/Buk to 2^nd… give bronze to Chock/Bates… and bring G/P up to 4^th.

A "Recapette" of NHK Trophy 2019

There always seems to be an interesting and/or unexpected development at the last GP event of the Final (which is NHK, more often than not). This time around…

+ We saw Canada’s Roman Sadovsky win a bronze medal after coming in 12^th and 10^th at his only two other GP career appearances thus far. Yes, this may have been more of a commentary on the faltering non-Hanyu competitors than anything else (Voronov? Brown? Ignatov? Hellooooo!?!), but hey, a GP medal is a GP medal! I hope it instills confidence as Sadovsky approaches Canadian Nationals.

+ We saw one U.S. lady (Karen Chen) surprise us in a great way with the 3^rd-best scored SP of the event—unexpectedly finishing ahead of reigning OGM Alina Zagitova—only to surprise us again with one of the lowest-scored Free Skates a day later. Her overall 9^th place finish, combined with Star Andrews’ 8^th place and Megan Wessenberg’s 12^th place, easily amounted to the worst GP showing of the season with regards to U.S. ladies. (The good news: they did much better in all the other GPs.)

+ We saw another representative of Canada—the veteran pair team of Moore-Towers/Marinaro—qualify for their first-ever GP Final with a silver medal NHK finish. (M-T did go to the GPF with previous partner Dylan Moscovitch in 2010, 2012, and 2013.) So I will stop saying “It’s always something” with regards to M-T/M breaking through, because they earned this!

+  And finally, we saw the two U.S. dance teams here (Carriera/Ponomarenko and McNamara/Carpenter) struggle for improvement just as Hawayek/Baker have earlier in the season. It’s been a while since I was so curious to know who’ll grab that third slot at Nationals with regards to ice dance…

The Senior GP Final starts with the Pairs Short Program at 1:50 PM Thursday, so I'll start posting my predictions sometime tomorrow morning!