Firstly, an apology. When I was editing the OP last night to take out the withdrawals, I did not notice that I had managed to delete the entire Men's and Pairs tables! :
But, I have now fixed it. In fact I have replaced the entry lists with the SP start orders.
So, I apologise again for my mistake.
I am in the same boat. This will be my third year watching Italian Championships, and over that time I have got to know who I like. And it makes predicting positions so much harder than just looking at numbers.
Like, if you go purely by PB’s, the reigning Ladies champion is down in 5th position!
So, the question I kept asking myself was “Do I go with my head, or my heart?”
This was especially the case over the podium positions. Rodeghiero is without doubt the favourite. But, I am not a big fan of her’s. I am, on the other hand, a big fan of Nikol Gosviani. But, she has been in the wilderness the past couple of years, due to there being so many talented Ladies skaters in Russia.
Whereas I knew where Nikol should slot her in relative to the others in the Russian field, this may not be as simple. Everything is new for her in Italy. Different opposition, different judges, different biases, etc. So, she mightn’t do as well as I would expect. On the other hand, she might destroy the field. You just don’t know!
My heart wants Nikol to win. But my head is saying Roberta.
Ach, I’ll go with my heart!
When I looked at the ISU PB’s for the Italian Ladies, the rest of the Top 10 was comprised of a right mixture of youth and experience. And, quite frankly, I didn’t know what to do!
With Cristini missing, Casella is probably one of the favourites to be in the fight for the podium positions. She finished 4th last year, and has been doing well internationally this season.
Next on the PB list was Tagliapietra. I am not as familiar with her, probably because she only finished 7th last year. So, I used this as an excuse to promote some skaters I am more familiar with – Russo, Bressanutti and Falotico.
I am not ashamed to admit that this time last year, I was unfamiliar with Russo. She was just another skater that had just come up from Juniors. But then she came and took everybody by surprise and won the Senior Championships.
She hasn’t set the world alight since then, though. And I don’t see her being in the fight for the title this season. But, I will give her the benefit of the doubt and put her in my Top 5. It just wouldn’t seem right to totally discount the reigning champion.
When they were in the third tier of Italian Ladies skaters a few years back, I rated Bressanutti more than Rodeghiero. So, I would like to see her do like Roberta, and halt her slide down the order.
And after how well 2x British Champion from the early 2000’s Zoe Jones did in the British Championships a couple of weeks ago, I would love to see another skater that is older than me doing well. So, I put 3x Belgian Champion from the early 2000’s Sara Falotico as my 6th position alternate.
In Men, I had a similar conundrum over the top 2 positions. And, again, my heart was going for a Russian, but my head was going for an Italian.
This time, it was slightly different as the Russian did have the higher PB’s. But, they were from last season. Ivan Bariev hasn’t been having a great time this season. His best result was 6th at the Warsaw Cup. Apart from that, he was 3rd from last in both his Senior GP appearances (8th out of 10 in Russia, and 10th out of 12 in China)
Matteo Rizzo, on the other hand, has been having a good season. 5th in both his Junior GP’s, on the podium in 2 of his Senior B’s, and 5th in the Warsaw Cup. And his PB score came from this year’s Warsaw Cup.
Whereas I went for the Russian in the Ladies, I am going with the Italian in the Men.
After that, I did not stray from the ISU PB order. Although, I have to admit, I was surprised to find one of the Zandron brothers at the bottom of the list. I thought he would have been further up than that.
For Pairs, I didn’t even bother looking up the PB’s. I knew what order I was going to put them in, and I knew fine well that the Top 2 would be the opposite way around to what the PB’s said. But, I absolutely love Valentina Marchei, and I just had to put her and Ondrej at the top.
Ice Dance should have been straightforward as well. But, when I was doing the GP Final predictions last week, I noticed something. Whereas it didn’t affect my GP Final predictions (because the couple in question hadn’t qualified for it), it could come into play here.
Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabri are at the top of the ISU World Rankings list for Ice Dance.
Now, I realise that this is purely because they have done a LOT more Senior B competitions than anybody else. But, it does make you wonder if they could pull off a shock. Like, nobody was expecting Giada Russo to win the Senior Ladies title last season, but she did.
But, I’ve already taken enough risks. I’m sticking with Anna and Luca!
Caroliza_fan
ITALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
Ladies
1. Nicole GOSVIANI, ITA
2. Roberta RODEGHIERO, ITA
3. Sara CASELLA, ITA
4. Giada RUSSO, ITA
5. Carol BRESSANUTTI, ITA
6. Sara FALOTICO, ITA
Just for fun
7. Guia Maria TAGLIAPIETRA, ITA
8. Chiara CALDERONE, ITA
9. Ilaria NOGARO, ITA
10. Marta CASTAGNO, ITA
11. Doris PIRCHER, ITA
12. Matilde BATTAGIN, ITA
13. Naomi DE SIMONE, ITA
14. Francesca ZAZZA, ITA
15. Alessia ZARDINI, ITA
Men
1. Matteo RIZZO, ITA
2. Ivan RIGHINI, ITA
3. Maurizio ZANDRON, ITA
4. Carlo Vittorio PALERMO, ITA
5. Dario BETTI, ITA
6. Mattia DALLA TORRE, ITA
Just for fun
7. Adrien BANNISTER, ITA
8. Alessandro FADINI, ITA
9. Marco ZANDRON, ITA
Pairs
1. Valentina MARCHEI / Ondrej HOTAREK, ITA
2. Nicole DELLA MONICA / Matteo GUARISE, ITA
3. Bianca MANACORDA / Niccolo' MACII, ITA
4. Alexandra IOVANNA / Filippo AMBROSINI, ITA
Ice Dance
1. Anna CAPPELLINI / Luca LANOTTE, ITA
2. Charlene GUIGNARD / Marco FABBRI, ITA
3. Misato KOMATSUBARA / Andrea FABBRI, ITA
4. Victoria MANNI / Saverio GIACOMELLI, ITA
5. Jasmine TESSARI / Francesco FIORETTI, ITA
But, I have now fixed it. In fact I have replaced the entry lists with the SP start orders.
So, I apologise again for my mistake.
Deciding who to put in first for pairs was actually the toughest choice, given Marchei/Hotarek's performances so far this season. Thus proving again that making these decisions is easier when you don't know the skaters and are just going by PBs.
I am in the same boat. This will be my third year watching Italian Championships, and over that time I have got to know who I like. And it makes predicting positions so much harder than just looking at numbers.
Like, if you go purely by PB’s, the reigning Ladies champion is down in 5th position!
So, the question I kept asking myself was “Do I go with my head, or my heart?”
This was especially the case over the podium positions. Rodeghiero is without doubt the favourite. But, I am not a big fan of her’s. I am, on the other hand, a big fan of Nikol Gosviani. But, she has been in the wilderness the past couple of years, due to there being so many talented Ladies skaters in Russia.
Whereas I knew where Nikol should slot her in relative to the others in the Russian field, this may not be as simple. Everything is new for her in Italy. Different opposition, different judges, different biases, etc. So, she mightn’t do as well as I would expect. On the other hand, she might destroy the field. You just don’t know!
My heart wants Nikol to win. But my head is saying Roberta.
Ach, I’ll go with my heart!
When I looked at the ISU PB’s for the Italian Ladies, the rest of the Top 10 was comprised of a right mixture of youth and experience. And, quite frankly, I didn’t know what to do!
With Cristini missing, Casella is probably one of the favourites to be in the fight for the podium positions. She finished 4th last year, and has been doing well internationally this season.
Next on the PB list was Tagliapietra. I am not as familiar with her, probably because she only finished 7th last year. So, I used this as an excuse to promote some skaters I am more familiar with – Russo, Bressanutti and Falotico.
I am not ashamed to admit that this time last year, I was unfamiliar with Russo. She was just another skater that had just come up from Juniors. But then she came and took everybody by surprise and won the Senior Championships.
She hasn’t set the world alight since then, though. And I don’t see her being in the fight for the title this season. But, I will give her the benefit of the doubt and put her in my Top 5. It just wouldn’t seem right to totally discount the reigning champion.
When they were in the third tier of Italian Ladies skaters a few years back, I rated Bressanutti more than Rodeghiero. So, I would like to see her do like Roberta, and halt her slide down the order.
And after how well 2x British Champion from the early 2000’s Zoe Jones did in the British Championships a couple of weeks ago, I would love to see another skater that is older than me doing well. So, I put 3x Belgian Champion from the early 2000’s Sara Falotico as my 6th position alternate.
In Men, I had a similar conundrum over the top 2 positions. And, again, my heart was going for a Russian, but my head was going for an Italian.
This time, it was slightly different as the Russian did have the higher PB’s. But, they were from last season. Ivan Bariev hasn’t been having a great time this season. His best result was 6th at the Warsaw Cup. Apart from that, he was 3rd from last in both his Senior GP appearances (8th out of 10 in Russia, and 10th out of 12 in China)
Matteo Rizzo, on the other hand, has been having a good season. 5th in both his Junior GP’s, on the podium in 2 of his Senior B’s, and 5th in the Warsaw Cup. And his PB score came from this year’s Warsaw Cup.
Whereas I went for the Russian in the Ladies, I am going with the Italian in the Men.
After that, I did not stray from the ISU PB order. Although, I have to admit, I was surprised to find one of the Zandron brothers at the bottom of the list. I thought he would have been further up than that.
For Pairs, I didn’t even bother looking up the PB’s. I knew what order I was going to put them in, and I knew fine well that the Top 2 would be the opposite way around to what the PB’s said. But, I absolutely love Valentina Marchei, and I just had to put her and Ondrej at the top.
Ice Dance should have been straightforward as well. But, when I was doing the GP Final predictions last week, I noticed something. Whereas it didn’t affect my GP Final predictions (because the couple in question hadn’t qualified for it), it could come into play here.
Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabri are at the top of the ISU World Rankings list for Ice Dance.
Now, I realise that this is purely because they have done a LOT more Senior B competitions than anybody else. But, it does make you wonder if they could pull off a shock. Like, nobody was expecting Giada Russo to win the Senior Ladies title last season, but she did.
But, I’ve already taken enough risks. I’m sticking with Anna and Luca!
Caroliza_fan
ITALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
Ladies
1. Nicole GOSVIANI, ITA
2. Roberta RODEGHIERO, ITA
3. Sara CASELLA, ITA
4. Giada RUSSO, ITA
5. Carol BRESSANUTTI, ITA
6. Sara FALOTICO, ITA
Just for fun
7. Guia Maria TAGLIAPIETRA, ITA
8. Chiara CALDERONE, ITA
9. Ilaria NOGARO, ITA
10. Marta CASTAGNO, ITA
11. Doris PIRCHER, ITA
12. Matilde BATTAGIN, ITA
13. Naomi DE SIMONE, ITA
14. Francesca ZAZZA, ITA
15. Alessia ZARDINI, ITA
Men
1. Matteo RIZZO, ITA
2. Ivan RIGHINI, ITA
3. Maurizio ZANDRON, ITA
4. Carlo Vittorio PALERMO, ITA
5. Dario BETTI, ITA
6. Mattia DALLA TORRE, ITA
Just for fun
7. Adrien BANNISTER, ITA
8. Alessandro FADINI, ITA
9. Marco ZANDRON, ITA
Pairs
1. Valentina MARCHEI / Ondrej HOTAREK, ITA
2. Nicole DELLA MONICA / Matteo GUARISE, ITA
3. Bianca MANACORDA / Niccolo' MACII, ITA
4. Alexandra IOVANNA / Filippo AMBROSINI, ITA
Ice Dance
1. Anna CAPPELLINI / Luca LANOTTE, ITA
2. Charlene GUIGNARD / Marco FABBRI, ITA
3. Misato KOMATSUBARA / Andrea FABBRI, ITA
4. Victoria MANNI / Saverio GIACOMELLI, ITA
5. Jasmine TESSARI / Francesco FIORETTI, ITA
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