old wise Soun Tzu said "Keep your friends close and your opponents closer".
Mishina/Galliamov are talented skaters, but I don’t think they will be a threat to Tarasova/Morozov next season, unless T/M self destruct during the competition. I don’t think Mishina/Galliamov will be a threat to Zabijako/Enbert and Boikova/Kozlovski next season either. They will be fighting with Pavliuschenko/Khodykin to be the Russian pair number four.
Oh, you also forgot, Moser has been promising two super super promising new senior pairs, who will portray skating as she imagines it. I am guessing one of them is supposed to be Zhuk/Miroshkin and the other one probably Akopova/Shagalov. The former one has not even done any competition yet; Miroshkin seems to be quite busy with the school Lipnitskaya/Ilynikh, travelling around the world giving tuition to kids, so I don’t think he is working that hard on his pair career to be competitive. The other pair at least did some competition, but even though they are still junior eligible, Moser doesn’t seem to want them to compete in juniors; she is preparing them for seniors. Their results were such that they wouldn’t get JGP spot anyway. They would completely disappear among the numbers of talented junior pairs in Russia, although to be fair, they are a relatively new pair so one can’t expect miracles yet.
Yes, you missed T&M at the top of the list.
They are still Russia’s number one.
I have watched M&G. No way they will be number one in Russia next season. They are not that great. They could be number 4 or 5. The only pairs that can displace T&M next season are B&K and Z&E, the latter being a very long shot.
At the start of next season
1. T&M
2.Z&E or B&K
3. B&K or Z&E
After that, anyone can be 4,5,6. They are almost same. I think E&K are technically the weakest.
Mishina/Galliamov will close the gap only if they are as consistent as Boikova/Kozlovski has been this season, and if they significantly improve their basic skating/everything in between the elements. At the moment, Mishina/Galliamov have not been as consistent (good enough for juniors but not good enough for seniors). They also skate a bit heavy and small. They need to skate lighter and bigger. I don’t believe they will close the gap in the off season. They will be fighting with Pavliuschenko/Khodykin about who will be the fourth and who the fifth Russian senior pair.
Only if the Russian Fed can secure his release.
Actually, I can see Boikova/Kozlovski fighting for the bronze medal at worlds next year. I can’t imagine them beating clean Sui/Han, but let’s face it, Sui/Han are injured quite often and we don’t know if they will be at worlds next year. (I hope they will, but they are injured far too often). All the other four pairs that placed above them were pretty inconsistent throughout the season. Tarasova/Morozov are great when they are on, but wasn’t this the first competition this season when they were (nearly) clean? Zabijako/Enbert often double at least one side-by-side jump, so does Peng/Jin. James/Cipres seem to be more consistent than in previous years and the judges seem to try hard to help them, but at this worlds they showed that even they are just humans and can make mistakes under pressure. This season Boikova/Kozlovski were quite disadvantaged with comparison with those other pairs because as fresh seniors, their PCS was automatically lower. If they remain consistent throughout the next season, by the time worlds 2020 come, B/K could be fighting for a medal.
Only if the Russian Fed can secure his release.
They said it couldn't be done when Savchenko said yes. I believed then. I believe now. Of course, it cost the German fed 30K, but that goes to show, the French fed can be bought. I have faith.Only if the Russian Fed can secure his release.
That is entirely possible. However, they also had the advantage, coming into this season, of being one of several just-up-from-juniors teams, who were all battling for the Russia 3 spot. I think that's a different sort of pressure and expectation, and it's a lot easier to go into Worlds as your country's #3 with no medal expectations. They certainly have skated quite well this season but let's see how they do next season when there is a bit more pressure and belief that they can challenge Z/E for Russia #2. They've pulled ahead of the rest of the young Russian pairs teams and are now going to be expected to move up internationally. As far as challenging for a Worlds bronze... Certainly all of the teams that finished ahead of them have issues with consistency. On any given day, I'd say it's a coin toss who gets the bronze - they're all evenly matched right now - and B/K have definitely established themselves in that group rather than as part of the pack with the 7-9 finishers - they were closer to the bronze medal than they were to 7th place.
