Entries for the Grand Prix Final (Dec. 16 to 19) - Beijing, China

[Peter G]

PAIRS

Xue SHEN / Hongbo ZHAO --------- CHN - 24 points
Maria PETROVA / Alexei TIKHONOV - RUS - 21
Dan ZHANG / Hao ZHANG ---------- CHN - 21
Qing PANG / Jian TONG ------------ CHN - 18
Julia OBERTAS / Sergei SLAVNOV --- RUS - 18
Rena INOUE / John BALDWIN, Jr. --- USA - 12

Alternates:

Valerie MARCOUX / Craig BUNTIN -- CAN - 11
Yang DING / Zhongfei REN -------- CHN - 10
Viktoria BORZENKOVA / Andrei CHUVILAEV - RUS - 8

MEN

Johnny WEIR ------ USA - 21 points
Brian JOUBERT ----- FRA - 21
Jeffrey BUTTLE ---- CAN - 19
Emanuel SANDHU -- CAN - 19
Ryan JAHNKE ------ USA - 14
Chengjiang LI ------ CHN - 13

Alternates:

Evgeni PLUSHENKO - RUS - 12
Min ZHANG -------- CHN - 12
Michael WEISS ----- USA - 12

LADIES

Irina SLUTSKAYA ----- RUS - 24 points
Shizuka ARAKAWA ---- JPN - 21
Cynthia PHANEUF ----- CAN - 21
Joannie ROCHETTE --- CAN - 19
Miki ANDO ------------ JPN - 14
Yoshie ONDA --------- JPN - 14

Alternates:

Angela NIKODINOV ---- USA 13
Viktoria VOLCHKOVA -- RUS 13
Elena SOKOLOVA ------ RUS 12

Dance will be determined by tomorrow's results from the Cup of Russia

[Peter G]

Last year's Grand Prix Final results:

PAIRS

1. Xue SHEN / Hongbo ZHAO -------------- CHN - 196,08
2. Tatiana TOTMIANINA / Maxim MARININ -- RUS - 177,30
3. Maria PETROVA / Alexei TIKHONOV ------ RUS - 166,76
4. Anabelle LANGLOIS / Patrice ARCHETTO - CAN - 165,90
5. Qing PANG / Jian TONG ----------------- CHN - 162,20
6. Dan ZHANG / Hao ZHANG --------------- CHN - 161,04

MEN

1. Emanuel SANDHU ------ CAN - 228,29
2. Evgeni PLUSHENKO ---- RUS - 225,19
3. Michael WEISS -------- USA - 198,35
4. Kevin VAN DER PERREN - BEL - 189,03
5. Song GAO ------------- CHN - 181,57
Jeffrey BUTTLE -------- CAN - Withdrew

LADIES

1. Fumie SUGURI ----- JPN - 182,08
2. Sasha COHEN ----- USA - 177,48
3. Shizuka ARAKAWA - JPN - 167,57
4. Elena LIASHENKO -- UKR - 165,16
5. Yoshie ONDA ------ JPN - 153,00
6. Julia SEBESTYEN -- HUN - 152,11

DANCE

1. NAVKA / Roman KOSTOMAROV ------------ RUS - 175,91
2. Albena DENKOVA / Maxim STAVISKI ------- BUL - 163,30
3. Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO -------- USA - 161,25
4. Elena GRUSHINA / Ruslan GONCHAROV ---- UKR - 161,17
5. Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER - FRA - 149,12
6. Marie-France DUBREUIL / Patrice LAUZON - CAN - 146,25

[Peter G]

Comments:

Ladies - What is up with Fumie??? Skating with injuries? Pressure from having **SO** many great Japanese ladies to compete against??

Men - Where the heck is Song Gao?? Of the 41 men listed as skating in the Grand Prix series...he is number... Well, he is not even on the list. Four other Chinese men are, but he is not. While he made the 2003 Grand Prix final, he was not even SENT to 2003 World's.

Men - Kevin Van Der Perren. Is he a Nicole Bobek, Christopher Bowman, Julia Soldotova type who had one great year, and that's the end of the story?

Pairs - Who, at the beginning of this season, put money on Inoue and Baldwin to make it to the Grand Prix Final? Anyone?? (Good for them for pulling the shocker of the year!! Somewhere Scott and Duhlebon are throwing darts...)

Pairs - Anyone think Langlois and Archetto have any fight left in them? Or have they completely handed over the Canadian crown to Marcoux and Buntin?

[Isabelle]

Pairs - Anyone think Langlois and Archetto have any fight left in them? Or have they completely handed over the Canadian crown to Marcoux and Buntin?

I definitely think they have fight left in them. They beat Val and Craig at Skate Canada this season, and they would've had a good chance of making the final again this year if they hadn't been forced to withdraw from their second GP due to illness. I hope they will come back strong at Canadians.

[pairs_guy]

I hope Langlois and Archetto do have a good nationals, 2nd place a third year in a row would really be something wouldn't it. I hope this year they skate well regardless if they come 2nd, they haven't skated well at nationals in the past.

[bleu]

Re: Langlois and Archetto - I have this strange feeling that if things don't work out for the remainder of the season, they are to retire in 2006. However, I also know one thing about them...they "suprise us" when people have given up on them...

The cold/flu may make them more than determined to come back on the ice and do well.

In all, it aint over until the fat lady .....

[liljimeo]

I did not know Irina won two events this year. I need to go look at the old events.

[Artemis]

I did not know Irina won two events this year. I need to go look at the old events.

She won Cup of China and Cup of Russia.

[danibellerika]

I did not know Irina won two events this year. I need to go look at the old events.

Yup. And she did a 3sal/3loop/2toe at CoR. She's amazing.

[Peter G]

And the dance...

1. Tatiana NAVKA / Roman KOSTOMAROV ---- RUS - 24 points
2. Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO -------- USA - 24
3. Albena DENKOVA / Maxim STAVISKI ------- BUL - 24
4. Galit CHAIT / Sergei SAKHNOVSKI --------- ISR - 16
5. Marie-France DUBREUIL / Patrice LAUZON - CAN - 16
6. Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER - FRA - 14

Alternates:

7. Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI -------- ITA - 11
8. Megan WING / Aaron LOWE --------------- CAN - 11
9. Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN ------ RUS - 10

So of the top six, no country has more than one entry. When we look at the alternate list, the leading country in dance is...Canada? (Who was expecting the top two dance teams to be Canadian at the beginning of the season?) Congrats to Wing and Lowe for getting so close to the Grand Prix Final!!!

And the top three teams sure will provide us with an interesting GPF and World Championships!