Cup of Russia Predictions

1) Sarah Meier SUI
2) Alissa Czisny USA
3) Elena Sokolova RUS
4) Julia Sebestyen HUN
5) Kiira Korpi FIN
6) Yoshie Onda JPN

Wow. The Cup of Russia roster reads like a who's who of inconsistent skaters. Almost every woman on this roster has the goods to win but really none of them have shown any consistency throughout their career. I'm really bad at making predictions, but this line-up makes it even tougher.

Elena Sokolova hasn't lived up to the potential she
showed when she won a World silver medal in 2003.
Photo by Michael Bernadsky.

Alissa Czisny winning this event wouldn't surprise me. Contrary to Peter Carruther's harsh comments after her free skate at Skate Canada, I don't think she skated that poorly at all. With that said, I predict Sarah Meier to win this event based on her consistency for the past year...which ironically may be reason to surmise that she's due for a sub-par performance, and Czisny could sneak in with a victory. Five years ago it was almost inconceivable that Cup of Russia would take place without at least one of the Russian ladies being a lock for the podium, but Irina Slutskaya and Maria Butyrskaya are no longer Grand Prix fixtures so... Viktoria Volchkova's health has been a mystery for some time now, so it's impossible to guess how she'll fare. That leaves the erratic Elena Sokolova as the most logical medal threat from the Russian ladies team. I'm predicting that she just might come alive before her home country and sneak in with a medal. Sebestyen is coming off a win at Cup of China but that was the weakest Grand Prix rosters I've seen in a long time. I believe she only landed three triples in her long program, so I don't think she's necessarily a medal threat here.