From 16th to 18th of December, in Tampere, will be hold Finnish Championships: the ice rink chosen for this competition will be the Tampere Ice Hall, also called “Hakametsä”, which is the usual training rink of Kiira.
SP is scheduled for Saturday 17/12, and FS for Sunday 18/12.
Of course, without the presence of Laura, won’t be a problem for Kiira being Finland’s Champion for the third time in career: besides, never so close to home…
For sure Tampere will be glad to see their hometown girl win the Finnish nationals again. After having seen a few of the younger skaters recently, I do share the opinion above that they are not yet at Kiira’s level. No doubt, Kiira will be Finland’s old and new campionessa. The more interesting question is, will she be ready to score as high as she did last year?
The upcoming nationals is probably Kiira’s last competition before the Europeans in late January, so the last chance for her to try out some additional triples and/or triple-triple/double combos in a competitive environment.
With Carolina Kostner and A. Leonova in the 180ies range and with Viktoria Helgesson, Elene Gedevanishvilli and K. Makarova closing up on Kiira it will be very hard to make the podium at the Europeans with what we have seen at the GP. Sheffield is promising to be very competitive. Best of luck, Kiira!
Nationals starts today. I really hope Kiira’s metatarsas injury is healed, since injuries do affect a performance. Look at Alissa Czisny’s injury at Grand Prix Final–she had hurt her calf/ankle the day before. She should have won, but she lost instead. And all these new, young skaters coming up, especially the Russkis–in a few years they’ll be dominating the sport. Figure skating has changed radically because of the new points system. I think the number of jumps should be limited in a program to maybe 3 or 4, so the skaters aren’t Mexican jumping beans and can instead focus on artistry, style, etc. Otherwise it’s just a contest to see who can do the most jumps.