Two weeks in a row of Wenjing Sui/Cong Han? Sign me up! The 2021 Gran Premio d’Italia was originally supposed to have been the home Grand Prix for Sui/Han and Cheng Peng/Yang Jin before Cup of China was cancelled as a result of the logistics and travel issues posed by the ongoing pandemic. They are both here in Torino as the favorites to go 1-2 in the pairs event.
2021 Gran Premio d’Italia predictions
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GOLD Wenjing Sui/Cong Han CHN - Sui/Han had a history of overcompeting early in their career, and it’s been the opposite over the past five years, where injuries have kept them from competing full seasons multiple times. Getting reps under their belt will be important in this potentially career-defining Olympic season, and after taking gold last week at Skate Canada, they come to GP Italia looking to clean up levels and those pesky side-by-side triple sals on their way to the Grand Prix Final.
SILVER Cheng Peng/Yang Jin CHN - At their best, Peng/Jin are Olympic medal contenders, but their inconsistency has made it difficult for them to challenge for those top spots at the big events. They are no strangers to medaling (and even winning) at Grand Prix events and are the solid favorites for silver here.
BRONZE Iuliia Artemeva/Mikhail Nazarychev RUS - They come in as the Russian junior champions and the 2020 World junior bronze medalists, and given the depth of Russian pair skating, we know that they will be coming in to deliver stronger pair skills than your typical new senior pair.
4. Nicole Della Monica/Matteo Guarise ITA - Like Sui/Han, Della Monica/Guarise are veterans and have been around for over a decade. They go into their third Olympic season together after a couple of seasons set back by injuries. Their win at Lombardia Trophy wasn’t the cleanest, but it was a good step back on the international scene.
5. Alina Pepeleva/Roman Pleshkov RUS - Starting their season with a sixth place at Skate America, Pepeleva/Pleshkov showed that they had the big tricks, but they will need to be cleaner in their head-to-head against their Russian teammates.
6. Annika Hocke/Robert Kunkel GER - Though they have shown vast improvement in their pairing over the past few seasons together, Hocke/Kunkel have not been able to put together the consistency that will help them progress internationally. They were fourth at Nebelhorn and 11th at Finlandia earlier this season.
7. Rebecca Ghilardi/Filippo Ambrosini ITA - The three-time Italian silver medalists will be skating in their third career Grand Prix appearance. They took bronze at Lombardia and fourth at Budapest Trophy.
8. Sara Conti/Niccolo Macii ITA - Conti/Macii come in as the Italian bronze medalists and finished tenth at Nebelhorn, and fifth behind Ghilardi/Ambrosini at Lombardia.