For the first time on this season’s Grand Prix series, the men’s event has no clear favorite. In fact, if you look down the list, you can see the potential for 6-7 of the guys to make it onto the podium. A good number of these men are capable of and have delivered incredibly memorable performances, but all of them have had issues putting down clean competitions this season. It really is anyone’s to win here at Cup of China.
Cup of China predictions
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GOLD Keiji Tanaka JPN - Ever since his solid season debut at US Classic two months ago, I’ve maintained that Tanaka has been in the midst of the best season start that he’s ever had in his career. Even after the car accident that sent him and Marin Honda to the hospital right when they were heading to Skate Canada, he was able to keep his head together to win the bronze at that competition. It may very well be time for him to have an even bigger breakthrough, especially in this field. He has had the most consistent season so far of all of the skaters here this week. The last Japanese man not named Hanyu or Uno to win a Grand Prix title was Daisuke Murakami in 2014 - in fact, that season, Takahito Mura and Tatsuki Machida also won Grand Prix titles.
SILVER Keegan Messing CAN - Fourth at Skate America, Messing had an emotional rollercoaster of a week a few weeks ago in Las Vegas. He was still fresh off news of his brother’s death in a road accident and somehow pulled himself together enough to deliver a career-best short program there. Before that, he had a strong start to his season at Autumn Classic with a bronze medal at that event. Can he maintain his focus through two programs this week in China? He has a great shot at gold as well.
BRONZE Camden Pulkinen USA - I might as well throw out that hail mary pick here. The 2018 US junior champion has looked like a very different skater than the nervy skater of the past few years who just didn’t have the confidence in his abilities to skate the way that many knew he could. And after a fifth-place finish at Autumn Classic, he surprised everyone with a fourth-place senior Grand Prix debut at Skate Canada. This field gives him as good of a chance as any to find himself on the podium.
4. Junhwan Cha KOR - Eighth at Skate America was not how Cha wanted to start his season. After all, this is a guy who made the Grand Prix Final last year in his second season on the Grand Prix. He’s been taking risks early in the season with his technical content, but it wasn’t the new, more difficult content that failed him, it was also the easier stuff that he can do in his sleep that was slipping away. It wouldn’t be surprising if he and his team decides to scale back a bit just to get him a bit more confidence in his competitive chops.
5. Boyang Jin CHN - We thought we might have seen the return of the more consistent version of Jin after he won Lombardia Trophy with two very solid programs. But then after that, he proved to be inconsistent again in his third-place finish at Shanghai Trophy and then again with a sixth-place finish at Skate America. At his best, he can win this competition.
6. Matteo Rizzo ITA - Sixth at Skate Canada, Rizzo just hasn’t seem to have found his comfort zone yet with his jumps. Much like Cha, Rizzo was experimenting with some more difficult elements earlier in the season; and also like Cha, Rizzo was having trouble with the easier elements as well. He’s got podium potential as well, but he will need to be much better than he’s been all season.
7. Conrad Orzel CAN - Starting his first full season on the senior ranks, Orzel put down a very promising sixth-place finish at Autumn Classic among a very stacked set of competitors. He makes his debut on the senior Grand Prix this week in China.
8. Han Yan CHN - It’s been almost two years since we last saw him, and it was in a 23rd-place finish at the PyeongChang Olympics. It’s a long-awaited comeback for Yan, but we really have no idea what to expect from him this week.
9. Andrei Lazukin RUS - Since his tenth-place debut at Worlds last season, Lazukin has gained a quad lutz and seemingly lost his consistency - the very consistency that brought him to the World team last season. He was eighth two weeks ago at Skate Canada.
10. Brendan Kerry AUS - It was a very disappointing 12th place for Kerry at Skate Canada two weeks ago. He’s got loads of talent, but it’s been difficult for him to find his best at competitions.
11. Chih-I Tsao TPE - This week - at least as far as I can remember - Tsao will become the first Taiwanese man to compete at a senior Grand Prix. He had been making some steady improvements on the World scene over the past few seasons.
12. He Zhang CHN - Zhang’s last Grand Prix was at this very competition two seasons ago. He was most recently 16th at Four Continents late last season.