As it often seems to be the case for the dance event on the Grand Prix this season, there is a clear favorite for the top two spots, and then a whole bunch of evenly-matched teams who could get onto the podium for that bronze medal. And the same is true this week at Finlandia Trophy, where Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier and Lilah Fear/Lewis Gibson have the top two locked, but the bronze could go to one of four or five teams.
Finlandia Trophy predictions
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GOLD Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier CAN - The World silver medalists are certainly looking to build momentum as they head to the Grand Prix Final and then to a highly-anticipated showdown again at the World Championships. But first, they have to contend with a very strong season from Fear/Gibson and get their second Grand Prix win here.
SILVER Lilah Fear/Lewis Gibson GBR - The Skate America champions have had an undefeated season so far, winning two Challengers events on top of that Skate America win over Madison Chock/Evan Bates. They are favored for silver but always have a shot at the gold, as we saw last month.
BRONZE Juulia Turkkila/Matthias Versluis FIN - The home team will make their Grand Prix debut this season in the fifth of six events, which means they will have to go back-to-back in their pursuit for a Grand Prix Final berth. They took third here last season and will be in the mix for that bronze medal again here.
4. Natalie Taschlerova/Filip Taschler CZE - Always on the cusp on the Grand Prix, Taschlerova/Taschler took fourth at Skate Canada with their season high total score. They will have a shot at the podium again this week.
5. Emilea Zingas/Vadym Kolesnik USA - Fifth at Skate Canada, it was levels there that kept them from being competitive for the podium. They will have a chance to redeem themselves here, especially important going into the second half of the season as they try to get a Worlds spot later this season.
6. Oona Brown/Gage Brown USA - The former World junior champs continue their climb on the senior international circuit. They grabbed silver at Denis Ten Memorial but couldn’t repeat their performances at Skate Canada, where they took sixth after a costly twizzle error in the free.
7. Yuka Orihara/Juho Pirinen FIN - Fresh off a sixth-place finish last week at NHK Trophy, the Finnish silver medalists will be bringing their crowd-pleasing programs back home, which will most certainly give them a boost of energy this week.
8. Eva Pate/Logan Bye USA - An error in their combination lift in the free dance at Grand Prix de France left them with a disappointing ninth-place finish there. They have put up some solid skates this season, including at Trophy Metropole Nice, where they took bronze.
9. Hannah Lim/Ye Quan KOR - Seventh at Skate Canada three weeks ago, Lim/Quan have made steady improvements over the past few seasons. They are up against some very strong competition this week and will need to be very clean to even make it into the top eight.
10. Mariia Pinchuk/Mykyta Pogorielov UKR - Making their Grand Prix debut this week, the Ukrainians had a strong Junior Grand Prix series last year, and have carried that into their first full senior international season. They were most recently 10th at Nepela Memorial last month.