Cup of China Wrapup

I've been putting off writing about Cup of China because, well, like most of the competitions, it was incredibly underwelming. It seemed like there were so many expectations for the season, and most of them have not been realized. So, I guess you could say that I'm a little bit depressed.

Some highlights (there aren't many):

1) Jeremy Abbott and Stephen Carriere go 1-2: I can honestly say that I did not predict this. I was thinking Verner and then Carriere, with bronze up for grabs. Verner, who has had a less than stellar season so far, fought for his bronze medal, but it was Jeremy Abbott who took the spotlight. Both of his programs were beautiful--he is such a musical skater. With the way Evan and Johnny have skated this season, I'd say that Nationals this year should be very, very interesting. Great job, Jeremy. Who would have thought that he'd be the highlight of the US men so far this season?

2) Belbin and Agosto vs. Domina and Shabalin: They've got the same coaches. They skate at the same rink. They came THIS CLOSE to getting the same score. I was not impressed by either of these teams (this new style of Belbin and Agosto's is just not working for me at all--it's just not them!!). Domina and Shabalin edged (and I mean edged--they won the FD by one one hundredth of a point) out their training mates for the gold.

3) Yu-Na Kim: She won by a huge majority yet again. I think that the only person who will really be able to beat her (provided that she remains injury free and doesn't have a Kimmie-style mental breakdown) is Mao Asada. Remember that we haven't seen them compete against each other yet, and most likely will not until the GP Final in Kim's home country. As usual, Kim was mesmerizing, despite a few flaws that she quickly made you forget about. Miki Ando, in her second match up against Kim in the GP, skated better than she did at Skate America, but just could not compete with Kim.