2010 Coupe de Nice Preview
The 15th Coupe de Nice will be held in Nice, France from October 13-17, 2010. In addition to hosting events for all four disciplines at the senior level, medals for junior ladies and men will also be up for grabs. The roster includes 10 teams from eight countries.
France’s Pernelle Carron & Lloyd Jones are the favorites for gold. They became a team in the spring of 2009. Carron & Jones won the 2010 French National Championships and followed it up with 12th at both the 2010 European and World Championships. They are joined by Zoe Blanc & Pierre-Loup Bouquet, the reigning French silver medalists who finished 14th at Europeans.
Also in the medal mix are Penny Coomes & Nicholas Buckland of Great Britain. Coomes & Buckland finished 20th at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and made their season debut in Slovakia at the Ondrej Nepela Memorial where they finished fourth. Their countrymen, Louise Walden & Owen Edwards are competing in their third international event this season after finishing 12th at Nebelhorn Trophy and eighth at Ondrej Nepela Memorial.
Lorenza Alessandrini & Simone Vaturi of Italy are making their senior international debut in France. The duo finished fifth at the 2010 World Junior Championships and seventh at the 2009 JGP Final.
Americans Katharine Zeigler & Baxter Burbank (pictured, right), who finished 10th at the junior at the 2010 U.S. National Championships are making their international debut in Nice. In August, the team finished sixth in the free dance and 10th in the short dance at the Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships.
Siobhan Heekin-Canedy & Alexander Shakalov, who represent Ukraine, have had a busy autumn. They competed in Nebelhorn Trophy (10th) and improved their score by more than four points a couple of weeks later at Finlandia Trophy, where they were sixth.
Rounding out the roster are Russians Valeria Starygina & Ivan Volobeuv; Corenne Burhns & Ben Westenberger, who will represent Mexico; and Natalie Feigin & Ievegenii Krasniak, skating for Azerbaijan.