Japan's Takahiko Kozuka, Skate America champion, leads the field in the Grand Prix Final after the men's short program. I haven't watched yet but it sounds like everyone aside from leaders Kozuka and second place Jeremy Abbott of the USA had fairly major errors. Brian Joubert of France sits in third place with a 74.55 after falling in the short. Weir also had one fall leaving him in fourth, and Tomas Verner of the Czech Republic and Patrick Chan of Canada round out the field with two falls.
Although this may blow my predictions out of water, I was not completely wrong this time. I did say that Abbott had a shot if he skated clean, so I'm happy to see him up there doing well. And I did predict Chan's proclivity to err would catch up with him, just didn't expect it to be so terrible.
I don't think Kozuka's free has the luster of his short program, but someone else would have to do some very impressive stuff in order to catch him if he skates well, since he can get some nice scores.
1
Takahiko KOZUKA
JPN
83.90
2
Jeremy ABBOTT
USA
78.26
3
Brian JOUBERT
FRA
74.55
4
Johnny WEIR
USA
72.50
5
Tomas VERNER
CZE
69.34
6
Patrick CHAN
CAN
68.00