Figure skatingCanadian skaters look to finish season on high note

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It's the final stop for skaters on the 2009-2010 season. The world figure skating championships in Turin, Italy - which run March 23-28 - may seem a little lacklustre, especially in an Olympic year, but that's certainly not the case this season.

This year's world championships boasts the highest attendance of Olympic medallists since 1994 and signals the start of the climb towards the Sochi Games of 2014.

The men are as much about the competing "dynamic" as the competition. Neither Olympic and defending world champion Evan Lysacek of the United States nor Olympic silver medallist Evgeni Plushenko of Russia will be attending leaving Japan's Daisuke Takahashi as the lone Olympic medallist in contention for the top spot in Turin.

Takahashi is the kind of skater who seems to perform best with something to prove so I'm not convinced that he's as comfortable being chased as he is doing the chasing. For this reason, I think that his main competition is going to come from three-time Canadian champion Patrick Chan, who has made excellent ground in training over the intervening three weeks since the Olympic Games.

Also in the hunt will be Japan's Nobunari Oda who is undoubtedly looking to make up for the broken skate lace that waylaid his Olympic free program. The other names to watch out for are American Jeremy Abbott and Frenchman Brian Joubert whose disappointing Olympic results could spur them on to greatness here.

All about Kim

Korea's Yu-Na Kim was crowned Olympic champion just three weeks ago and is headed to Turin to defend her world title. Simply put, she is so far above the rest this season that the women's title is hers to lose.

In Vancouver, she earned personal best scores across the board and her overall score of 228.56 was high enough to not only take the women's title, but to place her in the top 10 in the men's Olympic event with one less jump element and 30 seconds less music. Her main rival in Italy will be 2010 Olympic silver medallist and 2008 world champion Mao Asada of Japan whose skating can definitely keep up technically, but whose programs this year seemed to fall short. American Murai Nagasu was secure enough to take fourth place in Vancouver and I think she'll be the one to round out the podium here in her first trip to the worlds.

Ice dance will pit friend against friend in a rematch of the Olympic Games where three-time Canadian champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir took the Olympic title and American champions and training mates Meryl Davis and Charlie White took the silver.

Both teams have superb qualities and it could go either way on any given day but I think the Olympic win will give Virtue and Moir the confidence edge here. All things being equal, the European silver medallists from Italy, Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali, have shown outstanding improvement this season and their quality original and free dance programs should put them on the podium in Turin.

Pairs search for consistency

The pairs event was mostly bland at the Olympic Games with a couple of exceptions. One highlight was Qing Pang and Jian Tong, the 2006 world champions from China, who took the silver medal. They are the team to beat in Turin. Their biggest challenge should come from two-time and reigning world champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany, who have the ability to take the title again but have failed to consistently deliver this season despite a re-worked, magical free program to Out of Africa.

Struggling with the same inconsistencies are Canadian champions Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison who could definitely be in the mix for a medal especially if they skate a strong short program to set it up. The Russian team of Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov are the 2010 European champions but only seem to be able to capitalize on other teams' mistakes, which could still work to their advantage in Italy.

Pj's podium picks:

Men: Patrick Chan (Canada)
Women: Yu-Na Kim (Korea)
Ice dance: Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (Canada)
Pairs: Qing Pang and Jian Tong (China)

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