The Second ISU Junior Grand Prix of this season took place in Canillo, in the small mountain State of Andorra between France and Spain at an altitude of about 1.500 meters (4.000 feet). It was the first time Andorra held an ISU Junior Grand Prix. For the first time a skater from Puerto Rico (Victoria Muniz) took part in a Grand Prix.
Ladies (Thursday and Saturday)
Mai Asada (JPN) creamed the gold in the ladies’ competition with 141.29 points, with American Christine Zukowski (141.14) and Finland’s Laura Lepisto (120.66) taking the silver and bronze medal. Apart from the best skaters, the general level was not too high. Many skaters did not perform all planned jumps or made other mistakes.
Mai Asada, from the Japanese city of Nagoya, works with coach Machiko Yamada who had already taught Midori Ito 15 years ago. She is 17 years old, her younger sister Mao Asada is the reigning Junior World Champion. Mai took the lead with a distance of 8.59 points in an excellent short program. She performed the only clean triple lutz of the whole short program, a good combination of triple flip and double toeloop and an impressive double axel. Eight of the ten judges gave +2 for her layback spin with difficult positions, the other spins were very good as well. With ease and an elegant style she interpreted Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite and could show her skating skills, especially in the excellent spiral step sequence. Asada was 8.59 points ahead of the second best skater. This was enough to win overall with the second best free program, to music called “Amethyst”. After a good triple lutz her triple flip was not clean and the Salchow only double. The triple loop was good again, the two double axel as well, but at the end she under rotated the second lutz and fell. But she could win many plus points for her spiral step sequence, an excellent layback spin and the highest program components of the field. Later she commented: “Today I could not show my best, therefore I am not completely satisfied, but next time I will try my best again.”
Christine Zukowsky from Newark/Delaware was already second after the short program which included excellent spins (all level three), a shaky combination of triple loop and double toeloop and a safe double lutz. Her interpretation of the music of Stavinsky’s Firebird was also good. In the free program the American skater performed five triple jumps in high speed, the first loop in combination with a double toeloop and a double loop. This was the best free program with a distance of 8.44 points to Asada, but not quite enough to win overall. Laura Lepisto from the Finnish city of Espoo took no risks in the short program and performed a combination of double loop and double toeloop plus a very good double lutz. But her spins were excellent and very difficult. In the long program, to music of Peter Gabriel’s “The Feeling Begins” a very good combination of triple and double toeloop was her most difficult element. She missed the Salchow and doubled the loop, but excelled again with very good spins and step sequences.
Men (Friday and Sunday)
Ryo Shibata from Japan won the men’s event with 170.37 points with Adrian Schultheiss (SWE) scooping the silver with 165.43 points and Geoffrey Warner (USA) taking home the bronze medal with 158.75 points. The general level was not too high, maybe because of the altitude.
Adrian Schultheiss from Gothenburg in Sweden set the pace and won the short program. Two of his spins were excellent (one even got level four), he also got plus points for his double axel and the very good required triple lutz out of steps. In his combination the 17 year-old skater stepped out of the triple toeloop after a good triple flip. In the free program to music of Jean-Michel Jarre, he was the only skater who could land a triple axel. He added three other triple jumps, but stepped out of the second axel and the triple lutz and was second at the end. The overall winner Ryo Shibata from Tokyo had been fourth at last year’s Junior Final. In Canillo he was third of the short program in which he landed a safe combination of triple flip and triple toeloop. His spins were very fast and well-centered, but he touched down his hand on the triple lutz. But his free program to the well-known music of “Malaguena” was clearly the best of the competition. In high speed, he included seven triple jumps, five different of them clean, and a very good Biellmann spin. Later he said: “I was very nervous before the competition because I felt that I could win. But it was an exciting skate today because I could concentrate well.”
Geoffrey Warner from Newark/Delaware was second in a faultless and dynamic short program which included a good combination of triple flip and triple toeloop. In the long program to music of the soundtrack of “Conquest of Paradise”, he landed three clean triple jumps, two others were a bit shaky. Canadian skater Kevin Reynolds from Vancouver tried a quadruple Salchow, but he could not land it backward and fell. Another big talent for the future is Russian skater Artem Borodulin from Perm who showed his excellent skating skills.
Pairs (Thursday and Friday)
Bianca Butler and Joseph Jacobsen from the USA won the pairs’ event with 117.17 points, with their countrymen Julia Vlassov and Drew Meekins coming second with 112.72 points. Ekaterina Ragozin and Pavel Sliusarenko from Russia took third position with 110,44 points.
Butler and Jacobsen from Alisa Viejo in California were second in the short program to music of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet. Their best elements were the lift, their forward inward death spiral and their double twist (all with level three). The required double lutz was safe as well, but Butler landed the double throw loop on two feet. In their free program they did not make any serious mistakes and therefore could win the first overall place although they did not include any triple element. Their best elements were the double side by side loop, the double throw loop, the spiral steps and the last lift. Later Jacobsen commented: “We did want to perform a good run through, which we really did today. We will go home and work on triple elements now.”
Vlassov, daughter of famous Seventies’ Russian pair skater Alexander Vlassov, and Meekins, both from Boston, won the short program with relatively high components and a dynamic style. Their twist, pair combination spin and double lutz were excellent, but Vlassov slipped before taking off for the throw loop and could perform only a shaky single loop. Highlight of their free program were the three lifts, the double twist and their circular step sequence, but they missed their two individual jumps, and Vlassov fell on both triple throws. Ragozin and Sliusarenko from the Russian city of Perm started their short program with very good death spiral, but then missed their triple throw loop. This element, however, was a highlight in their free program, one judge even gave a +2 for this throw. The lifts were good as well, but Sliusarenko fell on the triple toeloop, and Ragozina on the double axel.
Ice Dancing (Thursday, Friday and Saturday)
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir from Canada, second at last season’s Junior Worlds, won the dance event with 180.11 points ahead of Meryl Davis and Charlie White from the USA with 171,21 points. The Russian team of Ksenia Antonova and Roman Mylnikov came in third with 128,69 points.
The two best teams train with Igor Shpilband and Marina Zueva in Canton near Detroit in the USA. Both gave outstanding junior performances and had a distance of more than 40 points to the other dance teams. Virtue (16 years old) and Moir (18) won all three parts of the competition starting with a precise Austrian Waltz exactly on the beat and an excellent Waltz interpretation. For its first part, seven of the nine judges awarded them even a +2. Their original dance rhythms were a Rhumba (with music from the Mambo Kings) and a Mambo (from the soundtrack of “Dirty Dancing”). All their five elements had level four and were attributed many plus points from the judges: 18 of the 45 given points were +2. In their free dance to a new Malaguena version all their elements were good or excellent, especially the combination of curve lift and rotational lift, the serpentine step sequence, the combination spin and the rotational lift. Their interpretation was convincing, their program components reached an average of 7.6 and went up to 8.25 which is very unusual for juniors. Moir later said: “We are pleased overall with our whole performance. But we could have done a bit better in the free dance where we made a couple of very little mistakes, but hold it together.”
Davis and White, who were injured last winter, also performed their Austrian Waltz with ease and a good flow. They excelled in their Latin combination of Samba, Rhumba and again Samba with an extremely high speed especially in their two step sequences. All elements in their free dance to a modern vocal version of a Friedrich Haendel theme had level four and were very well performed, the lifts were even spectacular. Their element points were even higher than those of the winners. Ksenia Antonova and Roman Mylnikov from Moscow had a good compulsory dance. The highlight of their Latin combination was the excellent sidelong lift, but both lifts were a bit too extended. In their free dance, their forward set of twizzles was a bit out of sync and the step sequences relatively easy, but their other elements and presentation good.
The next competition in ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating series will be held in Tallinn, Estonia, September 15-17, 2005.
Results
