The ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2006 continued on Friday in Ljubljana, Slovenia, with the Men’s Short Program and the Free Dance.

Men, Short Program
Yannick Ponsero (FRA) captured the Short Program ahead of Takahiko Kozuka (JPN) and Canada’s Patrick Chan.
Skating to “In the Mood for Love”, Ponsero hit a high triple Axel-triple toeloop combination, a triple Lutz, and double Axel as well as combination spin that was graded a level four. He also received a level three for his footwork, flying sit and change foot camel spin to earn 63.29 points (35.08 element score/28.21 program component score). “I skated well, and I want to do the same tomorrow. This is the second year that I’m in first after the Short Program, and this time I want to stay in this position”, the Frenchman commented, referring to the fact that he slipped from first to second last year and took the silver at Junior Worlds.
Kozuka opened his routine to a modern version of “Sabre Dance” with a triple Axel-double toeloop combination, but he turned out of the first jump. He went on to complete a triple Lutz, double Axel and fast spins, earning a level four for both his flying sit and change foot combination spin. Kozuka scored 60.07 points (32.33/27.74). “I didn’t panick, and I’m satisfied with what I did. Tomorrow, I don’t want to panick again and want to skate great”, he said.
Chan’s dynamic program to a Tango featured a triple flip-triple toeloop combination, a triple Lutz, a double Axel as well as strong spins. The 15-year-old was awarded a level four for all his three spins including a change foot camel spin with excellent positions and got 59.54 points (33.65/25.89), improving his previous personal best of 53.24 clearly. “This is by far my personal best. I’ve never skated this good so far. I changed my program, have higher quality spins. It’s really the first time I’ve tried such a different program. It had worked very well for me. I went into the short program just relaxed and tried to focus but tried different technique, what’s best for me. Hopefully I can repeat the same preparations as I did today for tomorrow”, the Canadian commented.

Peter Liebers of Germany delivered a solid program to Asian music, landing a triple flip-triple toeloop combo and a high triple Lutz to come in fourth at 57.67 points. Sergei Voronov (RUS) completed a triple Axel-double toeloop combination and is currently in fifth place (57.66 points). Stephen Carriere (USA), who had won Qualifying Group B on Wednesday is not far behind in sixth with 56.89 points. Alexander Uspenski (RUS), the winner of Qualifying Group A, fell on his triple Axel to finish 12^th (52.99 points)

Ice Dancing, Free Dance
The third set of medals at the ISU World Junior Championships 2006 was awarded in the dance event. Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir (CAN) danced to victory, becoming the first Canadian ice dancing couple to win the Junior World title. Natalia Mikhailova/Arkadi Sergeev (RUS) captured the silver medal, and the bronze went to Meryl Davis/Charlie White (USA).

Dancing to “Malaguena”, Virtue/Moir completed intricate serpentine and circular footwork sequences with many changes of holds and positions at good speed as well as a one-armed rotational lift and a difficult dance combination spin. The 2005 World Junior silver medallists picked up 82.56 points (40.04/42.52) and accumulated a total of 172.57 to take the gold. “Our performance today felt really good. It was was exactly what we wanted to do, it felt really comfortable. We went out there and enjoyed every moment of the competition and still learned from it, get as much as experience as we can”, Moir said. “Right from the time I saw Scott today heading to the rink, coming out of the elevator, I knew we would be together. There was something about the chemistry there that was just on today”, Virtue added.

Mikhailova/Sergeev put out a romantic and soft dance to “Adagio” that included a curve-rotational lift,  a straight line lift with him in a low position and her in a donut position, but the second part of the twizzles was slightly out of sync and Sergeev turned out of a twizzle at the end of the serpentine footwork and almost touched the boards. The Muscovites got a level four on all their elements except for the circular steps that had a level three. The Russian Junior Champions scored  78.75 points (38.70/41.05) which added up to 168.41. “We’re very pleased with how we skated, we had fun, and we are glad that we were able to cope with our nerves as we didn’t have a good starting number”, Mikhailova explained, referring to them skating first in the final flight. “We were confident when we went out to skate, but in the warm up we couldn’t warm up all the parts of our Free Dance that we have to because other couples were in our way”, Sergeev said.

Davis/White gave a strong performance to “Prayer of the Night”, a version of “Sarabande” with lyrics, executing demanding steps, fast and well synchronized twizzels as well as interesting lifts. The Junior Grand Prix bronze medallists earned 81.15 points (40.65/40.50) and ranked second in the Free Dance. All their elements were graded a level four by the Technical Panel. They pulled up from fourth to third with a total of 167.20 points. “I don’t think we could have asked for a better program today. We had a good practice and came in with a lot of confidence. Since we were in fourth, we had nothing to lose. I think that helped us to attack the program more. We gave it everything we had, we couldn’t hold back, we didn’t have a choice. It went as well as we had hoped. It is our best performance of the year”, White commented.

Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte (ITA), who stood in third place following the Original Dance, fell on a transition move in their Flashdance program and dropped one spot (160.72 points).