The ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2009 went on Friday in Sofia, Bulgaria with the Ladies Short Program and the Free Dance.
Ladies, Short Program
54 Ladies competed in the event. The required solo jump in the Junior Ladies’ Short Program in the 2008/2009 season is the Lutz (double or triple). The required flying spin for this season is the flying camel spin.
Elene Gedevanishvili of Georgia captured the Ladies Short Program ahead of Ashley Wagner (USA). Alena Leonova (RUS) came in third.
Gedevanishvili sparkled in her entertaining routine to “Cabaret”. She hit a triple Lutz, a triple toe-triple toe combination, a double Axel and was awarded a level four for her combination spin. The layback and the flying camel spin were graded a level two. The Georgian earned a new personal best score of 60.32 (35.60 element score/24.72 program component score), slightly improving on her previous personal best that dates back to the 2006 European Championships. “It feels pretty good. I was prepared. I was trying to stay positive and focused and it worked”, Gedevanishvili said. “Robin (Wagner) has been working with me the last couple of months and of course Elaine (Zayak) helped a lot, mentally. I’m really happy right now and I don’t want to look back”, she added referring to her recent coaching change and her disappointing 25th place at the European Championships. “The reason is that the World Championships are coming in one month. I really had to get up there; I couldn’t just (go to Worlds) after the thing that had happened at the European Championships.”
Wagner’s romantic program to “Somewhere in Time” featured a triple flip-double toe combination, a double Axel and a triple Lutz, but the judges deducted on the grade of execution for the wrong edge take-off on that jump. The 17-year-old picked up a level four for her layback and combination spin, and the flying camel spin and straight line footwork were graded a level three. Wagner scored 57.50 points (32.24/25.16). “I felt that it was a very good program for me. I had not skated my best short program at Nationals so mentally this was one of the harder programs for me”, the 2007 World Junior bronze medalist explained. “I took it one step at a time and I stayed focused on the element that I was approaching and for the most part I feel like that worked for me and I am very satisfied with my program. I’m going to enjoy tonight and not being nervous”, she added.
Performing to “Al Andaluz”, Leonova produced a triple flip-double toeloop combination, a double Axel and three level-three spins, but had to fight for the landing of her triple Lutz. The Russian set a new personal best for herself with 55.50 points (32.30/23.20). “I didn’t expect to be third. I planned to be in the top five. Of course, I’m very happy that it came out that way, and I’m pleased to have beaten my personal best”, Leonova commented. “I wanted to test myself one more time before the World Championships. I like it here in Sofia and this is a lucky ice for me”, she said when asked about coming back to the junior level after competing at the European Championships in January, where she finished fourth.
Joshi Helgesson (SWE) is currently ranked fourth and only 0.36 points away from a spot on the podium at 55.14 points. She completed a triple Lutz, triple toe-double toe and strong spins. Katrina Hacker (USA) came in fifth. Her program contained a triple toe-double toe combination and a double Lutz (51.06 points). Ivana Reitmayerova (SVK) rounds up the top six. She turned in another clean performance with a triple Salchow-double toe and a double Lutz .2007 World Junior Champion and reigning World Junior silver medallist Caroline Zhang (USA) fell on a flip. Both the flip and the Lutz were downgraded by the Technical Panel. Zhang finished 10th.
Ice Dance, Free Dance
Madison Chock/Greg Zuerlein (USA) cruised to the gold and the title in what was their first appearance at the ISU World Junior Championships. Their teammates Maia Shibutani/Alex Shibutani, newcomers as well, moved up from fourth to take the silver medal and Russia’s Ekaterina Riazanova/Jonathan Guerreiro earned the bronze.
Chock/Zuerlein gave a confident performance of their dramatic routine to “The Phantom of the Opera” that was highlighted by a straight line lift, a straight line-rotational lift and intricate footwork. The Technical Panel graded the lifts, the twizzles and the combination spin a level four and the two step sequences got a level three. The Junior Grand Prix Final Champions received 82.11 points (42.80 element score/39.31 program component score) which added up to a total of 172.55 points. “We are overwhelmed. It feels so good. We’ve worked so hard. I think it was a very good performance for us. We connected very well with each other starting from actually the beginning of the day. We kind of got our heads together and focused on what we had to do. It came through and it was solid. We just wanted to try to give our best performance to show what this dance can really do”, Chock said. “It’s awesome. The Free Dance is definitely our best of all the segments. We just felt we connected well with each other and the audience”, her partner explained.
Dancing to “Cinema Paradiso”, Shibutani/Shibutani produced flowing footwork and effortless looking lifts including a rotational lift with him spinning on one foot, a straight line lift in a low position and a serpentine lift. The brother and sister team was awarded a level four for the lifts, twizzles and spin and a level three for the step sequences. They scored a new personal best of 80.34 points (43.40/36.94), were ranked second in the Free Dance and racked up a total score of 162.15 points. “We came in with a lot of confidence. There really wasn’t any pressure on us”, Alex Shibutani said. “We are really very excited, because this is our first year on the international scene. We’re happy with how we skated all week”, his sister told the press.
Riazanova/Guerreiro had chosen a dynamic program to a selection from James Bond movies. They produced well synchronized twizzles, a level-three serpentine step sequence and a level-three midline step sequence as well as a curve-rotational lift. While the twizzles and two lifts were a level four, the straight line lift got a level two. The Muscovites earned 78.98 points (40.90/38.08) and had a total score of 161.80. They were edged out of the silver medal by less than one point and remained in third place. It was their second appearance at Junior Worlds. Last year, they had finished sixth. “We were overall happy with our performance. We went with the same thoughts towards the Free Dance as we did for the Original, just to make sure that we did everything that we had to do which was to skate well. We did have a few minor mistakes but overall we did a good job”, Guerreiro commented.
All three couples will be eligible for the junior level next season and haven’t yet decided if they will move up to the senior level. Maia Shibutani will be age eligible for the senior Championships only in the 2010/11 season.
Madison Hubbell/Keiffer Hubbell (USA) completed a successful dance event for the USA by finishing fourth. They gave a strong performance to “Sognami” by Alessandro Safina with just a minor stumble on a transition move. The brother and sister team nevertheless dropped from second to fourth at 161.34 points, just 0.46 points off the podium. Kharis Ralph/Asher Hill (CAN) came in fifth with a Blues (152.76 points) while Ekaterina Pushkash/Dmitri Kiselev (RUS) slipped from fifth to sixth after she fell on a twizzle (150.21 points).
The ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2009 continue Saturday with the Ladies Free Skating. For more information and full results please see: www.isu.org and http://www.isuworldjunior2009.com.
