The ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2014 continued in Sofia, Bulgaria, Friday with the
Junior Ladies Short Program and the Junior Free Dance.
Elena Radionova (RUS) takes Junior Ladies Short Program
Elena Radionova led a Russian sweep of the Junior Ladies Short Program, coming in ahead of teammates
Serafima Sakhanovich and Evgenia Medvedeva.
Radionova’s program to “Anna Karenina” by Two Steps from Hell featured a triple Lutz-triple toeloop combination, a triple loop, double Axel as well as level-four spins and footwork. The defending World Junior Champion scored 66.90 points. “Today I had a good performance, it was very confident and precise and overall I was calm when I went out for the warm up and for the competition. Maybe that’s why everything worked out today”, the 15-year-old commented.
Sakhanovich landed a triple flip-triple toe, triple loop, double Axel and picked up a level four for the spins and the circular footwork in her program set to “You Don’t Give Up On Love”. The reigning ISU Junior Grand Prix Final silver medalist earned a new seasons best with 64.75 points. “I am also very happy with my performance today. It was clean and I liked it, all my jumps were done ideally with plusses and I got a level four for the spins and footwork. I think I never skated better than that. I got a level four for the first time for the footowork, I always had a level three before”, the 14-year-old from St. Petersburg said.
Skating to “Ballet Russe”, Medvedeva produced a double Axel, a triple flip-triple toe and a triple loop as well as three level-four spins to score a seasons best of 63.72 points. “Today I gave a quite clean and good performance, but I feel that is not my limit yet, there is still room to grow”, the Muscovite noted. “The most important thing for me is to skate my program well and then everything comes with it. You have to prepare well and work, then you get into the team and wherever you want”, she added.
Satoko Miyahara (JPN) is just behind the top three with 63.57 points after a strong performance. Amber
Glenn (USA) follows in fifth place with 56.58 points and Karen Chen (USA) rounded up the top six with
56.09 points.
Kaitlin Hawayek/Jean-Luc Baker (USA) dance to Junior Ice Dance title
Kaitlin Hawayek/Jean-Luc Baker (USA) danced to the Junior Ice Dance gold. Anna Yanovskaya/Sergey
Mozgov of Russia earned the silver medal and Canada’s Madeline Edwards/Zhao Kai Pang moved up from
fifth to clinch the bronze medal. All three couples won their first medal at the World Junior Championship.
Performing to “Amelie”, Hawayek/Baker produced intricate footwork, difficult lifts and spins. The Americans collected a level four for everything but the two step sequences that were rated a level three and set a new seasons best for themselves with 90.39 points. Overall they accumulated 157.12 points. “This
entire season Jean-Luc and I have been preparing for Junior Worlds. From the beginning of the season we’ve
said, the Junior World gold medal is our goal. And I think that we worked the hardest this season and we
believed the entire season that we could do it and this competition was just a showing of that this season”, Hawayek commented.
Yanovskaya/Mozgov’s passionate dance to “La Mirta e la Rosa” was highlighted by innovative lifts and smooth step sequences. The ISU Junior Grand Prix Final Champions earned the same levels as Hawayek/Baker and won the Free Dance portion with a seasons best of 91.36 points. Overall they remained in second at 155.16 points. “Right now we are just happy that we have a silver medal at the World (Junior) Championship and finally we reached the podium. (on future plans) We want to prepare better for the next season, have more effective programs, try to collect all possible medals at the junior level. We want to stay at the junior level”, Yanovskaya shared.
Edwards/Pang turned in a strong performance to “Les Miserables”, earning a level four for four elements. The Canadians picked up a seasons best of 81.73 points which added up to 139.65 points overall. “We could not be more pleased to be up here with two amazing teams. Everyone put out some great performances. I remember standing there last year and watching the medal ceremony and thinking next year we want to be up there. We want to see our flag. It’s very cool that this came true for us”, Edwards said.
Lorraine McNamara/Quinn Carpenter (USA) slipped from third to fourth (138.53 points). They skated to
“Sherlock Holmes”. Alexandra Nazarova/Maxim Nikitin (UKR) moved up from seventh to fifth with a
dance to “Cabaret” (134.65 points). Rebeka Kim/Kirill Minov (KOR) finished sixth (133.35 points), dancing to a modern version of “Sheherazade”.