The inaugural ISU World Development Trophy took place from March 26 to 30 in Cieszyn, Poland. This is the first edition of the new event funded by the ISU which combines both seminars and competitions. The goal of this ISU development project is to provide a number of ISU Members with the opportunity to participate in an International event and develop ISU sports in their countries.

In total 38 skaters and 14 coaches from 12 countries including Andorra, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Ireland, Iceland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Morocco, Norway, Serbia and Slovenia were present. The participants took part in daily on and off ice practices and the coaches could attend lectures on methodology and techniques of skating elements and ISU Regulations. For some of the participants it was the first time that they could compete in an ISU sanctioned event and take part in classes with famous Figure Skating coach and four time Ukrainian champion Mr Valentin Nikolaev. Other moderators included Ms Yevgeniya Gres, who specializes in demonstrating figure skating elements and Mr Sarkis Tewanian an ISU Technical Specialist.

The competition took place on Saturday which gave the skaters the opportunity to not only put their new skills to the test but also to perform in front of a full panel of judges and technical specialists, for some skaters this was a first.

Novice A and B boys

Only one competitor took part in each category.  Alex Bowker-Lonnecker from Ireland in Novice A and Matej Gregorc from Slovenia in Novice B.

Novice A girls

Valerija Angermane (LAT) delivered a strong program with a clean double axel-double toe combo, double flip-double loop combo and double Lutz which earned her the first place. Skating to Andre Rieu’s Second Waltz Emilia Ros Omarsdottir (ICE) was second. Third place went to Lara Gucek from Slovenia.

Novice B girls

Juni Marie Benjaminsen (NOR) delivered a well-choreographed performance to the soundtrack from “The Red Violin” movie and claimed the gold medal.  Aleksandr Smokvin, Benjaminsen’s coach was very happy with the result. He stated that the most important for him was the seminar that gave both him and Juni a lot of knowledge and inspiration. Elisabet Ingibjork Saevarddottir (ISL) took the silver and Milica Jokic from Serbia earned the bronze.

Junior Men

Slavik Hayrapetian (ARM), who finished 20th at the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Milan last February, won the gold medal in Poland. He performed an ambitious program and delivered four clean triple jumps. Jerry Hilgert (LUX) finished second while Kristof Brezar (SLO) was third.

Junior Ladies

Although thirteen junior ladies took part in the seminar only twelve competed on Saturday as Fainait Bligh (IRL) withdrew due to injury.

Angelina Kuchvalska (LAT) who finished 20th at the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2013, dominated the competition and landed a number of clean jumps, earning 82,35 points, 20 points ahead the silver medalist Pina Umek from Slovenia. The bronze medal went to another Latvian lady – Emilija Reimane. Ekaterina Platonova, coach of Kuchvalska, Angermane and Reimane commented: “We did not know where we were going and what to expect but we found out that this was the best decision to be made. The organization was great, wonderful planning and classes, so much methodological knowledge. We would like to take part in the next seminar”.

The next leg of the ISU World Development Trophy will take place from April 9-13 in Singapore and will focus on the development of Short Track Speed Skating. China’s four-time Olympic silver medalist Yang Yang (S) will be the main moderator while two-time Olympic silver medalist Sun Dan Dan and World silver medalist Zhang Jing, both also from China, will serve as the assistant moderators. The series will end in the Philippines on April 16-20 offering seminars, workshops, practices and a Figure Skating competition.