Nottingham, Great Britain

#SynchroSkating

Team Fintastic Junior (FIN) soared to gold as the ISU World Junior Synchronized Skating Championships 2020 concluded in Nottingham (GBR) Saturday with the Free Skating.

 WJSySC20 Fintastice RUS FS ©International Skating Union  1212405129

Team Fintastic Junior (FIN) at the ISU World Junior Synchronized Skating Championships 2020©International Skating Union (ISU)

Team Fintastic soars to gold at World Junior Synchronized Championships in Nottingham

Team Fintastic Junior of Finland soared to gold and their first title, overtaking the two leading Russian teams. Three-time and defending World Junior Champions Team Junost slipped to second place to settle for the silver medal while Team Crystal Ice Junior took the bronze.

Fintastic Junior skated last and delivered a dynamic and confident performance to a selection of modern music that included “Anesthesia” by Alexandre Desplat, “Teardrop” by Massive Attack and “Nothing Like This” by Michael Macallister and Julie Hardy. The Finns executed their elements at high speed demonstrating excellent unison. They collected a level four for the travelling circle, the no hold element, synchronized spin and the move element. The intersection and the pivoting block merited a level three. The three-time World Junior silver medalists picked up a seasons best score of 132.15 points and totaled 205.94 points to edge outTeam Junost. The Finns not only returned to the podium after missing it these past two years, but also took their first World Junior title.

“This is just amazing, winning the world junior championships has always been my dream,” team captain Emma Kaskinen said. “We were focusing on ourselves we haven’t been thinking about other teams, so it was easy (to come from third place). We skated our best tonight and yesterday we did our two best programs this weekend,” she continued and explained that the story of the program is that they fall asleep and dream about different things.

WJSySC20 Junost RUS FS ©International Skating Union  1212407795

Team Junost Junior (RUS) at the ISU World Junior Synchronized Skating Championships 2020©International Skating Union (ISU)

Junost turned in an energetic and sophisticated Free Skating to “Sheherazade” by Nikolai Rimski-Korsakov. The Russians picked up a level four for four elements. However, an error on the pivoting block when one skater missed the line cost them dearly. The element garnered only a level two and negative Grade of Executions. The three-time World Junior Champions were ranked third in the Free Skating at 129.14 points and slipped from first to second at 205.23 points. Nevertheless, they remain the most successful team so far with five medals in total since the inaugural Championships in 2013.

“In the Short Program, we did the maximum and everything that was required from us. We showed smooth, sweeping skating,” deputy team captain Elizaveta Nasedkina commented. “Not everything worked out in the free. We wanted to do better. Seven out of eight elements were well done, in one breath, one element (the block) didn’t work out. I think our result is positive, it could have been worse. We are happy with our result.”

WJSySC20 Crystal Ice RUS FS ©International Skating Union  1212267532

Team Crystal Ice Junior (RUS) at the ISU World Junior Synchronized Skating Championships 2020©International Skating Union (ISU)

Team Crystal Ice had chosen to skate to Indian Bollywood music and started well into the program with a well executed artistic line, a strong pivoting block and intersection element that both earned a level four. But three falls on a transition move, in the second intersection element and before going into the synchronized spin were costly. The 2019 World Junior silver medalists finished fourth in the Free Skating with 124.16 points and dropped from second to third at 200.09 points, edging out Team Mystic Junior (FIN) by just 0.04 points.

“This is our third consecutive medal at the World Junior Championships and there certainly has been progress on the technical side. Unfortunately, we made some mistakes today and so we were unable to achieve the result we were expecting”, team captain Sofia Gorsheneva noted. “We changed our free program in the middle of the season. We thought this (Bollywood) music will come across better at the Junior World Championships and we switched it from senior team to the junior team,” she explained.

Team Mystique Junior (FIN) was second in the Free Skating, but overall remained in fourth place on 200.05 points. Team Nexxice Junior (CAN) placed fifth (187.40 points), followed by Les Supremes Junior (CAN) on 173.33 points.

Where to watch and follow the ISU World Junior Synchronized Skating Championships 2020?

Viewers will be able to watch the ISU World Junior Synchronized Skating Championships as a live stream on the Skating ISU YouTube Channel.

Subscribe to the ISU Newsletter or Press Releases to receive the latest information. You can also subscribe to the Skating ISU YouTube Channel to receive notifications when live streams start or new videos are published. Follow the conversation on social media using the hashtag: #WorldJSynchro, #WJSYSC2020 and #SynchroSkating.

Highlights, clips, interviews, behind the scenes:

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For more information, full entry lists and results please see the ISU event page.