Russian Junior Nationals took place between the 1st and 5th of February. After the European Championships and while people await for the Four Continents, all eyes were on Saint Petersburg particularly for the ladies event, which is always of remarkable quality in Russia. Nevertheless, ice dance was also an interesting competition especially because of the closeness of some teams that could have made the team for Junior Worlds. Here are the results of the competition: On what concerns the review of the competition, I will comment on what went down with the main teams and will highlight the couples that I really liked. I will be talking about them by the order in which they started the short dance, with the exception of the first couple which only competed the short dance. Ekaterina Andreeva / Ivan Desyatov
Yana Buga / Georgiy Pokhilyuk
Evgeniia Lopareva / Alexey Karpushov
Eva Kuts / Dmitrii Mikhailov
Sofia Shevchenko / Igor Eremenko
Daria Rumyantseva / Dmitry Ryabchenko
Sofia Polishchuk / Alexander Vakhnov
Angelina Lazareva / Maxim Prokofiev
Elizaveta Khudaberdieva / Nikita Nazarov
Anastasia Skoptsova / Kirill Aleshini
Arina Ushakova / Maxim Nekrasov
Polina Ivanenko / Daniil Karpov
Anastasia Shpilevaya / Grigory Smirnov
Alla Loboda / Pavel Drozd
Ksenia Konkina / Grigory Yakushev
Overall, this competition was quite exciting and I think the judging was better than in the senior competition (there was not a large inflation of marks). Moreover, the fact that Shpilevaya/Smirnov earned the title with strong performances may be an indication of what will happen at Junior Worlds. One thing is certain: this is a team that next year will be on the podium. Another couple standing out was Polishchuk/Vakhnov, as they were quite close at making the team for Junior Worlds. With Lodoba/Drozd moving to the senior ranks next season, this team will be given more opportunities to gain experience.
Finally, one thing than concerns figure skating fans is which teams will probably be present at the Junior Grand Prix circuit next season. Based on the results, the teams that will make it may be: Shpilevaya/Smirnov; Skoptsova/Aleshin (I think their best bet would be to move to seniors this year, just like Pogrebinsky/Benoit of the USA did last season, but I don’t think it is going to happen); Polishchuk/Vakhnov; Konkina/Yakushev; Shevchenko/Eremenko; Khudaberdieva/Nazarov and Ushakova/Nekrasov (this couple has not been showing that great results, so maybe Lopareva/Karpushov may have a chance, while I would prefer Kuts/Mikhailov). One team I would love to see would be Ivanenko/Karpov. I guess the last spot will be decided in Test Skates between them, Lopareva/Karpushov, Ushakova/Nekrasov and Kuts/Mikhailov. Moreover, Andreeva/Desyatov may also have a say, because they did well in the short dance and did not perform the free, so if they show they are reliable they may be assigned a Grand Prix.
0 Comments
Between the 20th and 26th of December all eyes were in Russia due to nationals. In this case, however, only senior teams competed, as the junior nationals would take place from the 1st to the 5th of February. Here are the results: Right now I will be commenting on what went down. Short Dance:
Free Dance:
The beginning of the 2016-2017 ISU Challenger Series happened in Bergamo, Italy: the Lombardia trophy. There were present seven teams after the initially listed Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte (Italy), Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis (Finland) and Kate Bagnall and Benjamin Allain (France) had been removed. With such a smaller number of teams with most of them unknown, we can say the new figure skating season had a modest start. Hence, I will go through the programs of the top three teams. Without surprises, Italians Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri placed first. Their Short Dance had as main theme the movie Grease. I think it was a fun idea for this season has it matches swing really well. I found that part fun and energetic, which is a good indication since we are early in the season, meaning it will likely get even more upbeat by the end of the season. I would also like to stress that the entrance in the lift is really hard and it looks perfectly in the music chosen. In fact, it was awarded level four. The most negative point I can make is that I think there was something missing in the blues part. In fact, the three step sequences were awarded level three, which shows there is some room for improvement. The twizzles were given level three as well. Still, it was a great debut this season. They earned 63.04 points, which was slightly lower when compared to the score they obtained last year on this competition. The Free Dance is to the Nutcracker soundtrack. I found that they had good speed and interpreted the music well. They only earned levels three and four. I found the curve lift to be really good but it needs to be more assertive next time to be spectacular. I think with the course of the season, it will have to be more eye-captivating. Maybe a change in the costumes will help, as I don’t think they match the music chosen. They earned 99.08 points for a total of 162.12, which was a better score than what at the 2015 Lombardia Trophy.
Great Britain’s Lilah Fear/Lewis Gibson placed a surprising second (I thought they would for sure be behind Torn/Partanen but that did not happen). I did not have the chance to previously see their international debut at Lake Placid Ice Dance International but I will sure do it now as I enjoyed both their programs. I had never heard of this partnership before and that is because it is new. In fact, Gibson was a singles skater before. If I had known this team was training in Montreal with Roman Haguenauer, Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, I probably would not have been that surprised about their quality (that technical team also train Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron, Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir and Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue, among others). However, being one of their first competitions, I think it would still be surprising. Going into detail, I was really impressed with the fantastic quality of the Midnight Blues pattern, which earned level four (the maximum) and, in my opinion, should have been given some Grades of Execution (they got 0 bonus, which I did not understand). In fact, the technical base value they got was slightly higher than the one of Guignard/Fabbri but then the judges barely gave them any GOEs. I believe this happened because they are new in the scene but they will have to revise that soon if they keep this quality. The same can be said of the program components (they got the 5th market of components and I can’t seem to figure out why as I found that they were really committed to their performance). I think the distance of 10 points they had from the Italians was excessive. They got a total of 53.38 points, being the only team with three out of five elements with level four (all other teams had at most one). Focusing on the free dance, they skated to “You raise me up” by Josh Groban. I really like the curve lift and I think the rotational lift fits really well in the music. Overall, it left a good impression. They had the same technical base value of Guignard/Fabbri, which is a clear indicator of the quality of this team. Having only levels three and four for a new team is really good. For me, it was really positive to see a young couple from Great Britain rising in the circuit. If Penny Coomes/Nicholas Buckland are out this season (Coomes is currently overcoming an injury), I would say we are likely to see them again this season. I have to say that the gap on program components for the Italians was huge. They did have a good score compared to the other teams (which did not happen on the short dance) but I think the difference was larger than it should have been. They received 86.22 points for the free dance, having a total of 139.60 points.
Cecilia Törn/Jussiville Partanen from Finland got the bronze medal. They had their most successful season last year and are certainly hoping to overcome their scores this year. Their short dance is definitely not one of my favorites. I don’t think the music fits well with the pattern dance. Also, I don’t think their execution was the best, which did not help the overall impression (let’s hope it improves, since we are early in the season). The swing part looks more cohesive but it lost some speed towards the end, which is not ideal. However, what I feel they really need to improve is the blues part. They had all level threes with the exception of the Not Touching Midline Step Sequence which received level two, getting 52.14 points. On what concerns the free dance, there is not a nice way to put it but it was definitely not my cup of tea. I don’t think the music helps them in any way. Also, sometimes the fluidity between elements vanishes. I know this will likely be fixed as the season advances. Still, I didn’t like it so I hope in the next competitions I start liking it better. Maybe it was just not quite ready yet. The judges gave them level two on both the circular and diagonal step sequences and they got negative GOEs on the curve lift, so I would start by polishing these elements. They got a score of 78.62 points for the free dance, earning a total of 130.76. If we compare this score with the one they obtained at the 2015 Lombardia Trophy (119.96), we can say they are definitely at a better position now than they were last year. Still, the main difference was the short dance, so I would take some time to improve the free dance.
|
Categories
All
|