ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2008 Day One
The ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2008 opened
Tuesday in Sofia, Bulgaria with the Compulsory Dance and the
Pairs Short Program. A record number of 207 skaters have been
entered for the competition. Brazil is for the first time
represented at World Junior Championships with an entry in
both the Ladies and Men’s singles. Bulgaria has hosted
the World Junior Championships once before in 2001.
Ice Dancing, Compulsory Dance
The Compulsory Dance at the ISU World Junior Championships
2008 was the Cha Cha Congelado. The Cha Cha Congelado was
developed by Bernard Ford, Kelly Johnson, Laurie Palmer and
Steven Belanger. It was first performed in Richmond Hill (CAN)
in 1989.
Emily Samuelson/Evan Bates (USA) edged out Russia’s
Maria Monko/Ilia Tkachenko by 0.12 points to take the lead.
Vanessa Crone/Paul Poirier of Canada placed third.
Samuelson/Bates performed an exact Cha Cha Congelado and
had excellent timing. They improved their previous seasonal
best of this dance significantly and earned 35.11 points (18.99
element score/16.12 program component score). “The first
time we competed the Cha Cha was at the Junior Grand Prix
Final and we’ve worked on it a lot since then and we
were really hoping to show our improvement out there today.
It’s definitely great to be rewarded”, Samuelson
told the press. “It’s a fast dance, there are
a lot of steps and not a lot of ice to fit them in. You have
to be deep, you have to be quick and also maintain speed and
be on music. So there’s a lot of things to work on”,
Bates explained. “We’ve worked very hard on this
dance. When we went to the Final, we weren’t really
satisfied with our performance. I think here we did a much
stronger performance and I’m really happy with the score.
We work a lot off ice with a ballroom instructor. Last year,
we had a Latin free dance which at Junior Worlds didn’t
go very well. So we brought back the dress – this is
the same dress. We couldn’t just throw the dress away
after that”, he continued, referring to their fall during
the Free Dance last year in which she was injured and the
couple was forced to withdraw from the competition.
Monko/Tkachenko delivered a strong Cha Cha Congelado, showing
off precision at good speed. The Junior Grand Prix Final Champions
posted a new seasonal best of 34.99 points (18.92/16.07).
Crone/Poirier’s Cha Cha was good as well, and the team
scored 33.71 points (18.38/15.33).They, too, set a new personal
best for themselves.
Pairs, Short Program
The competition continued with the Pairs Short Program. The
required throw jump in the Junior Pairs Short Program in the
2007/2008 season is the throw toeloop (double or triple).
The required solo jump is the double loop or double Axel.
The Russian pairs swept the Short Program with Ksenia Krasilnikova/Konstantin
Bezmaternykh, Liubov Iliushechkina/Nodari Maisuradze and Ekaterina
Sheremetieva/Mikhail Kuznetsov.
Krasilnikova/Bezmaternykh had drawn to skate last out of
the 20 couples and delivered a strong performance to “Quidam”
from Cirque du Soleil. The two-time and reigning World Junior
bronze medallists hit a solid side by side double Axel followed
by a throw triple toeloop, and a high double twist, that was
graded a rarely seen level four. They also produced a level-three
side by side combination spin and a lasso lift with variations
of position to pick up a new personal best score of 56.30
points (33.56 element score/22.74 program component score).
“Overall it wasn’t bad, but obviously all of us
could have skated a little better tonight. Not all of us showed
what we can do”, Bezmaternykh said.
Iliushechkina/Maisuradze, who debute in international competition,
opened their routine to “The Gadfly” by Dmitri
Shostakovich with an excellent double Axel and a double twist
that was awarded a level four by the Technical Panel. The
team from Moscow also completed a difficult toe Lasso lift
with an unusual entry, but Iliushechkina fell on the throw
triple toeloop. The Muscovites scored 52.05 points (30.31/22.74).
Skating to “Winter” from “Four Seasons”
by Antonio Vivaldi, Sheremetieva/Kuznetsov put out a solid
short program that contained a side by side double loop, a
double twist, a fast and very well synchronized side by side
spin. The throw triple toe was high, but she had trouble to
control the landing and stepped out of it. The Muscovites
received 51.94 points (30.05/21.89), which was a new personal
best for them.
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