The Junior Grand Prix Final 2003
Reported by Magdalena Osborne
Part 2: "The Competition: Opening and SP's"
The Opening Ceremony took place on Friday afternoon and included a traditional Lucia, the queen of light, and her maids all dressed in white on skates. The music was recorded but it was still very nice and I was sorry so many of the skaters weren't there to see it.
Photo © 2003 Carl-Gustaf Ringdahl
Unlike the Grand Prix Final in Colorado Springs, USA, which used the new Code of Points judging system, the Junior Grand Prix Final stuck to yesterday’s news, the “interim” system. Pros and cons of the different systems will not be discussed here. The interim system uses the 6.0 but the computer randomly selects which judge’s marks count and the judges are anonymous as far as telling which judge gave what marks.
The Compulsory dance started the competitions and to watch eight programs to the same Paso Doble can be a little tiring, but the two top teams were so good it almost seemed to be a toss up as to who would take the lead. The Russians did by a narrow margin and the standings looked like this:
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Elena ROMANOVSKAYA / Alexander GRACHEV, RUS |
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After a Zamboni break the ladies took the
ice for their short program. Being juniors, most of the girls
were unknown to me, but some of their coaches were not! Danielle Kahle, USA,
was coached by Ken Congemi and Frank Carroll.
Unfortunately the ladies were somewhat of a disappointment, the audience witnessed
many falls and painfully slow spins and with few exceptions weaker than expected
performances. Only one skater stood out: Lina Johansson! Skating to music
from “The professional” she pulled off a triple lutz/ double toe
loop combination, a double axel and triple flip and some very nice and mostly
centered spins and was by far the best lady of the evening! Bravo Lina! She
rightfully went into first place and being the local girl the audience went
crazy clapping and cheering. Standings after the ladies short programs:
 Photo © Cristian Hillbom www.dansportalen.se |
1.Lina
JOHANSSON, SWE 2.JPN Miki ANDO, JPN 3.Mai ASADA, JPN 4.Viktoria PAVUK, HUN 5.Olga NAIDENOVA, RUS 6.Danielle KAHLE, USA 7.Kimmie MEISSNER, USA 8.Akiko KITAMURA, JPN |
Of all the pairs I really only knew Ukrainians Tatiana Volosozhar/Petro Kharchenko who I saw and liked very much at the European championships earlier this year. I enjoyed them this time too, they skated to a tango from “Cirque du Solei”, but the best pair was no doubt Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison of Canada. They are both very young, 16 and 17 years old which means they have several years of junior competitions ahead. My personal guess however is that they will become seniors before becoming of senior age. Unlike some other pairs, Jessica and Bryce were totally synchronized through most of their side-by-side spins. Junior pairs still have a long way to go but watching these budding talents was an inspiring experience. Results of the pairs after the short programs:
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Jessica DUBE / Bryce DAVISON, CAN 2. Natalia SHESTAKOVA / Pavel LEBEDEV, RUS 3. Maria MUKHORTOVA / Maxim TRANKOV, RUS 4. Tatiana VOLOSOZHAR / Petro KHARCHENKO, UKR 5. Tatiana KOKAREVA / Egor GOLOVKIN, RUS 6. Anastasia KUZMINA / Stanislav EVDOKIMOV, RUS 7. Andrea VARRAUX / David PELLETIER, USA 8. Brittany VISE / Nicolas KOLE, USA |
 Photo © Cristian Hillbom www.dansportalen.se |
And
finally the men and I must confess this was the part I’d
been anticipating the most. The names of the skaters were not as unfamiliar
to me as those in the other disciplines.
16 year old Alexander Uspenski of Russia was first out. His costume was interesting
to say the least and we got to listen to more tango music. I watched this
young man in total awe wondering if this really was a junior event since his
skate would have done well at Europeans!
Last years silver medalist Sergei Dobrin of Russia didn’t disappoint
me either. Only 17 and coached by Zhanna Gromova, I saw a lot of potential
here. Andrei Griazev of Russia was next and something amazing happened. Though
most people in the audience had never seen Andrei skate, he was the clear
favorite and the amount of cheering and whistles he received while entering
the ice spoke its own language. Andrei seemed a little overwhelmed by the
loud support from the crowd but his coach, Alexei Yagudin, didn’t look
all that surprised; maybe this had happened before… Andrei’s program,
brilliantly choreographed by Tatiana Tarasova and set to music by Bond, was
the best of the evening in every way. The height of the jumps blew me away
and the great footwork left no doubt as whom he works with. In spite of a
singled flip, Andrei went into first place after an otherwise incredible performance.
But the men weren’t through and over the next half hour my mouth continued
to fall open as one promising young skater after another performed, most of
them pulling off triple axel combinations and showing us that men’s
figure skating has an exciting future ahead. Evan Lysacek, USA, and who I
mainly remember for his great spins, won the men’s short program and
the standings were as follows:
 Photo © Cristian Hillbom www.dansportalen.se |
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Evan LYSACEK, USA 2 Andrei GRIAZEV, RUS 3.Alexander USPENSKI, RUS 4 Sergei DOBRIN, RUS 5 Christopher MABEE, CAN 6 Jordan BRAUNINGER, USA 7 Tomas VERNER, CZE 2.0 8 Nabunari ODA, JPN 3.0 |
The evening ended with the Original dance and 2,5 minutes of Swing, Jive, Boogie Woogie, Jitterbug, Rock’n roll or Blues in various combinations. It was fast and fun but some of those costumes…Team Hoffmann/Elek won, but just barely, over Romanovskaya/Grachev and I agreed but both were a joy to watch! New standings for the dance teams:
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Nora HOFFMANN / Attila ELEK, HUN 2. Elena ROMANOVSKAYA / Alexander GRACHEV, RUS 3. Morgan MATTHEWS / Maxim ZAVOZIN, USA 4. Natalia MIKHAILOVA / Arkadi SERGEEV, RUS 5. Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI, ISR 6. Ekaterina RUBLEVA / Ivan SHEFER, RUS 7. Anna ZADOROZHNIUK / Sergei VERBILO, UKR 8. Olga ORLOVA / Maxim BOLOTIN, RUS |
 Photo © Cristian Hillbom www.dansportalen.se |
The men saved the evening and my thoughts while returning home were that junior skating is severally underrated! This competition so far had been fun and exciting and Saturday couldn’t come fast enough!
*** Previously published by Europe on Ice
