First Junior Grand Prix Event Wraps in France
By Isobel Moody
Russian Roman Savosin wins messy men’s division, while latest sensation Alina Zagitova wins ladies; French team takes ice dance at the Junior Grand Prix.
The first Junior Grand Prix of the year wrapped up this weekend in St. Gervais, France, even as we still await further news of the two competitors and two coaches hospitalized on Thursday following a bus accident. The series has returned to this city for the first time since 2000. Between then, French JGP events have all been held in Courcheval. A three-event competition, it handed out medals in men’s, ladies’, and ice dance.
Men
SAINT-GERVAIS-LES-BAINS, FRANCE – AUGUST 27: (L-R) Roman Savosin, Ilia Skirda of Russia and Koshiro Shimada of Japan pose during the junior men free skating medal ceremony on day three of the ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating on August 27, 2016 in Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, France. (Photo by Joosep Martinson – ISU/ISU via Getty Images)
Unfortunately the men’s competition proved to be a bit of a mess. First after the short was Yaroslav Paniot, a Ukraine of modest ability who would not have led had one of several other skaters stepped up. But when the bigger contenders all made mistakes, he managed it Thursday through a simple combination of clean skating and mature technique. He landed two quadruple jumps to open his free skate, only to then fall apart, dropping to fifth.
Gold thus ultimately went to Roman Savosin, a Russian who finished 14th at Junior Worlds last year and was making his JGP debut. He started by finishing second in the short program by keeping his issues to a stumble in his triple axel. He also had the second-highest scoring free skate program in which he too landed a successful quad toe, although he still struggled with the axels, underrotating one and falling on the other.
The free program was won by his young countryman Ilia Skirda. Amid the chaos of Saturday, Skirda skated an almost perfect free. Interlaced amid smooth jumps and other good elements were the showman skills he already has even at thirteen. But as he does not yet have the vital triple axel, there was only so high he could climb. He had to come back from a ninth-place short where he had lost his jump combination to a fall, and silver was the best he could manage in his international debut. Bronze similarly went to a comeback skater lacking a triple axel: Japan’s Koshiro Shimada. He had been in fifth after failing to do the required triple loop jump in the short, but skated a very decent free. He too showed some developing performance skills.
Among those in the field who disappointed was Junior World bronze medalist Tomoki Hiwatashi. His short had a fall on the triple axel jump and a fully downgraded second jump in his combination. In the free, his attempt at a quad ended in a double, and a couple more mistakes, combined with a couple more hits to his technical tariff, left him in sixth.
Also going in looking promising had been home skater Kevin Aymoz. He showed the ability to be the most dramatic and beautiful skater there, but could not deliver. Like Hiwatashi his combination in the short suffered from a full downgrade, and he doubled his loop. The highest presentation scores of the night gave him third, but in the free, things got worse. After a good first half, he lost all energy, failing to do one of the spins and two of his allowed three combinations, and finishing bent over with his hand clutching his stomach. Ultimately he just missed the podium, much to his distress.
Ladies
SAINT-GERVAIS-LES-BAINS, FRANCE – AUGUST 26: Alina Zagitova of Russia (center), Kaori Sakamoto (left) and Rin Nitaya of Japan pose for a photo after the junior ladies free skating on day two of the ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating on August 26, 2016 in Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, France. (Photo by Joosep Martinson – ISU/ISU via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, over in the Ladies division, the remaining Russian in the competition, Alina Zagitova, won her first ever international event by over ten points. Her total score of 194.37 was the second-highest ever posted by a lady in a junior competition. In the short program she showed herself to be a skater who does everything well, including a difficult triple lutz-triple toe combination, with her arms up on not only the lutz but also the required solo triple loop. In the free she upped the ante with an even harder triple lutz-triple loop. She also did three different kinds of jumps with both arms up, and continued to perform most of her elements with ease. She underrotated a triple salchow late in the program, but it scarcely mattered.
In second, Japanese skater Kaori Sakamoto was able to keep it relatively close after the short program. She too landed a difficult triple-triple, the triple flip-triple toe, and her loop was the best of the day. But she had no triple-triples in the free, and a handful of small errors and lower presentation scores than Zagitova left her behind. It was her second silver on the JGP circuit. Third went to the second Japanese lady, Rin Nataya, who won her third JGP medal. She too landed the triple lutz-triple toe in her short, but managed only a triple lutz-double toe in the free, where she wrecked an attempted double axel, but did everything else well. Generally she did things well, but not quite as well as the top two.
None of the other skaters were able to match the top three technically. Only two even tried. In fourth, Korean Ye Lim Kim attempted the triple lutz-triple toe in both programs and a fiendishly difficult triple lutz-triple loop-double toe in the free, but failed to rotate any of these combinations. The only other successful triple lutz-triple toe was landed by American Alexia Paganini in the short. Unfortunately, Paganini also doubled her loop, and then fell twice in the free, finishing sixth.
Ice Dance
SAINT-GERVAIS-LES-BAINS, FRANCE – AUGUST 27: (L-R) Christina Carreira, Anthony Ponomarenko of the United States, Angelique Abachkina and Louis Thauron of France and Sofia Polishchuk and Alexander Vakhnov of Russia pose after the junior ice dance medal ceremony on day three of the ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating on August 27, 2016 in Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, France. (Photo by Joosep Martinson – ISU/ISU via Getty Images)
The ice dance contained two distinct battles: one for gold and one for bronze. Gold was between French couple Angelique Abachkina & Louis Thauron and Americans Christina Carreira & Anthony Ponomarenko. A higher technical tariff saw the French leading after the short dance, the Americans strong enough to keep it close. In the free dance, the two couples skated two very different programs with excellent technique and expression, although Carreira had a slight slip near the end. That, combined with a little extra flair from the French and a little extra speed, determined the win. It was Abachkina and Thauron’s first gold on the JGP circuit, and Carreira & Ponomarenko’s second silver.
Bronze was a three-way battle between two Russian teams and one Czech one. In this case the technical tariff determined who was behind after the short dance, leaving Sofia Polishchuk and Alexander Vakhnov in fifth after three of their five elements were assigned a Level 2 and he went unsteady in their twizzles. Their fellow Russian team Sofia Shevchenko & Igor Ekfremenko took third ahead of Czechs Nicole Kuzmich & Alexandr Sinicyn, their skating ability and intensity getting them higher presentation scores.
But in the free dance it was Shevchenko & Efremenko’s turn to suffer the lowest tariff, thanks to two level two and a level one element, causing them to drop to fifth. Meanwhile, Polishchuk & Vahknov performed their free dance with not only the elements stronger, but with the maturity of their performance shining through, out performing Kuzmich & Sinicyn to beat them too to the bronze, their second from the circuit.
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Next week the Junior Grand Prix moves to the Czech Republic, for the Czech Skate in Ostrava. A regular event in the JGP series, it will be the first this year to include a pairs competition.