Results of 2008 World Junior Championships: Top 6 in Ice Dancing

The ice dancing competition concluded yesterday at the 2008 World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. The United States' Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates won the gold (total points 181.66), Canada's Vanessa Crone and Paul Poirier took the silver (total points 178.09), and  Russia's Kristina Gorshkova and Vitali Butikov came away with the bronze (total points 172.85). Maria Monko and Ilia Tkachenko of Russia placed fourth (total points 166.01), siblings Madison Hubbell and Keiffer Hubbell of the United States came in fifth (total points 157.47), and Ekaterina Riazanova and John Guerreiro of Russia placed sixth (total points 153.29).

I gotta say, I've been fastidiously reading skaters' official sites throughout the championships and it's so interesting to me how different some of them are. I really love the photo of Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates from their official site (at right) because it shows their charm, youth and joy. 

The ladies short program concluded yesterday as well, and the United States is sitting pretty at the top with U.S. senior Nationals champion Mirai Nagasu (65.07 points), reigning world junior champion Caroline Zhang (62.60 points) and Rachael Flatt (60.15 points), who placed second to Mirai at U.S. Nationals. Wouldn't it be great to see the three ladies on the podium after the free skate? The event concludes today so stay tuned...(If you haven't smiled today, this photo of Mirai will surely fix that.)

Full results for the junior ice dancing event will be posted once they are available. Sorry all you devotees of ice dancing! (me included)

Results of 2008 World Junior Championships: Men

At the 2008 ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, the junior men's competition concluded with very strong free skate performances. The United States' Adam Rippon won the gold medal in his first Junior Worlds. Russia's Artem Borodulin took the silver, and China's Jinlin Guan captured the bronze. Adam's teammates Brandon Mroz placed fourth and Tommy Steenberg placed ninth. Canada's Kevin Reynolds was the only skater to successfully land a quadruple jump (Salchow) and jumped from 13th to sixth place. He also tried his quadruple toeloop but was not successful.

The competition continues today with the ice dancing finale. After the Original Dance, Emily Samuelson/Evan Bates of the United States are in the lead, Vanessa Crone/Paul Poirier of Canada are in second place, and Kristina Gorshkova/Vitali Butikov of Russia are in third place.

Final results for the junior men are as follows:

Pl	Name	Nation	Points	SP	FS
1	Adam RIPPON	USA	199.90	1	1
2	Artem BORODULIN	RUS	194.77	2	2
3	Jinlin GUAN	CHN	189.60	4	3
4	Brandon MROZ	USA	186.20	3	5
5	Michal BREZINA	CZE	184.40	5	6
6	Kevin REYNOLDS	CAN	180.78	13	4
7	Ivan BARIEV	RUS	175.06	10	7
8	Jeremy TEN	CAN	173.34	11	8
9	Tommy STEENBERG	USA	166.64	6	13
10	Florent AMODIO	FRA	164.79	9	12
11	Kim LUCINE	FRA	164.61	7	16
12	Moris PFEIFHOFER	SUI	162.88	15	10
13	Javier FERNANDEZ	ESP	161.01	14	11
14	Nikolai BONDAR	UKR	159.61	12	17
15	Chao YANG	CHN	158.48	24	9
16	Denis TEN	KAZ	155.70	8	19
17	Akio SASAKI	JPN	155.14	18	14
18	Adrian SCHULTHEISS	SWE	154.12	19	15
19	Takahito MURA	JPN	145.82	21	18
20	Nikita MIKHAILOV	RUS	140.36	23	20
21	Elladj BALDE	CAN	140.34	22	21
22	Denis WIECZOREK	GER	137.17	17	22
23	Jakub STROBL	SVK	134.45	20	23
24	Maciej CIEPLUCHA	POL	133.69	16	24
25	Pavel Petrov SAVINOV	BUL	77.51	46	25

Results of 2008 World Junior Championships: Pairs

The 2008 ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria are well underway and the pairs competition has concluded. Russian's Ksenia Krasilnikova/Konstantin Bezmaternikh won the gold medal with their teammates Lubov Iliushechkina/Nodari Maisuradze taking the silver. Ksenia Krasilnikova/Konstantin Bezmaternikh won the bronze medal in 2006 and 2007, so the third trip to the World Junior Championships must be the charm. China's Huibo Dong/Yiming Wu took the bronze. The United States placed fifth, tenth and eleventh.

By the end of today, the junior men's champion will be crowned. After the short program, Adam Rippon of the United States was in the lead, with Russia's Artem Borodulin and Adam's teammate Brandon Mroz, in second and third, respectively. Stay tuned...

Final results of the junior pairs are as follows:

Pl	Name	Nation	Points	SP	FS
1	Ksenia KRASILNIKOVA / Konstantin BEZMATERNIKH	RUS	148.12	1	2
2	Lubov ILIUSHECHKINA / Nodari MAISURADZE	RUS	144.86	2	1
3	Huibo DONG / Yiming WU	CHN	141.33	5	3
4	Ekaterina SHEREMETIEVA / Mikhail KUZNETSOV	RUS	136.14	3	5
5	Jessica Rose PAETSCH / Jon NUSS	USA	133.12	8	4
6	Maria SERGEJEVA / Ilja GLEBOV	EST	131.02	9	6
7	Yue ZHANG / Lei WANG	CHN	130.92	4	7
8	Monica PISOTTA / Michael STEWART	CAN	127.23	7	8
9	Amanda VELENOSI / Mark FERNANDEZ	CAN	125.46	10	9
10	Chelsi GUILLEN / Danny CURZON	USA	123.93	6	12
11	Bianca BUTLER / Joseph JACOBSEN	USA	120.81	12	11
12	Anais MORAND / Antoine DORSAZ	SUI	118.92	11	14
13	Amanda SUNYOTO-YANG / Darryll SULINDRO-YANG	TPE	118.90	14	10
14	Nicole DELLA MONICA / Yannick KOCON	ITA	113.35	15	13
15	Narumi TAKAHASHI / Mervin TRAN	JPN	113.23	13	15
16	Krystyna KLIMCZAK / Janusz KARWETA	POL	108.87	16	16
17	Gabriela CERMANOVA / Martin HANULAK	SVK	95.74	17	17
18	Camille FOUCHER / Bruno MASSOT	FRA	89.09	18	18
19	Andrea HOLLEROVA / Jakub SAFRANEK	CZE	80.85	19	19
20	Natalie GANEM / Christopher TREFIL	HUN	70.91	20	20

Schedule for ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships

The 2008 ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships begin today in Sofia, Bulgaria. This year, 209 skaters/couples from 50 ISU member nations will participate. The schedule is as follows:

• Tuesday, February 26: Compulsory Dance, Pairs Short Program

• Wednesday, February 27: Men Short Program, Pairs Free Skating

• Thursday, February 28: Original Dance, Men Free Skating

• Friday, February 29: Ladies Short Program, Free Dance

• Saturday, March 1: Ladies Free Skating

• Sunday, March 2: Exhibition Gala

For the ladies, all eyes will be on 14-year-old Mirai Nagasu, the 2008 U.S. senior ladies champion and reigning Junior World silver medalist. She'll face stiff competition from teammates Caroline Zhang, also 14, who won Junior Worlds last year and came in fourth in the senior ladies division at U.S. Nationals, and 15-year-old Rachael Flatt, who finished second to Mirai at the Junior Grand Prix Final and at U.S. Nationals. For the men, look for Adam Rippon, entering his first Junior Worlds, and Brandon Mroz, who finished fourth at last year's Junior Worlds, to make a strong showing. Adam and Brandon finished one and two, respectively, at the 2008 U.S. Junior Nationals. Here's a list of competitors in all disciplines.

icenetwork is offering free live streaming video of the entire competition. The webcasts are free to anyone who registers with icenetwork.

Did you know there's also prize money involved? Skaters and couples placing first to twelfth receive amounts ranging from $1,000 to $15,000.

   Men and Ladies                                                  Pairs and Dance (per couple)
1^st place US$ 10,000                                                     1^st place US$ 15,000
2^nd place US$ 7,000                                                      2^nd place US$10,500
3^rd place US$ 5,000                                                      3^rd place US$ 7,500    
4^th place US$ 3,500                                                      4^th place US$ 4,500
5^th place US$ 2,750                                                      5^th place US$ 4,000
6^th place US$ 2,500                                                      6^th place US$ 3,750
7^th place US$ 2,250                                                      7^th place US$ 3,500
8^th place US$ 2,000                                                      8^th place US$ 3,000
9^th place US$ 1,750                                                      9^th place US$ 2,750
10^th place US$ 1,500                                                   10^th place US$ 2,250
11^th place US$ 1,250                                                   11^th place US$ 1,750
12^th place US$ 1,000                                                   12^th place US$ 1,500