| 2003 WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS |
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| Entries for 2004 World Juniors Since all the final placements have been decided, we can see how many countries earned more than minimum one entry for their athletes. PAIRS China - 3 Russia - 3 USA - 3 Canada - 2 Ukraine - 2 The numbers of teams countries can enter next year are exactly the same as this season. The balance has not changed. Although Russian couples this time didn't manage to medal, they placed high enough to ensure three spots. China continues to dominate the discipline with gold and silver while USA is the third force. All the competitors in the top ten come from the five countries above only. MEN France - 3 Russia - 3 USA - 3 Canada - 2 China - 2 Italy - 2 Japan - 2 Ukraine - 2 Three countries lost one entry while four gained one. Chinese and Japanese men didn't skate very well therefore those countries will be able to enter only two athletes next year instead of three. Slovenia has two spots this year thanks to a great performance by Gregor Urbas. This year things didn't turn out so well and the country is reduced back to basic one entry. Kovalevski from Ukraine and D'Inca from Italy earned their federations the right to send two participants next year while the two biggest powers of figure skating, USA and Russia finally earned three spots for their junior men. It was an especially difficult task for Evan Lysacek after Pennington withdrew due to the injury but his second placement was enough. ICE DANCE Russia - 3 Canada - 2 Germany - 2 Hungary - 2 Israel - 2 Ukraine - 2 USA - 2 The balance in the ice dance, "the most immobile discipline" hasn't changed a lot. There seems to be a huge gap in the French dance since their two junior teams placed very badly, losing the right to two spots. American teams were only two (!) places away from retaining their right to three entries and they will have to put up with two only. The young brother and sister team from Israel made a huge improvement this season, placing eleven places higher than last season, to earn two entries for their country. LADIES Japan - 3 USA - 3 China - 2 Italy - 2 Russia - 2 Sweden - 2 In the ladies department there was also very little change. China and Sweden produced two young promising talents who earned them two entries. Stephanie Zhang couldn't come and both Australian ladies didn't even qualify losing federation's right to enter two athletes. The most painful loss of the whole event belongs to Canada. Its ladies managed to only place 13th, 16th and 17th, and so it became the only country to lose two entries. Unfortunately we will only see one Canadian lady next season. Men - Short Program: Lysacek first as Shubin faulters /The required jump out of footwork this season is the lutz./ Evan Lysacek skated another blinding performance to easily win the short program as most of the skaters were making mistakes. He played safe opting for a triple flip-triple toe combination. Triple lutz out of footwork and the double axel were completed without a problem as well and his interpretation of the paso double was very good. Alexander Shubin tried to do a triple axel but stepped out of the landing and needed to add extra turns before doing a triple toe-loop. He had the same mistake on the lutz, from which he also fell out and had to put his hands down as well. However because the orverall level of the competition wasn't very high, it was enough to place third on the night and second overall. Sergei Dobrin skated a clean program with the same jump content as Lysacek and placed second. All the other skaters had some faults in their routines. Alban Praubert showed another original program but fell out of his triple axel and stands in fourth in this part of the competition. Anton Kovalevski stepped out of the triple lutz after succesfully completing triple flip-triple toe-loop combination to place sixth. It's interesting to see that top three skaters from the qualifying group B, all skated dissapointadly in the short program. Kishimoto was placed sixth. He landed the only clean triple axel in this part of the competition however he fell on the triple lutz out of steps. It is interesting to see how junior ladies are jumpwise on the same, if not the higher, level as seniors while there is a very wide gap in the men's department. While most senior skaters have quads planned in their routines, juniors problems even with the triple axels. Ice Dance - Compulsories: Predictable winners and surprise winners Following the recent ISU decision, two qualifying groups were formed so that the judges can mark fewer couples. Since only twenty-eight teams take part in the event, I don't consider such decision to have much sense, especially considering that the groups are almost always unequal. Group B, which was the first to go, had two best junior couples this season, Domnina/Shabalin and Hoffman/Elek. Just as at the Grand Prix Final and Europeans, the Russians placed in front of the Hungarians on both dances. Christina and William Beier placed third in that group and complained about having to skate in the tougher one. The other group's suprise winners were the American Galler-Rabinowitz and Mitchell who were twelth last year. They unexpectadly defeated reigning bronze medallists Romanovskaya/Grachev. Third were the Italians, Alessa Aureli and Andrea Vaturi. There was some movement between the two dances and it was really uplifting to see that at a big international event. Pairs - Short Program : Juniors more consistent than seniors The level of this part of the competition was very high. Most of the couples didn't make any mistakes, which is very surprising, considering that the throw jump scheduled for this season is the loop, the most difficult one attempted by skaters at the moment. The required side-by-side jump was the double lutz, the overhead lift was the star lift and the death spiral was forward inside. Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang, the gold medalists two seasons ago, easily won this part of the event, getting marks much higher than anyone else. Double lutzes and throw triple loop were completed without the problem, however, as usual, the side-by-side spins weren't very good. Double twist, performed right at the end of their program was simply spectacular and the performance to Bond's Victory earned them marks as high as 5.8 for both the required elements and presentation. Julia Karbovksaya and Sergei Slavnov who placed second, last season, skated a beatiful program to a tango by Raul di Blasio, landing all the required elements, however it was marred by little mistakes. Double lutzes were out of synch and they slipped on the spiral sequence. Yang Ding and Zhongfei Ren placed third afer an excellent program with strong required elements, good speed and much improved presentation. Since most of the couples skated clean programs, the marks were all over the place as it was difficult for the judges to determine the placements. Apart from the bottom four couples, everyone attempted the throw triple loop and usually landed it! Montgomery/Arnold, Vise/Kole, Havlickova/Stefl were falls, Pla/Bonheur had a hand down and step out, Don/Hunt both hands down. All the other attempts were succesful and the young athletes really deserve a lot of respect. The one couple which had a nightmare skate was Jessica Dube and Samuel Tetrault. Dube singled the lutz and then fell on the loop and the Canadian junior champions placed twelth in this part of the competition. Men - QR(A) : Shubin first, Lysacek right on his heels Alexander Shubin made his first step towards winning the event, however he will have some tough competition from the two-years ago silver medallist, Evan Lysacek. The Russian landed six triples including triple axel-triple toe combination, making mistake only on the triple flip, to win the group by a narrow margin. Right behind him placed the American after a simply great skate. He landed eight triple jumps, including a triple axel, triple lutz-triple toe combination and triple flip-triple salchow sequence. He said that he only learned how to do the axel a week ago so it is a great accomplishment for him. Nevertheless the judges decided to place him second, however as his and Shubin's marks were almost the same it probably was up to the computer selection. Third was Alban Preaubert who had six triples, inculding the axel, but what made him stand out from the rest of the field was original choreography and good footwork. His compatriot, Damien Djordevic was the only skater in the qualifying round to attempt the quadruple jump. He tried a quadruple toe-loop but fell and placed sixth in this group. Men - QR(B) : Kishimoto wins, Pennigton withdraws The 2003 World Junior Championships began with Men's Qualifying Round. Kazumi Kishimoto won group B, landing seven triple jumps, including the triple axel-double toe combination. It was a very good performance for the 16-year old from Chiba. Although his presentation wasn't very good, he delivered the goods while others were making mistakes. In second place stands Shawn Sawyer who landed six triple jumps and had the best presentation but failed both of his triple axel attempts. The top 3 was rounded by Martin Liebers from Germany, who landed six triples, including the very difficult triple loop-triple loop combination in his performance to The Way To Eldorado. Parker Pennington from USA, who placed 6th at US Championships and 3rd at ISU Grand Prix final, this season, was forced to withdraw from the competition. He was one of the main contenders for the gold medal. At the beginning of his free skate, he stepped out of the triple axel but then came back strongly to land triple lutz-triple toe combination. However he stepped out of the next jump, the triple flip. He must have hurt his back on one of the landings as he stopped then and came to talk to the referee. He decided to continue and later on, stepped out of the double axel of the double loop. Then he decided that he can't continue and made the decision to withdraw. On the other note, Jamal Othman, the young promising Swiss talent, looked as if he still hasn't recovered from his injury, which made him miss the European Championships in Malmo last month. He stepped out of the triple lutz at the beginning of his program and then popped all his other jumps to place 20th, and therefore not qualify to the short program on Wednesday. |