| EUROPEAN CRITERIUM 5TH EVENT - WARSAW |
| Many of you, especially if you live in America, may not know what the European Criterium is. It is very similar to Grand Prix series. There are six events scattered throughout the Europe. It's an event for young skaters, created to give children the opportunity to compete internationally so they can gain a lot of experience. The event is mostly for cubs, springs and debs, however also for juniors. And Juniors were the most interesting part of the Warsaw competition and that's the part I'm going to review. If you are looking for full results, you can find them below: European Criterium Warsaw - Results |
| The event I'm reviewing took place from 7th to 10th March in Warsaw and it was the penultimate, fifth, event. I put links to Komosa's and Jurkiewicz's biographies so just click on their names if you want to get to know more about these skaters. |
| JUNIOR LADIES 1. Anna Jurkiewicz /POL/ SP:1 FP:1 She is back in a fantastic style! In 1998 she was fifth at World Juniors and she was very close to a medal. But then she had three terrible Worlds, finishing 25th, 27th and 31st. What happened? She had a back injury which really affected her training and she wasn't in a good shape so that pretty much explains her 25th place in 1999. The saddest thing is that later she was back in form but wasn't able to perform because of the nerves. She can easily do all the triples (apart from the axel of course) as well as triple toe/triple toe combination. The problem is that when it matters, she can't cope with the pressure. This year she had a disastrous Nationals, finishing 4th in Seniors. She gained a lot of weight and wasn't able to land any triples. Fortunately she managed to get back into shape for this competition. She lost 11 kilos!!! She's back to form now a she had a great skate! During her free program, she landed triple lutz, triple toe, triple salchow, triple loop and a double axel. Her only mistakes came on the flip. She had a hard fall on the triple flip and doubled it when she tried to do it again. Overall, she was clearly the best! 2. Julia Sheremet /BLR/ SP:2 FP:3 3. Urszula Handzlik /POL/ SP:5 FP:2 4. Uliana Novalickaja /UKR/ SP:3 FP:4 5. Sabina Pasnik /POL/ SP:4 FP:5 She had a very good free skate, landing triple toe, triple salchow and two double axels as well as some doubles. Her program was nicely presented as well. 6. Anna Buniewicz /POL/ SP:7 FP:6 She had a disastrous competition! Buniewicz was 2nd at Junior Nationals this year and 3rd last year so she surely had high expectations here. However it wasn't to be. She bombed in the short, making numerous mistakes. She double footed the second part of her triple toe/double toe combination, stepped out of the double axel. The triple loop off steps was also landed on two feet. In her free program, she managed to land two triple toes and a double axel. She went for the triple loop but resigned and didn't take off. She didn't even go for the planned triple salchow. I hope that she can recover soon after this terrible start. 7. Agnieszka Salacinska /POL/ SP:6 FP:7 The only triple jump she can land is horribly cheated triple flip. She landed all the doubles here. 8. Oktawia Scibior /POL/ SP:9 FP:8 9. Gaia Montanelli /ITA/ SP:10 FP:9 10. Chiara Tresoldi /ITA/ SP:8 FP:10 JUNIOR MEN 1. Krzysztof Komosa /POL/ SP:3 FP:1 He was a Polish junior champion last year, went to World Juniors where he had a terrible skate and failed to qualify (finished down in 35th). This year he finished second in the seniors. Here he skated brilliantly. In the free program he landed six triple jumps (however he still can't do a triple axel so his best jump was the lutz) and that he had a skate of his life! Nevertheless you can still see that he is "very junior" as his spins and presentation need a lot of work. He won in a 3:2 judges split. He received 4.9-5.2 for technical merit and 4.8-5.2 for presentation. 2. Serguei Shiliaev /BLR/ SP:1 FP:2 He lost the free to Komosa because he fell on the triple axel and couldn't get the triple lutz out. However he had higher marks for presentation then the Pole as Komosa is still very immature. 3. Lukasz Chluba /POL/ SP:5 FP:3 4. Przemyslaw Domanski /POL/ SP:4 FP:4 5. Patryk Szalasny /POL/ SP:2 FP:5 He was third (which means the last) at Nationals last year and as far as I remember, he couldn't land anything so his final placement doesn't suprise me. He had the best skate of his life in the short, landing all the jumps (lutz/toe combination, triple flip and a double axel), however he completely fell apart in the free skate. 6. Mariusz Swiergula /POL/ SP:6 FP:6 |
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| Info thanks to Megan |