Skating in Sheffield

The Junior Grand Prix is making it's next stop in Britain at the John Curry Memorial Trophy in Sheffield. Contendors here will include.

Ladies
Adelina Sotnikova- fresh of her win in Graz
Yasmin Siraz and Kristeine Gong of the US could both be contenders for the podium
Stephanie Ridgley (right)- who I've always seen as being one of Caroline Zhang's rink buddies in California is apparently competing for Great Britain.
Isabelle Olsson- a JGP circuit regular with the ability to reach the podium if she skates well.

Mens
Joshua Farris of the US will definitely be looking for another medal, as will Keiji Tanaka of Japan and Zhan Bush of Russia. None of them have yet added JGP gold to their collection.

Pairs
Japan's Narumi Takahashi and Mervin Tran are the standout names here having been their countries main senior pair for several years now and the reigning world jr silver medallists.
Russian pair Ksenia Stolboza and Fedor Klimov will be hot on their heels after their win in Graz
Fellow russians Alexandra Vasileva and Yuri Shevchuk will also be in the hunt for a medal.

Dance
Aside from Ridgeley, this may be where the GB team has their best shot of a medal with 3 good teams out there
However, competing with reigning JGP champs Ksenia Monko and Kirill Khaliavin of Russia may be a step too far.
Other medallists this season so far include Lauri Bonacorsi and Travis Maeger (USA, 3rd in Brasov) and Viktoria Sinitsiva and Ruslan Zinganshin (2nd in Graz)

JGP heads to Romania

The second stop on this season's Junior Grand Prix will be coming to you from Brasov, Romania.

The Romanians are high up there in the world of gymnastics, lets see if they can host a good skating competition. They will have plenty of international talent to contend with.

Skaters to look out for include:

Ladies

Russia's leading junior Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, finally old enough to compete on the international stage- she already has a triple axel and 2 medals from senior Russian nationals in her back pocket.

Fellow russian Rosa Sheveleva, who won the bronze last week in Courchevel will be hoping to pick up another medal early in the series.

Ameicans Kristeine Gong and Samantha Cesario are both strong medal contenders. Gong finished 4th at a JGP series event last year and Cesario won the Gardenga spring trophy earlier this summer.

Also not to be counted out are Alexandra Najarro (Canada), Yuki Nishino (Japan) and Isabelle Olsson (Sweden). Korea sends its first entry of the series in the form of unknown Ho-Jung Lee.

Mens

The highly competetive Joshua Farris of the USA will face off against Russians Artur Dimitriev (another Mishin student) and Stanlisav Kovalev. Keegan Messing of the USA could also come away with a medal here. More outside chances include Canada's junior champ Lium Firus and Japan's Keiji Tanaka

Ice Dance

Last years JGP final champions Ksenia Monko & Kirill Khaliavin lead the field here.

Possible contenders for a medal include:

Anastasia Galeta & Alexei Shumski (Ukraine) - 8th at the World Junior champs

Lori Monacorsi & Travis Mager (USA) bronze medallists at last years JGP Lake Placid

Abby Carswell & Andrew Doleman (Canada)

Goings on

I'm currently away from home in Newcastle for a family wedding with a wounded laptop in tow - still feel it is right to update on the recent sports happenings when I get a moment.


A few miles from here the GB gymnasts beat the Swiss girls in their latest friendly international. Some of the bigger names were competing here than at the recent GB vs Romania meet. GB (Rebecca Downie, Jenni Pinches, Danusia Francis, Nicole Hibbert, and Hannah Whelan) scored 168.700 in the team competition to convincingly beat Switzerland (Ariella Kaeslin, Jennifer Senn, Jennifer Rutz, Linda Stampfli, Minu Krasniqi) with 152.850.

Becky Downie returned from her recent injury to claim the all around with a score of 55.950.
Becky said: “It feels really great to put in a performance like I have today. I was really happy with Beam and excited to be able to show off my new Floor routine, so overall I’m very happy.” GB also took the top 4 spots in the all-around with Kaeslin in 5th, scoring 53.100.

At the Russian Cup, Aliya Mustafina showed she is back on form after collecting a number of medals at Europeans then looking lacklustre performance at the Japan Cup. Mustafina took the all-around with 62.271 (The scores here were inflated as the judges gave extra marks for originality). The Ksenias, Afansyeva and Semenova took silver and bronze respectively. I would love to see all 3 of these girls at Worlds, although I suspect Semenova will miss out on the AA final.

In the skating world, as I predicted the Russian's made a comeback in the ladies event at JGP France. Polina Shelepen completed a 7-triplr jump programme to take gold ahead of Yasmin Siraj (USA) and Rosa Sheveleva (Russia). France's Yretha Silete was 4th and Jiang of the USA 5th. Andrei Rogozine (Canada) held onto the Men's title. Stepanova and Bukin of Russia decisively won the ice dance event.

Stateside- one of the USA's international bar workers, Cassie Whitcombe has a broken leg. This will likely take her out of the World's race. What this means is that either Bridget Sloan needs to get healthy and fast - or Mackenzie Caquatto (who I had dismissed for being inconsitent) may get the call. For such a strong team USA has a big weakness in the bars department- Where's a healthy Liukin when you need her!

And finally - on the other side of the World, Sui Lu won the all around at the Chinese Nationals. Her score of 56.900 bettering Jiang Yuyuan (56.35) and Huang Qiushuang (55.600). Deng Linlin missed the competition with a pulled thigh muscle.

Where do we go from here?

I was pondering this evening where 'Queen Yu-Na' will go if she chooses (or is forced) to leave the Cricket Club.


I could think of only two places that would do for her.

The Granite Club in Toronto is another exclusive private club and the base (for at least some of the time) of Lori Nichol, Kurt Browning and Patrick Chan. I'm sure Yu-Na could get plenty of first rate coacing and ice time here and would not have to sever all ties with Toronto. But with Canada skaters so loyal to Brian - would she really get a warm welcome?


However- if Yu-Na wants more of a change of scene she might consider moving to Michelle Kwan's family rink, the East West Ice Palace in Artesia, California. This place is busy with californinian skaters (Caroline Zhang being one of them) but I'm sure Yu-Na would be welcomed. I'm sure the biggest star in Korea would suit LA rather well.

I can't see Yu-Na going to Russia as however big a star you are you must slog it there. And life in Korea would still be just to crazy if she still wants to train and compete.

Meanwhile

French Skater Yrethra Silete has surprised many and won the short program at JGP france. The skater who's best finish on the JGP to date was 6th place at the event in Dresden last week scored 48.67. This put her narrowly ahead of Polina Shelepen (RUS, 48.11) and Nina Jiang (USA, 48.06). I have a feeling the russian will take it in the free skate but is would be great to see this french unknown hold on for a medal at home.

(Photo of Silete by David Carmichael)


In the men's competition Canada's Andrei Rogozine topped the short programme (64.52) ahead of the two americans Max Aaron (64.31) and Jason Brown (58.00).

All the US skaters competing in the Senior Grand Prix this season are in Colorado Springs for Champs Camp- which this year includes a monitoring competition.

I'm sure all the interviewers will be wanting a few words from Adam Rippon on the situation back at the Cricket Club!

Mirai Nagasu won't be skating at the camp as she has a stress fracture in her foot (this girl has ROTTEN luck!) She is due to be back on the ice September 1st. However it seems to be lucky she made it to the camp at all given these tweets:
Woke up today...at 10...got ready to go to the mall....and then...

I checked my email and realized I've got a plane to catch!! Hello Champs
camp!!:)

Gotta love that girl!

A new start!

With the Youth Olympics coming to a close we have seen a glimpse of the future of Gymnastics. The commonwealth's and World's are still to come but it is now time for attentions to shift somewhat because........

.....The international figure skating season (and the 2014 olympic cycle) starts this week!

The first stop on the Junior Grand Prix begins on Wednesday in Courchevel, France.

Nina Jiang of the USA is making her Junior Grand Prix Debut

Names to watch include
Ladies
Polina Shelepen (Russia) - 2nd in last years JGP final and 4th at junior worlds
Rosa Sheveleva - another talented young russian
Kana Muramoto (Japan) who medalled on the JGP in 2008
Nina Jiang and Yasmin Siraj (USA)- making their JGP debuts
Men
Jason Brown and Max Aaron (USA) -finished 1st and second respectively at the Gardenga Spring Trophy this year.
Andrei Rogozine (Canada) 6th at World Juniors
Ice Dance
Mainly the russians and the americans- although they are all new names to the international circuit.

There are 7 stops on the JGP circuit this year
Courchevel, France
Brasov, Romania
Graz, Austria
Karuizawa, Japan
Sheffield, Great Britain
Dresden, Germany
Ostrava, Czech Republic
Followed by the Grand Prix final in Beijing

The junior circuit is a place for new faces to make their name, although some of the 'more famous' juniors due to skate include Elizaveta Tuktamisheva (Mishin's young student with triple axels in the back pocket) and Christina Gao (Brian Orser's new Yu-Na).

News etc

Australia has named it's gymnastics teams for the 2010 Commonwealth Games
Men: Phil Rizzo, Prashanth Sellathurai, Sam Offord, Thomas Pichler + Josh Jefferis
Women: Lauren Mitchell, Ashleigh Brennan, Georgia Bonora, Emily Little + Mary Ann Monckton.

The alternates for the womens team are Shona Morgan and Georgia Wheeler. All these, as well as Emma Dennis, Britt Greeley, Georgia Simpson, Larrissa Miller and Natasha Hammann will attend a camp on 12 September from where the World team will also be chosen.

The FIG has announced the 2010 world championships will be the biggest ever, with 690 gymnasts due to compete. Brazil's Daiane Dos Santos is also hoping to make a comeback at Worlds this year.

The British mens gymnastics team (Yevgeni Gryshchenko, Sam Hunter, Ruslan Panteleymonov, Daniel Purvis, Theo Seager, Kristian Thomash) have headed off to train with the Japanese men for 2 weeks. (British Gymnastics)

The British Trampolining Championships take place this weekend at the NIA in Birmingham. Definitely worth a look if you're in the area. If you're in a completely different area the US Covergirl Classic is also happening.

2004 men's Olympic all-around champion Paul Hamm is planning a comeback in time for London2012. Hamm looked a safe bet for the '08 olympic team but had to withdraw at the US olympic trials after injuring his hand. He intends to begin competing again from 2011.

As was going around the rumour mill earlier - US skater Caroline Zhang has indeed changed coaches to Tammy Gambill. The announcement was posted on icenetwork and universal sports.

NISA has posted their assignment of GB skaters for the Junior Grand Prix this season.