POSTED: Thursday February 26th 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2009

The ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2009 continued Thursday in Sofia, Bulgaria with the Original Dance and the Men’s Free Skating.

Ice Dance, Original Dance
The Original Dance of the 2008/09 season is rhythms of the 20s, 30s and 40s. The 30 couples in the event chose a wide variety of dances.
 
Madison Chock/Greg Zuerlein (USA) strengthened their lead after the Compulsory Dance ahead of teammates Madison Hubbell/Keiffer Hubbell. Ekaterina Riazanova/Jonathan Guerreiro of Russia moved up from seventh to third place.
 
Chock/Zuerlein put out a strong performance of their entertaining Charleston routine that was highlighted by a straight line lift with changes of position and fast twizzles. The Junior Grand Prix Final Champions were awarded a level four for the lift, the spin and the twizzles and a level three for the circular and the side by side footwork. The team earned 57.29 points (32.60 element score/24.69 program component score) and improved their previous personal best by 3.51 points. Overall the U.S. Junior Champions accumulated 90.44 points so far. “It’s actually a lot of fun to do this area of 20s and 30s because I’ve always loved the Charleston, the outfits they had back then. It’s just a lot of fun to interpret”, Chock commented. “We’re basically happy with our performance. It was solid for the most part and we just connected well with each other like we usually do because it’s just fun to skate with him”, she added. Her partner agreed: “This performance definitely ranks up there with others. I think it was one of our top performances this season. Obviously there were a few parts that were shaky. I stumbled a little bit on a step, but it wasn’t on an element. That was ok.”
Hubbell/Hubbell had chosen a Blues and danced to “Minnie the Moocher”, showing off their maturity and strong footwork. The brother and sister team produced a straight line lift, a dance spin and twizzles that were all graded a level four while the circular steps and the side by side midline step sequence were graded a level three by the Technical Panel. The Junior Grand Prix Final silver medalists scored 53.44 points (30.50/22.94), slightly surpassing their previous personal best of 53.31 points and were ranked third in the Original Dance. Overall they remained in second place at 84.83 points.
Riazanova/Guerreiro delivered a smooth Slox Fox to “C’est si bon” by Louis Armstrong and a lively Swing to “Sing Sing Sing” by Louis Prima that included a excellent synchronized twizzles, a one-armed rotational lift and precise footwork. The twizzles, the spin and the lift got a level four, the side by side and circular footwork a level three. The Russian Junior Champions picked up 53.80 points (30.60/23.20) and collected at total of 82.82 so far to move up four spots after the Compulsory Dance.
 
Men, Free Skating
The Men’s event concluded with an exciting Free Skating. Adam Rippon (USA) won his second consecutive World Junior title. Michal Brezina of the Czech Republic earned the bronze, and Russia’s Artem Grigoriev clinched the bronze.
 
Overnight leader Rippon, who skated third in the final flight, gave a magnificent performance to “Send in the Clowns” and “I Pagliacci”. He nailed a triple Flip-triple toe, a triple Axel-double toe, a triple loop, and the crowd cheered when he hit the second triple Axel. The 19-year-old went on to reel off a two triple Lutzes and a triple Salchow as difficult spins and footwork, earning level threes and fours for them. When he had finished, he first fell on his knees on the ice, then jumped up and down in joy. Rippon posted a new personal best of 147.70 points (77.60 element score/70.10 program component score) and racked up a total of 222.00 points to take the gold. “I feel really good about everything. Mentally and physically I was in really good shape going into the long program”, Rippon said. “I’m really happy with myself that I could put together this program. A really rewarding experience. So far it’s the best I’ve skated in competition.”
Brezina, who stood in second place after the Short Program, had skated just before Rippon and turned in a strong performance as well. His fast paced routine to Latin music included a triple Axel-double toe, a triple Lutz, triple flip-triple toe, another gorgeous triple Axel, a triple loop, flip as well as two level-four spins. He only doubled the Salchow. The Czech skater scored 135.33 points (71.23/64.10), which was a new personal best and remained in second place with 204.88 points. It was Brezina’s first medal at the World Junior Championships.
Skating to a modern version of Swan Lake, Grigoriev produced a triple Lutz-double toe-double loop, a triple flip-triple toe as well as three more triples. The Muscovite was awarded a level four for the change foot sit spin and a level three for the other two spins and the footwork. The only error in his expressive routine came when he doubled a flip. The Russian received 119.29 points (58.49/60.80), which was a new personal best, and pulled up from fourth to third with a total of 184.40 points. It was his debut at the World Junior Championships.
 
The ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2009 continue Friday with the Ladies Free Skating and the Free Dance. For more information and full results please see: www.isu.org and http://www.isuworldjunior2009.com. An extended version of this report will be available on the website later tonight.
 
For further information please contact:
ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships      ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships
Devra Pitt-Getaz, ISU Media Coordinator                        Ani Doncheva, Press Chief
+41 21 612 66 66                                                      +359 2 961 70 98 (press room)

email: pitt@isu.ch                                                      e-mail: info@isuworldjunior2009.com

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Keywords · ISU · Figure Skating

Name: Devra Pitt-getaz
Organization: ISU
Email:
Phone: +41 21 612 66 66
URL: http://www.isu.org/

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