(28 February 2013)

Sixteen pairs from nine countries competed and all were allowed to progress to the Free Skate.

American Gale Tanger is the Technical Controller who supervises the Technical Specialist, Lorenzo Magri, and his Assistant, Peter Cain, who is the Australian former pair skater who now lives in California. The referee is the former Russian competitor, Marina Sanaya.

1.SP 54.54 (31.10+21.85) Xiaoyu Yu, who turned 17 on January 2, & Yang Jin, 18, are the Chinese senior champions, but that was more from default in that others did not enter this season. Yu & Jin won silver in last year’s Junior World Championships, held in Belarus, and since last year’s champions, China’s Sui Wenjing & Han Cong, did not enter this time, anything less than the lead for Yu & Jin would have been embarrassing.

They drew to skate their routine, choreographed by Marina Zoueva to Mendelssohn’s romantic “Violin Concerto in E Minor” 12^th, which was last of the third group of four pairs. Dressed in purple, they opened with good, +0.43 double Axels. Their double twist lift included all the extra features necessary to earn the maximum Level 4 with +0.34 Grade of Execution added. Their throw triple Salchow was so good, the judging panel voted to award them an additional +1.30 over the base value of 4.5 points. Their back outside death spiral was Level 3 with +0.50. Their straight line steps and the flying change foot combination spin were both Level 4 with +0.60 and +0.57.

With a smile on his face, Jin said afterwards, “It was the best performance of the season and I am especially proud of my partner today. She did a great job. I think we made a lot of progress and I want to thank our coaches for the work they did with us. We are very pleased with the outcome.

It was interesting that all the medalists thought the back outside version of the death spiral was the hardest to do despite the fact that until the great Russian skaters Ludmila & Oleg Protopopov (Olympic gold medalists in 1964 & 1968) created the other three edge versions in the late 1960s, it was the only one executed. However, that may have to do with now it is necessary to add extra features to get the Levels.

2.SP 53.09 (29.18+23.91) Margaret Purdy & Michael Marinaro from Canada, gave an extremely graceful showing to Puccini’s melodic “Oh, My Beloved Father”, to earn their season’s best score, only 1.86 behind the Chinese. Purdy, who turned 18 on January 18, said, “We’re very pleased with our skate today. We went out there to skate our best and have fun. It was our very last competition of the season. So we just wanted to enjoy it. We soaked up every moment of it and we are proud of what we did. We go out there, do the same thing tomorrow, do what we do every day in practice and enjoy ourselves.”

Her partner was 21 on January 7 and so they will no longer be eligible for Junior events next season. Skating 10^th, which was second in the third group of four pairs, they earned the maximum Level 4 for their lift, the straight lines steps and the change foot combination spin. Their double twist was Level 3 as was their back outside death spiral. Their throw triple Salchow was solid. They agreed their fellow Canadians, Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir, have influenced them to become more musically interpretive than pairs normally are. They are trained by Alison Purkiss & Scott Rachuk in Strathroy, Ontario.

Purdy thought that maybe their feeling of caution for the back outside death spiral comes from having different versions required every year in the SP. If it is not specified that year, then that version becomes less important, and skaters possibly devote less time to the move than they did in the past.

3.SP 52.61 (27.76+24.85) Haven Denney & Brendon Frazier, USA, lie only 0.48 behind the Canadians. They performed to “Malaguena”, opening with a +0.39 Level 3 double twist and a +0.50 throw triple Salchow. Their double Axel earned an extra +0.14 and their Level 3 change foot combination spin was awarded an extra +0.29. Their group 4 (Press) lift received the maximum Level 4 with +0.43 and their Level 2 death spiral earned an extra +0.90. They finished with their steps which were Level 2 with +0.71.

Denney & Frazier are the 2010 U.S. champions at Junior level who are now climbing the senior ranks domestically. The 17-year-old Denney and 20-year-old Frazier train in Florida with John Zimmerman & Sylvia Fontana. In Milan, they improved their previous season’s best of 44.58 points significantly. “It was a great feeling,” Denney said. They finished 9^th in the 2011 U.S. senior nationals; 6^th in 2012 and 5^th in Omaha in January.

He said, “I think my partner and I definitely connect together. It wasn’t so much that we skated a clean program, it was how well we felt getting into the program and feeding off each other. It’s been a very long season and it was nice to go out there and put out some of the hard work we had to put in just to perform like that.”

Denney’s parents started out as roller skating instructors so Haven was brought up in that environment and she initially teamed up with Frazier in competition on rollers. Frazier delighted attendees at the evening’s press conference with explanations of how different the two sports are. “For one thing, it’s not COLD! But, when you fall, you don’t slide. You stay where you are. The ice is kinder! The outside or inside wheels move so you can do edges but it’s much more difficult than on blades.”

4.SP 52.25 (29.51+23.74 -1) Evgenia Tarasova & Vladimir Morozov, from Russia, who are NOT related to the famous coaches, Tatiana Tarasova or Stanislav Morosov, skated eighth, just before the ice resurfacing. Dressed in gray and black, with embroidery on his back, they interpreted music from the soundtrack of “Liquidation”, taking the standard of the event to a new level despite his fall on a double Axel.

They opened with a high Level 4 double twist. After his fall, they got back in synch with a nice throw triple Salchow and a good Level 3 back outside death spiral. The Group 4 lift, step sequence and flying change foot camel spin were all the maximum Level 4.

The 18-year-old Tarasova was born in Kazan, and 20 year-old Morozov, in Potsdam in Germany. They train with Stanislav Morozov and Andrei Hekalo in Moscow. They earned silver in the last Russian Junior championship. Both have had previous partners, but Tarasova did not begin to pair skate until 2010.

5.SP 51.57 (28.03+23.54) Brittany Jones & Ian Beharry, from Canada, skated first in the second warm-up group, and gave a clearly superior performance to those who performed earlier. Dressed in black with silver, with her in sleeves along with a cut-out back, they interpreted, “Black Magic Woman” by Santana. They are taught by Kristy Sargeant-Wirz.

Their double twist, lift and flying change foot combination spin all received the maximum Level 4 with good Grades of Execution, and their steps were Level 3 with +0.50, but their double Axels got a negative -0.15 and their back outside death spiral was awarded only the base value for Level 1.

6.SP 49.95 (27.75+22.20) Annabelle Prolss & Ruben Blummaert, from Germany, train in Oberstdorf. Both have birthdays in March. On the 30^th Prolss will turn 14 and on the 5^th Blummaert will be 21. Skating a pleasing program to a variety of well-known Italian music, they began with double Axels. Their double twist was Level 3 and their throw triple Salchow was landed a little scratchily but received a small positive GoE. Their lift, which had a change of direction, was Level 4 as were their steps. They got a small negative on their flying change foot combination spin and their back and there back outside death spiral was only Level 1.  

7.SP 49.43 (26.46+23.97 -1) Lina Fedorova & Maxim Miroshkin, are the Russian junior champions. She is 15 and he 18, and they presented an upbeat program to “Singing in the Rain”, in colorful, redominately yellow outfits. They won in the Junior Grand Prix Final in Sochi in December, but she fell on their throw triple Salchow in Milan. They are trained by Vladislav Zhovnirski & Andrei Hekalo. Zhovnirski won three bronze medals and the 1996 gold in the World Junior championship.

8.SP 45.72 (24.58+22.14 -1) Jessica Calalang & Zack Sidhu, USA, performed last. They are both Californians and train with Todd Sand, Jenni Meno, Christine Binder & John Nicks in Aliso Viego. They teamed up in 2010 and won silver in this season’s U.S. Junior championship. She turns 18 on February 24, and he was 21 on October 21. They skated to “Elite Synoptications” by Scott Joplin. She wore a sleeveless red and black outfit and he had a waistcoat to match.

Calalang fell on their double Axel which received an arrow for under-rotation. Their Level 4 lift also got a slight negative -0.14. And their double twist and back outside death spiral were only Level 1. However, their throw triple Salchow received +0.30 and their steps and spin received the maximum Level 4.  

9.SP 43.16 (22.36+21.80 -1) Britney Simpson & Matthew Blackmer, USA, performed to a Flamenco by Didulia. They are taught by Dalilah Sappenfield and Laureano Ibarra in Colorado Springs. Last year, when this event was in Minski in Belarus, they finished tenth. Simpson is 16 and Blackmer turned 21 on December 12.

Last year they were runners-up and this season they won the U.S. Junior title. This was not a good day for them, although they earned the maximum Level 4 for their lift, the steps and the spin, they had negative GoEs for five of their required seven elements, including a fall on a double Axel.

10.SP 42.87 (22.20+21.67 -1) Kamilla Gainetdinova made several errors including messing up her double Axel and falling on her throw triple Salchow. She and partner, Ivan Bich, are from St. Petersburg in Russia and are trained by Oksana Kazakova. They performed fourth. She is 15. He turned 20 on Valentine’s Day. They skated to “Yablochko”, (The Russian Sailor’s Dance) by Reinhold Gliere.

11.SP 42.61 (22.37+20.24) Julia Lavrentieva & Yuri Rudyk are from Kiev in Ukraine. They performed to the Hans Zimmer soundtrack for “Sherlock Holmes, A Game of Shadows”. She is 15 and he turned 21 on November 11.

12.SP 41.88 (23.05+18.83) Meiyl Li & Bo Jian from China performed to “Fantastic African Dance” dressed in  with one bare one shoulder. She is 15 but he will turn 21 on April 21 and so will not be eligible for this level of competition next season. They had four negative GoEs.  

13.SP 40.57 (23.59+17.98) Giulia Foresti & Leo Luca Sforza from Italy were first up, skating to Benny  Goodman’s “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen”.

14.SP 40.18 (20.52+20.66 -1) Hayleigh Bell & Alistair Sylvester from Canada performed a Charleston number with music by Cecil Mack. However, she fell on their throw triple Salchow and three other elements received negative GoEs, their double Axels, the Level 3 spin and their back outside death spiral.

15.SP 36.30 (20.27+16.03) Marcelina Lech, 16, & Jacob Tyc, who turned 21 on February 13, are the new Polish champions, trained by Dorota & Mariusz Siudek in Toran.  It was a rather down-beat performance. They managed to get the base value for their Level 1 back outside death spiral, but the judging panel gave them negatives for all their other elements.

16.SP 30.90 (16.24+15.66 -1) Rachael & Dmitry Epstein, sister and brother from the Netherlands, skated to “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC survived a fall on their throw triple Salchow. However, they were saddled with negatives for all seven required elements.