2011 Grand Prix Final

They established an over-four point lead after this section. He is the 5-year younger brother of Nelli Zhiganshina, who competes in ice dance representing Germany. He and his partner earned Level 4 for both sequences of the Cha Cha Congelado (which, unsurprisingly, translates as ‘Cha Cha with ice’.) It is a former compulsory dance invented by former British 4-time world champion, Bernie Ford, and his pupils in Canada.

They also received the maximum level for their solid twizzles and rotational lift. However, their final element, the non-touching midline steps, was awarded only Level 2 by the Technical Panel, which comprised Controller Gilles Vanderbroeck, Specialist Ayako Higashino, and Assistant Galit Chait-Moracci.

They skated to Blah Blah Blah, Cha Cha Cha by Petty Booka and a Samba, Manha de Carnival by Elizete Cardosa. Sinitsina explained that the two sequences of the Pattern Dance selected for all Juniors this season is, "very difficult to skate with difficult elements. However, the audience likes the Latin rhythm."

She also said that despite their lead, she felt this was only their second-best showing of this routine because of their showing on the steps. "And we were penalized a point for holding the lift too long."

Her partner added, "It is not up to us to make the rules and it is necessary to pick something which will entertain the audience. Overall, there is a good atmosphere here. It’s very easy to skate. The ice is very good and the audience is very supportive. We also did have a small problem on the lift."

4.SD 52.48 (25.43+28.05 -1) Alexandra Stepanova, 16, born in St. Petersburg, & Ivan Bukin, 18, born in Moscow, qualified by winning both the Roumanian and Italian JGP events. He is the son of Andrei, the 1988 Olympic ice dancer, and ice dancer Elena Vasiuk. It was quite a shock to find them lying only 4^th, the result of his falling flat during their twizzles and gaining no points at all for this element, which, executed at Level 4, earns a base value of 6 full points.

Since there are only five required elements in the Short Dance, it was a credit to this team that they didn’t drop to last. The other four elements all received positive GoEs. They opened with both sequences of the Cha Cha which received Level 4s with significant GoEs of +0.57 and +0.43. After their fall, when, no doubt, they were still shaken, their Midline steps gained only Level 2 but with +0.86. By the end they had recovered and their rotation lift was Level 4 with +0.57.

5.SD 51.59 (26.93+24.66) Alexandra Alridge, 17, from Birmingham, Mich., & Daniel Eaton, 19, from Bloomfield, Mich., train at the Detroit SC. They were 5^th in the US championships at Junior level earlier this year and will be eligible for another season for the JGP Series. They performed their Cha Cha to I Need to Know by Marc Anthony. That was combined with Mambo No. 8 performed by The Mambo Kings Orchestra.

She said, "We are very, very, very happy. We wanted to win. This means a lot to us. It is a very nice feeling. I don’t know what else to say. Last year we didn’t expect anything in the Final and we were second. Nothing has really happened since last year’s Final, just the country (the event was in Beijing last season) and the Short Dance is different. But, we ourselves grew."

Zhiganshin said, "The win is a motivation for us to go on and not stop where we are now. This season we have the Russian Junior Nationals and Junior Worlds. We must work on getting better techniques for the program. We want all Level 4s, of course. We want to skate well. That is our main goal."

2.Overall 136.61; 3 FD 80.39 (38.36+42.03) Anna Yanovskaia & Sergei Mozgov, Russia, skated to Mala Luna by a Canadian-Italian, Gino Vanneli. The duo, who teamed together earlier this year, seemed a little awestruck to be second. He said, "We skated brilliantly today. We are very happy with our second place here. We weren’t expecting to place high. We are very happy with ourselves. We will now work on the programs to get ready for Russian nationals, and the Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck (in January). We know there is no limit to how much we can improve. We will work on our technique, and towards gelling as a team."

She said, "We have only been together since spring, so we credit our coaches (Svetlana Alexeeva, Elena Kustarova & Olga Riabinina) for their excellent work and preparation. We can’t think of anyone else who made that much progress in that short a time." They earned five Level 4s. The step sequences were both Level 2.

3.Overall 135.17; 2.FD 82.69 (38.14+44.55). Alexandra Stepanova & Ivan Bukin, Russia, repeated as bronze medalists in this event but she revealed, "We are happy but we wanted to place much higher. We did not do good with the short dance but did much better with the free dance. Last year we hoped, but did not expect, to get to the grand prix finals, so we didn’t have any goals. This year we were expecting it so we were worrying a little more about qualifying and then about doing well here."

They performed very dramatically to Paul McCartney’s version of music from the James Bond movie, Live and Let Die with her in an orange outfit with one side longer than the other and he in black with a plunging neck line. If he hadn’t fallen in the SD, they definitely would have been silver medalists since the gap was only 1.44. However, they finished 12.36 points behind the gold medalists. At 16 and 18 and both born after July 1, they still have plenty of time to come back for the other medals.

4.Overall 129.01; 4.FD 77.42 (38.86+38.56). Alexandra Alridge & Daniel Eaton, USA, performed to Ronan Hardiman’s Lord of the Dance, with her in a green dress, of course. They advanced a place, earning a substantial total of 13.84 points ahead of the fifth-placed couple.

5.Overall 115.17; 5.FD 65.04 (28.58+36.46). Anastasia Galyeta & Alexei Shumski, Ukraine, skated to music by Tchaikovsky. They received only one Level 4, which was given for their final element, a rotational lift which scored only a small +0.14 positive GoE. Both their step sequences were Level 1 with the circular steps just making the base value and the diagonal steps losing -0.07 from the base value.

He tried to put a positive outlook on the situation. "We did well today, considering we did NOT have good practices here. We were afraid we would do worse than we did. Our goal for the season was to make the Final and we lucked out when another team (-) had to withdraw. Our goal now is to make the Junior World championship team."

They finished 7^th in the Final last season when eight junior couples were allowed. (The invitees were reduced to six for this season.) The red-headed Galyeta said the situation was very simple. "We need to work more on our technique and skating skills, so we can get higher levels!"

6.Overall 113.79; 6. FD 59.84 (24.15+36.69 -1). Maria Nosulia & Evgen Kholoniuk, Ukraine, were understandably upset at dropping from third to last, although they finished only 1.38 points behind their teammates, who were fifth. She tripped and he held her up during their third required element, the circular steps which were given only Level 1 with a full point deducted from the base value. Then he fell during their next element, which was their twizzles and they gained no points for this element.

Their free, set to music conducted by Henry Mancini from Peter Sellers’ classic movie series, The Pink Panther, had started well with a very good +0.86 Level 4 straight line lift and their spin and rotational lift were also Level 4 with +0.21 and +0.29, but their concluding diagonal steps gained only the base value for the basic Level 1.