We take a quick look back at what happened in the world of skating over the course of the past week.

2016 Junior Grand Prix Series Kicks Off In France

The 2016/2017 season got under way in earnest over the weekend with the opening Junior Grand Prix event held in St. Gervais, France.

The first title went to Alina Zagitova who is the latest is a long line of Russian female figure skating prodigies. In her debut on the international stage, Zagitova impressed the judges in both her short programme and free skating winning both segments comprehensively. In particular, her “Don Quixote” free saw her insert all seven of her jumping passes in the second half of her routine earning her a 10% bonus on the elements. She scored a massive total of 194.37 to win gold.

Kaori Sakamoto and Rin Nitaya, both from Japan, also maintained their positions after the short to finish second and third respectively.

Although Roman Savosin had already finished 14th at the World Junior Championships earlier this year, this was his first time competing on the Junior Grand Prix circuit. While others around him felt the pressure, the Russian came second in both the short and free to claim the win with a total of 198.28.

Compatriot Ilia Skirda rallied from ninth place after the short to post the best free score of the event and moved up to second overall. Koshiro Shimada from Japan clung on to third by the slimmest of margins over local French favourite Kevin Aymoz to win bronze.

There was joy for the French hosts when Angelique Abachkina and Louis Thauron picked up the gold in the ice dance event with a winning combined score of 152.17. Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko from the United States grabbed the silver and Sofia Polishchuk and Alexander Vakhnov from Russia took bronze.

A bus crash involving competitors Anzelika Klujeva from Latvia and Anna Tarusina from Russia and their coaches overshadowed the event. All required hospitalisation for injuries sustained in the accident which forced them to withdraw from the competition.

You can see the full results from the competition here.

Changes For Chan

Kathy Johnson, three-time World champion Patrick Chan’s coach, announced that she had resigned her position effective immediately. The two had worked together since 2012 and had recently transferred training bases from Detroit to Vancouver. It is as yet unclear who Chan will be coached by for the coming season.

Vasiljevs Teams Up With Lambiel

Deniss Vasiljevs has announced that he has switched coaches to Stephane Lambiel. The Latvian previously trained under Olympic champion Alexei Urmanov in Sochi. The decision came about after working with the Swiss 2006 Olympic silver medallist over the summer.