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

Finlandia Trophy Acts As Prelude To Worlds

With this season concluding with the World Championships in Helsinki, Finland, a strong field of skating talent assembled this weekend in the host city for the Finlandia Trophy.

There was a surprise in the ladies event where Kaetlyn Osmond overcame both three-time World champion Mao Asada and World bronze medallist Anna Pogorilaya. The Canadian had been third after the short program, but edged out Asada in the free to become the first singles skater from her country to take the title. Asada had to settle for silver with overnight leader Pogorilaya dropping down to bronze.

Nathan Chen attempted four different varieties of quad jumps in his free skating and, while only one of his five attempts received a positive grade of execution, it helped him garner a massive amount in the technical scores that none of the other men were able to match. In his first competition with new coach Marina Zueva, Patrick Chan had a nervy free that saw him unable to pass Chen. Maxim Kovtun, the leader after the short, dropped down to third overall after a subpar free skate.

For the first time since 2007, pairs competed at Finlandia Trophy. Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford were the runaway winners. The two-time World champions went for technical difficulty in both their short and free, but both programs were riddled with mistakes. They will need to do better in March of next year. Kristina Astakhova and Alexei Rogonov picked up silver with Mari Vartmann and Ruben Blommaert taking bronze.

Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin won the ice dance title for the second time in their careers. The Russians finished over seven points ahead of Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue who claimed second place. After coming third at the Ondrej Nepela Memorial the previous weekend, Tiffany Zahorski and Jonathan Guerreiro bagged another bronze in Helsinki.

Junior Grand Prix Concludes In Germany

This was the final week of the ISU Junior Grand Prix Series and the final tickets for the Junior Grand Prix Final were up for grabs in Dresden, Germany.

Jun Hwan Cha from South Korea was held and shoulders above the rest in the men’s event and sealed his place in the final with another win. Conrad Orzel from Canada narrowly beat out Japan’s Mitsuki Sumoto to take the silver.

Russia’s Anastasiia Gubanova posted a new set of personal bests to capture her second Junior Grand Prix title of the series. Yuna Shiraiwa from Japan moved up from sixth after the short to finish in second place. Underlying the strength of the Russian and Japanese junior ladies, Eunsoo Lim from South Korea became the first skater from neither of those skating powerhouses to win a medal in the ladies event this series.

After last week’s surprise Australian win, it was back to business as usual with Russia’s Anastasia Mishina and Vladislav Mirzoev winning the pairs event. Anna Duskova and Martin Bidar sealed second place with Alina Ustimkina and Nikita Volodin third. These three pairs also topped the final Junior Grand Prix standings in the same order.

In the ice dance competition, Rachel Parsons and Michael Parsons were convincing winners. Anastasia Shpilevaya and Grigoriy Smirnov from Russia won silver and teammates Arina Ushakova and Maxim Nekrasov bagged bronze.

The qualifiers for the Junior Grand Prix Final in December are as follows:

Men

1. Alexander Samarin (RUS)
2. Jun Hwan Cha (KOR)
3. Alexei Krasnozhon (USA)
4. Roman Savosin (RUS)
5. Ilia Skirda (RUS)
6. Dmitri Aliev (RUS)

Ladies

1. Anastasiia Gubanova (RUS)
2. Polina Tsurskaya (RUS)
3. Rika Kihira (JPN)
4. Kaori Sakamoto (JPN)
5. Alina Zagitova (RUS)
6. Marin Honda (JPN)

Pairs

1. Anastasia Mishina/Vladislav Mirzoev (RUS)
2. Anna Duskova/Martin Bidar (CZE)
3. Alina Ustimkina/Nikita Volodin (RUS)
4. Amina Atakhanova/Ilia Spiridonov (RUS)
5. Aleksandra Boikova/Dmitrii Kozlovskii (RUS)
6. Ekaterina Borisova/Dmitry Sopot (RUS)

Ice Dance

1. Alla Loboda/Pavel Drozd (RUS)
2. Rachel Parsons/Michael Parsons (USA)
3. Lorraine McNamara/Quinn Carpenter (USA)
4. Angelique Abachkina/Louis Thauron (FRA)
5. Christina Carreira/Anthony Ponomarenko (USA)
6. Anastasia Shpilevaya/Grigory Smirnov (RUS)