The first part of the ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating took place over the weekend in Slovakia’s capital city with some spectacular performances from the young skaters participating.
Canada’s Stephen Gogolev captured gold in the men’s event in his Junior Grand Prix debut. The 13 year old included three quads in his free skating routine. Mitsuki Sumoto from Japan claimed the silver and Daniel Grassl from Italy the bronze.
Russian women maintained their impressive streak stretching back to 2009 of winning the opening Junior Grand Prix event of each season since then. In the end, Anna Shcherbakova did not need a quad as she triumphed comfortably over compatriot Anna Tarusina. Young You from South Korea, the first Olympic torch bearer when the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic flame touched down in Seoul, took bronze.
Three pairs from Russia swept the podium. Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov placed first, Apollinariia Panfilova and Dmitry Rylov second and Kseniia Akhanteva and Valerii Kolesov third.
Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva and Nikita Nazarov from Russia won their first Junior Grand Prix title in Bratislava. Teammates Elizaveta Shanaeva and Devid Naryzhnyy took the silver with Eliana Gropman and Ian Somerville from the United States picking up bronze, their first Junior Grand Prix medal.
Full results for the Junior Grand Prix in Bratislava can be found here.
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