This weekend saw skaters tune up for the Grand Prix Series at Finlandia Trophy in Espoo, Finland, while the Junior Grand Prix landed in Ljubljana, Slovenia for its penultimate stop.
Tuktamysheva Captures Second Challenger Series Title
Following on from her victory at Lombardia Trophy last month, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva won her second gold medal of the season at Finlandia Trophy despite only finished third in the free skating. She attempted the triple Axel in both of her programmes. Elizabet Tursynbaeva also matched her performance at Ondrej Nepela two weeks ago by taking the silver medal. Local Viveca Lindfors won her first Challenger Series medal when she came third.
World bronze medallist Mikhail Kolyada bagged his second consecutive Challenger Series win by a comfortable margin in the men’s event. Junhwan Cha from South Korea repeated his performance at Autumn Classic two weeks ago by placing second, while Georgia’s Morisi Kvitelashvili moved up from fifth after the short programmes to third overall.
Although they were second in the pairs free, Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov came first by virtue of the cushion they had from the short over Canada’s Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro. The Canadians had been in third after the short, but leapfrogged over Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovskii from Russia to take silver. Boikova and Kozlovskii clung on for bronze.
Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin dominated in the ice dance event scoring over 20 points more than second placers Olivia Smart and Adrian Diaz from Spain. Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac from France were third.
You can find full results for the 2018 Finlandia Trophy here.
More Junior Grand Prix Final Spots Wrapped Up in Slovenia
Petr Gummenik from Russia booked his place in December’s Junior Grand Prix Final with another victory at the ISU Junior Grand Prix in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The Russian had previously triumphed in Canada two weeks ago. Tomoki Hiwatashi from the United States also secured his place in the Final with a second place finish. Japan’s Koshiro Shimada was third.
Russia’s Anastasia Tarakanova also punched her ticket to Vancouver by winning the ladies event. Her teammate Anna Tarusina came second and will have to wait and see if she can join her. Haein Lee from South Korea moved up from fourth after the short to claim bronze.
Avonley Nguyen and Vadym Kolesnik from the United States came first in both segments of the ice dance event. The Americans and runners-up Sofia Shevchenko and Igor Eremenko from Russia both qualified for the Final. Polina Ivanenko and Daniil Karpov from Russia were a distant third.
You can find full results for the ISU Junior Grand Prix Ljubljana Cup 2018 here.
europeonice.com 