Mishina and Galliamov lead Russia’s Pairs poduim sweep

Credit: ISU

Mishina and Galliamov lead Russia’s Pairs poduim sweep


Russians Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva/Nikita Nazarov and Sofia Shevchenko/Igor Eremenko came in second and third respectively in the first segment of the Ice Dance competition.

Dancing to the three Tango pieces “Perro Viejo”, “Otro Puente Alsina” and “Essa”, Lajoie/Lagha earned a level four for the first Argentine Tango pattern, the twizzles and the rotational lift. The Canadian Junior champions set a season’s best with 70.14 points, breaking 70 points for the first time.

“We feel pretty good and happy about how we skated,” Lajoie said. “For sure, it is a stressful competition and we need to deal with the stress and I think we did that well today.”

Lagha said: “At the (ISU Junior Grand Prix) Final we had a lot of trouble with the technical points, so this is what we’ve worked on the most. What we usually work and we didn’t stop working on, is the quality that will make us a good senior team, because junior and senior is really different.”

Khudaiberdieva/Nazarov’s dance to “Tango Amore” by Edvin Marton was highlighted by precise twizzles and a rotational lift. The ISU Junior Grand Prix Final bronze medalists collected a level four for three elements while the midline step sequence and the second Argentine Tango Pattern were rated a level two.

They scored 68.69 points, a season’s best. “We are just very happy to be here and to win the small silver medal is very honorable for us,” Khudaiberdieva said. “We are very pleased with our performance and we finished the Rhythm Dance on a high note. It was the best Rhythm Dance of the season.”

Shevchenko/Eremenko had a level four for three elements in as well, but their second Argentine Tango pattern garnered only a level one.

The ISU Junior Grand Prix Final Champions earned 67.56 points for their performance to “La Cumparsita”. “This is a big competition for all skaters and for us, too,” Shvechenko said. “After the Rhythm Dance it was very emotional for us. We will miss this dance, the Argentine Tango.”

ISU Junior Grand Prix Final silver medalists Arina Ushakova/Maxim Nekrasov (RUS) are currently ranked fourth after a few little wobbles (65.96 points). Junior Grand Prix finalists Avonley Nguyen/Vadym Kolesnik (USA) came fifth (65.18 points) followed by Maria Kazakova/Georgy Reviya (GEO) on 60.08 points.

Mishina and Galliamov lead Russian dominance of Pairs

Led by Anastasia Mishina/Aleksandr Galliamov, Russians swept the Pairs podium. Apollinaria Panfilova/Dmitry Rylov claimed the silver medal while overnight leaders Polina Kostiukovich/Dmitrii Ialin settled for the bronze. It was the fourth podium sweep by Russian pairs at Junior Worlds after 1985, 1986 and 2018.

Mishina/Galliamov opened their performance to the “Master and Margarita” soundtrack with a high triple twist and throw triple flip. Mishina then fell on the back end of the triple Salchow-Euler-triple Salchow combination, but the pair recovered to hit a triple toe, throw triple Salchow as well a difficult lifts and spins.

The ISU Junior Grand Prix Final champions scored 121.72 points and totaled 188.74 points to pull up from third place. Mishina’s gold in Zagreb means she now has a complete set of World Junior medals, with bronze from Sofia in 2018 and silver from 2016 in Debrecen with her previous partner Vladislav Mirzoev.

“We were third after the short program, but that actually pushed us to skate with more emotions and cleaner in order to move up in the standings,” Galliamov said. Mishina added: “I didn’t think about my mistake, I forgot about it right away.”

Panfilova/Rylov delivered a smooth and elegant performance to the “W.E.” soundtrack by Abel Korzeniowski that was highlighted by beautiful triple throws and three level-four elements. The team from Perm achieved a season’s best with 120.26 points and accumulated 188.17 points overall.

“I am in shock about the silver,” Rylov said. “I thought we’d get the bronze like in all the other competitions.”

Panfilova said: “We’re working with our choreographer in Perm and we do dance on the floor. The emotions in the program come with the music and with the feeling for the music.”

Kostiukovich/Ialin produced a triple twist, throw triple loop, triple toe and four level-four elements in their routine to “Xotica”. However, Kostiukovich fell on the throw triple Salchow and the triple Salchow was called underrotated.

The 2018 World Junior silver medalists scored 113.28 points and slipped from first to third at 181.59 points.

“Being in the lead didn’t affect me,” Ialin said. “I knew we had a job to do and we tried to do our best, but unfortunately not everything worked out.”

Kostiukovich, who was celebrating her 16th birthday on Thursday, said: “It was a huge experience for us, it was our second Junior Worlds. We got the silver last year and now the bronze so hopefully next year we can win the gold.”

Feiyao Tang/Yongchao Yang (CHN) finished fourth on 168.77 points with a solid performance except for Tang’s fall on the triple toeloop. Sarah Feng/TJ Nyman (USA) moved up one spot to fifth (162.90 points) while Laiken Lockley/Keenan Prochnow (USA) dropped to sixth (159.54 points).