Panfilova & Rylov lead Russian medl sweep

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Shanaeva/Naryzhnyy (RUS) take narrow lead in Junior Rhythm Dance

Elizaveta Shanaeva/Devid Naryzhnyy of Russia captured a narrow lead in the Junior Rhythm Dance as the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships continued in Tallinn (EST) Thursday. Georgia’s ISU Junior Grand Prix Final champions Maria Kazakova/Georgy Reviya (GEO) and Avonley Nguyen/Vadym Kolesnik (USA) are close behind in second and third place.

Performing to “Bonnie and Clyde”, Shanaeva/Naryzhnyy put out a dynamic dance that was highlighted by fast twizzles, precise steps and a rotational lift. The ISU Junior Grand Prix Final bronze medalists picked up a level four for the Tea Time Foxtrot Pattern Dance, the twizzles and the lift to achieve a new personal best of 70.03 points.

“We are very pleased with our performance and with the progress we’ve made since our last competitions,” Shanaeva said. “We wanted to show the maximum as most likely there won’t be any other competitions this season.”

Kazakova/Reviya’s performance to “Beautiful the Carole King” and “Dream a Little Dream of Me” featured a level-four stationary lift, level-four twizzles and a level-four Tea Time Foxtrot Pattern. The Gerogians posted a personal best of 69.98 points.

“We tried to give a strong and powerful performance, but not everything worked out, the lift was not perfect. Maybe our emotions got a bit ahead of us,” Reviya said. “It does not matter in which place we are or what the difference in points is. We are always going out to give it our all.”

Nguyen/Kolesnik completed two level-four elements in their upbeat dance to “Aladdin”, but the second Tea Time Foxtrot sequence was rated a level two. The ISU Junior Grand Prix Final silver medalists scored 68.27 points.

“To be honest, we are bit disappointed,” Nguyen said. “We left a few points on the table, but now we’ll focus on the free dance.”

Kolesnik said: “It hurts to be in third place. We’re going to attack this free dance.”

The 2018 World Junior bronze medalists, Arina Ushakova/Maxim Nekrasov, (RUS) came fourth with a dance to “Chicago” (66.97 points) followed by Diana Davis/Gleb Smolkin (RUS), who danced to “Aristocats” (66.53). Loicia Demougeot/Theo Le Mercier (FRA) are sixth on 64.88 points.

Panfilova/Rylov lead Russia to fifth Pairs podium sweep at World Junior Championships

Youth Olympic Champions Apollinariia Panfilova/Dmitry Rylov led Russia to a fifth clean sweep of the Pairs medals at the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Tallinn on Thursday.

Kseniia Akhanteva/Valerii Kolesov claimed the silver in the Estonian capital, with the bronze going to Iuliia Artemeva/Mikhail Nazarychev. The silver and bronze medalists were making their debuts at the competition.

Russian Pairs swept the podium at Junior Worlds in 1985, 1986, 2018 and 2019.

Skating last, Panfilova/Rylov put out a confident performance to “The Third Person” soundtrack, completing a huge triple twist that earned a +5 Grade of Execution from all nine judges, a throw triple loop and flip, a double Axel-Euler-double Salchow combination as well as level-four lifts, spin and death spiral.

The ISU Junior Grand Prix Final Champions scored 122.25 points and totaled 195.96 to win the title with more than 20 points to spare. It was their second medal at the ISU World Junior Championships after the silver a year ago.

“It (the victory) is very important to us, since we have won throughout the season almost all junior competitions,” Rylov said. “Coming here, we wanted to end the season with the gold medal.”

“It was not our best performance, but we did what we could do,” Panfilova said. “The preparation was not ideal, like basically throughout the season. Maybe it was for the better – the more difficult your preparation is, the more valuable is the medal.”

Akhanteva/Kolesov produced a triple twist, a throw triple flip and difficult lifts in their routine to “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” by Pink Floyd. However, Akhanteva fell on the triple Salchow and triple toe that were both underrotated. The ISU Junior Grand Prix bronze medalists earned 104.41 points for the Free Skating and remained in second place at 174.85 points overall.

“It is nice to win a medal at Junior Worlds at our first try,” Kolesov said. “The performance didn’t work out so well, there were serious mistakes. It helped us that we had a good short program.

“In the free skating, we did the death spiral and the spins well, which helped us to win the silver medal.”

Artemeva/Nazarychev’s performance to “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen included a triple twist, a somewhat shaky side-by-side triple toe and level-four lifts. Artemeva missed the double Axel and two throw jumps. The ISU Junior Grand Prix Finalists ranked fourth in the Free Skating with 100.92 points, but held on to overall third place at 171.18 points.

“After the performance we had mixed feelings,” Nazarychev said. “I didn’t know how many points we would get. I waited for the total score and then for the score of the next pair before I knew we were on the podium.

“It was an important competition and an experience for us. We’ll definitely stay in juniors, we just got started.”

ISU Junior Grand Prix Finalists Annika Hocke/Robert Kunkel (GER) put out a solid Free Skating and ranked third in the segment, but overall placed fourth on 167.15 points. However, the Germans did not get credit for their pair combination spin. Cleo Hamon/Denys Strekalin (FRA) pulled up from sixth to fifth place (156.35 points) while Kate Finster/Balazs Nagy (USA) slipped from fifth to sixth at 156.26 points.

Prize Money

The ISU awards a global prize money of US$ 140,000 at the World Junior Championships to skaters/couples placed 1st to 6th. The prize money is awarded to winners and placed skaters/couples as follows:

Men and Ladies Pairs and Dance (per couple)
1st place US$ 10,000 1st place US$ 15,000
2nd place US$ 7,000 2nd place US$ 10,000
3rd place US$ 5,000 3rd place US$ 7,000
4th place US$ 4,000 4th place US$ 5,000
5th place US$ 2,000 5th place US$ 3,000
6th place US$ 1,000 6th place US$ 1,000