2007 JGP Croatia Cup Preview

Zagreb, Croatia

Canada’s Vanessa Crone and Paul Poirier will look to repeat their gold medal finish this week in Zagreb. Crone and Poirier outscored their personal best by more than 20 points, scoring 159.87 at Harghita Cup in Romania earlier this month.

Kristina Gorshkova and Vitaliy Butikov of Russia will make their season debut at Croatia Cup. Gorshkova and Butikov won a gold and silver medal on the 2006 JGP series and finished fourth at the Junior Grand Prix Final and World Junior Championships. Though their ISU bio lists Tatiana Kuzmina and Elena Tchaikovskaya as their coaches, Kuzmina and her young daughter were tragically lost as the result of a car accident in July. The team scored their personal best of 147.09 last season and are ranked 18th on the ISU’s world standings list.

Ksenia Monko and Kirill Khaliavin, also from Russia, could claim their second medal on the 2007 JGP series; the duo won the bronze medal at the Junior Grand Prix in Romania. Monko’s sister, Maria, is also an ice dancer and won the silver medal at Vienna Cup with partner Ilia Tkachenko. They could face competition from Ukraine’s Nadezhda Frolenkova and Mikhail Kasalo, who medalled in their only JGP assignment last season and finished 12th at the World Junior Championships.

Rachel Tibbetts and Collin Brubaker of the US are competing in their second event of the series and aim to improve on their fifth place finish in Romania, while Anastasia Cannuscio and Dean Copely will make their international debut. Cannuscio is the younger sister of Isabella Cannuscio and Dean Copely is the younger brother of Katherine Copely, who represents Lithuania with her partner Deividas Stagniunas.