2010 JGP Czech Skate Preview

IDC welcomes new writing staff member, Laura Marshall.

With berths in the Junior Grand Prix Final still on the line, this week’s ISU Junior Grand Prix Czech Republic promises to be a dramatic competition. The seventh and penultimate stop on the JGP circuit this year will take place in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic.

Two Russian teams are favorites for gold at this event: the fluid Ekaterina Pushkash & Jonathan Guerreiro (pictured, right) and the controlled, powerful Marina Antipova & Artem Kudashev. Pushkash & Guerreiro are in their second season skating together, and are the 2010 Russian junior bronze medalists. They placed second last month in Karuizawa, Japan, so if they finish on the podium here, they will qualify for back-to-back Finals. Adding a bit of extra drama to the competition is the fact that Pushkash will be competing against her cousin and former partner, Dmitri Kiselev, who now skates for the Czech Republic with Gabriela Kubova.

Antipova & Kudashev have been partners since 2001 and have competed in six JGPs overall. They placed 11th at the 2009 Junior World Championships but did not qualify in 2010. They will be competing in back-to-back JGP events in their quest to qualify for their third consecutive JGP Final. Canadians Nicole Orford & Thomas Williams have only skated together since May and have already collected the spectrum of medals. They took gold in their free dance group as well as a short dance silver medal at the Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships. At their JGP debut in Sheffield, England, they won bronze. If they finish in first or second place here, they could make the Final.

Joylyn Yang & Jean-Luc Baker, U.S. national novice bronze medalists, made their JGP debut in Karuizawa, Japan. Their free dance earned them level 4s on six of their seven elements (botched twizzles were called only level 2) and gave them the second highest TES in that event, a full point ahead of Pushkash & Guerreiro. Fellow Americans Anastasia Olson & Jordan Cowan were kept off the JGP circuit last season by severed tendons in Cowan’s hand that required surgery, and they got off to a slow start this season following changes in training location and coaching. They made their JGP debut in Austria, where they finished sixth.

Ukrainians Anastasia Galyeta & Alexei Shumski already have made big improvements this year, climbing from 23rd in 2009 to eighth at the 2010 Junior World Championships and winning their team’s first JGP medal — a silver — at last month’s JGP competition in Romania. Like Pushkash & Guerreiro, if they place on the podium here, they will qualify for the Final.

Coming off a bronze-medal finish at the French Masters, Tiffany Zahorski & Alexis Miart will be this competition’s French connection. A mistake in Romania cost them a medal but, mathematically, they could still qualify for the Final if they manage a first-place finish in Ostrava (or a second-place finish with tie-breaker).

Three Czech teams are competing on home ice. Kubova & Kiselev made their JGP debut in August in Courchevel and placed ninth after pulling up from 12th (and last) in the short dance. They have had six weeks in between events, so their levels should be higher in Ostrava than they were in France. Karolina Prochazkova & Michal Ceska, who train in Canton, Mich., with Igor Shpilband & Marina Zoueva, are competing in back-to-back JGPs, having just placed ninth a few days ago in Dresden. Melanie Altinakisova & Martin Haba are making their JGP debut.

A number of teams will be looking to top previous JGP showings.

This competition will be the tenth JGP experience for Nikola Visnova & Lukas Csolley of Slovakia. Their highest JGP finish so far has been eighth place. The team also has competed in four World Junior Figure Skating Championships, where their highest finish was 17th. They placed 20th at the 2010 European Figure Skating Championships.

Viktoria Kavaleva & Yirii Bieliaiev of Belarus will make their sixth career JGP appearance at this event; they placed ninth at Brasov last month. This will be the fourth career JGP for Bulgarians Kristina Tremasova & Dimitar Lichev, who partnered in 2009 and have improved their standings at each event: They finished 32nd at the 2010 World Juniors and 13th in Sheffield. Joanna Zajac & Damian Binkowski of Poland placed 16th in Sheffield; this will be their third JGP.

Hungarians Maria Der & Daniel Majer made their debut in Austria, where they placed 17th. Teressa Vellrath & Aleksandr Pirogov of Lithuania are a new team this season; they train in San Jose, Calif., with Sergei Ponomarenko and Marina Klimova, and they placed 14th in Austria.

Emili Arm & Luis Fenero of Spain are new partners as of this season, but each has pervious JGP experience: she with former Estonia partner Rodion Bogdanov and he with Maria Antolin.

Ostrava marks the JGP debut for Italians Guilia Sangiovanni & Valerio Baroni and Ekaterina Bugrov & Vasili Rogov, who represent Israel.

The 19 ice dance teams representing 15 countries begin official practices Wednesday, Oct. 13. The short dance will be contested on Friday with the competition concluding on Saturday.