A look back at Bavarian Open & Egna Dance Trophy
by Anne Calder
The Bavarian Open (Oberstdorf, GER) and Egna Dance Trophy (Egna/Neumarkt, ITA) were competed the first week of February approximately 400 miles apart in Western Europe.
THE BAVARIAN OPEN
The Bavarian Open celebrated its 10th year of competition in 2020. Canada dominated the advanced novice, junior and senior ice dancing by winning five medals; France, Lithuania, Russia and the United States each took home one. The first three placed couples were awarded trophies. Diplomas and small memory gifts were provided to all participants.
The advanced novice pattern dances were Starlight Waltz and the Quickstep. Emma Goodstadt & Michael Barsoum and Hailey Yu & Brendan Giang won two of Canada’s medals – gold and bronze respectively. Both were on the podium at the NAC, but in reverse order and placed second and fourth at Canadian Nationals. Kristina Dobroserdova & Grigorij Rodin finished second. The Russians were gold medalists at the Grand Prix of Bratislava and the Mentor Torun Cup.
Eighteen teams from thirteen countries competed in the junior division. Americans and Canadians took the top five places. Avonley Nguyen & Vadym Kolesnik representing the USA were the gold medalists. Winners of both their JGP events and silver at the Final, the newly crowned US Champions won by almost ten points.
The 2020 Canadian National Junior Champions, Emmy Bronsard & Aissa Bouaraguia were second. Natalie D’Allessandro & Bruce Waddell of Canada rounded off the podium with bronze. Oona Brown & Gage Brown, 2020 bronze medal winners at the U.S. Championships and Miku Makita & Tyler Gunara of Canada finished fourth and fifth. D’Alessandro & Waddell and Makita & Gunara represented Canada at the 2020 Youth Olympic Games in Switzerland, finishing fourth and fifth respectively.
Canada delayed naming its complete Junior World roster in order to include the Bavarian Open results. The federation sent the above-named couples plus Nadiia Bashynska & Peter Beaumont to the event.
On February 13, Skate Canada announced the assignment of Bronsard & Bouaraguia, D’Alessandro & Waddell and Makita & Gunara to the World Junior Championships March 2-8 in Tallinn, Estonia. Also going to the ISU event from the Bavarian Open are Nguyen & Kolesnik, Brown & Brown and the teams from Cypress, Denmark, Japan, Kazakhstan, and Spain.
The senior-level top five included Allison Reed & Saulius Ambrulevicius (LTU), Marie Jade Lauriault & Romain Le Gac, (FRA), Haley Sales & Nikolas Wamsteeker (CAN), Robynne Tweedale & Joseph Buckland (GBR) and Molly Lanaghan & Dmitre Razgulajevs (CAN).
EGNA DANCE TROPHY
The Egna Dance Trophy is in its third season of competition. Neumarkt, the German name for the district, is in northern Italy, but over 60% of the people are German and speak the language.
The advanced novice podium included Americans Elliana Peal & Ethan Peal (gold), Russians Polina Kocherygina & Evgenii Artiushenko (silver) and Italians Eleonora Granati & Massimiliano Bucciarelli (bronze). The three teams were in the same order after their Starlight Waltz and Quickstep patterns.
The Peal siblings won the Novice division of the U.S. Ice Dance Final in November 2019. Their father, Rob Peal is a former national and international ice dance competitor. Kocherygina & Artiushenko won gold at the 13th Santa Claus Cup in early December 2019. Granati & Bucciarelli have competed at all three Egna Dance Trophy competitions; 2020 was their highest placement, having previously finished ninth and sixth.
Two American teams, followed by three couples representing the host country, led the top five in the junior division. Molly Cesanek & Yehor Yehorov (gold) and Katarina Del Camp & Ian Somerville (silver) are training mates at WISA in Rockville, Maryland. Italians Sara Campanini & Francesco Riva (bronze) train in Finland with 2002 Olympic bronze medalist Maurizio Margaglio [Barbara Fusar-Poli].
Cesanek & Yehorov were third at the LP Ice Dance International, sixth at both JGPs, and second at the U.S. Ice Dance Final. They will compete in the senior division next season. DelCamp & Somerville won the Lake Placid Combined Dance Final and finished fourth at the 2019 Egna/Neumarkt JGP. Campanini & Riva are the Italian silver medalists. Their third-place finish is their highest international placement.
Juulia Turkkila & Matthias Versluis (FIN) won gold in the senior division, followed by Anastasia Skoptsova & Kirill Aleshin (RUS) and Adelina Galyavieva & Louis Thauron (FRA). Katharina Müller & Tim Dieck (GER) and Yuka Orihara & Juho Pirinen (FIN) were fourth and fifth.
Turkkila sustained a neck injury in a practice session at the 2019 Lombardia Trophy and the team had to withdraw. They missed Finlandia and Rostelecom Cup. The Egna Dance Trophy is their first competition since mid-September 2019. Skoptsova & Aleshin were 2017/18 JGP Final and World Junior gold medalists. The duo won the 2019 Santa Claus Cup.
Galyavieva & Thauron represent France, but train in Moscow with Anjelika Krylova. They were eighth at the 2019 Rostelecom Cup. Müller & Dieck also train in Russia. Orihara & Pirinen competed at several Challenger Series event and won the Finnish senior title while Turkkila & Versluis were off-ice. On their ISU biography, the team lists working with Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe in Vancouver, CAN in addition to training in Finland with Margaglio.
Katrine Roy & Claudio Pietrantonio have had a whirlwind few weeks. They teamed up in March 2019, train in Quebec, Canada and represent Italy. Both previously danced on the junior level with different partners. Their only competition together was the Italian Nationals.
Since the Italian team of Jasmine Tessari & Francesco Fioretti will not compete at the World Championships, Italy needed a second team to compete in Montreal. Roy & Pietrantonio had no international competitive experience as a team and hadn’t earned the minimum technical scores. The new team was sent to the Egna Dance Trophy and got the required marks. Next month they will represent Italy at the World Championships in Canada.