Zagreb hosts final Junior Grand Prix event

This week, Zagreb, Croatia hosts the final Junior Grand Prix event of the season.  Fifteen teams from 12 countries will vie for medals, prize money and world ranking points.  At the conclusion, the final spots for the JGP Final will also be decided. 

Russia’s Anna Yanovskaya & Sergey Mozgov could qualify for the JGP Final for the fourth consecutive year.  In their season debut in Estonia, they posted the highest free dance score on the series this year, 92.44, for their tango free dance.  Yanovskaya & Mozgov have a slew of medals from the JGP series, including told from the 2013/14 Final. 

Also in their fourth year on the JGP, Daria Morozova & MIkhail Zhirnov have had a break out season.  By winning the JGP event in Slovenia, Morozova & Zhirnov set themselves up to qualify for their first Final.  A top three placement here should achieve that. 

Rachel Parsons & Michael Parsons of the United States qualified for the Final in 2013, but will need to win this event in order to have an opportunity to qualify this year.  After posting the winning short dance score at their first event, they dropped to third in the free dance and overall.  They are joined by Elliana Pogrebinsky & Alex Benoit who were assigned to their second event after a fifth place finish in Japan. 

Ukraine’s Valeria Gaistruk & Alexei Olejnik are competing in back-to-back events after finishing fifth in Dresden.  They have shown a marked improvement from last season in their third season on the JGP.  In fourth after the short dance, the duo dropped to fifth after a seventh place finish in the free dance. 

Hannah Whitley & Elliott Graham will make their JGP debut for Canada and are joined by Audrey Croteau-Villenueve & Jeff Hough who were added to the roster last week.  Croteau-Villenueve & Hough finished seventh in their JGP debut in Tallinn, including fourth place in the free dance. 

The event gets under way with the short dance on Friday and concludes with the free dance on Saturday.