Canadian JGP Assigments/discussion

[geoskate]

The entries for the JGP in Sheffield, Great Britain are up.

http://www.isuresults.com/events/fsevent00011170.htm

Men: Liam Firus, subs Shaquille Davis, Samuel Morais
Ladies: Alexandra Najarro, Kaetlyn Osmond subs Daniela-Bella Favot, Vanessa Grenier, Eri Nishimura
Dance: Carswell/Doleman, Orford/Williams (new team), subs Hasegawa/Hasegawa, Khong/Khong, Poulin/Servant.
Pairs: Purdy/Marinaro, Purich/Schultz (new team), Steele/Schultz, subs Jones/Gaskell, Tikel/Beharry

Comments for men: Liam is already assigned to the Romania JGP, so this will be his second assignment.  The two subs also already have one assignment each, Samuel at the JGP Austria and Shaquille at the JGP Japan.

Comments for women: Great to see Kaetlyn Osmond getting her first assignment (she's an alternate for JGP Japan).  This will be Alexandra's second assignment, since she's already assigned to JGP Romania.  Among the subs, Vanessa has already skated in France and is assigned to Japan, so this would only be a possible assignment if she didn't skate in Japan.  Eri is already assigned to JGP Japan, and Daniela-Bella is a sub for Japan.  With two more JPGs to go, it looks like she will finally get the assignment this season that I think she should have received last season.

Comments for pairs: This is first assignment for Purich/Schultz, Steele/Schultz, and Purdy/Marinaro, although Steele/Schultz are alternates for Austria. The two sub teams are already assigned to Austrai.

[geoskate]

Comments for dance: Carswell/Doleman are already assigned to JGP Romania, so this will be their second assignment.  This is the first assignment for the new team of Orford/Williams.  For the subs, the Khongs are already assigned to Austria, but Poulin/Servant and Hasegawa/Hasegawa so far are only subs at Austria and Japan (for Poulin/Servant) and Japan (for Hasegawa/Hasegawa).  I wouldn't be surprised to see one of these teams replacing MacCuish/Morris in Japan, since they didn't have a good competition in France.

[Sk8tmum]

Thank you for this; very glad to see you have found your way here, as your commentary on Canadian skating was always excellent and enjoyable to read.

[geoskate]

Assignments for JGP Dresden (Germany) are up, at http://www.isuresults.com/events/fsevent00011173.htm.

Assignment men: Samuel Morais (2nd assignment, the other one being JPG Austria); Alternates: Liam Firus, Shaquille Davis, Andrei Rogozine.

Assignment women: Kate Charbonneau (2nd assignment, the other one being JGP Austria); Alternates: Alexandra Najarro, Eri Nishimura, Kaetlyn Osmond.

Assignments pairs (two only instead of three possible): Jones/Gaskell, Tikel/Beharry, both 2nd assignments with the first assignment being JGP Austria in both cases; Alternates: Purdy/Marinaro, Steele/Schultz, Purich/Schultz.

Assignments dance (two only instead of three possible): Hasegawa/Hasegawa, Khong/Khong, both 2nd assignments with the first assignment being JGP Austria for the Khongs and JGP Japan for the Hasegawas.  Alternates: MacCuish/Morris, Oliviera/Hockley, Poulin/Servant.

[Earltwirl]

  I'm wondering if anyone has reports from JGP Bratislava...I had high hopes for Najarro and by the looks of the SP points something must have really gone wrong.  I really enjoy her skating and hope she can at least pull up in the long program.

[Earltwirl]

  My bad!  I meant to type Braslov not Bratislava..sorry 'bout that.

[geoskate]

You can check out the protocols for the short program, which give you some idea what happened:  http://www.isuresults.com/results/jgprou2010/jgprou10_JuniorLadies_SP_Scores.pdf

She was in 18th place, and from the protocols you can see that her jumps went about as badly as they could have gone (two falls on under-rotated jumps, and a partially under-rotated 2A).  

On the other hand, her long program was much better, as you can see from the protocols link:

http://www.isuresults.com/results/jgprou2010/jgprou10_JuniorLadies_FS_Scores.pdf

She was in 6th place in the long program, with four clean triples and no falls.  There was no flip yet, so there is still room to improve on jumps.   (She apparently popped the attempt).

On another note, congratulations to Liam Firus for a new ISU personal best in the long program and overall.  His long program score of 106.54 just edges out his previous ISU personal best of 104.29 from last season's JGP Istanbul.  It's still slightly below his recent BC Skate long program score of 111.35.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
Like Alexandra, he is still capable of more.  From the protocols, it looks like he fell on one 3Lz and popped one 2A.  The protocols suggest that he landed six triples, however. 

[geoskate]

Abby Carswell/Andrew Doleman also established a new ISU personal best in the free dance at Brasov, at 65.46 points.  Their previous ISU personal best was 62.73 points at the JGP in Lake Placid last season. 

Their new ISU personal best is still below some of their scores last season at non-ISU events (for example, Minto, Challenge and Canadians), but it's much better than their earlier scores this season of 54.33 at Minto and 59.88 at Thornhill.

Congratulations to them.  With their fifth-place finish, it looks like they should have earned their second JGP assignment to JGP Sheffield (England).  Liam also should have earned his second assignment, also to JGP Sheffield.

[geoskate]

In the JGP at Graz, Austria, only one Canadian personal best was established.  (I'm excluding the Khongs, who by definition established new ISU personal bests because this was their first ISU competition ever).  The new ISU personal best was by Samuel Morais in the long program, with a score of 107.72.  This beats his previous ISU personal best of 97.38 established in the 2008-2009 season at the JPG in Belarus.  It doesn't quite beat his all-time best score of 108.45 which he had at the Quebec Summer competition.

In establishing this ISU personal best he landed seven triples in the long program, including a triple axel, according to the protocols for the event.  It looks like the main thing he needs to work on now are his component scores, which are somewhat lower than the other men in the top six at this competition.  However, the fact that a skate like this was only fourth in the long program is also a comment on the depth in the men's field on the junior grand prix circuit.

[geoskate]

So far in the JGP Japan two personal bests have been established. 

In the men's short program Andrei Rogozine's short program score of 65.03 established a new ISU personal best.  It just beat out his previous ISU personal best of 64.52, which was established at the JPG in France a few weeks ago.  The score of 65.03 is also the best score he has had in any competition so far, ISU or not.

The same thing applies to Kelly Oliveira/Jordan Hockley in the short dance.  Their short dance score of 47.39 is by definition a new ISU personal best, since this was their first ISU competition ever, but it also beats their previous best short dance score of 46.21 from Thornhill.  Their score of 47.39 is actually the best short dance score of any Canadian team competing in junior at any competition so far this season.

[geoskate]

Dance assignments for JGP Dresden (Germany) have been changed slightly on the ISU website.  The Hasegawas are still assigned to this, but the Khongs have now been replaced by Poulin/Servant.


Assignments for the Czech Republic JGP are also up at http://www.isuresults.com/events/fsevent00011178.htm.

Men: Shaquille Davis (2nd assignment).  The listed subs (Firus, Morais, Rogozine) will have all already had two assignments.
Women: Kaetlyn Osmond (2nd assignment).  Subs: Kate Charbonneau (third assignment, so not possible?), Daniela-Bella Favot, Vanessa Grenier, Alexandra Najarro (also third assignment, so not possible?)
Pairs: Purdy/Marinaro, Purich/Schultz, Steele/Schultz, all 2nd assignment.  Subs are Jones/Gaskell, Tikel/Beharry (again, third assignments).
Dance: Oliviera/Hockley, Orford/Williams (both 2nd assignment).  Subs: Carswell/Doleman (third assignment), Hasegawa (third assignment), Khong/Khong, Poulin/Servant.

[Peachy]

It appears as though Canada is running a little short on jr. pairs to send away.  What happened to Tara HANCHEROW and Sebastien WOLFE? I'm pretty sure they still qualify for JGP assignments.  It may be a good idea to look at them vs. sending pairs with a low score for a 2nd assignment

   
   
     
     
     
     
     


   
   

[geoskate]

They skated poorly at their summer competion (Quebec Summer Skate), with a short program score of 31.20 and a long program score of 62.47.  Right now there are eleven JPG-eligible Canadian pairs teams above them in my listing of scores from summer competitions. 

That's probably why Skate Canada hasn't assigned them.  Of course, it could just have been a bad competition for them, but presumably Skate Canada has been monitoring the teams outside of competition as well.  (At least I hope they have been).

The five pair teams that have been given assignments have been at a different level in terms of scores than the remaining junior teams in Canada.  All of the five teams have had at least one summer competition with total scores well about 100 points (113.08 points for Purich/Schultz, and upwards from there for the remaining teams).  The teams below that have not broken 100 points, with the exception of Young/Young at 101.28 points at Liberty.

I can see why you would mention Hancherow/Wolfe, though, because their scores last year were considerably better (between 106 and 115 points total).   I'm wondering if they are dealing with injury or something like that right now, because I would have expected more from them at the Quebec Summer competition based on last season's results.

[geoskate]

Andrei Rogozine's long program score of 123.57 just missed his best-ever long program score of 123.74 points from the 2010 Junior Worlds.  However, his overall score of 188.60 was the best overall score he has ever had in a competition, and it established a new ISU personal best for overall score.  Interestingly, his overall score of 188.60 is the second-best score of any Canadian man this season, behind only Patrick Chan.

Kelly Oliveira/Jordan Hockley may have established a new personal best in the free dance, with a score of 64.60, but I can't guarantee it.  By definition it's a new ISU personal best, since this was their first ISU competition, and it was also their best free dance score so far this season.  I think it's better than any free dance score from last season, but I'm not sure, since I don't keep track of most novice scores.  It is definitely higher than their scores from Challenge and Junior Canadians.

[geoskate]

I`ve been away on vacation, so I haven`t updated the Canadian personal bests from the last two JGPs.  There are a few. 

At Dresden Samuel Morais`short program score of 53.76 was a new ISU personal best, beating his previous ISU personal best of 52.38 from the JGP in Belarus (2008-2009 season).  He has scored slightly better at some local comptitions, however.  His long program score of 110.30 was his best longr program score ever, however, beating his previous ISU best of 107.72 from the JGP in Grax, Austria earlier this season.  It also beat his previous best score ever of 108.45 from the Quebec Summer competition earlier this year.

Pair team Brittany Jones and Kurtis Gaskell established a new ISU personal best of 86.06 in the long program.  This just beat their previous ISU personal best of 85.67, from last season`s JGP in Poland. They have had slightly higher scores than this in numerous non-ISU competitions, however, including 86.45 at Indy and 88.24 at Thornhill this season.

Pair team Kristen Tikel and Ian Beharry established a new ISU personal best of 79.54 in the long program.  Their overall score of 117.69 was also a new ISU personal best.   Their long program score beat their previous ISU personal best score of 71.52 from last season`s JGP in Belarus.  It was their best long program score ever, ISU or not, although their overall score of 117.69 was slightly behind their overall score of 120.55 from Indy.

Ice dancers Andreanne Poulin and Marc-Andre Servant surpassed any previous personal bests in the free dance with their performance at Dresden.  It was by definition an ISU personal best, since it was their first ISU competition ever.  However, it was also their best free dance score ever, beating their previous best of 66.97 from Quebec sections in the 2009-2010 season.  Their short dance score of 47.93 was also a personal best, both ISU and non-ISU, but those scores are only from this season, of course.

[geoskate]

In the Czech Republic Kaetlyn Osmond beat her previous ISU personal bests in both the short program and long program, besting numbers she scored a few weeks ago at the JGP in Japan.  Her short program score of 38.96 beat her Japan score of 37.78, and her long program score of 72.94 beat her Japan score of 70.94.  She has scored higher in other non-ISU competitions, however, such as BC Summer Skate (41.98 and 74.18 for short and long programs respectively). 

Pair team Taylor Steele and Rob Schultz established a new ISU personal best of 81.93 in the long program.  This beat their previous ISU personal best of 80.36, from last season`s JGP in Poland. This was also their best long program score in any competition, ISU or non-ISU.

New pair team Natasha Purich and Raymond Schultz  established new ISU personal bests in both the short and long programs in the Czech Republic.  The short program score of 46.62 beat their short program score of 45.11 from the JGP in Sheffield, and their long program score of 85.15 beat their long program score of 81.87 from the JGP in Sheffield.  These scores were the best they have done in any competitions to date, ISU or non-ISU.  Their competition scores show how they are improving with increased time together as a pair.  For example, their long program scores have gone from 62.87 (Wild Rose) to 71.55 (BC Summer Skate) to 81.87 (JGP Sheffield) to 86.62 (JGP Czech Republic).  I expect the improvement in scores to slow down a bit, since they are now executing most of their technical elements well. 

Ice dancers Nicole Orford and Thomas Williams surpassed any previous personal bests, both ISU and non-ISU,  in the short dance (49.99) and the free dance (70.13) performances in the Czech Republic.  This is a new team this season, so there are no previous season stats, but they have competed in five competitions already this season, so the personal bests did mean something.

[luv2ws]

Congratulations to the JGP Final qualifiers - Men - Andrei Rogozine and Pairs - Natasha Purich/Raymond Schultz & Taylor Steele/Robert Schultz.

Very exciting to see and I'm sure these kids have worked very hard to Qualify for the Finals in China!