Sui and Han take strong lead in pairs short

As expected, Wenjing Sui and Cong Han of China easily won the Pairs short program at the 2012 ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships Wednesday in Minsk, Belarus.

Xiaoyu Yu and Yang Jin made it one-two in the short for the Chinese pairs, while Russia’s Ekaterina Petaikina and Maxim Kurdyukov finished third.

Sui, 16, and Han, 19, not only hold two Junior World titles, but also have the ISU Four Continents title under their belts and dominated the field in Minsk. Overall, however, the level of the competition was high, and there were only two falls among the 20 teams.

Skating to their upbeat Country Dance, the reigning Junior Grand Prix (JGP) Final Champions hit a big throw triple loop, an effortless double…

Sinitsina and Zhiganshin lead Russian sweep in short dance

Victoria Sinitsina and Ruslan Zhiganshin led the Russian dancers to a sweep in the Short Dance as the 2012 ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships officially opened Wednesday in Minsk, Belarus.

Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin are a close second followed by Anna Yanovskaia and Sergei Mozgov. All three Russian teams compete in their first Junior World Championships.

Sinitsina and Zhiganshin turned in a strong performance to their Bla Bla Bla Cha Cha Cha and a Samba, showing off their soft skating skills and strong technique. Their twizzles, the first Cha Cha sequence, and rotational lift merited a level four, while the second Cha Cha sequence and the side by side footwork were a level three.

The reigning Junior Grand Prix (JGP) Final Champions…

Les Pirouettes and NEXXICE win National Titles in Windsor

Cain and Reagan End Partnership

(2/24/12) - Pairs skaters Ashley Cain and Joshua Reagan announced today they have ended their partnership.

Aldridge and Eaton hope to challenge in Belarus

In their third season together, everything is looking up for 17-year-old Alexandra Aldridge and her 19-year-old partner Daniel Eaton. The duo has two U.S. titles to their credit, and is heading to the World Junior Figure Skating Championships next month in Minsk, Belarus.

The two got off to a rather bizarre start in the beginning of their partnership, but are fast becoming one of the rising stars of U.S. Figure Skating.

At the 2009 U.S. Championships in Cleveland, Eaton finished in 10th place with former partner Sameena Sheikh. When Sheikh was abruptly forced to retire from the sport, Eaton was suddenly looking for a new girl to team up with.

“I took some time off after nationals to have…

Caluza puts the Philippines on the map

It’s hardly a new trend in figure skating for a skater to shift from representing one country in international competition to another. In the case of 21-year-old Christopher Caluza, who is of Filipino descent, the decision to compete for the Philippines has been in the back of his mind for several years.

“I knew before the 2006 Olympics that I wanted to compete for the Philippines,” he said. “I wanted to take my time to get my skating to the level that would allow me to compete internationally.”

Caluza, a native of the San Diego, Calif., area, competed within the United States Figure Skating system from his first steps on the ice up until this season. Though he qualified for the U.S. Junior…

1961 U.S. World Figure Skating Team Remembered

(2/15/12) - U.S. Figure Skating today recognizes the memory of the 1961 U.S. World Figure Skating Team that perished on Feb. 15, 1961, in the crash of Sabena Airlines Flight 548 near Brussels, Belgium. All 73 passengers onboard, including 34 members of the U.S. World Figure Skating Team were lost.

China’s Kexin Zhang surprises at Four Continents

Last week in Colorado Springs, Colo., one of the biggest surprises came in the form of China’s 16-year-old Zhang Kexin.

The 5-foot-2 bundle of power finished in fifth place in her first ISU Championship event at the 2012 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships. With just a handful of international competitions under her belt, Zhang fit in well among the top flight of skaters with much more experience.

“I didn’t do very well through my junior career, and I have been working very hard since then to improve,” she said rather modestly. “This is the first time that I did really well in competition. I think that because of this competition, I have grown quite a bit mentally, and now I am not afraid of coming to competitions at…