Team USA for the JGP in Courchevel, France has been announced: http://www.usfigureskating.org/Story.asp?id=41670 (2008 Nationals placements in brackets)
Ladies:
Becky Bereswill [S10], Kristine Musademba [J4; 4th, JGP Final]
Men
Eliot Halverson [S13], Armin Mahbanoozadeh [J8; 3rd, JGP Final]
Ice Dancing
Maia Shibutani & Alex Shibutani [J4], Chloe Wolf & Rhys Ainsworth [N1]
This will be the JGP debut for Bereswill, the Shibutanis and Wolf/Ainsworth.
Last edited by Sylvia; 07-25-2008 at 02:13 PM.
Totally off topic, but were Maia and Alex named after Usova/Zhulin?
Well lets hope Canada uses all of its spots. Germany has gotten a 2nd ladies spot in most events and I expect Canada to get a few more too.
For what its worth Vanessa Grenier and Amanda Velenosi will be at the Silicon Valley Open this year, so maybe they can book a singles JGP ticket.
http://www.peninsulaskatingclub.org/...rticipants.pdf
What is really nice to see is that there are so many more of our top Junior ladies actually competing at the big summer US events than in previous years.
Skate Canada and its sections must have seen the success of sending ice dance teams en masse to Lake Placid and decided it was a good thing for the ladies.
No matter where they place, this experience of being surrounded by quality competition is far better than winning in a field where most of the skaters have no hope of landing a double axel or any triple jump ( which unforutunately is the case with far too many Canadian summer competitions)
Skate Canada has just announced the entries
Ladies
• Diane Szmiett
• Rylie McCulloch-Casarsa
Men
• Paul Poirier
• Jackson Wood
Dance
• Kharis Ralph/ Asher Hill
• Maja Vermeulen /Andrew Doleman
http://www.skatecanada.ca/en/athlete...l_assignments/
For the record ... I am really glad Skate Canada is giving Jackson and Rylie a shot. ISU also updated the Bio for Rika Inoda so I guess they must have entered here as a substitute
It will be interesting to see if Paul Poirier gets a second assignment because I am sure that Skate Canada will want him to get his singles assignments out of the way ASAP so he can concentrate on dance.
Hopefully Szmiett puts together 2 strong programs. She usually bombs shorts ( especially at internationals but she had short program issues as well at the challenges and Canadians) although the rules this year ( lutz out of steps instead of last year's loop ) should help her as she really does not have the loop but can do the lutz.
Congrats to Rylie and Jackson. Hopefully Rylie can bring the lutz she landed at the development camp.
Mckenzie Crawford finished 2nd in the Junior Ladies Final FS round at Skate Detroit. She scored 34.55 in the SP and 69.60 in the final FS. I'd like to see Skate Canada give this 15-year-old a shot in the JGP.
Agree, but she was ignored by Skate Canada last year as well. In the 2007 junior ladies championships Crawford finished 6th and Kang finished 11th. Guess who got the JGP assignment? Not the then 14 year old Crawford but the 17 year old ( who at the time had already done 3 JGP's with no great results ) Kang. Although the score you state is not bad for this time of year, it is still short of Skate Canada's standard. This year Crawford's national score( junior) was 108.36 and Kang's ( senior) was 110.79. Although Crawford's score was numerically lower this year , in real terms she did better than Kang when you consider the extra spin Kang gets and that Crawford's short would have more technical content as a senior as she would do a second triple rather than a double loop.Originally Posted by chuckm
BTW , none of the 10 ladies that beat Kang at 2007 junior nationals got an assignment. Many of them were younger then Kang as well. This year the 7 junior scores beat Kang's senior score at nationals. And when you consider the extra places for points that seniors can get, you can argue that the 8th-10th place junior ladies beat Kang as well. The 3 novice ladies who posted scores of over 100 last season would also have scores competitive with Kang when their scores are adjusted with junior PCS multipliers.
As far as selection goes, SC will first select those that made their standard. That means Tisluck, Szmiett , McNeil and Moore-Towers will be the first chosen. If Moore-Towers is not chosen , it will be because she is getting JGP's in pairs.
The next skaters that get selected will be those that have the buzz behind them. Rylie McCulloch-Casarsa was featured on a local CTV station and the tape showed her landing a triple lutz. She is only 14 years old and fully deserves her assignment. The development camp featuring the top novices and pre-novices was also well talked about. So I expect Najarro and Briggs (1st and 2nd novice) to get assignments as well. All 3 ladies mentioned in this paragraph scored over 100 in a novice competition at least once this year.
As well having the right coach politically can score points. Kang is coached by Joanne Mcleod. So little facts like that the fell from 4th in juniors in 2006 to 11th in 2007 get ignored from consideration. She still got her JGP last year despite the clear dip in performance nationally. There is clear evidence that there are at least a dozen ladies ( all younger than Kang) who have a realistic chance of actually faring better than Kang on the JGP this year. Unfortunately I still see Kang ahead on Skate Canada's pecking order ( not mine) of many of the younger juniors despite this clear evidence.
The JGP Courchevel rosters are up:
MEN:
http://www.isufs.org/events/cat00006365.htm
LADIES:
http://www.isufs.org/events/cat00006366.htm
ICE DANCE:
http://www.isufs.org/events/cat00006368.htm
The Men: I think we will be discussing: Brezina, Mahbanoozadheh, and possibly Gatchinsky. No Canadians do I know, and I notice no Japnese in the mix.
The Ladies: Maybe Musademba may skate well, but this comp, I think is open for anyone to be on the podium.
The Dance: I don't know any of these teams.
I think that you have to discuss some more:
Ladies: Of course the 2 American Girls, because they are always very good; Yuki Nishino, she is my favourite for this competition
And then you have some talented girl, who show good results in the JGPs last year: (Top 10 last year)
Miriam Ziegler
Isabel Drescher
Stefanie Berton
Yuka Ishikawa
Alexandra Rout
Men: Oh, I think this JGP will be stronger than the first last year in the USA.
You have Brezina, Gachinsky and MAHBANOOZADEH
But you have some skaters with a good placement in the JGPs last year:
(Top 10 last year)
Nan Song
Chao Yang
Florent Amodio
Christopher Boyadi
Christopher Berneck
Denis Ten
Eliot Halverson
Ice Dance: I don´t know
I agree with Meli about Yuki Nishino. I had the privilege to see her live at 3 competitions last season. She is a nice skater and a very good competitor. Kristine Musademba is also good but Yuki outscored Kristine by 149.42 to143.80 at the JGPF in Gdansk. Stefania Berton is getting to be an old hand at these junior competitions and skates very nicely but doesn’t get much air in her jumps. She is probably the second or third best lady from Italy–she beat Valentina Marchei in the 06/07 Italian senior championships and finished 2nd to her in the 07/08 Italian championships (I assume Carolina was hurt and did not compete in 07/08).
It should be interesting to see how the little skaters, Bingwa Geng of China and Hyeon-Jeong Kim, have developed since last season. They only scored 107.97 and 115.09 at the Junior World Championships last spring but, for both of them, it was a season’s best in SP, FP, and total score. They looked about the same age but Kim is about a year and a half older than Geng.
It is not difficult:Ice Dance: I don´t know
The teams from Canada, France, Russia, Ukraine, USA, Mysliveckova/Novak (CZE) and Visnova/Csolley (SVK).
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