European Junior Skaters | Page 2 | Golden Skate

European Junior Skaters

If people talk about European skaters/teams winning Junior Worlds 2008, it's only fair to point out who the top competition will be, and some of the top competitors (sorry) won't be European.

What is the use of discussing performance completely out of context?

I might be wrong (and probably am - lol) but I don't think this is about who is set to win, it's just an introduction to new up-and-coming European skaters on the junior circuit ;)
 
Sarah Hecken has a nice style, but she really needs to train her flexibility. Her spiral postures are really terrible.
 
That was her short programm. She turnes 14 in August. You can find more videos on her homepage http://www.sarah-hecken.de/pages/downloads.php

Good grief! I watched her Zorro program, and I was so impressed. With a bit more flexibility in her spirals and maybe a touch more of a feel for the music (there's soooo much you can do with a Pasodoble), she will certainly be one to watch.

Thanks for the link! It's nice to look out for names in future European Championships
 
Sarah Hecken needs to work on her spins, which are pretty sloppy. In the layback and camel positions, her toe is pointing downward (her foot should be parallel with the ice). Her spirals need LOTS of work.

But she has good speed and flow.
 
Jenni Vahamaa's FS and Exhibition are posted at FSVids. I loved her exhibition...she is very balletic but at the same time she has a lot of character! :love:
 
Hopefully we see some new young men also. Viktor Romenenko EST, Bela Papp FIN, Martin Rappe GER, there's a couple good young good CZE boys also and of course Gachinsky RUS. I beleive all these boys will be age eligible for the following season. Hopefully Majorov SWE can put down two solid programs at both of his events also, if he does he should be a contender for the JGP Final.
 
You are right. I think even Norway now has 3 junior men in Michael Chrolenko, Kim Nilsen and Simon Bergersen and I hope they will all get a shot at the JGPs of their country.
 
Hopefully Majorov SWE can put down two solid programs at both of his events also, if he does he should be a contender for the JGP Final.

Majorov finished 9th at each of his two events last season and finished 38th of the 102 men who competed in the JGP. In order to make the final, he must finish in the top 8, which means he needs to win at least one silver medal and finish top 4 in the other event.

His point total for each event should be 150-155, at a minimum. Last season he scored 129.36 and 138.71, so he has a ways to go to be competitive for the podium.
 
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Those scores are fine, but take them with a grain of salt. "B" Internationals scores tend to be inflated compared with ISU "A" level scores.

For example, at the recent Asian Winter Games, Ming Xu scored 194.19, and at the Winter Universiade he scored 189.78; he medaled at both events. But at 4CC, he scored only 167.71, and at Worlds, he didn't make it out of the SP.

Dan Fang scored 145.46 at the Asian Winter Games, but only 125.20 at 4CC, 113.38 at Cup of China, and 127.85 at NHK.

Kiira Korpi scored 146.94 at Finlandia, but only 132.93 at Skate America and 137.41 at Cup of Russia.
 
Denis Ten KAZ, will be someone to watch also.

I am certainly looking our for him.

Will be interesting to see how the german first timers will do. Along with Denis Wieczorek and Daniel Dotzauer who will be going for the second JGPs I am looking forward to seeing Chris Berneck (his qualifier is Liberty Trophy), Alan Riefert, Micheal Biondi and Matti Landgraf.

Austrian ladies impressed me last year and with 9 spots this year it will be interesting to see who they send this year
 
138 to 150 in one season for a 15 year old is not a big point gain. Just add landing the solo jump in the short 5 points, and he's only got 7 to go and he may see that on program components alone. This group of young European men coming up are very good, especially the youngsters. Romanenko at 13 will be in his first age eligible Junior year and does everything including triple triple, and he can skate. I'm not saying that the North Americans and Japanese won't dominate for the next season or 2 but the young european boys will be worth watching, and when they hit 15 or 16 watch out, this group of kids is extremely talented and most come from families where they were born with their skates on.,
 
150 has potential for landing on the podium, but it is not a guarantee.

Here are the total scores that finished top four for each event last season:
JGP FRA: 172.01, 159.86, 159.62, 146.11
JGP HUN: 164.01, 160.89, 159.66, 155.89
JGP MEX: 156.19, 148.66, 148.50, 140.61
JGP ROM: 175.30, 171.21, 148.20, 143.26
JGP NOR: 162.56, 155.31, 154.23, 145.81
JGP NED: 178.62, 167.99, 164.56, 155.72
JGP TPE: 177.16, 169.43, 158.49, 156.18
JGP CZE: 172.28, 163.29, 157.25, 155.18


Last season, a skater who totalled 150 at two events would have to have skated in Mexico to win silver, and would have to have skated in France, Romania or Norway for 3rd or 4th to possibly win a JGPF spot--and hope that a point total of 300 was enough to beat a tie.

Last season, Curran Oi got the final spot, having won silver at Courchevel with 159.86 and a 4th in Oslo with 145.81. On total points (305.67), Oi beat out Machida, who won silver at Liberec with 163.29, but was 4th at Mexico City with 140.61 (total 303.9). Eliot Halverson won two bronze medals, scoring 159.66 and 164.56, for a total 324.22, but was second alternate.
 
I was actually amazed at how "weak" the ladies devisions were last season. The scores often don't even show it properly but a lot of the girls didn't attempt more than 3T and 3S

FRA 134.95 - 1st, 123.53 - 2nd, 111.52 - 3rd, 107.69 - 4th
HUN 116.02 - 1st, 107.92 - 2nd, 106. 57 - 3rd, 106.18 - 4th
MEX 162.43 - 1st, 108.83 - 2nd, 105, 19 - 3rd, 98.85 - 4th
ROM 119.89 - 1st, 115.60 - 2nd, 114.84 - 3rd, 112.16 - 4th
NOR 123.28 - 1st, 111.97 - 2nd, 111.16 - 3rd, 110.55 - 4th
NED 133.98 - 1st, 126.20 - 2nd, 124.82 - 3rd, 121.93 - 4th
TPE 162.42 - 1st, 126.09 - 2nd, 105.54 - 3rd, 104.38 - 4th
CZE 121.68 - 1st, 121.17 - 2nd, 121.14 - 3rd, 119.42 - 4th

I am confident that the ladies will show that there is talent out there especially in the years 1992, 1993 and 1994 there are seem to be a lot of talented and promising young ladies
 
Many skaters at Junior Worlds (aside from the top 6) and the JGP didn't land more than 3T and 3S, but many attempted other triples which were either downgraded or which ended in a fall. Heck, a fair number of the Seniors don't land much more than 3T and 3S.

The scores in the 2006 JGP were 'weak' because other than the top 3 US ladies, there was no strong challenge from the Japanese and none from the Russians. For the first time since 2003, a Western European lady (Stefania Berton of Italy) was a JGPF finalist.
 
Scores for ladies were really weak last uear! I didn't realize it before.

I really hope this will be great year for Jenni. Given that she grew 12 cm last year she wasn't bad last season, but she has lot to prove in JGP.
 
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