Junior Worlds: FD | Golden Skate

Junior Worlds: FD

gsk8

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Country
United-States
Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha.jpg

In their fourth appearance at this event, Canada's Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha took the Ice Dance title at the 2019 World Junior Figure Skating Championships. Russia's Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva and Nikita Nazarov won the silver in their debut at this event, while teammates Sofia Shevchenko and Igor Eremenko improved from their fifth-place finish last year with the bronze.

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What are your thoughts on the ice dance event? Do you feel the results reflected the performances?

#ArinaUshakova / #MaximNekrasov (RUS) "We did our job so that there's no doubts left who's the leader. Let the judges decide. The main thing is we and coaches, the audience enjoyed the performance. We proved that we can do anything."
https://twitter.com/goldenskate/status/1104386983722471424
 
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gonewiththewind25

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 4, 2017
Just repeating what I said on the competition forum as well.

I'm so happy with the final podium and all of the top 6 brought something so special!

For Marjorie and Zachary, they were just producing magic since the RD, and they've been absolute exceptional and the undoubtedly the deserving winners for tonight.

For Elizaveta and Nikita, they brought their exceptional SS, and their passion to their skate and were mesmerising from start to finish. And they managed a Level 3 for their Steps, which I don't think a lot of teams did so kudos!

For Sofia and Igor, they brought an immense attack to their programs and skating beautifully. They are wonderful to watch and really brought people onto their side!

For Avonley and Vadym, their FD tonight was absolutely magical and they have an incredible amount of potential to grow and they will undoubtedly get there. Tonight, they had most of us from their first movement.

For Arina and Maxim, they really brought so much energy to their program and skated it to the audience commendably. They are going through issues no doubt, but they remain and incredibly strong team!

For Maria and Georgy, they bring their belief for their program with them and to be skaters from a small federation and placing Top 6 at Junior Worlds is a huge achievement for them!

All in all, the junior teams brought us a phenomenal competition and I'm so happy for all of them and am excited to see how they progress!
 

sunn1ly

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 8, 2015
It's funny how the worlds are so different than the whole season. Everyone was betting on battle between U/N and S/E but the judges totally disrespected them both. I watch those teams every performance and they did not do anything different than the rest of the competitions. L/L were better than early on the season. K/N are good but they have been good all along it's just now that it is noticed. Ice dance judging is just lame and always will be. It's sad that my fave discipline is the most ridiculously scored one.
 

Colonel Green

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 3, 2018
Country
Canada
When's the last time that the Junior and Senior World champions had the same coaches? (seeing as we can be fairly confident as to who the senior world champs are going to be)
 

SkateSkates

Medalist
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
Maybe I’m blind but I didn’t see the 3 point difference between the Canadians and the 2 Russians and American teams.
 

Koatterce

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 20, 2018
Country
Canada
JW Spots
3 spots: CAN, RUS, USA
2 spots: GEO, FRA
1 spot: everyone else

JGP Spots
2 entries 7 events: CAN, RUS, USA
1 entry 7 events: GEO, FRA, UKR
1 entry 6 events: ITA, CZE, BLR, EST
1 entry 5 events: GER, GBR, LTU, ARM
1 entry 4 events: ESP, HUN, CHN, ISR
1 entry 3 events: JPN, TPE, POL, AUS, GRE, AUT
1 entry 2 events: everyone else
 

readernick

Medalist
Joined
Dec 5, 2015
Great event! The final flight was full of amazing skates!

L/L skated like seniors in the rd and fd. They were technically the strongest and have the components to match! Their fd is extremely well choreographed and skated with such power!

K/N have been my favorite Russian team all season. He is a beautiful skater and she has all the fire and performance quality of the old style Russian divas. I am happy they got the silver medal! I prefer their rd to their fd. ( the judges agree)

S/E have a great free dance. It is unique and executed beautifully! It is my favorite among the Russian teams. They were not as good in the rd as the top two teams which ultimately put them in third place.

N/K have a special magic. I enjoyed their fd the most. They had the second highest technical score deservedly. Their lifts and spins are effortless! The rd has been holding them back all year. They are a new team and still young. I expect wonderful things for them next year!

U/N just looked messy throughout the event. They received good PCS because they are fast but their technical scores held them back. I felt there was an underlying sloppiness to both programs. However, they are still young ( especially her) and they have time to improve the details. She also needs to improve her posture but she is only 16 so she has time to do so.
 

WeakAnkles

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 1, 2011
As people noted above, the top 6 teams all gave stellar performances. The final flight, in particular, was one of the best of the year, easily on par (if not better than) what I saw on the senior circuit this year. For those who are new or didn't sign up for the competition board, an event like this alone is worth every penny of the six bucks it costs for the season. And I didn't get paid to write that.

My big takeaway actually was a trend that became increasingly obvious as the event progressed: the tech panel is clamping down on scoring, particularly step sequences. They have been doing so all season, but here the strict adherence to the tech rules was especially apparent. There was a very clear message being sent: up the difficulty and quality of your step sequences or you will lose levels. It took until the next to last flight of teams before we finally saw a level 3 step sequence. Given the inflated importance of GOEs this season, I absolutely APPLAUD the tech panels for being stringent. I'm very curious to see if the trend continues at Senior Worlds. I suspect it will.

Also, the ubiquity of mushy lyrical/romantic programs is now so pronounced that a traditional program actually stands out as something radical. In some crucial ways, L/L's gold winning performance fits this mold. Yes, the tech may be much more difficult, but the feeling, big (classical) music and even Bigger Drama of their performance wouldn't have been out of place 20 years ago. The final flight of skaters pretty much avoided this mushy pitfall. I think that's a very healthy trend and I hope to see it continue next season.

All in all, Good Stuff.
 

SnowWhite

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 30, 2016
Country
Canada
This was a great event. The juniors this season have been really strong and it's been a pleasure watching them. And I'm pretty thrilled with the result.

Lajoie/Lagha - I've been saying all season how mature and senior they look, and this time the execution and levels were there to match. Both their programs are excellent and really suit them this season. That FD is just beautiful. They've been close a few times to getting a big medal (JW last year, JGPF this year), and it's so wonderful that they pulled off this win. I loved their reactions when the scores came up (Romain was so excited). And that score has a pretty good chance of keeping them top 24 SB, which is great for GP spots.

Khudaiberdieva/Nazarov - Their reactions at the end of the FD were so sweet, and then just that quiet joy and relief when they realized that they would medal. They've been the no. 3 Russian team all season, so big congrats to them for beating their teammates here.

Shevchenko/Eremenko - I'm sure they were hoping for better than 3rd after winning JGPF, but they ended up on the podium for the first time at JW. They had strong programs (plus I love their ex) and they're great performers. I really like this team.
 

ice coverage

avatar credit: @miyan5605
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
The Ice Dance Highlights video from the ISU includes a mixture of FD and RD snippets from:

Lajoie/Lagha
Khudaiberdieva/Nazarov
Shevchenko/Eremenko
Nguyen/Kolesnik
Ushakova/Nekrasov
Demougeot/Le Mercier
Greens
Kazakova/Reviya

plus shots of the medal ceremony

https://youtu.be/3EI26bc8t_k (Mar 13, 0:48)​

Congratulations to Lajoie/Lagha, Khudaiberdieva/Nazarov, Shevchenko/Eremenko, and Nguyen/Kolesnik.

I'm still marveling at the closeness in FD scores for second (102.87), third (102.72), and fourth (102.53) in the FD.
(Although their total scores were more spread out.)


… For Avonley and Vadym, their FD tonight was absolutely magical and they have an incredible amount of potential to grow and they will undoubtedly get there. Tonight, they had most of us from their first movement. ...

:agree: :agree: I love especially your last sentence re Avonley and Vadym. :agree: :agree:
 
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