{"id":25037,"date":"2020-03-08T21:06:33","date_gmt":"2020-03-09T01:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/?p=25037"},"modified":"2020-03-08T21:06:33","modified_gmt":"2020-03-09T01:06:33","slug":"recap-2020-world-junior-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/recap-2020-world-junior-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"Recap: 2020 World Junior Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Anne Calder | Photo by Robin Ritoss<\/em><\/p>\n

Tallinn, Estonia hosted its second World Junior Championships March 2-8. Twenty-nine ice dance couples representing 22 ISU nations competed; 20 couples from 13 of those countries qualified for the free dance. The Tea-Time Foxtrot made its final appearance of the season, and the curtain was drawn on the Broadway stage and movie musicals for the junior dance teams.<\/p>\n

The teams practiced Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The rhythm dance was contested on Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, small medals were awarded to the top three teams: Elizaveta Shanaeva & Devid Naryzhnyy (RUS), Maria Kazakova & Georgy Reviya (GEO) and Avonley Nguyen & Vadym Kolesnik (USA). Only 1.76 separated the couples. At the press conference, the dancers explained their music.<\/p>\n

Shanaeva (Bonnie & Clyde)<\/em>: \u201cIn the first part, I am inviting him to dance, and I keep telling him the story how cool it would be to conquer the world. In the second part, he agrees with me, and we conquer the world together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reviya (Beautiful, The Carol King Musical<\/em>): \u201cMasha is the \u201cbaby\u201d, and I am the guy who wants her to like him and is jumping around her. The second part, \u201cDream a little Dream\u201d is our dream. We felt the music will connect well with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kolesnik (Aladdin): \u201cI love the movie Aladdin. When I watched it, I knew that should be our program. When I was a kid and watching the cartoon, I just loved it and wanted to perform to it once in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also closely bunched and certainly within reach of the podium were the fourth \u2013 sixth teams: Anna Ushakova & Maxim Nekrasov (RUS), Diana Davis & Gleb Smolkin (RUS) and Loicia Demougeot & Theo le Mercier (FRA).<\/p>\n

Five of the six competed at the Junior Grand Prix Final. Nekrasov\u2019s surgery kept the team off-ice most of the 2019-2020 season.<\/p>\n

Saturday at 11:45 am, the judges and technical panel were introduced and the first warm-up group took to the ice. The free dance was officially underway.<\/p>\n

When the event concluded, the same three teams stood on the podium, but in a different order. Teams one and three had switched places. The final results were the Americans Avonley Nguyen & Vadym Kolesnik (gold), Georgia’s Maria Kazakova & Georgy Reviya (silver) and Elizaveta Shanaeva & Devid Naryzhnyy of Russia (bronze).<\/p>\n

Nguyen & Kolesnik\u2019s performance to music by a Russian composer earned a personal best 108.91 points. The USA National Champions used Rachmaninov\u2019s Piano Concerto No. 2 as a mesmerizing vehicle to earn level 4 lifts, spin, circular step sequence and twizzles. The total 177.18, which is 2.5 points higher than their 2019 JGPF silver medal score, vaulted them from third to first place.<\/p>\n

Kolesnik\u2019s preference for classical music revealed his future ice dance goals. \u201cIf you look at the World and Olympic Champions from the past years, they skated to classical pieces. We try to achieve the same goals, and we felt like classical pieces are perfect for this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The young man from Ukraine also talked about his move to the U.S. by himself at age 14. \u201cIt was a little hard. I left my parents and friends, but I have my partner. I have coaches who really helped, and I really appreciate that and want to say thank you one more time. I feel I\u2019m already used to the American life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2019 JGPF Champions, Kazakova & Reviya were the first Georgian team to win gold at an ISU International Championship. They were hoping to do it again in Tallinn. Unfortunately, when the 106.21 score for their innovative and crowd-pleasing performance to \u201cIn the End\u201d by American artist Tommee Profitt was added to the 69.98 RD result, it was not enough.<\/p>\n

The base value points lost with the teams\u2019 level 2 Combination Spin and Kazakova\u2019s level 2 One-Foot Step Sequence. The element appears to be their nemesis since at the Final they both earned level 2 for the one-foot step sequence. Kazakova & Reviya were both born in Russia and train in Moscow with Denis Samokhin.<\/p>\n

“The next year will be very important for us because we need to qualify for the Olympic Games,” Reviya said.\u00a0 “We\u2019ll mount new programs back in Moscow so we can enter the senior season with a confident big step forward and step up.”<\/p>\n

Elizaveta Shanaeva & Devid Naryzhnyy skated an intense free dance to \u201cRiver\u201d by British musician, Bishop Briggs. The spin, lifts, twizzles and Shanaeva\u2019s one-foot step sequence were level 4. The program scored 105.14. The total 175.17 earned them the bronze medal. The young Russians won both their JGP events and were third at the Final. They spoke about their future plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have a junior year left, and we want to work on and polish what we did not work out here,\u201d Shanaeva said. \u201cAlthough for our first debut season, we are very pleased \u2013 this is new for us. We got a lot of energy to show our maximum next season and to be ready to beat everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

“We really liked it here. It was an incredible experience for us,” Naryzhnyy added. “We are newcomers, and it\u2019s our first season at this high level. Not everything worked out perfectly, but we tried our best.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fourth-sixth places remained the same: Arina Ushakova & Maxim Nekrasov (169.08), Diana Davis & Gleb Smolkin (165.22) and Loicia Demougeot & Theo le Mercier (162.52).<\/p>\n

2020 WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS ICE CHIPS:<\/strong><\/p>\n