{"id":9475,"date":"2016-09-13T02:07:55","date_gmt":"2016-09-13T02:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/?p=9475"},"modified":"2019-03-23T19:20:59","modified_gmt":"2019-03-23T23:20:59","slug":"2016-jgp-cup-of-mordovia-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/2016-jgp-cup-of-mordovia-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"2016 JGP Cup of Mordovia Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">by Melanie Hoyt \u00a0| Photo by Daphne Backman<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">This week, 16 teams representing 13 countries will compete at Cup of Mordovia in Saransk, Russia. This event is the fourth competition of this season\u2019s Junior Grand Prix Series, and several contenders for the Final will be aiming for the podium here. Although Russia is a powerhouse skating country and a frequent competition host, this will actually be the first JGP event to be held in Russia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The home team is allowed to send three entries in each discipline, and the deep Russian junior dance field will be well represented at home. Alla Loboda &amp; Pavel Drozd, the reigning world junior bronze medalists and two-time and reigning JGP Final silver medalists, will begin their international season here. They are capable of scoring over 150 with two strong dances, so it will be difficult for the rest of the field to catch them. This year, Loboda &amp; Drozd are skating to \u201cSt. Louis Blues\u201d in the short and \u201cMalaguena\u201d in the free dance. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Sofia Shevchenko &amp; Igor Eremenko will also represent Russia in Saransk. This is their second JGP event of the year, but they would have to win the gold medal to have a shot at the Final. At the first event in St. Gervais, France, they placed fifth. Their score of 133.52 left room for improvement, though, particularly on levels in their free dance, where they earned only level 1 and 2 for their footwork sequences and level 2 for their spin. Shevchenko &amp; Eremenko won two JGP bronze medals last year, in their first season together, so they will certainly be trying to move up to a podium position this week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">JGP newcomers Eva Kuts &amp; Dmitri Mikhailov will gain some experience and round out the Russian team. They are coached by Alexander Svinin &amp; Irina Zhuk in Moscow, along with Shevchenko &amp; Eremenko.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Among the foreign medal contenders are Americans Christina Carreira &amp; Anthony Ponomarenko, Team USA\u2019s lone dance entry at this event. Carreira &amp; Ponomarenko won the silver medal and set new ISU personal bests in the free dance and total score at JGP St. Gervais a few weeks ago. A medal in Saransk should set them up well to qualify for their first JGP Final, but a silver medal or higher will increase the chance that they won\u2019t end up on the alternates list again. With a score of 148.38 already posted on the series this year, they have a shot at challenging even Loboda &amp; Drozd.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The French team of Salome Abdedou &amp; Dylan Antunes will hopefully make their belated debut this season. They traveled to Ostrava, Czech Republic, to compete in the second event of the series, but the airlines lost track of one of their suitcases and they did not have their skates. Barring any travel snafus, their free dance to \u201cGymnopedie\u201d by Erik Satie and \u201cRun\u201d by Ludovico Einaudi, if performed well, should be a highlight.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Canada\u2019s Alicia Fabbri &amp; Claudio Pietrantonio (pictured) will make their JGP debut in Russia. Their programs to \u201cYou &amp; Me\u201d by Eliza Doolittle (short dance) and \u201cAny Other World\u201d by Mika (free dance) were well received at the Lake Placid Ice Dance International, where they began their junior international career with a fourth-place finish. If they skate well, they could surprise with a top-five finish.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The short dance will begin the event on Thursday afternoon and the free dance is set for Saturday morning.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Melanie Hoyt \u00a0| Photo by Daphne Backman This week, 16 teams representing 13 countries will compete at Cup of Mordovia in Saransk, Russia. This event is the fourth competition [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9476,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_gspb_post_css":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[297],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-preview-archive"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Pietrantonio-Fabbri-3068.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Pietrantonio-Fabbri-3068.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Pietrantonio-Fabbri-3068.jpg?fit=254%2C150&ssl=1",254,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Pietrantonio-Fabbri-3068.jpg?fit=300%2C177&ssl=1",300,177,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Pietrantonio-Fabbri-3068.jpg?fit=768%2C454&ssl=1",768,454,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Pietrantonio-Fabbri-3068.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Pietrantonio-Fabbri-3068.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Pietrantonio-Fabbri-3068.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"et-pb-post-main-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Pietrantonio-Fabbri-3068.jpg?resize=400%2C250&ssl=1",400,250,true],"et-pb-post-main-image-fullwidth":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Pietrantonio-Fabbri-3068.jpg?resize=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"et-pb-portfolio-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Pietrantonio-Fabbri-3068.jpg?resize=400%2C284&ssl=1",400,284,true],"et-pb-portfolio-module-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Pietrantonio-Fabbri-3068.jpg?resize=510%2C382&ssl=1",510,382,true],"et-pb-portfolio-image-single":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Pietrantonio-Fabbri-3068.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"et-pb-gallery-module-image-portrait":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Pietrantonio-Fabbri-3068.jpg?resize=400%2C516&ssl=1",400,516,true],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Pietrantonio-Fabbri-3068.jpg?resize=45%2C45&ssl=1",45,45,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Team IDC","author_link":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/author\/idcadmin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"by Melanie Hoyt \u00a0| Photo by Daphne Backman This week, 16 teams representing 13 countries will compete at Cup of Mordovia in Saransk, Russia. This event is the fourth competition [&hellip;]","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7GOSM-2sP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9477,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9475\/revisions\/9477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}