ISU Junior Grand Prix Final champions Apollinariia Panfilova/Dmitry Rylov topped a Russian sweep of the Pairs Short Program at the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Tallinn (EST) Wednesday. Kseniia Akhanteva/Valerii Kolesov edged Iuliia Artemeva/Mikhail Nazarychev by just 0.18 points to come second. All teams set new personal best scores.
Apollinariia Panfilova/Dmitry Rylov lead the way after the Pairs Short Program in Tallin 2020©International Skating Union (ISU)
Performing to “The Matrix” soundtrack, Panfilova/Rylov produced a huge triple twist, throw triple flip, double Axel as well as a level-four reverse lasso lift, side-by-side combination spin and step sequence. The 2019 World Junior silver medalists scored 73.71 points.
“I’d say our performance was 80 percent,” Panfilova said. “We didn’t get the level on the death spiral that we wanted, but overall it was quite good. We are our main competitors. If we’re looking at the other teams in the warm-up, I don’t think anything good will come out of it.”
Akhanteva/Kolesov’s program to “Interstellar” by Hans Zimmer featured a triple twist, throw triple flip, double Axel and four level-four elements. The ISU Junior Grand Prix Finalists picked up 70.44 points.
Kseniia Akhanteva/Valerii Kolesov are second after the Pairs Short Program 2020©International Skating Union (ISU)
“We are pleased with our performance, it was not bad but it wasn’t our best either,” Kolesov said. “For the free skating, we’re not thinking ahead, we just want to skate clean and achieve a season’s best score.”
Artemeva/Nazarychev completed a high triple twist, double Axel and throw triple flip in their routine set to “Senza Pole” by Il Divo to earn 70.26 points.
“The short program was not ideal, there were some mistakes. In the free skating, we need to skate clean and show our maximum,” Nazarychev commented.
Iuliia Artemeva/Mikhail Nazarychev completed a Russian sweep in the Estonian capital 2020©International Skating Union (ISU)
ISU Junior Grand Prix Finalists Annika Hocke/Robert Kunkel (GER) placed fourth with a clean performance and 63.57 points. Kate Finster/Balazs Nagy (USA) finished fifth on 58.33 points while Cleo Hamon/Denys Strekalin (FRA) are ranked sixth on 58.23 points.
The ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships continue Thursday with the Junior Rhythm Dance and Junior Pairs Free Skating.
Viewers can watch either via their national broadcaster/channel and for countries where there are no broadcasters, the ISU will offer a live stream on the Skating ISU YouTube Channel. You will find the full list in the Where to Watch news here.
For more information, full entry lists and results please see the ISU website and the official event website. Follow the event on social media using the hashtags #WorldJFigure and #FigureSkating.
