A Jr. Worlds Update, a Chipeur who can't skate, and a Weir Who Blasts Momma Kate

First, a quick JuniorWorlds update (and I DO mean quick; can’t find any of these performances on You Tube yet…)

The Pairs event is in the books; the top 3 look like this:
GOLD- Wenjing SUI / Cong HAN (China… looks like they have their Next Big Pairs Thing already)
SILVER- Narumi TAKAHASHI / Mervin TRAN (Japan)
BRONZE- Ksenia STOLBOVA / Fedor KLIMOV (Russia)

As for the U.S. teams: We got a 5th (Britney SIMPSON / Nathan MILLER), a 10th (Felicia ZHANG / Taylor TOTH), and 14th (Brynn CARMAN / AJ REISS)

And the flags must’ve looked very similar for the men’s medal ceremony…

GOLD- Yuzuru HANYU (Japan)
SILVER- Nan SONG (China)
BRONZE- Artur GACHINSKI (Russia)

While the U.S.’s Grant HOCHSTEIN and Keegan MESSING were 1-2 heading into the free skate, Messing wound up in 4th (with the 4th best skate) and Hochstein went all the way down to 5th (with only the 7th best performance).

As for names you might be more familiar with: U.S.’s Armin MAHBANOOZADEH had a rough couple of days, finishing only 8th in the SP and 12th in the FS (10th overall). And Kazakhstan’s Denis TEN—surely one of the only 2010 Olympians to be competing here, and consequently favored to do well -- managed a 4th after the SP, but a staggering 15th in the Free Skate placed him in 9th overall. Poor guy; it must’ve been exhausting just to show up there so soon after Vancouver.

Ice dance is underway; the top U.S. team is Maia SHIBUTANI / Alex SHIBUTANI (in 4th after the OD).

Ladies start tomorrow.

And the withdrawal news pertaining to Senior Worlds has a new entrant: Canada’s Vaughn Chipeur, 25, will have to sit it out with a foot injury. Kevin Reynolds, 19, will be taking his place. You’ve seen Reynolds before; he’s the one that jumps quads like Tim Goebel did a decade ago… and looks like Clay Aiken. J

And speaking of recent Worlds withdrawals of late… Johnny Weir doesn’t appear to be squandering one second of his 15 minutes worth of mainstream fame. Today brought this article which has Weir “slamming” Kate Gosselin, claiming he has cousins that used to live behind her house and citing the an event they were both involved in last Fall where he found her to be “very rude” among other things (I remember hearing about that at the time…). Oh, and by the way, Weir has already found his primary Dancing with the Star to root for this season… wait for it…

Buzz Aldrin.

Well, sure… why not?

For the Clip of the Day I have Sui/Han as they skated the Junior GP Final this past December. Very young… endless possibilities.