One 2011 World Figure Skating Championships in the Books; One to Go...

To make up for the tardiness of this Junior Worlds report, I’m going to mention some names of previous winners so you can be reminded how significant this event has the potential to be…

LADIES—

Previous winners include Miki Ando (2004), Kim Yu-Na (2006), and Rachael Flatt (2008).

GOLD— Adelina Sotnikova (RUS)
SILVER—Elizaveta Tuktamysheva (RUS)
BRONZE—Agnes Zawadski (USA)

It is worth mentioning that Zawadski probably skated her best international free skate of the season and actually finished lower on the podium this year than last (she won silver in ’10). In other words, the up and coming Russian ladies are STRONG. They’re also a couple of years younger than 16 year-old Zawadski… so let’s see how they’re doing when they’re old enough to drive :-) Christina Gao finished 4th, while Courtney Hicks turned in the 4th best free skate to pull up from 10th to 6th. (Check it out on the Clip of the Day.)


MEN—

Previous winners include Johnny Weir (2001), Nobunari Oda (2005), and Adam Rippon (2008 and 2009).

GOLD: Andrei Rogozine (CAN)
SILVER: Keiji Tanaka (JPN)
BRONZE: Alexander Majorov (SWE)

As for the Americans… SP winner Keegan Messing only turned in the 7th best free skate, which left him in 4th overall. Max Aaron ended up 5th, and the triple axel-less Jason Brown (who did a great free skate otherwise) was 7th.


PAIRS—

Previous champs include Zhang/Zhang (2001 and 2003), McLaughlin/Brubaker (2007), and Iliushechkina/Maisuradze (2009).

GOLD: Sui/Han (CHN)
SILVER: Stolbova/Klimov (RUS)
BRONZE: Takahashi/Tran (JPN)

The American contingent was 4th (Ashley Cain/Joshua Reagan) and 9th (Cassie Andrews/Timothy Leduc).


ICE DANCE—
Previous champs include Belbin/Agosto (2002), Virtue/Moir (2006), and Samuelson/Bates (2008).

GOLD: Ksenia Monko/Kirill Khaliavin (RUS)
SILVER: Ekaterina Pushkash/Jonathan Guerreiro (RUS)
BRONZE: Charlotte Lichtman/Dean Copely (USA)

The U.S had three dance teams here; Anastasia Cannuscio/Colin McManus finished 7th, and Lauri Bonacorsi/Travis Mager were 11th.

Senior Worlds Update

2010 World Bronze Medalist Laura Lepisto has been injured for much of this season, and despite her hopes to be ready for Worlds (she was named to the Finnish team despite withdrawing from the Finnish Championships), it doesn’t appear to be in the cards this year. A new back injury is the culprit, according to this article. Will it be Kiira Korpi’s year to break through instead? The whole shebang starts in less than two weeks, by the way…