Canada’s Stephen Gogolev wins gold in junior Grand Prix debut

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia –Thirteen-year-old Stephen Gogolev of Toronto burst onto the international stage in spectacular style Friday as he landed three quadruple jumps en route to a golden performance in men’s competition at the season opening stop on the ISU Junior Grand Prix figure skating circuit.

In his skate to excerpts from the Sherlock Holmes soundtrack Gogolev also became the first Canadian, of any age group, to land a quad Lutz in competition.

Gogolev totalled 226.13 points for the victory with Mitsuki Sumoto of Japan second at 210.31 and Daniel Grassl of Italy third at 199.26.

‘’To land those three quads really brings up my confidence,’’ said Gogolev, who is coached by Brian Orser and Lee Barkell. “I still need to get some runs though done so I can improve the second half of my skate.’’

Aleksa Rakic, also 13, from Burnaby, B.C. was eighth in 180.13.  ‘’I feel really good about how I skated and how I was able to connect with the audience,’’ said Rakic. ‘’I reached my goal to get into the top-10.’’

Russian couples swept the medals in pairs competition. Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov were first, Apollinarria Panfilova and Dmitry Rylov second and Ksenila Akhanteva and Valerii Kolesov third.

Patricia Andrew of London, Ont., and Paxton Fletcher of Rodney, Ont., were fourth with a clean free skate and Brooke McIntosh of Toronto and Brandon Taste of Mississauga, Ont., were fifth.

‘’The Russian pairs were really impressive,’’ said Fletcher. ‘’They were fast with big and strong elements and their style and look was superb. For a young team like ours it’s fun to see what’s possible and it just motivates us to go back and work harder.’’

In ice dancing after the short dance, Alicia Fabbri of Terrebonne, Que., and Paul Ayer of Brossard, Que., are fourth at 58.91 less than two points behind third spot. Nadiia Bashynska of Markham, Ont., and Peter Beaumont of Unionville, Ont., are ninth.

In Thursday’s women’s short program, Alison Shumacher of Tecumseh, Ont., was eighth.

The women’s free skate and the free dance are on Saturday.

Full results: ISU JGP Bratislava 2018