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Canada’s Joseph Phan wins bronze at ISU Junior Grand Prix

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OSTRAVA, Czech Republic – Toronto-based Joseph Phan won the bronze medal Saturday in men’s competition at the fifth stop on the ISU Junior Grand Prix figure skating circuit.

Andrei Mozalev of Russia won the gold medal with 217.12 points, Camden Pulkinen of the U.S. followed for silver at 212.45 and Phan scored 207.80. He was third after the short program Friday and earned the second best score in the free skate.

“I’m really happy right now after a tough first Grand Prix,” said Phan, 17, ninth earlier this month in the Ukraine.  “We made some changes to my program so I could feel more comfortable and it’s paid off.”

Aleksa Rakic, 13, of Burnaby, B.C. was sixth at 185.08, two positions better than at the season opening event in Slovakia.

“I just came here opening to do better than at the first stop,” said Rakic. “In the free I just wanted to keep fighting and not let doubt creep into my mind. It just felt a lot better this week because I knew what to expect.”

The sixth stop on the circuit is this Thursday to Saturday in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Full results: ISU JGP Czech Skate 2018

Canadian ice dancers fourth in international debut

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OSTRAVA, Czech Republic – Emmy Bronsard and Aissa Bouaraguia of Montreal made an impressive international debut on Friday with a fourth place finish in ice dancing at the fifth stop on the ISU Junior Grand Prix circuit.

Bronsard and Bouaraguia were within eight points of the podium with 140.67. Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva and Nikita Nazarov of Russia won the gold medal with 161.00, Maria Kazakova and Georgy Reviya of Georgia were second at 154.17 and Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin of Russia third at 148.62.

The Canadians followed at 140.67.

“We were stressed a bit because we wanted a good result,” said Bouaraguia. “It all went very well. We were well synchronized and we had a lot of energy. Still our most important goal was to gain experience.”

Olivia McIsaac of Burlington, Ont., and Corey Circelli of Toronto were seventh. Circelli, also a singles skater, has battled early season injuries which prevented himself and the couple from competing at an earlier Grand Prix.

“We only had two weeks of run throughs going into this,” said Circelli. “We gave it everything we had especially in the free today. After the short we felt we had a little more to give and so today we just went out and forgot about the scores.”

The pairs competition also concluded Friday with Brooke McIntosh of Toronto and Brandon Toste of Mississauga, Ont., in 10th while Gabrielle Levesque of Bridgetown, N.S., and Pier-Alexandre Hudon of Roch-des-Aulnaies, Que., were 11th.

“I’m quite satisfied with our performance,” said Toste, “Our goal was to skate faster and deliver a better performance. I feel like we achieved that even with the small technical mistakes we made.”

Joseph Phan of Laval, Que., is third after the men’s short program at 73.74 while 13-year-old Aleksa Rakic of Burnaby, Ont., is sixth at 66.01.

Camden Pulkinen of the U.S. leads at 81.01 and Andrei Mozalev of Russia is second at 78.83.

Competition ends Saturday with the men’s free skate.

Full results: ISU JGP Czech Skate 2018

 

Sixteen Canadian Skaters in Europe for two international events

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OTTAWA, ON: Team Canada will be competing at two skating events this week in Europe. Senior skaters will be at the 2018 Nebelhorn Trophy in Oberstdorf, Germany and junior skaters will be at the fifth stop on the ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

The 2018 Nebelhorn Trophy is the sixth stop on the International Skating Union’s (ISU) 2018 Challenger Series. Canada will have one entry per discipline in men, women, pair and ice dance, at the event which runs from September 26-29, 2018 in Oberdorf, Germany.

CANADIAN ENTRIES AT 2018 NEBELHORN TROPHY

DISCIPLINE NAME AGE HOMETOWN CLUB COACH
Men Keegan Messing 26 Sherwood Park, Alta. & Brantford, Ont. Sherwood Park FSC Ralph Burghart
Women Alaine Chartrand 22 Prescott, Ont. York Region Skating Academy Tracey Wainman, Grzegorz Filipowski
Pair Evelyn Walsh / Trennt Michaud 17/22 London, Ont. / Trenton, Ont. London SC / Trenton Skating Club Alison Purkiss
Ice Dance Piper Gilles / Paul Poirier 26/26 Toronto, Ont. / Unionville, Ont. Scarboro FSC / Scarboro FSC Carol Lane, Juris Razgulajevs

Mike Slipchuk, Skate Canada High Performance Director, will be the Canadian team leader at the event. Physiotherapist Karen Seymour, of Toronto, Ont., will be the Canadian medical staff onsite. Andrea Derby of Windsor, Ont., and Nicole LeBlanc-Richard of Dieppe, N.B., will be the Canadian officials at the event.

For more information and full entries please visit www.isu.org.

Canada will have six entries at the fifth stop on the ISU Junior Grand of Figure Skating series in Ostrava, Czech Republic, which runs from September 26-29, 2018. Canada will have two entries in men, pair and ice dance.

CANADIAN ENTRIES AT ISU JGP #5 – OSTRAVA, CZECH REPUBLIC

DISCIPLINE NAME AGE HOMETOWN CLUB COACH
Men Joseph Phan 17 Toronto, Ont. CPA Laval Brian Orser
Men Aleksa Rakic 13 Burnaby, B.C. Champs International Skating Centre of B.C. Joanne McLeod
Pair Gabrielle Levesque / Pier-Alexandre Hudon 15/19 Bridgewater, N.S. / Saint-Roch-des-Aulnaies, Que. St. Margaret’s Bay SC / CPA La Pocatière Inc. Charleen Cameron, John Mattatall
Pair Brooke McIntosh / Brandon Toste 13/15 Toronto, Ont. / Mississauga, Ont. Canadian Ice Academy / Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club Andrew Evans
Ice Dance Emmy Bronsard / Aissa Bouaraguia 14/17 Montreal, Que. / Montreal, Que. CPA Gadbois / CPA Gadbois Marie-France Dubreuil, Patrice Lauzon, Romain Haguenauer, Pascal Denis
Ice Dance Olivia McIsaac / Corey Circelli 16/16 Burlington, Ont. / Toronto, Ont. Burlington SC / Toronto Cricket Skating & Curling Club Andrew Hallam, Tracey Wilson

André Bourgeois, Skate Canada NextGen Director, and Manon Perron of Boucherville, Que., will be the Canadian team leaders at the event. Dr. Sari Kraft of Toronto, Ont., and physiotherapist Meaghan Shewchuk of Lloydminster, Alta., will be the Canadian team medical staff on site. Laura Carr of Kelowna, B.C., and Sabrina Wong of Toronto, Ont., will be the Canadian officials at the event.

For results and full entries please visit www.isu.org. All events on the ISU Junior Grand Prix circuit will be livestreamed on the ISU Junior Grand Prix YouTube channel.