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Mel's Weekly#3: September 20, 2004First off, I must say a great big "thank you" to everyone who has visited this site in the past week! Traffic has picked up tremendously and as I continue to expand the archives, I hope this will be a great source of news and results for skating fans. Thanks for helping it get off the ground! This past weekend in the skating world brought us the Junior Grand Prix event in Harbin, China. Wins were collected in pairs by Maria Mukhortova & Maxim Trankov, Nana Takeda in the ladies' event, in men's by Mikhail Magerovski, and in dance by the now junior superstars Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir. Along with their win this weekend and now assured entry into the Junior Grand Prix Final, Virtue & Moir have become the next superhyped junior dance team. Some predict them to overtake Matthews & Zavozin at the Junior Grand Prix Final, some are predicting that they will even qualify for senior worlds on the Canadian team in the spring. While I have thoroughly enjoyed the tapes that I have seen of Virtue & Moir, I am still not sure about the hype surrounding them. People compare them to Bourne & Kraatz and their sudden rise to the top in the first year of senior nationals, but they seem to be forgetting that Shae-Lynn Bourne & Victor Kraatz overtook a much weaker field of dancers back in 1993. The previous Canadian National Champions, Jacqueline Petr & Mark Janoschak, had only place twelfth in the world in 1992. Even then, the skating world was shocked when Bourne & Kraatz took home the gold. Tessa & Scott have a great challenge in front of them at senior Nationals - teams with world experience, teams who expect to be headed to the next Olympics. And in ice dance, we've learned over the years that it is often time which is the greatest obstacle to overcome. However, you can't take away the fact that Tessa & Scott are excellent dancers, and that their rise to the top of the junior grand prix events was probably a bit unexpected by the international skating world. I do wish them the best, and hope that they find the ingredients inside of them that can make their dreams come true. I'm just willing to give them some time. They are still so young, and have so much time to develop as skaters. I'm just asking that we take some of the pressure off of their shoulders and let them just skate. They're definitely beginning to show us that they're good at doing just that. In the other disciplines in Harbin, Jessica Dubé proved to be a double threat for success. She took home the bronze in the ladies' event, along with a silver with partner Bryce Davison in pairs. Although Dubé & Davison struggled with all of their throws during this competition, the quality of their other elements helped them win the free skate and pull up to second, although they could not overtake the Russians, Mukhortova & Trankov, who are sure to be medal threats in the final later on. Their teammates Efaieva & Menshikov brought home the bronze. Passing Dubé for the gold and silver medals were Nana Takeda of Japan and Korea's Yu-Na Kim, respectively. Kim, in fact, jumped a few places after a disappointing short program to win the free skate. And in men's, it was Magerovski of Russia who dominated. Switzerland's Jamal Othman built on his fifth place finish at the Nebelhorn Trophy with a silver medal here and Kazumi Kishimoto of Japan took the bronze. Of this week's competitors, it appears that Dubé & Davison, Virtue & Moir, and Yu-Na Kim have guaranteed themselves spots in the Junior Grand Prix Final. We'll have to wait and see what happens for Pratt & Gilles and Cronin & Shales as the rest of the competitors finish their second events. Until next week! Archives -- Contact -- Features -- Guestbook -- Links -- Webmistress (c)2004-7 Melanie L. Hoyt All rights reserved. |