Closing in on the final stretch of the 2021 International Skating Union (ISU) Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating (JGP) Series, Team USA traveled to Gdansk, Poland, adding a silver medal to their JGP total while barley missing the podium for several more.
The ice dance pair of Isabella Flores and Dimitry Tsarevski received the silver medal and collected 153.63 total points after finishing second in both the rhythm dance and the free dance. This is the pair's second JGP silver medal this season.
Alongside Flores and Tsarevski, the pair of Leah Neset and Artem Markelov finished fifth with 135.34 total points. The duo also finished fifth in the free dance, skating to "My Immortal" by Evanescence and "In the End" by Linkin Park.
Finishing first in the ice dance were Russians Irina Khavronina and Dario Cirisano with 168.96 total points. Third place was earned by Cypriots Angelina Kudryavtseva and Ilia Karankevich with 148.95 total points.
In the women's competition, Clare Seo came close to the podium with 174.86 total points, good for a fourth-place finish. Earlier this season, Seo brought home bronze at JGP France. Not far behind Seo was Mia Kalin, who finished in sixth place with a total of 154.73 points.
Gold for the women's competition was won by Russian Sofia Akateva with 225.64 total points, followed by teammate Elizaveta Kulikova earning silver with 183.44 total points. South Korean Jia Shin took home bronze with 183.41 total points.
In the men's competition, teammates William Annis and Jacob Sanchez finished back to back with Annis placing in fifth, followed by Sanchez in sixth. Despite finishing seventh in the free skate in his JGP debut, Sanchez's third place, clean skate in the short program helped propel him to 194.03 total points. Annis was not too far ahead with 197.13 total points, just six points away from earning another JGP bronze this season.
Russian Gleb Lutfullin won gold in the men's competition with 231.26 total points, followed by a silver from Kazakhstani Mikhail Shaidorov with 207.03 total points. Bronze was rewarded to Russian Egor Rukhin with 202.28 total points.
In the junior pairs' competition, 2021 U.S. junior champions Anastasiia Smirnova and Danil Siianytsia represented Team USA well by earning third in both the short program and the free skate, totaling 153.63 points and finishing fourth overall.
Team USA's second pair was Isabelle Martins and Ryan Bedard, who have been skating together since 2015. They finished not far behind of their teammates, earning fifth place in the short program, free skate and overall with 141.96 total points.
The podium for the junior pairs was dominated by Russia, which earned all three medals. Gold went to Ekaterina Chikmareva and Matvei Ianchenkov with 171.97 total points, followed by second place finishers Ekaterina Petushkova and Evgenii Malikov with 169.80 total points, then third place in Polina Kostiukovich and Aleksei Briukhanov with 162.14 total points.
The 2021 Junior Grand Prix series will continue next week in Linz, Austria, Oct. 6-9. The ISU will stream all events live on its YouTube page. Fans can follow along with the JGP series on Competition Central on Fan Zone.
