JGP Latvia Recap

The first event of the season has come and gone and was full of surprises.  Some skaters made big strides and had surprise wins while others didn't perform as they had hoped.

Men

Ryuju Hino of Japan finished 6th and 12th in his JGP events last season.  He made a big jump here to take the gold medal and increased his personal best score by over 30 points.  His teammate Sei Kawahara increased his personal best score by 25 points.

He Zhang of China placed 9th and 10th in his JGP events last season but moved up to the silver medal here.  He also increased his personal best by 20 points.  Timothy Dolensky of the United States took home the bronze in his JGP debut.  June-Hyoung Lee of Korea placed 4th in his JGP debut and is only 14 years old.

The biggest improvement of the event was Pavel Ignatenko of Belarus.  He finished 21st in his JGP event last season but climbed to 8th place here.  He had a 40 point increase in his personal best.

Newcomers Nam Nguyen of Canada and Emmanuel Savary of the United States were expected to contend for the podium here.  They had respectable outings for only being 13 and in their JGP debut, but didn't do as well as many people might have expected.

Ladies

The ladies event was slightly disappointing as very few ladies set new personal bests and those that did were only by a few points.  This was a sharp contrast to the men's event.

Polina Agafonova of Russia showed she's back in contention, taking home the bronze medal here.  Her teammate, Polina Shelepen, took home hold.  Zijun Li of China won her first silver medal on the JGP.

Gerli Liinamae of Estonia jumped from 10th and 9th last season to 4th place here.  Ashley Cain of the United States finished 6th in her JGP debut.  Josefine Taljegard jumped from 20th last season to 9th here and increased her personal best by 9 points.

Yasmin Siraj of the United States finished 5th at this event after making a trip to the Final last season.  She finished 26 points below her season's best and will likely not be receiving a second event this season.  Miyabi Oba of Japan finished 26 points below her score at Junior Worlds.  Sila Saygi of Turkey finished a disappointing 40 points below her personal best.

Pairs

Sui and Han won this event as suspected.  They had a big lead over the field but were still 15 points below their score at Junior Worlds.  They seem to be slow starters and these events are essentially warm-ups for their Grand Prix assignments.

Purdy and Marinaro of Canada moved from 10th and 9th last season to the bronze medal this season.

This event was a disappointment for the Russian and American teams who had three teams each and didn't medal at all.  Duarte and Grafton of the United States placed 5th and 7th last season and had good summer competitions, but fell to 9th place here.

Dance

Nosulia and Kholoniuk of Ukraine are the Cinderella story of this event.  They finished 5th and 10th at their events last season and finished 19th at Junior Worlds just a few months ago.  They set a new personal best by 15 points to take the gold medal here.  Aldridge and Eaton of the United States brought home their first medal with a bronze and increased their personal best by 8 points.

Uzurova and Ali of Kazakhstan continue to make a name for themselves as they finished 7th here, their best finish to date.  The Gamelin twins from the United States finished 17th in the short dance but pulled out a 7th place free skate to climb the standings and increase their personal best by 11 points.

Poulin and Servant of Canada were in medal contention but lost ground in the free dance to finish in 6th place, 10 points below their personal best.