JGP Austria Recap

Men

Han Yan of China won the gold medal with a quad in his free skate and an increase in his personal best by 12 points.  He is the second skater to score above 200 points this season.  Gordei Gorshkov of Russia took home the silver medal.  Keiji Tanaka of Japan added a bronze medal to the gold medal he won in Australia, but he finished 19 points below his score there and 23 points below his personal best.

Several skaters did not match their earlier performances.  Sei Kawahara of Japan finished 12 points below his Latvia score, Petr Coufal of the Czech Republic finished 12 points below his Poland score, He Zhang of China finished 18 points below his Latvia score and Liam Firus of Canada finished 24 points below his Australia score (where he won bronze).

Timothy Dolensky of the United States finished 12 points below his personal best, Tomi Pulkkinen of Switzerland finished 13 points below his personal best and Bela Papp of Finland finished 25 points below his personal best.

Some skaters drastically improved their scores.  Manuel Drescher of Austria scored 10 points higher than in Poland and set a new personal best.  Maurizio Zandron of Italy increased his personal best by 29 points, Victor Bustamante increased his personal best by 26 points and Harry Hau Yin Lee increased his personal best by 29 points.

Ladies

Vanessa Lam took home her second career JGP gold medal and increased her score by 11 points since Australia.  Zijun Li of China won the silver and Polina Agafonova of Russia won the bronze.

Other skaters who competed well include Anais Ventard of France who increased her score by 11 points since Poland and Sumika Yamada of Hong Kong who increased her score by 17 points since Australia.  Camille Gjersem increased her personal best by 16 points and Michelle Quintero increased her personal best by 20 points.

Ladies who did not have their best event include Isabel Drescher who finished 13 points below her personal best, Eliska Brezinova finished 14 points below her personal best, Svetlana Issakova finished 22 points below her personal best and Alexandra Kunova finished 27 points below her personal best.

Pairs

Sui and Han of China hit a quad twist on route to their second gold medal of the season.  They increased their score by 15 points since Latvia.  They'll be heading to the JGP Final unless they earn a spot to the GPF again this season.  Their teammates Yu and Jin took home their second silver of the season and also increased their score by 15 points.  Petaikina and Kurduykov of Russia took the bronze with an improvement of 17 points since Latvia.

Several other pairs showed improvements.  Jaskolka and Snopek of Poland increased their score by 15 points since Poland, Duarte and Grafton of the United States improved by 17 points since Latvia, and Li and Jiang of China finished a whopping 38 points higher than at Latvia.

Purdy and Marinaro of Canada took home a bronze medal earlier this season but dropped to a 10th place finish here with a score 17 points below their Latvia marks.  Oltmanns and Santillan finished 10 points below their personal best, Kadlecova and Bidar finished 19 points below their personal best and Vasilieva and Shevchuk finished 19 points below their personal best.

Dance

Sinitsina and Zhiganshin of Russia snagged their second gold medal of the season to earn a return trip to the JGP Final.  They increased their score by 11 points since Poland.  Aldridge and Eaton of the United States had a strong showing to win the silver medal and increased their score by 18 points since Latvia.  Nosulia and Kholoniuk of Ukraine added a bronze medal to the gold they won earlier this season.

Orford and Williams of Canada won a gold medal earlier this season, but dropped to 10th place here.  Zaja and Binkowski finished 11 points below their personal best and Zhang and Wu finished 15 points below their personal best.