2018 JGP Ljubljana: Thoughts and Highlights? | Golden Skate

2018 JGP Ljubljana: Thoughts and Highlights?

gsk8

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Country
United-States
Hi Folks!

Check out our Twitter, Instagram, and/or Facebook page for photos, videos and more from the event!

Now that the competition is over, what were your favorite highlights of the event? Feel free to talk about costumes, elements, scores, etc. Everything goes!

We are also looking for those who have a bit of writing skillz! We'd love to see a paragraph of each discipline highlighting the top three along with your thoughts. The staff will be watching and someone may win a free season pass to the competition forums if you haven't already got one :) Get those creative and technical juices flowing and show us your journalistic abilities! One-liners are welcome, just keep out the snark level down :biggrin:
A big congrats to the winners below who gave great recaps on previous events and earned a free season pass! :clap:

IceBallerina - JGP Linz
Fluture
- JGP Linz
MalAssada - JGP Kaunas
Step Sequence4 - JGP Canada
chameleon - US Classic
Marius - Lombardia
Baron Vladimir - Ondrej Nepela Trophy
skylark - Autumn Classic
Clairecz - JGP Ostrava
 

Colonel Green

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 3, 2018
Country
Canada
- In terms of consistency, this was the best men's event, junior or senior, held so far this season. The top six made few errors across both programs. It's almost too bad that so many of these guys put out such solid work at the same time when it would have been good enough for a podium (or just a higher ordinal placement) at many other events this season (the entire top six would have won gold in Kaunas, for instance).
- Special shout out to Conrad Orzel, who had the best free program of his career (and somehow saved a couple of jumps that I thought looked doomed) and missed the podium by 0.01 points, a margin I think you can only laugh about.
- The top three at the ladies' event were all very impressive (I'm particularly taken with Tarusina's free program, though it's a shame she's now likely to miss the Final). Selma Ihr also stood out amongst the ladies ranked lower.
- In the dance event, Nguyen and Kolesnik are rock stars. I now expect to see them on the JGP Final and Junior Worlds podiums, at this rate.
 

elektra blue

mother of skaters
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 11, 2018
Country
Italy
and suddenly things went foggy and dark...:biggrin: literally

boys were the stars this time, a joy to watch. Orzel (0.01 points look like a jocke, seriously),Shimada and Gumennik were pure fireworks, but my favourite performance was maestro Daniealian's :laugh: who conducted a verdi's medley. bravo maestro! unluckily for him the field was so deep that he missed the podium, he would have won everywhere else:(

special mentions:
Kawabata who snapped the first place from the russians in sp.
Nordeback, still rough but so talented both technically and artistically (my baby!!!:yahoo:)
the 5th musketeer cha
Sumiyoshi, who managed to complete a nice program trough myst and darkness, kudos to her!
leung, who, in a world of ice princesses, wore an evil queen dress and skated on florence and the machine.

trend allert: bold red lipstick (silly question: are boys allowed to wear makeup?)
 

silverfoxes

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 16, 2014
The last group of men all brought it. It was way more exciting than Finlandia, where everyone was pretty much a mess. Petr is almost a perfect complete package - no quad yet (I know he's practicing them), but a 3A-3Lo is pretty special, and he has gorgeous spins, showmanship, pretty much everything. Koshiro has grown so much from his past seasons into a very interesting skater. The others are not so much my cup of tea, but it was still one of the best junior men's comps in ages, and at least there was some intrigue here. Outside of the top group, I was very impressed with the boy from Azerbaijan (Vladimir Litvinsev), and Andreas Nordback of Sweden looks quite promising. Didn't see much of the ladies, but I'm particularly happy for Tarakanova.
 

QueenOfTheRoad

Final Flight
Joined
Oct 21, 2017
Country
Germany
Loved the men competition! Gumennik was phenomenal in the short, he brought such a joy and energy in his presentation. His costume is so beautiful and suits the czardas. This is a reason why i think traditional music is so well suited to figure skating. I loved Danielian FS a lot - the short was not so great but he chose the music well, he just has to grow up into it.

I also liked Orzel, i think he will transition well to the seniors next year, he has the whole package.
 

bunnybarista

If I risk it all, could you break my fall?~
On the Ice
Joined
May 27, 2018
All I can say is: Nguyen/Kolesnik!! Can't wait to see them at JGP Finals :luv17: :luv17: :luv17:

Fisher / Malette-Paquette had a lovely rhythm dance, I thought. Great expression from her. Also during the rhythm dance: the support of Villo Marton for her partner Danyil after his two falls was really heartwarming! Seeing such strong support for her partner is a great sign for their future bond.

In the dance event, Nguyen and Kolesnik are rock stars. I now expect to see them on the JGP Final and Junior Worlds podiums, at this rate.

YES! :biggrin:
 

plushyfan

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Country
Hungary
Loved the men competition! Gumennik was phenomenal in the short, he brought such a joy and energy in his presentation. His costume is so beautiful and suits the czardas. This is a reason why i think traditional music is so well suited to figure skating. I loved Danielian FS a lot - the short was not so great but he chose the music well, he just has to grow up into it.

I also liked Orzel, i think he will transition well to the seniors next year, he has the whole package.

Interesting no one remember for this Gumennik's program https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuNRDnBtIBM and costume .
 

lavoix

Match Penalty
Joined
Sep 5, 2015
Anastasia Tarakanova's SP is for me a very sophisticated piece of music interpreted very well. Plushenko's spin and sass in this program is evident, and it works very well. Out of all the programs we have seen so far this season, this one for me will be the most memorable. I'm waiting for the GPF so Anastasia can showcase it at her full potential.

I wish more skaters would switch to Plushenko now. I haven't been as disappointed by his performances as I have seen from other coaches.
 

moriel

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 18, 2015
First of all, the main highlight goes to the fog. At some moments, you could barely see the skaters. Congrats to the judges who managed to score something in that fog.

Men:
Gumennik: Well, he is overall just a cute and artistic boy, and it is always a joy to watch him.
Gorodnitsky: Nice to see skaters who are not from Russia/Japan/Canada/USA to challenge the top ones, even if it is just the SP.
Ladies:
Overall, this even was not so exciting, since none of the 3A was here, so world records, no quads and no 3A speculations. A nice calm event before the JGPF battle.
Nice to see Tarakanova doing well.
 

VenusHalley

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 6, 2018
I watched just ladies and it was actually my first Junior event I watched fully, not just random bits.
It was interesting to see such a diversity. Seeing the skaters from less privileged countries, with not much chance to train full time, some in dresses that looked homemade… made me actually appreciate how hard this sport is, since the last group makes it just seem so effortless. So you have girls like Klimentena Makeevska from Macedonia (it was sad to see her so sad). It is great that many get to compete in such events, although it’s glaringly obvious some will never get any other reward than joy of skating. Still… something about it is heartwarming, in different way from seeing top girls and women push the limits of the sport.
I very much loved Ted’s commentary – he is super nice and does explain well how things are supposed to done, what went wrong, what went great… very educative.
I have to say I did enjoy lots of the less skilled skaters too… some notable girls:
Anastasia Vaipan-Law – she did a good performance to Skyfall, very passionate and has a definite artistic streak.
Megan Ly from Taipei in beautiful dress with beautiful program and she looked so happy too
Maryna Zhanovich – for some reason I enjoyed her skate. I loved her beginning position on the layback spin. She did make mistakes throughout the program, but overall she did good.
Selma Valitato – I enjoyed her step sequence.
Julia Lang – she was so energetic, fierce, powerful. Her jumps were not always the greatest, but she had this energy and the skate was overall enjoyable and lovely.
Gabriella Izzo – she managed to skate amazingly after an initial mistake and fought for it, like life depended on it.


Rion Sumiyoshi – when you skate so impressively that the light go out… literally. Must have been so terrifying, but she carried on. She was great and my heart stopped when the lights went out, cause I thought stream was broken and I was sad I will not see the whole performance.
Yi Christy Leung – fresh, current and cool. She skated the lights out of it. Technically great and artistic, she brought the overall great image. Will be watching out of her, hopefully, she can make it to bigger stages. ¨
Haein Lee – well, she went for it, she entertained, she conquered.
Tomoe Kawabata – poor girl had the nerves get to her, but I do believe she can learn from this and go on to do great things. It was heartbreaking though.
Anna Taurusina and Anastasia Tarakanova – well, they were perfect and showed what can one do when they train hard and train a lot. Both performances were quite mature and well, they deserve their medals.
(I am sure I left lots of great girls out, but this is just from top of my head, the strongest positive impressions. I don’t want to comment on those that did not do that well).
 

Spirals for Miles

Anna Shcherbakova is my World Champion
Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 25, 2017
My girls Nastya Tarakanova and Anya Tarusina delivered again! Heartbreaking to see Anya likely miss the final (and automatic qualification to senior nationals) though :(
Out of lower-ranked girls, I most enjoyed Selma Ihr and Anna Dea Gulbani-Schmidt
 

el henry

Go have some cake. And come back with jollity.
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 3, 2014
Country
United-States
I second third and fourth the shout-outs to the junior men. This comp had it all, all the styles, all the performances, and a 1.5 point difference between 2nd and 5th after the short. That, to me, is the meaning of sport, a closely matched group of competitors from all over the globe and from all different “schools” of skating.

Since I’m all about the spins and splits, gotta give up for Tomoki :clap:

And I usually don’t watch so much junior dance, but based on all the love and recommendations, I took a look at Avonley and Vadym. Wow :agree2:presentation, style, class: Those kids are juniors?

The mind boggles.
 
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