This will be interesting with last year's Silver (C/P) and Gold (S/A) Junior World medalists competing against each other for the first time as seniors!
I think it would have been more interesting to have Shpilevaya & Smirnov go up against Carreira & Ponomarenko. (2017 Junior Worlds 3 & 4).
Skoptcova & Aleshin still look to be coming back from their injury. Their scores haven't been very close. I think the tango is coming along, and of course, the style suits them well. The free, though, isn't the strongest vehicle and still seems to need work. They could look better by Tallinn, and of course it will be closer to home for S&A so we'll see what happens; but it's not the battle thus far that we saw develop last season.
Kaliszek & Spodyriev have the higher score. And midway between S&A's SB and C&P's score from Finland (where they left several points on the table)
I realise this thread is supposed to be about the Seniors, but I would like to talk about the Advanced Novice competition.
One of the skaters I adopted a few years ago when he was in Singles switched to Ice Dance last season, and he and his new partner for this season have been doing VERY well.
Maria MILIUKOVA / Nikita VITRYANYUK (CYP) won the Hallowe'en Cup, and finished 7[SUP]th[/SUP] in the Volvo Open (a low score in PD1 dragged them down in Riga).
The Pattern Dances for the Novice levels are being held before the Juniors and Seniors have their Short Dances on Monday. And the same will be the case for the Free Dances on Tuesday.
I really hope the livestream will be on air for the Novices. Because I really want to be able to cheer Maria and Nikita on LIVE for the first time.
Is it normal for things to run so late at these Challenger Events?!
We are supposed to be coming towards the end of the first group of the Advanced Novice Pattern Dance 1, and the Intermediate Novices have only just finished their Pattern Dance 1!
Advanced Novices currently doing their Warm-Up
EDIT: Seems like the first partnership in the Advanced Novices has withdrawn, so that'll help a bit in getting them get back on track.