Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov of Russia perform their Free Skate at the 218-19 Junior Grand Prix Final of Figure Skating.

2018-19 Junior Grand Prix Final of Figure Skating

Junior Pairs’ Free Skate

Russia’s Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov rose from third place to capture gold in the Junior Pairs event at the 2018-19 Junior Grand Prix Final. Teammates Polina Kostiukovich and Dmitrii Ialin and Apollinariia Panfilova and Dmitry Rylov took silver and bronze, respectively.

Mishina and Galliamov showed lots of determination in their solid routine to music from The Master and Margarita. The World junior bronze medalists earned high grades of execution (GOE) on all elements and showed solid jumps, including a throw triple flip and loop, as well as side-by-side triple Salchow-Euler-triple Salchow combination. Both lifts were graded a level 4 and the team picked up 126.26 for a first-place finish in the free skate and overall (190.63).

“I think we did everything and we’re very satisfied with the performance,” said Mishina.

Galliamov agreed. “We’re satisfied with our performance, we gave one hundred percent. We’re more satisfied than we were with the short program.”

He emphasized that they do not think about being on the podium as a “goal,” but instead, concentrate on the program, how they skate, and what elements need work.

“We try to do better than practice because the way you skate during practice,” Galliamov explained. “That’s how you’re going to perform. But it’s definitely good to get a pleasant surprise.”

Kostiukovich and Ialin  were near-perfect with the exception of a under-rotated Euler in the side-by-side triple Salchow-triple Salchow combination in their “Cirque du Soleil”  routine. The World junior silver medalists also lost a level on the combination spin, but put out solid throw jumps, side-by-side triple toes and level 4 lifts. They scored a new personal best of 122.69 for second in the free skate and overall (189.53) for silver.

“We felt good during the program and at the end, but apparently it was not quite enough and the others got a few more points,” said Kostiukovich. “It just means that we have to work harder to be able to step on to the top of the podium next time.”

Panfilova and Rylov gave a clean performance to  “Charms” from the W.E. soundtrack with the exception of their side-by-side double Axel combination which was under-rotated. The defending silver medalists otherwise showed very strong level 4 lifts, a triple twist, and throw jumps which received high GOES. They finished third in the free skate with a season’s best of 120.15 and overall (186.59) to take the bronze.

“We got the scores that we expected,” said Rylov. “We did everything we could and we skated clean, so we can’t really comment on the scores.”

“I believe that we skated well according to our strengths and capability,” said Panfilova. “We did the best we could. Maybe we didn’t give the skate everything we could because we can’t always give our all at every single competition. Otherwise we can’t make it to the end of the season. In any case, we always try hard.”

“We felt very good coming on the ice,” she added regarding the audience. “We loved the atmosphere and the support from the audience. Even when we made mistakes in the warmup, everyone was still clapping and we really liked that kind of support.”

Russia’s Kseniia Akhanteva and Valerii Kolesov finished fourth (110.47 / 172.51) overall. The  JGP Czech Skate champions had a fall on the side-by-side triple Salchow combo, but showed a good throw triple Lutz and triple loop, as well as a level 4 death spiral and lifts.  

“Not everything was perfect,” noted Akhanteva. “The combo jump didn’t work, but other elements were good. We will be working on mistakes we made and improve our elements.”

“The seniors can get themselves together at the last moment and skate well,” said Kolesov. “This is what we need to  learn and in general, to feel the atmosphere of competing in senior level.”

Teammates Anastasia Poluianova and Dmitry Sopot suffered falls on the side-by-side jumps and missed positions on the pair spin, but  landed the throw jumps and showed level four lifts. The JGP Linz silver medalist finished fifth (99.95 / 158.33).

“We are happy with the skate, even with such big misses and mistakes,” said Sopot. “We’re glad we made it to the Grand Prix Final. The next step for us is preparing for the Russian Nationals.”

USA’s Sarah Feng and TJ Nyman withdrew to injury.