THERE WAS MUCH TO CELEBRATE AT THE JUNIOR GRAND PRIX FINAL.
Skaters from nine countries qualified to compete in Torino, Italy, with the top guns from the Junior Grand Prix Series challenged — and sometimes overtaken — by others in the field.
In the end, skaters from four nations stood atop the four podiums, with Japan and Italy capturing the singles crowns, and Canada and Australia winning the ice dance and pairs titles.
HISTORIC WIN FOR ITALY
Three Japanese, two American and one Italian man qualified for the Junior Grand Prix Final. All six came armed with triple Axels and two of the Japanese competitors attempted quad toes in the free skate.
Lucas Broussard of the U.S. was the only man to win both his assignments this season and headed into the Final ranked first overall. It was expected that his main competition for the title would be Italy’s Nikolaj Memola, but no one was counting out the Japanese men who had performed well at their respective Junior Grand Prix events.
All six men had the same technical content in the short program — triple Axel, triple Lutz-triple toe combination and a triple loop, the mandatory jump for juniors this season — so it would all come down to who executed the elements the best.
Last to take the ice in the segment, Broussard — who had been dealing with a hip injury in the weeks leading up to the Final — laid down a strong performance that earned a score of 81.11, a major increase over his previous personal best of 74.79, which put him into first place overall.
But Memola was hot on his heels, also executing a clean program, earning 79.84 points for his efforts.
Japan’s Shunsuke Nakamura, who headed into Torino ranked third, also delivered a solid performance, but lost valuable grade of execution points on both his spins. He sat in third with 74.81 points.
No Italian man had ever won a medal at a Junior Grand Prix Final,
