Australian skaters shining at the ISU Junior Grand Prix
The international skating season is well underway with the ISU JGP series. This provides an invaluable opportunity for our junior skaters to get international experience against some of the best in the world.
The series started off at the Riga Cup, Latvia. Trisha Tong was the first Australian competitor of the series and this was her first JGP. Trisha finished in 28th position in both SP and FS, and finished in 28th with an overall score of 89.13.
Next the JGP travelled to Ankara, Turkiye. Kalyn Shimogaki, taking part in her first JGP, finished in 21st in the SP, 20th in the FS and 21st overall. Her total score for the two programs was 123.14.
The fourth event in the series was Bangkok, Thailand. Australia was represented by Hana Bath (Women) and Vinceman Chong (Men).
Hana has been competing in the JGP over the last couple of seasons and has greatly improved. And this event was no different showing that she has the ability to be on the podium. The SP saw a costly error on the combination jump which resulted in 9th place. However she cleanly performed two triple axels (a first for an Australian woman) in the FS, taking 3rd place and resulting in a 4th place overall finish with a score of 178.42, just .08 off third.
Vinceman has also been competing in the JGP over the last couple of years and improved each season. Along with all the triples, he has included the triple axel in both SP and FS. At this event his finished the SP in 10th place, achieved 8th in the FS and pulled up to 8th overall with a score of 156.94.
We are very proud of our skaters and congratulate them all on their performances.
There are three more events to come with more Australian skaters to looking to compete:
JGP #5 – Baku Azerbaijan – 23-26 September – Sienna Kaczmarczyk
JGP #6 – Gdansk Poland – 1-4 October – Isabella Wang
JGP #7 – Abu Dhabi UAE – 8-11 October – Hana Bath
We wish the skaters well for the upcoming events.