Minto Skating Club

After completion of the 2012 Canadian Championships in Moncton, NB, the teams for the ISU Four Continents Championships in Colorado Springs, USA (February 6-12); the ISU World Championships in Nice, France (March 26 - April 1); and the ISU Junior World Championships in Minsk, Belarus (Feb. 27 - March 4) have been named.

The single exception was the identification of the woman to represent Canada in Nice - that decision was made after the Four Continents Championship when Amelie Lacoste was named to the team for Worlds.

This year's event took place in Sheffield, England and saw the return to ISU competition of Evgeni Plushenko who was successful in winning a historic seventh European championship. All the placements, scores, and detailed protocols for the competitors at Europeans are available on the results page.

After his win, Evgeni confirmed that he would not compete at the 2012 ISU World Championships because of the need to have surgery for an injured leg. He intends to return to international competition in 2013.

The event in San Jose, California included novice, junior and championship (senior) skaters in all four disciplines. Check all the results online.  In the senior events, only the 2011 ice dance champions, Meryl Davis & Charlie White, were able to defend their title; Jeremy Abbott regained the title he failed to defend in 2011; Ashley Wagner won her first title; and John Coughlin returned as pairs champion but with a new partner, Caydee Denny.

Following the competition the USFS named its teams for upcoming 2012 ISU competions including the Four Continents Championships in Colorado Springs, Worlds in Nice, France, and Junior Worlds in Minsk, Belarus.

The annual national competitions in Japan and Russia have now been completed - results have posted and articles have appeared in the press.

The Japanese teams for Worlds and Four Continents have been announced and each will include this year's gold medalists Mao Asada (Ladies), Daisuke Takahashi (Men), and Narumi Takahashi & Mevin Tran (Pairs) as well as Cathy & Chris Reed (Ice Dance) who did not compete.

Evgeni Plushenko claimed his 9th Russian championship but may not be part of the Russian team at Worlds. The gold medalist in ladies, Adeline Sotnikov, is not yet age eligible for senior Worlds, having turned 15 on July 1, 2011 rather than before that date. The Russian team for 2012 Worlds in Nice has not yet been announced.

Once this season's Grand Prix series (both senior and junior) were completed, the competitors and alternates for the Grand Prix Final in Quebec City (Dec. 8-11) were determined. Those who competed in the senior event were:

• Men - Patrick Chan (CAN); Daisuke Takahashi (JPN); Jeremy Abbott (USA); Michal Brezina (CZE); Javier Fernandez (ESP); & Yuzuru Hanyu (JPN).
• Ladies - Elizaveta Tuktamisheva (RUS); Carolina Kostner (ITA); Akiko Suzuki (JPN); Alissa Czisny (USA); & Alena Leonova (RUS). Unfortunately, Mao Asada (JPN) withdrew before the short program to return to Japan because of her mother's fatal illness.
• Pairs - Volosozhar & Trankov (RUS); Savchenko & Szolkowy (GER); Kavaguti & Smirnov (RUS); Zhang & Zhang (CHN); Takahashi & Tran (JPN); & Duhamel & Radford (CAN).
• Ice Dance - Davis & White (USA); Virtue & Moir (CAN); Shibutani & Shibutani (USA); Bobrova & Soloviev (RUS); Pechalat & Bourzat (FRA); Weaver & Poje (CAN).

Detailed results and protocols for both the Junior and Senior events.

Congratulations to Canadian medalists Patrick Chan (gold); Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir (silver); and Katherine Bobak & Ian Beharry (bronze in junior pairs).

Full details of the points earned by all competitors in each discipline of the GP series can be found on the ISU site as well as for those in all disciplines in the Junior GP series.

This series of 6 events determined the qualifiers to participate in the Grand Prix Final in Quebec City (8-11 December 2011):

• 2011 Hilton HHonors Skate America, Ontario, CA, USA (21 - 23 Oct.) - Detailed results. Canada's team competed in pairs and ice dance. Kristin Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch brought home a bronze medal after finishing 2nd in the pairs free skate.
• Skate Canada International, Mississauga, ON (28 - 30 Oct.) - Detailed results. Preview article with focus on the CDN team. Congratulations to the CDN team members who received 2 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze medal.
• Cup of China, Shanghai, China (4 - 6 Nov.) - Detailed results. Canada's team consisted of 2 pairs and 1 man. Brian Joubert (FRA) & Jinlin Guan (CHN) were late withdrawals, leaving a field of only 8 men. Congratulations to Kristin Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch for their second bronze medal of the GP series.
• NHK Trophy, Sapporo, Japan (11 - 13 Nov.) - Detailed results. Canada's team competed in ladies, pairs & ice dance. In the latter, Kaitlyn Weaver & Andrew Poje won their 2nd silver medal of the series, missing out on gold by less than a 1/4 of a point. Alexandra Paul & Mitchell Islam were forced to withdraw before the free dance when she cut her posterior thigh after a collision during practice.
• Trophée Eric Bompard, Paris, France (18 - 20 Nov.) -  Detailed results. Canada's team consisted of 2 men, 2 pairs, and an ice dance couple and brought home 2 gold & 1 bronze medal. Brian Joubert (FRA) was a late withdrawal from the event and was replaced by his countryman, Romain Ponsart. Kevin Reynolds withdrew during the event, after the warmup for the free skate.
• Rostelecom Cup, Moscow, Russia (25 - 27 Nov.) - Detailed results. Canada's team competed in all four disciplines in this final event and Kaitlyn Weaver & Andrew Poje brought home a silver medal in ice dance.

Those qualifying for the Grand Prix Final and the alternates in each discipline can be found on the ISU site.

All of the events in this season have now been completed and the qualifiers (and alternates) for the JGP final in Quebec City have been identified. Canada has only one entry, the pair team of Bobak & Beharry who won a silver and a gold medal in their first season competing together. Skate Canada has posted an article about the competition.

All the qualifiers and alternates are identified in the links below along with the full results of the season in each discipline.

• Junior Men
• Junior Ladies
• Junior Pairs
• Junior Ice Dance

Vantaa, Finland was the location where Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir debuted their new programs for this season at the 2011 Finlandia Trophy, a senior international event for men, ladies & ice dancers.  They were Canada's only entries in this event which took place October 7-9, 2011. As might be expected, Tessa & Scott won the gold medal by a significant margin, followed by two American couples who also train in Canton, MI - Maia & Alex Shibutani and the new team of Madison Chock & Evan Bates.  Detailed results.

This annual international senior competition took place in Oberstdorf, Germany Sept. 21-24, 2011 - 31 nations were represented. Results from this competition can be used for qualifying to gain entry into ISU events. Skate Canada sent seven entries - 2 men, 1 lady, 2 pairs and 2 ice dance couples. One of our dance couples, Kharis Ralph & Asher Hill brought home a bronze medal. Detailed results.

The ISU is now on Facebook & YouTube. The YouTube channel is for the 2011/12 Junior Grand Prix - check it out to see videos of individual competitive performances in each of the Junior Grand Prix events as they take place or after the events.

This season's Junior Grand Prix is now underway and the ISU has set up a YouTube channel to broadcast videos after each skating performance. It is not live but videos are uploaded very quickly.

There are seven events this season:

• Riga, Latvia (31 August - 4 September). Canada was represented by a junior man, a pairs team, and a dance couple and they brought home a bronze medal in pairs. Detailed results (all four disciplines).
• Brisbane, Australia (7 - 11 September). Canada's team was one junior man, one junior lady, and an ice dance couple and they brought home a bronze medal (men) and a gold medal (dance). Detailed results (men, ladies and ice dance).
• Gdansk, Poland (14 - 18 September). Detailed results. Canada had representatives in all four disciplines and they brought home a silver medal in pairs with all of the other competitors finishing within the top 10 in their discipline.
• Brasov, Romania (21 - 25 September). Detailed results. Canadian team included 2 men and 2 ice dance couples - one of the former, Nam Nguyen and one of the latter, Mackenzie Bent & Garrett MacKeen each came home with a bronze medal.
• Innsbruck, Austria (18 September - 2 October). Detailed results.  Canada's team.
• Milano, Italy (5 - 9 October). Detailed results for men, ladies and ice dance. The best finish for Canada's team was a fifth place in ice dance.
• Tallinn, Estonia (12 - 16 October). Detailed results for the 4 disciplines. Canada's team competed in men's, pairs & ice dance and the team of Bobak & Beharry came home with a gold medal in pairs, qualifying them for the Grand Prix Final.

The Junior Grand Prix final will take place in Quebec City (in combination with the senior Grand Prix final) from December 6 - 9, 2011. The standings, by discipline, are available on the ISU site.

Information on the music choices for several dance teams training in Canton, MI, including Canada's Virtue and Moir, is revealed in this IceNetwork article.

This annual event in Indianapolis features pair skating with senior, junior and novice participants from Canada and the USA. Kirstin Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch were scheduled to compete but withdrew due to his strained Achilles tendon. Ice Network articles detail the short and free results in the Senior event as well as the short and free results in the Junior event. Congratulations to the CDN team of Paige Lawrence and Rudi Swiegers who placed 2nd in both parts of the senior event and to the new CDN team of Katherine Bobak & Ian Beharry who were 3rd in the junior short and first in the free. Another new team, Caydee Denny & John Coughlin of the USA, won both the senior short and free.

The annual Lake Placid ice dance competition took place July 27-30, the same weekend as Minto Summer Skate 2011. Several Canadian teams actually participated in both events., including two senior teams from British Columbia. Results are available from the event site.

Paul Poirier, whose 10 year partnership with Vanessa Crone ended earlier in the off-season, has a new partner who has moved to Canada from the USA - Piper Gilles. The couple will be eligible to compete for Canada internationally in 2012 and will make their debut at the Canadian championships in Moncton, NB in January 2012.

Piper and Paul were spotted at Minto Summer Skate 2011 cheering on their training mates from the Scarboro Figure Skating Club.

The dates and locations of the six Grand Prix events were announced earlier and appear in an item lower down on this page. The ISU has now released more information including some changes in the series for this year. The changes include a reduction in the number of competitors per event to 10 ladies, 10 men, 8 pairs and 8 ice dance couples. At the end of the series, the top 6 qualifiers in each discipline will proceed to the Grand Prix Final in Quebec City in December.

Seeded skaters (those who placed in the top six at Worlds 2011) are assigned to two GP events. They also have the opportunity to compete in a third event, where they will be eligible to win prize money and earn a bonus of US$10,000. For the seeded entries, the skater/couple’s best two out of three events will collect points towards the qualification for the GPF. Skaters/couples who placed 7-12 at Worlds 2011 are selected for two GP events, and skaters with a high seasons best score as well as those placed in the top of the World Standings can also be invited. This season, in order for a skater/couple to be eligible to compete at a Grand Prix event, a minimum score must be achieved.

The current list of entries in each discipline has been posted on the ISU site. There are still some places "to be announced", generally these are places to be filled by the host country. For the Skate Canada International event, Skate Canada has announced the remaining members of the team.

This event took place in Oberstdorf, Germany from June 8 - 11, 2011 and the schedule is available. Skate Canada posted a list of the Canadian entries - the full list of entries included 1989 World Champion & 1992 Olympic silver medalist Midori Ito of Japan. She was defeated by Jan Calnan in the Masters Elite II Free Skate. All the competition results are now available.

Congratulations to all the participants, but especially those who skate/have skated at Minto!

It has been announced by Skate Canada that the 2012 national championships will take place in Moncton, New Brunswick from January 16-22, 2012. The event will be held in the Moncton Coliseum Complex and will include novice, junior and senior category events.

All event ticket packages will go on sale in September 2011.

On June 2nd, 2011 Vanessa Crone & Paul Poirier surprised many with the announcement via Skate Canada of the end of their 10 year ice dance partnership. They were part of Canada's team at 2010 Olympics and, as national champions, represented Canada at the 2011 World Championships. The latest news is that they are each hoping to continue competing, just with different partners.

Joey Russell, who represented Canada at the 2011 World Figure Skating Championships, announced his retirement from competitive skating. A thank you message from Joey was posted on the Skate Canada Newfoundland and Labrador section website. According to the CBC News, Joey will be spending several months performing on cruise ships with his first gig on the Freedom of the Seas according to an Ice Network article.

Two Japanese skating champions are recovering from recent knee surgery but both Daisuke Takahashi and Nobunari Oda are planning to compete next season according to a Universal Sports article.

In the USA there have been some developments in pairs:

• Caitlin Yankowskas & John Coughlin announced the end of their partnership shortly after their best-ever international placement - finishing 6th at the 2011 World Championships
• Caydee Denney and John Coughlin announced their partnership; Caydee's partnership with with Jeremy Barrett ended before the 2011 World Championships.
• Amanda Evora & Mark Ladwig committed to skate for another season

Also in the USA, Ryan Bradley, the 2011 champion, announced his retirement from competitive skating and ice dancers Madison Chock & Greg Zuerlein announced the end of their partnership as did Emily Samuelson & Evan Bates. Chock and Bates have formed a new ice dance team according to a sidebar to this article about Adam Rippon's move from Toronto to Detroit. Earlier the US's Hubbell brother and sister ice dance team also announced an end to their competitive partnership and Madison Hubbell has reteamed with Zach Donohue, making a debut at the Lake Placid dance event. In late August the latest new US dance partnership was announced - Emily Samuelson and Todd Gilles. At the time of their announcement their arrangements for coaching had not yet been determined.

An official announcement from the ISU details the full schedule of its recognized international skating competitions for the 2011/2012 season. The details of the two grand prix series have been reproduced in separate articles below.

The four championship events this season will be:

• ISU European Figure Skating Championships - Jan. 23 - 29, 2012 - Sheffield, England
• ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships - Feb. 7 - 12, 2012 - Colorado Springs, USA
• ISU Junior World Figure Skating Championships - Feb. 27 - March 4, 2012 - Minsk, Belarus
• ISU World Figure Skating Championships - March 26 - April 1, 2012 - Nice, France

Of note in the early announcement of the schedule was the addition of Summer Skate in Thornhill, Ontario as an international qualifying event in both juniors and seniors. However, on June 30th Skate Canada announced that the Thornhill senior international event had been cancelled.

The ISU has officially announced the dates and locations of the six events in the Grand Prix for next season:

• Oct. 21 - 23 - Skate America - Ontario, California
• Oct 27 - 30 - Skate Canada International - Mississauga, Ontario
• Nov. 4 - 6 - Cup of China - Shanghai, China
• Nov. 11 - 13 - NHK Trophy - Sapporo, Japan
• Nov. 18 - 20 - Trophée Eric Bompard - Paris, France
• Nov. 25 - 27 - Cup of Russia - Moscow, Russia

The culmination of the series will be the Grand Prix Final which will take place in Quebec City on December 8 - 11th in conjunction with the final for the junior series.

The ISU has officially announced the dates and locations of the seven events in the Junior Grand Prix for next season:

• Aug. 31 - Sept. 4, 2011 - Riga, Latvia
• Sept. 7 - 11 - Brisbane, Australia (no pairs)
• Sept. 14 - 18 - Gdansk, Poland
• Sept. 21 - 25 - Brasov, Romania (no pairs)
• Sept. 28 - Oct. 2 - Innsbruck, Austria
• Oct. 5 - 9 - Milano, Italy (no pairs)
• Oct. 12 - 16 - Tallinn, Estonia

The culmination of the junior series will be the Junior Grand Prix Final which will take place in Quebec City on Dec. 8-11th in conjunction with the final for the senior series.

A little more than one month late, due to the disastrous series of events in Japan, the rescheduled and relocated 2011 World Figure Skating Championships took place in Moscow, Russia from April 24-May 1st. The competition schedule, entries & results, including full protocols, are available here. Canadian TV & live online coverage began on April 27th and concludes with the gala on May 1st. The preliminary (qualifying) rounds took place on April 25th & 26th and were not available for viewing. In these rounds for men and ladies, a free skate was performed and the top 12 moved into the main competition while in ice dance, after a free dance, the top 10 moved forward. There was no preliminary round required in pairs.

The Canadian team at the 2011 World Championships which brought home a gold medal (in the men's event) and a silver medal (in the dance event) was composed of:

Pair
Kirsten Moore-Towers, 18, St. Catharines, Ont. / Dylan Moscovitch, 26, Toronto, Ont.
Meagan Duhamel, 25, Lively, Ont. / Eric Radford, 25, Balmerton, Ont.
Ladies
Cynthia Phaneuf, 23, Contrecoeur, Que.
Myriane Samson, 22, St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que. - replaced by Amelie Lacoste [participated in the preliminary round placing 5th & moving on to the short program]
Men
Patrick Chan, 20, Toronto, Ont.
Shawn Sawyer, 26, Edmundston, N.B. - replaced by Kevin Reynolds
Joey Russell, 22, Labrador City, Nfld. [participated in the preliminary round placing 7th & moving on to the short program]
Ice Dance
Tessa Virtue, 21, London, Ont. / Scott Moir, 23, Ilderton, Ont.
Vanessa Crone, 20, North York, Ont. / Paul Poirier, 19, Unionville, Ont.
Kaitlyn Weaver, 21, Waterloo, Ont. – Houston, TX / Andrew Poje, 23, Waterloo, Ont. [participated in the preliminary round placing 1st and moving on to the short program]

As the 2010-2011 season was moving toward its culmination with the rescheduled and relocated World Championships, several important announcements were made:

• Jessica Dubé & Bryce Davison announced the dissolution of their successful nine-year partnership with Jessica making plans to continue the singles career to which she returned at the 2011 Canadian championships. Bryce was continuing his rehabilitation following the injury and surgery that kept him out of competition this season. Both skaters expressed an interest in returning to pairs competition in the future, should the right partner be found. Jessica & Bryce paid special thanks to all those who had helped and supported them throughout their career together.
• Mylène Brodeur & John Mattatall announced their retirement from amateur skating after a five-year partnership. Both skaters plan to return to full-time education with John continuing to coach.
• Caydee Denney & Jeremy Barrett announced the dissolution of their three-year partnership which took them to the 2010 Olympic games. The team was forced to withdraw from the 2011 Four Continents competition due to an extensive cut to Jeremy's leg suffered in training. Caydee intends to continue competing in pairs while Jeremy plans to coach and appear in skatiing shows.
• Federica Faiella & Massimo Scali announced their retirement after a successful career representing Italy in ice dance at three Olympic Games, finishing in fifth place at the 2010 Olympics. Federica is embarking on a career outside skating while Massimo will work as part of the Camerlengo-Krylova team in Detroit.
• On March 29th, John Kerr posted on his Facebook page that he and his sister Sinead had withdrawn from the World Championships. He said that Sinead had reinjured her shoulder in a training accident earlier in the month and would undergo surgery on March 30th. Recovery is expected to take approximately 2 months. A similar message was added to the News on their website while a news article the following day announced their retirement from competition.
• On the same day, Skate Canada announced some changes in the Canadian team heading to Moscow with Shawn Sawyer being replaced by Kevin Reynolds & Myriane Samson being replaced by Amelie Lacoste.

This year's championship event was scheduled to take place in Tokyo, Japan from March 21st-27th but it was announced by the ISU on March 14th that, in light of the current situation in Japan, the event would not take place on those dates. Postponement or cancellation were still being evaluated at the time of that announcement, awaiting further input from the Japanese federation. See also note below. On March 21st the ISU announced that the 2011 Worlds would not take place in Japan but that they would be evaluating alternate locations with a decision expected within a few days. Several national federations had apparently expressed willingness to host a postponed 2011 Worlds and formal bids were required to be submitted on March 22nd. Official bids were received from Austria, Canada, Croatia, Finland, Russia and the United States.

On March 24th, the ISU announced that the 2011 World Championships would take place in Moscow, Russia from April 24-May 1st, 2011 at the Megasport Arena.  This ISU page has links to the entries in each of the disciplines. The practice and competition time schedule is available on the ISU site - Moscow will be 8 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Saving Time when the competition occurs.

The CDN team for Worlds was announced after our national championships, however, on March 30th Skate Canada announced that Shawn Sawyer would be replaced by the first alternate Kevin Reynolds and Myriane Samson would be replaced by the first alternate Amelie Lacoste. 

TV and online streaming coverage in Canada was to be through CBC Sports and BOLD and they will carry the coverage of the rescheduled and relocated event.

NOTE: An earthquake of historic proportions followed by a devastating tsunami hit northeastern Japan on March 11th with the quake and continuing aftershocks being felt in Tokyo. Totals of those killed, missing and injured increased exponentially with continuing nuclear threats due to damaged reactors causing evacuations in the surrounding area. There were rolling power blackouts and shortages of food and safe drinking water in parts of the country. Travel advisories against travel to the most impacted areas were issued by many countries. Foreign skaters already in Japan returned to their own countries awaiting further news. Sympathy is expressed to all of those impacted by this horrendous series of events.

Canada annually hosts Skate Canada International as one of the six events in the ISU Grand Prix series.  This season it will take place at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga from Oct. 27th-30th according to the announcement from Skate Canada. The announcement includes information about ticket sales which begin on March 10th.

The culmination of the ISU Grand Prix series, the Grand Prix Final, will also be hosted in Canada this year - in Quebec City. As has been the case for the past few years, the event will include the finals of both the junior and senior series and will run from December 8th through 11th at the Pavillon de la Jeunesse at ExpoCité. More information can be found in the announcement from Skate Canada.

This year's World Junior Championships took place in Gangneung City, Republic of Korea from February 28th through March 6th. The results, including full protocols, are here.

Canada's team included: Liam Firus; Andrei Rogozine; Vanessa Grenier; Alexandra Najarro; Brittany Jones & Kurtis Gaskell; Natasha Purich & Raymond Schultz; Kelly Oliveira & Jordan Hockley; and Nicole Orford & Thomas Williams. 

As the schedule indicates, there were preliminary (qualifying) rounds in all disciplines except pairs. The skaters shown in bold above did not have to compete in them but participated in the short program as they were considered "direct entries"; those not in bold had to take part in the preliminary round. Liam Firus placed 4th in that round and qualified for the short program. Vanessa Grenier placed 17th and did not qualify for the short program as only the top 12 moved forward. Alexandra Najarro failed to qualify to skate her free program, placing 25th in the short where the top 24 moved forward.

Canada's team came away with one medal, a gold for Andrei Rogozine who placed 3rd in the short program and 2nd in the free program. Congratulations to him on winning Canada's first gold medal in mens at Junior Worlds since 1978!

The ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships took place in Taipei City, Chinese Taipei from 15 - 20 February 2011. It had been anticipated that, as at the European Championships, a preliminary round in one or more disciplines might be required to reduce the number of entries skating the short program. Due to the number of skaters able to meet the minimum points standard and/or some withdrawals, however, this did not actually occur.

Canada's team came away from the competition with a silver and bronze medal in pairs and a bronze medal in dance. The results page is available and includes full protocols. 

Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir were eager to get back into competition and make their season debut at the Four Continents competition according to this CBC article. They were, in fact, in first place after the short dance but had to withdraw from the competition during the free dance due to a problem with Tessa's thigh. In interviews afterward they indicated that this should not prevent them from participating in the World Championships in Tokyo in March.

This event took place in Erzurum, Turkey from 30 January - 5 February 2011 and included skating competition for men, ladies, pairs and ice dance as well as for synchronized skating teams. The results are available online. There were no Canadian or US entries.

The European Figure Skating Championships took place in Bern, Switzerland from 24-30 January 2011. Like the upcoming World Championships, this event included "preliminary rounds" to qualify additional skaters to the championships. This process is explained in a preview article on the ISU website.

To see what happened at these championships, go to the results page which includes full protocols.

Just as the Canadian championships were finishing with the exciting final skates by Shawn Sawyer (formerly of Minto) and Patrick Chan, the US championships were getting underway in Greensboro, NC. As with Canadians, US Nationals began with the Novice and Junior events and culminated with the championship (senior) men's free skate on Sunday, January 30th.

To see the results, go to this page on IceNetwork. For news stories, photos, etc. try this link.

The natonal championships were held at the Big Hat in Nagano, Japan from Dec. 24-26, 2010.

In the mens event the gold medalist was Takahiko Kozuka with Nobunari Oda taking the silver and Daisuke Takahashi taking the bronze. All three are expected to participate in the World Championships in March 2011 in Tokyo. 

In the ladies event Miki Ando took the gold medal with Mao Asada taking silver and Kanako Murakami taking bronze. They are all expected to participate in the World Championships in March.

Narumi Takahashi & Mervin Tran were unopposed in the pairs event and Cathy & Chris Reed took the gold medal in ice dance.

The full results and protocols are here.

Dates - December 8th through 12th, 2010

Location - Beijing National Gymnasium, Beijing, China

When, who & how did they do? -  full protocols. The results included a gold medal and a bronze medal for Canadian skaters in the Senior event and a bronze medal in the Junior event.

Can I watch? - Check out the online live coverage now archived on SkateBuzz SkateTV; watch the highlights later on CBC [they are currently scheduled for Dec. 26th, 2010 & January 1st, 2011]

As both the junior and senior ISU Grand Prix events have now been completed, we know who the qualifiers and alternates will be for the Grand Prix Finals in Beijing, China from 9-12 December 2010.

The full results by discipline in the Senior GP are available on the ISU website with the entries and alternates for the GPF also available here. For the senior final the qualifiers and alternates by discipline are:

• Men - Takahiko Kozuka of JPN; Daisuke Takahashi of JPN; Patrick Chan of CAN; Tomas Verner of CZE; Nobunari Oda of JPN; & Florent Amodio of FRA with alternates Jeremy Abbott, Brandon Mroz & Adam Rippon of USA [Kevin Reynolds of CAN came within 2 points of being an alternate.]
• Ladies - Miki Ando of JPN; Alissa Czisny of USA; Carolina Kostner of ITA; Kanoko Murakami of JPN; Akiko Suzuki of JPN; & Rachael Flatt of USA with alternates Kiira Korpi of FIN; Mirai Nagasu & Ashley Wagner of USA [With the same GP points as Ashley Wagner, Amelie Lacoste & Cynthia Phaneuf of CAN missed out as alternates in a tie-breaker.]
• Pairs - Savchenko & Szolkowy of GER; Pang & Tong of CHN; Bazarova & Larionov of RUS; Moore-Towers & Moscovitch of CAN; Iliushechkina & Maisuradze of RUS; and Sui & Han of CHN with alternates Takahashi & Tran of JPN; Yankowskas & Coughlin of USA; and Lawrence & Seigers of CAN
• Ice Dance - Davis & White of USA; Pechalat & Bourzat of FRA; Crone & Poirier of CAN; Bobrova & Soloviev of Rus; Weaver & Poje of CAN; and Hoffmann & Zavozin of HUN with alternates Shibutani & Shibutani and Chock & Zuerlein of USA; and Riazanova & Tkachenko of RUS

The full results by discipline in the Junior GP are available on the ISU website. The qualifiers and alternates in each discipline are also here. Canada will be represented by Andrei Rogozine in the junior men and by Purich & Schultz, Steele & Schultz, and Jones & Gaskell in junior pairs. Jones & Gaskell were initially the first alternates but made it into the final with the withdrawal of the Chinese pair of Sui & Han who have chosen to skate only in the Senior GPF despite qualifying for both the Junior and Senior events.

Archival video of much of the GP series is available on the SkateBuzz SkateTV website.

The ISU Grand Prix consists of 6 events followed by a finale where the top qualifiers return to compete. The schedule for this season is:

• NHK Trophy in Nagoya, Japan - 22-24 October - results and full protocols. Congratulations to Kaitlyn Weaver & Andrew Poje of Canada on their silver medal!
• Skate Canada International in Kingston, ON, Canada - 29-31 October - results and full protocols. The Canadian team had a very successful competition, taking home 2 gold medals, a silver medal and 2 bronze medals. Skate Canada has posted photos and several articles from the event.
• Cup of China in Beijing, China - 5-7 November - results and full protocols.
• Skate America in Portland, OR, USA - 12-14 November - results and full protocols. As detailed in this Skate Canada article, the CDN team came away from Skate America with two silver medals - in pairs and in dance - and the couples concerned, Moore-Towers & Moscovith and Crone & Poirier, may have each earned themselves a spot in the Grand Prix Final when these results are combined with those from Skate Canada.
• Cup of Russia (Rostelecom Cup) in Moscow, Russia - 19-21 November - results and full protocols. Patrick Chan, with a silver medal, assured himself a spot in the Grand Prix Final. With withdrawals before the event and three withdrawals between the short dance and free dance (including Canada's Paul & Islam), there were only 5 couples left to skate the free.
• Trophée Eric Bompard Cachemire in Paris, France - 26-28 November - results and full protocols. As this was the final event in the ISU Grand Prix, the qualifiers and alternates for the GP Final have now been determined.
• Grand Prix Final in Beijing, China (combined Juniors & Seniors) - 9-12 December - for more information on the qualifiers see the article above.

The 2010-2011 ISU Junior Grand Prix consisted of 7 events with the top entries in each discipline moving to the Junior Grand Prix Final which will take place in Beijing, China in December in conjunction with the (senior) Grand Prix final. These were the events (with links to their results):

• Courcheval, France - 25-28 August - results and protcols 
• Brasov, Romania - 8-12 September - results and protocols
• Graz, Austria - 15-19 September - results and protocols
• Karuizawa, Japan - 22-26 September - results and protocols - Skate Canada has an article about the first part of this event and another about the last day
• Sheffield, Great Britain - 29 September-3 October - results and protocols - CDN competitors came away with bronze medals in the mens, pairs & ice dance events. Skate Canada has an article about the pairs and another about the remainder of the results.
• Dresden, Germany - 6-10 October - results and protocols - a CDN pair and a CDN dance team just missed the medals, finishing 4th. Skate Canada has an article about the results leading into the last day of this event and another about the last day.
• Ostrava, Czech Republic - 13-17 October - results and protocols - a CDN pair won their 2nd bronze medal of the Junior Grand Prix series, earning themselves a spot at the Grand Prix Final. Skate Canada has an article about this.

Canada's Andrei Rogozine, who won gold in his two events, is the top qualifier to the Junior Grand Prix Final among the men. Canada's Natasha Purich and Raymond Schultz, together only four months, qualifed for the final based on their two bronze medals. Also qualifying for the final were Canada's Taylor Steele and Raymond Schultz while Brittany Jones and Kurtis Gaskell are the first alternates. In ice dance, 6 of the 8 teams who qualified for the final are from Russia while in junior men and in junior ladies 4 of the 8 who qualified are from the United States.

Other information about this series, including the results of qualifying for December's Grand Prix Final, may be found here. Follow the links for each event and/or each discipline.

This year the Minto Skating Club has joined up with Olympic figure skating bronze medalist Joannie Rochette and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute to support the newly launched iheartmom campaign. Read more in the Skate Canada press release.

The sale of iheartmom T-shirts at Minto Summer Skate helped raise funds for the Ottawa Heart Institute. Joannie's visit to the competition on Saturday afternoon to sign autographs and greet her fans gave a boost to the fundraising effort and added an extra bit of excitement for the skaters and volunteers at the competition.

iheartmom t-shirts will be available for $20 from Colleen at the front office while quantities last.   All proceeds to the iheartmom foundation.

The provisional assignment of 2013 Worlds to London, Ontario from 10-17 March 2013 is included in the lists of event locations assigned by the ISU Council at their meetings in Barcelona, Spain.

Read the full list of events & locations here.

Skate Canada has issued a press release about this event which will be held at the John Labatt Centre with practices taking place at Western Fair Sports Centre (the locations of the 2010 CDN championships). Ticket and additional information is expected to be available in Spril 2010 according to this release.