FIGURE SKATING
Metelkina/Berulava (GEO) dominate Pairs Short Program at ISU World Junior Championships
28 Feb 2025
Defending ISU World Junior Champions Anastasiia Metelkina/Luka Berulava (GEO) skated to a commanding lead in the Pairs Short Program at the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2025 in Debrecen (HUN) on Friday. There were some surprises and the battle for the spots on the podium will continue on Saturday in the Free Skating.
Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava (GEO) lead in the Short Program in the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Debrecen, Hungary © ISU
Anastasiia Metelkina/Luka Berulava (GEO) excel
Defending Champions Anastasiia Metelkina/Luka Berulava of Georgia skated to a strong lead in the Short Program in style. Ukraine’s Sofiia Holichenko/Artem Darenskiy and ISU Junior Grand Prix Final Champions Jiaxuan Zhang/Yihang Huang of China follow in second and third and are separated by just 0.02 points before the final Free Skating.
Although Metelkina/Berulava compete only in their second season as a team, they already have a lot of experience at the senior level - and it showed. They oozed confidence in their upbeat Aerobic program to “Why” by Bronski Beat, hitting a triple twist, double Axel and throw triple Salchow. In the Junior Short Program, the throw Salchow is a required element and no solo triple jump is allowed. Metelkina/Berulava collected 69.18 points.
“It went well. I was a bit nervous about the double Axel and felt some pressure. But overall, we just want to do our job,” Berulava commented. “Of course, we’d like to defend this title, but we’re focused on doing our best.”
“I wasn’t nervous at all because I’m very confident in the double Axel, I know I can land 10 out of 10,” Metelkina said. “The throw triple Salchow was new for me. I had never done a throw triple Salchow before. We usually do throw flip and loop, so we learned it within a week. It turned out to be easy for us.”
Holichenko/Darenskiy had a quick turn-around, coming from the Olympic test event in Milan last week, but put out a solid performance to “Hit the Road Jack” that featured a triple twist, the throw triple Salchow and difficult lift. The couple from Dnipro earned a season’s best of 57.40 points.
Sofiia Holichenko and Artem Darenskiy (UKR) in the Short Program in the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Debrecen, Hungary © ISU
“It was a little hard for us after the quick turnaround from Milan,” Darenskiy shared. “This version of our program, we haven’t really practiced much. There are some different elements, like the double flip and the throw triple Salchow. And we didn’t have the chance to work on the double Axel,” he explained.
“We went home for just one day after Milan and then came here straight away, so we didn’t have much time to prepare,” Holichenko added. “Our goal is to skate two clean programs, that’s the most important for us. We also want to do the triple flip in the free skate. And this event is also a good preparation for the World Championships.”
Zhang/Huang opened their performance to “Dive” by Ed Sheeran, with a nice triple twist, and landed the throw triple Salchow, but Huang stepped out of the double Axel. The ISU Junior Grand Prix Final Champions scored 57.38 points.
Jiaxuan Zhang and Yihang Huang (CHN) in the Short Program in the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Debrecen, Hungary © ISU
“Today’s performance was not our best. We didn’t really show the level of our training, and hopefully, we can improve on that tomorrow,” Zhang said.
“Our elements should have been better - we should have executed them better. Our goal is to improve in the free skate and also work on increasing our speed,” Huang commented. “We’ve been here for a few days and we got a bit tired from training and waiting for the competition to start.”
Martina Ariano Kent/Charly Laliberte Laurent (CAN) are close to the podium on 55.81 points after a solid skate. The 2024 ISU Junior Grand Prix Final bronze medalists Jazmine Desrochers/Kieran Thrasher (CAN) came fifth on 55.05 points followed by Oxana Vouillamoz/Tom Bouvart (SUI) on 54.82 points.
The 2024 ISU World Junior silver medalists Olivia Flores/Luke Wang (USA) and World Junior bronze medalists Naomi Williams/Lachlan Lewer (USA) are sitting 8th (51.02 points) and 9th (50.95 points) after they made errors, but they can still come back strong in the Free Skating.
