Chloe Panetta and Kieran Thrasher Capture a Bronze Medal at the 2022 Junior Grand Prix in Ostrava

OSTRAVA, CEZCH REPUBLIC (September 3, 2022) – Canada has captured its first international figure skating medal of the season at the Junior Grand Prix in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Junior Pair and NextGen team members Chloe Panetta of Laval, Que and Kieran Thrasher of Amherstburg, Ontario captured the bronze medal after the pair program and a new personal best with a score of 139.72.

The pair was ranked third coming into the short program and battled back from a few mistakes to score a second-place finish in the free and third overall.

“We did so much preparation on and off ice coming here, and we are really proud that we were able to show that in this competition,” said Panetta.

Rounding out the podium in the pair program was a one-two finish for the United States with Sophia Baram and Daniel Tioumentsev winning the gold with a score of 171.36 and Cayla Smith and Andy Deng scoring the silver medal with 140.72 points.

In the men’s discipline Aleska Rakic of Burnaby, British Columbia showed up very consistent in both the short and free programs he skated, holding strong with a 7th place finish in both and finishing 7th overall.

“I feel good about my performance in the performing aspect, there are some technical parts I would prefer to be better but overall, I am happy with how I fought in the free program,” said Rakic who scored 117.49 points in the free and ended the competition with an overall score of 182.82.

Sara-Maude Dupuis of Montreal, Québec was Canada’s only entry in the women’s discipline and finished the event overall with a score of 143.17 to finish 11th.

In Ice Dance, both of Canada’s teams finished in the top ten. Hailey Yu and Brendan Giang of Burnaby, British, Columbia held onto their top ten finish with a strong free dance that saw them finish sixth with a score of 82.94 to finish the competition 9th overall with a score of 136.45.

Yu shared, “I think we showed we have potential later in the season. I think nerves and getting back to international competition again brought some challenges but overall, I think we handled it well. We are excited to get back to work and be ready for Gdansk, Poland in a few weeks.

Meanwhile, Marianne Hubert of Trois-Rivières, Québec and William Oddson of Calgary, Alberta put in a strong showing at their first Junior Grand Prix to place tenth overall with a score of 133.63. This first-year team previously competed as singles skaters.

For a new team competing in their first international competition, Hubert said, “Our elements were solid, and it felt nice on the ice, and I think we did a good job, we’re really proud of it.”

This was the second of seven stops on the 2022 Junior Grand Prix circuit where skater’s from across the globe are competing for spots at the 2022 Junior Grand Prix Final taking place in Torino, Italy, from December 8th to 11th, 2022.

The next stop on the Junior Grand Prix circuit will take place in Riga, Latvia from September 7th to 10th, 2022.

Full results: http://www.isuresults.com/results/season2223/jgpcze2022/
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