TALLINN, ESTONIA (March 4, 2026) — Wednesday marked the official start of competition at the 2026 ISU Figure Skating Junior World Championships in Tallinn, Estonia. Two Canadian duos lead the rankings after the junior pairs short program segment.

Jazmine Desrochers (Mississauga, Ont.) and Kieran Thrasher (Oakville, Ont.) currently sit in first place headed into tomorrow’s free program after their short program performance earned them 62.84 points—a new personal best.

“I think we really were able to peak today in the short program so far this season, so that’s a really big step for us,” Desrochers said. “The big thing has just been trying to stay at a good energy level and not get too high or too low. Just to keep it like training and stay true to ourselves, just remember what our values are as a team and individually.” 

Close behind in second, Ava Kemp and Yohnatan Elizarov (both from Winnipeg, Man.) scored 62.22 points for their short program.

“We felt very calm going into this program,” said Elizarov after their skate. “We think our elements were maybe a little bit hesitant even though we felt quite calm, but other than that, we’re pretty happy with the way that we skated this program and we’re excited to skate the free.”

China’s Rui Guo and Yiwen Zhang placed third in this segment with a score of 58.34.

Also competing for Canada, national junior champions Julia Quattrocchi (Laval, Que.) and Étienne Lacasse (Sainte-Therese, Que.) are in ninth place following the short program. They scored 51.27 points with their performance.

In junior men’s, 2025 junior national champion David Bondar (Richmond Hill, Ont.) currently sits in 14th place after his short program, for which he earned 69.09 points. Bondar stepped in on short notice to compete for Canada in the place of Grayson Long after an injury forced him to withdraw.

“I feel pretty happy I’ve managed the sort of nervousness,” Bondar said. “It’s big ice, a big venue. Of course, some people don’t make it into the free, so overall I’m happy I performed good. I could have done better, but I’m happy with the way I did.”

Leading the pack in this segment, Japan’s Rio Nakata sits in first place with 89.51 points. Korea’s Minkyu Seo (86.33) is in second with Japan’s Daiya Ebihara (81.53) just under five points back in third.

All three Canadian pairs teams will compete in the free program on Thursday evening following the start of junior women’s competition, where Megan Woodley (Oro-Medonte, Ont.) will compete for Canada. Free program action for the junior men’s will take place on Friday.

For the complete schedule and results, please click here.