New Canadian pair fourth in international debut
SALT LAKE CITY – Brittany Jones and Joshua Reagan of Toronto took fourth spot in pairs on Friday night in their international debut at the 2014 U.S. International Skating Classic figure skating competition. The event is the first on the ISU’s new Challenger Series.
In pairs, Jones and Reagan skated a clean long program for a successful conclusion to their first international assignment since joining forces in October 2013. They were less than four points from third place scoring 134.84. The U.S. swept the top-three positions with Alexa Scimeca and Chris Knierim first.
‘’We did exactly what we wanted to do,’’ said Reagan, 24. ‘’We wanted to come here and skate clean programs. Brittany was amazing especially when she cleanly landed those two throws at the end of the program.’’
Jones, who skated to sixth place at the world junior championships with former partner Ian Beharry in 2013, was also pleased with the performance.
‘’We’ve been really progressing well over the last few months,’’ said Jones, seventh with Reagan at the national championships this past January. ‘’We were a little nervous going into this competition and facing international judges for the first time but we were able to stay calm during the performance.’’
In men’s competition, the Americans were 1-2 with Max Aaron first and Ross Miner second. Daisuke Murakami of Japan was third.
Andrei Rogozine of Newmarket, Ont., the 2011 world junior champion, was sixth in his first international assignment this season. He fell on his quad jump and singled a triple Axel. He made some adjustments on the fly in order to gain more points.
‘’I struggled for everything,’’ said Rogozine, 21. ‘’I went for the quad today because it had felt really good in practice. I felt comfortable at the start of the jump but I didn’t have enough momentum. Missing that jump threw me off for the triple Axel.’’
In the short dance, Nicole Orford of Burnaby, B.C., and Thomas Williams of Okotoks, Alta., are second and Marieve Cyr of Ile-Bizard, Que., and Benjamin Brisebois-Gaudreau of Montreal are third.
Alaine Chartrand of Prescott, Ont., is fourth after the women’s short program.
The free dance and women’s free skate are on Saturday evening.
Full results: http://www.usfigureskating.org/leaderboard/results/2014/2014_us_intl_classic/results.html