JPG Sofia Cup 2003 Dance Competitors

[IceDanceSk8er]

Aside from the US teams, does anyone know anything about these competitors?

Siobhan KARAM / Joshua McGRATH CAN
Magoli CHARPENTIER / Jonathan PELLETIER CAN (Sub)
Sarah LENKO / Michael WHITEHEAD CAN (Sub)
Alexandra NINO / Andrew POJE CAN (Sub)
Grete GRÜNBERG / Kristian RAND EST
Carolina HERMANN / Daniel HERMANN GER
Sandra GISSMANN / Alexander GAZSI GER (Sub)
Judith HAUNSTETTER / Arne HÖNLEIN GER (Sub)
Rina THIELEKE / Sascha RABE GER (Sub)
Nora HOFFMANN / Attila ELEK HUN
Joanna BUDNER / Jan MOSCICKI POL
Nadezhda FROLENKOVA / Mikhail KASALO UKR
Elena GEORGIEVA / Mikhail TIKHONRAVOV UKR
Victoria DEVINS / Kevin O'KEEFE USA
Trina PRATT / Todd GILLES USA

[BittyBug]

Hoffman and Elek competed at World's last year, placing 18th.

[IceDanceSk8er]

The Skate Canada website listed two of four Canadian teams:

Siobhan Karam & Joshua McGrath
2003 Canadians - 3rd (JR)
2003 Eastern Ontario Sectionals - 1st (Jr)
2002 ISU Junior Grand Prix, Chemnitz, Germany - 5th (Jr)
2002 ISU Junior Grand Prix, Bratislava, Slovakia - 3rd (Jr)
2002 NACS, Huntsville, Alabama - 1st (Jr)

Magali Charpentier & Jonathan Pelletier
2003 Canadians - 5th (JR)
2003 Quebec Sectionals - 1st (Jr)
2002 ISU Junior Grand Prix, Montreal, QC - 7th (Jr)

US Team:

Victoria Devins & Kevin O'Keefe
2003 State Farm U.S. Championships-Junior - 5th
2002 Junior Grand Prix (Germany) - 7th
2002 Junior Grand Prix (France) - 5th
2002 State Farm U.S. Championships-Junior - 7th
2002 Eastern Sectional-Junior - 3rd
2001 North American Challenge Skate-Junior (Baltimore) - 6th

Trina Pratt & Todd Gilles
2003 North American Challenge Skate (Thornhill, Ontario)-Junior - 3rd
2003 State Farm U.S. Championships-Novice - 1st
2003 Midwestern Sectional-Novice - 1st
2003 Southwestern Regional-Novice - 1st

Germany:

Judith Haunstetter & Arne Homlein
2002 Trofeo Rita Trapanese, Milan - 12th (Jr)
2002 Pokal der Blauen Schwerter, Chemnitz - 10th (Junior)
2001 Grand Prize SNP, Banska Bystrica - 2nd (Junior)


Hungary:

Nora Hoffman & Attila Elek
2003 ISU Junior Grand Prix Final, The Hague – 2nd
2002 Pokal der Blauen Schwerter, Chemnitz – 1st
2002 JGP Scottsdale, Phoenix, Scottsdale – 1st
2002 ISU Junior Grand Prix Final, Bled – 5th
2001 Trofeo Rita Trapanese, Milan – 2nd
2001 Sofia Cup, Sofia – 3rd
2000 Mexico Cup, Mexico City – 3rd
2000 Piruetten, Hamar- 4th

As BittyBug pointed out, Hoffman and Elek were 18th at Worlds, 14th at Europeans, 2nd in World Juniors. They competed and won at Senior this year in Hungarian Nationals.

I'm going to hunt around the Internet to see if I can find similar listings for the other competitors, and just add to this list.

[Sylvia]

FYI, some of the teams listed above are substitutes for Sofia -- there are currently 10 dance teams on the roster:

1 Siobhan KARAM / Joshua McGRATH CAN
2 Grete GRÜNBERG / Kristian RAND EST
3 Carolina HERMANN / Daniel HERMANN GER
4 Nora HOFFMANN / Attila ELEK HUN
5 Joanna BUDNER / Jan MOSCICKI POL
6 TBA - RUS
7 Nadezhda FROLENKOVA / Mikhail KASALO UKR
8 Elena GEORGIEVA / Mikhail TIKHONRAVOV UKR
9 Victoria DEVINS / Kevin O'KEEFE USA
10 Trina PRATT / Todd GILLES USA

[IceDanceSk8er]

Good call Sylvia. I updated the original list. Still no Russian team listed for the event

[Isabelle]

Siobhan Karam & Joshua McGrath CAN:
Seeing as you already found their results from last year....
In 2002 they were 10th in Junior at Canadian Nationals, and were 3rd in Pre-Novice in 2000. They are a very talented team who have always been entertaining to watch and seem to have improved a lot in technique over the past couple of years. They train in Detroit (actually, haven't they moved now?) with Igor Shpilband and Marina Zoueva. I haven't seen them this year yet but I hear their free dance is to Cats.

Magali Charpentier & Jonathan Pelletier CAN:
Last year was their first year together and again, you know their results from last year. They also did quite well with their previous partners if I remember correctly....
They train somewhere in Quebec and their free dance this year is to Anything for Love.

Sarah Lenko & Michael Whitehead CAN:
Their first season together was the 2001-2002 season where they came 3rd at Canadians at the Pre-Novice level. Last year they were Novice, coming 4th at Canadians. They train at the Mariposa club in Barrie with David Islam. This year they have a Spanish free dance and their last piece is the flamenco that Shae-Lynn and Victor used to open their 2002 OD. (fun fact: Sarah's older sister, Kristina, recently married Steven Cousins)

Alexandra Nino & Andrew Poje CAN:
Last year this team was 6th in Junior at Canadians, 9th in 2002, and 2nd in Novice in 2001. They train in Kitchener-Waterloo with Paul MacIntosh. This year's free dance I think is a slow kind of dramatic thing.

Hope this helps! :)

[Trillian]

Hoffman & Elek are the favorites by far in the current field and I would guess Karam & McGrath are a good bet for second. Right now it looks to me like those two teams and everybody else, with a scramble for bronze. However, Russia's entry will possibly change that; whoever they enter will likely take a spot on the podium, but which spot will depend which team it is. I'd expect Devins & O'Keefe to have a shot at a top five finish, as this isn't a terribly packed field.

[what?meworry?]

http://www.isufs.org/events/jgp2003/jgpsdance.htm

be sure to go to the next page for all the teams
if bios are available for the team, you can click for the info.

or, go to http://www.isu.org

click figure skating on the sidebar
scroll down to bottom
click junior grand prix
scroll to bottom
click ice dance

at this point, it lookes like the countries are "seeding" top teams to assure success.
hoffman/elek are like the proverbial 2000lb gorilla in any jgp they enter. but it also looks like matthews/zavozin won't have much competition at slovak republic.
then again, the russian 3000lb gorillas haven't been assigned as yet.

on paper, at least, this looks like the jgps will be especially interesting this year.


for the final rankings for last year's jgps go to

http://www.icecalc.de/isu/events/jgp2002/jgpsdance.htm

be sure to go to the following pages for a complete listing of participating teams.


for the junior worlds results go to

http://www.isu.org/vsite/vnavsite/page/directory/0,10853,4844-130366-131674-nav-list,00.html

scroll to the pdf file to view the information.


for all dance team bios (senior, junior, old, new) go to

http://www.isufs.org/bios/fsbiosicedancing.htm

they are in alphabetical order by country by team. past competition records and vital stats are listed. click on team, if nothing happens it's just because no information is logged.

hope that helps everyone gather background.