Dubé and Tétrault Capture Silver Medal at Junior Grand Prix Final

(December 16, 2002)
Jessica Dubé and Samuel Tétrault's second trip to the ISU Junior Grand Prix Final was one they won't soon forget.

Dubé and Tétrault, the gold medallists in the Novice Pair event at the 2002 Bank of Montreal Skate Canada Junior Nationals, moved up from fourth-place after the short program to capture the silver medal in the 2003 ISU Junior Grand Prix Final.

Competing in the Junior Grand Prix Final wasn't a new experience for the young Canadian pair, as they qualified for and competed in last year's Final, where they finished sixth.

Both Dubé, 15, of St. Cyrille de Wendover, Que., and Tétrault, 17, of Iberville, Que., were thrilled with their performance.

"We are very pleased with our performance," said Dubé. "We came here just to gain experience, and it went well for us. The second-place was a surprise for us. We were sixth last year."

There was a lot of movement in the standings following the short program. Anastasia Kuzmina and Stanislav Evdokimov of Russia, who were leading following the short program, missed their side-by-side triple Salchow and made mistakes on both throw jumps. The mistakes were enough to put them back to fifth-place.

The other two teams that were in the top three after the short program, Russians Julia Karbovskaya and Sergei Slavnov, the World Junior silver medallists, and Americans Tiffany Stiegler and Johnny Stiegler, had some problems in the freeskate and dropped in the standings. Karbovskaya and Slavnov dropped from second-place following the short program to seventh-place overall, and the Stieglers, who were in third-place after the short program, just missed the podium, finishing in fourth-place.

Dubé and Tétrault, who are coached by Annie Barabé and Sophie Richard, didn't hold anything back in their freeskate. Skating to a music selection from Cirque du Soleil, the Canadians completed a triple twist, a double Axel-double toe loop sequence, and two throw triple jumps. The only element they missed was the side-by-side triple Salchow. The judges awarded them marks up to 5.2 for technical merit and marks as high as 5.4 for presentation.

"It's just incredible. We're very happy," said Tétrault. "We just wanted to skate well. We were proud to be in the Final, and the second-place is just unbelievable. The triple twist was maybe the strongest point in our performance. Not everybody here did it."

The Chinese team of Yang Ding and Zongfei Ren skated a very strong free program to come from sixth-place following the short program to win the event. The team attempted a throw quadruple toe loop, which was only slightly two-footed on the landing. Their program also featured side-by-side triple toe loops, a high triple twist, two double Axels, and a throw triple loop. Their marks ranged from 4.9 to 5.3 for technical merit and from 4.8 to 5.1 for presentation.

Rounding out the podium was the American team of Jennifer Don and Jonathon Hunt, who moved up two spots after the short program to claim the bronze medal.

Dubé and Tétrault weren't the only Canadian pair competing in the event. The current Canadian Junior Pair Champions, Carla Montgomery and Ryan Arnold, moved up from eighth-place following the short program to finish sixth overall.

Canada also had an entry in the Ladies' event. Signe Ronka, who was the bronze medallist in the Junior Ladies' event at the 2002 Bank of Montreal Canadian Championships, finished in seventh-place in her first trip to the Junior Grand Prix Final.

The Ladies' competition was highlighted by the successful completion of a quadruple Salchow by 14-year-old Miki Ando of Japan, who is the current World Junior bronze medallist. Ando is the first female in history to complete the element.

Skate Canada congratulates all of its competitors who competed at the Junior Grand Prix Final.