Rogozine catapults to sixth place finish in men’s singles

(March 11, 2010 - THE HAGUE, The Netherlands) – Alexandra Paul and Mitchell Islam of Barrie, Ont., climbed to second place in the ice dance standings following an impressive performance in the original dance on Wednesday at the world junior figure skating championships.

Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov of Russia remain first at 97.46, Paul and Islam, fifth after the compulsory dance, are now second at 89.22 and Ksenia Monko and Kirill Khaliavin of Russia are third at 87.72.  The free dance is on Friday.

Olivia Martins of Toronto and Alvin Chau of Richmond Hill are 14th and Abby Carswell of Toronto and Andrew Doleman of Dundas, Ont., 23rd.

In men’s competition, Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan won the gold medal with 216.10 points, Nan Song of China was second at 205.25 and Artur Gachinski of Russia third at 199.19.

Andrei Rogozine of Richmond Hill, Ont., was 13th after the short program on Wednesday but climbed to a sixth place finish with a solid long program on Thursday.  Ronald Lam of Coquitlam, B.C., was 20th.

“I was a bit angry at myself after messing up the short program,” said Rogozine, 17.  “I came into the long ready to fight and with a lot of energy.  I trained well for this event and I just went out and duplicated what I’ve been doing in practice.”

The highlights for Rogozine included landing his triple Axel and his triple-triple combo.

“That gave me a lot of confidence and after those jumps everything went according to plan,” he said. “I finished strong with a lot of energy.”

Competition continues Friday with the free dance and women’s short program.

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