Junior Grand Prix: France

The first Junior Grand Prix event wrapped in France this past weekend.

As expected, Russia's Polina Shelepen took the women's title and did so by a healthy margin despite being in second after the short program. Canada's Andrei Rogozine took the men's title. Russia added another gold in Ice Dance with Stepanova and Bukin taking the top spot.

Team USA had a fairly successful event. While there was no Gold to be had in France, U.S. Junior National Champ Jason Brown won the men's free skate in an attempt to chase down Canada's Rogozine, coming up just short and settling with the silver. Jason (see video below) had a tremendous performance in his Junior Grand Prix Debut. His Teammate, Max Aaron, pulled in for the bronze medal. In the ladies field Yasmin Siraj had a comeback performance to go from 6th to 2nd and take the silver medal. American Cannuscio and McManus took the silver after some volatility in the placements coming out of the new 'Short Dance.' Teams I think are still working it out. Incidentally, Cannuscio and McManus became the very first team to compete the dance in ISU competition.

In short, it was a great weekend for Russia and the United States.

Medalists are listed below and full results can be seen here. Next Junior Grand Prix stop will be Brasov, Romania.

Women:
Gold: Polina Shelepen RUS
Silver: Yasmin Siraj USA
Bronze: Rosa Sheveleva RUS

Men:
Gold: Andrei Rogozine CAN
Silver: Jason Brown USA
Bronze: Max Aaron USA

Dance:
Gold: Stepanova and Bukin RUS
Silver: Cannuscio and McManus USA
Bronze: Kosigina and Moroshkin RUS