Bronze for Nguyen and Giang to Conclude Junior Grand Prix Circuit

Wuxi, CHN (October 12, 2024) – The seventh and final ISU Junior Grand Prix (JGP) Circuit event of the season wrapped up on Saturday in Wuxi, China with Canadian ice dancers Chloe Nguyen and Brendan Giang capturing a bronze medal.

Nguyen and Giang, both from Burnaby, B.C., came into the competition fresh off a fourth-place finish at the JGP event in Thailand in September and set a new personal best score of 90.42 with their free dance set to “Sign of the Times” by Harry Styles to bring home the bronze with a total score of 150.97.

“We felt pretty motivated being just off the podium in Bangkok to go home and improve and close the gap between us (and the top skaters),” said Nguyen of their performance. “For the most part we’re pretty happy with how it went. In the free, our last lift was a little bit wonky, but we’re pretty happy.”

Victoria and Andrei Carandiuc of Saint-Constant, Que., made their season’s debut and set all new personal best scores to finish 12th overall with a total score of 121.47. Elliana and Ethan Pearl of the USA won gold (160.50), while Ambre Perrier Gianesini and Samuel Blanc Klaperman of France took silver (154.87).

David Bondar of Richmond Hill, Ont., continued his strong start to the season, posting a new personal best score of 132.88 to finish third-overall in the free skate. Combined with his seventh-place standing after the short program, he finished the week ranked fifth in the men’s competition with a new personal best total score of 196.86.

Speaking after the competition, he stated: “I feel like the short was a little bit of a challenge – I wanted to do better, but I feel like I was stronger in the free. Of course there’s always room for improvement, but in general I’m pretty happy with how I did.”

John Kim of Mississauga, Ont., also posted a new personal best score in his free skate of 115.10 and finished the competition ranked ninth overall (175.56). Rio Nakata of Japan dominated the men’s competition, winning gold with a total score of 233.52 – a lead of over 25 points over the second-placed skater, Tonghe Tian of China who took silver with a total score of 207.95. Yanhao Li of New Zealand captured bronze (206.45).

Competing in her first JGP of the season, Kara Yun of Vancouver, B.C., set a new personal best score of 58.70 in her short program and finished the women’s competition in 14th place. Ami Nakai of Japan won gold (204.88), while Yuseong Kim of Korea took silver (192.23), and Yihan Wang of China took bronze (191.11).

The Junior Grand Prix season wraps up with the ISU Grand Prix Final being held in Grenoble, France from December 5-8, 2024 and will feature the Canadian pair teams of Jazmine Desrochers and Kieran Thrasher who finished the JGP Circuit ranked second overall, and Julia Quattrocchi and Simon Desmarais who ranked fifth overall. The top six ranked skaters or teams in each discipline qualified for the Final.