2025 ISU GPF JUNIOR Men FS - more (Jr.) menning ahead?

[victorskid]

Start Order/Results: https://results.isu.org/results/season2526/gpf2025/SEG010.htm
Warm-Up Group 1
1 Taiga NISHINO JPN 6 64.01
2 Habin CHOI KOR 5 70.94
3 Lucius KAZANECKI USA 4 72.13
4 Denis KROUGLOV BEL 3 74.29
5 Minkyu SEO KOR 2 84.82
6 Rio NAKATA JPN 1 86.48

ISU YouTube stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTft9BYdF7A

Planned Program Content, etc. can be found in the Media section on this page: https://isu-skating.com/figure-skating/events/eventdetail/isu-grand-prix-final-2025/

PANEL OF JUDGES
Referee Ms. Emilie BILLOW ISU
Technical Controller Ms. Zanna KULIK ISU
Technical Specialist Ms. Heather Celestine LEHNERT ISU
Technical Specialist Ms. Myriam LORIOL-OBERWILER ISU

Judge No.1 Ms. Chihee RHEE KOR
Judge No.2 Mr. Walter TOIGO ITA
Judge No.3 Ms. Cynthia BENSON CAN
Judge No.4 Mr. Anthony LEROY FRA
Judge No.5 Mr. Feng HUANG CHN
Judge No.6 Ms. Kristina LUNDGREN USA
Judge No.7 Ms. Francoise de RAPPARD BEL
Judge No.8 Ms. Ayumi ONO JPN
Judge No.9 Ms. Nadezhda PARETSKAIA KAZ

Data Operator Ms. Ranko HIRAI ISU
Replay Operator Ms. Samanta KOVALKOVA ISU

 

[victorskid]

And we are live for the first medal event of the 2025 GPF.

 

[skatingguy]

Taiga Nishino
Rank after SP: 6
Coach: Misao Sato
Music: Moonlight Sonata, Symphony No. 5, Fur Elise

4T - tight landing
4Sq
3F+3T
3A< - fall
Flying Camel Spin 4
Choreo Sequence
3Aq+1Eu+3S - running out of space
3Lo+2A+SEQ
3Lz
Change Foot Sit Spin 4
Change Foot Combo Spin 4

The rotation on the quadruple jumps is questionable, and then the Axel went up very crooked, and came down so awkwardly. This program seemed to get a way from him, and things were coming so fast he couldn't get on top of his jumps.

-1.00 = Falls
138.59 = 1st Place
202.60 = 1st Place

 

[tony]

4Sq 3A< second 3Aq

That performance was all over the place but I still enjoyed him

 

[skatingguy]

Habin Choi
Rank after SP: 5
Coach: Hyungkyung Choi, Nahyun Kim, Minseok Kim
Music: Dead Men Tell No Tales

4Lz
4S< - fall
3A - step out, hand down
3Lz+3Tq - two-footed
Flying Camel Spin 4
1A - two-footed
3Lz+1Eu+3S - sloppy landings
3F!+2A+SEQ
Change Foot Combo Spin 4
Choreo Sequence
Flying Change Foot Combo Spin 4

Hard fall on the quadruple Salchow followed by an awkward landing/fall on the triple Axel, and from their just struggled to regroup.

-1.00 = Falls
129.76 = 2nd Place
200.70 = 2nd Place

 

[tony]

4S< 3Tq 3F!

 

[skatingguy]

Lucius Kazanecki
Rank after SP: 4
Coach: Tatiana Malinina, Roman Skorniakov
Music: Adios Noninos by Astor Piazzolla

4T+3T
4T
3A
3S
Flying Change Foot Combo Spin 4
3Lz+3T
3F+2A+2A+SEQ
Flying Sit Spin 4
Choreo Sequence
3Lo
Change Foot Combo Spin 4

Solid skate. Struggles with the same issues that many skaters of his height do - how to make elements look good that were designed around a smaller body size.

153.72 = 1st Place
225.85 = 1st Place

 

[tony]

Kind of a Gogolev clone in stature, appearance, and presentation. ChSq was kinda meh and the judges barely gave it anything. No oomph.

All elements level 4, no jump rotation calls.

 

[tony]

Really loving Krouglov. Effortless looking jumps, nice flow in and even better flow out. Nice understanding of the music, nothing over the top. Beautiful choreo sequence, too.

Much lower base level from jump elements than Kazanecki will likely keep him behind for sure but such nice quality all-around. This is where the PCS should really, really differentiate the two skaters regardless of jump elements. NEW FAN.

 

[skatingguy]

Denis Krouglov
Rank after SP: 3
Coach: L. Stewart, T. Dickson, R. Gazave
Music: Seven Years in Tibet by John Williams

3A+3T
3Lz+2T
3A
Change Foot Combo Spin 4
3F!
3Lz
3Lo+2A+2A+SEQ
Change Foot Camel Spin 4
Flying Change Foot Combo Spin 4
Choreo Sequence
3S

Solid skate again for Denis - great performance across both program. The invalid spin appears to be a data entry error as it was clearly a camel spin, and not a combination spin.

151.31 = 2nd Place
225.60 = 2nd Place

 

[tony]

Are you kidding me .26.

 

[tony]

Minkyu also fabulous! So much quality, guaranteed better skating quality than most of the senior field with the these final 3 skaters. I'm a sucker for a nice held running edge on the landings of jumps and he did it often. Didn't even care that it was Muse.

 

[skatingguy]

Minkyu Seo
Rank after SP: 2
Coach: Eun Ju Kim, Hyungkyung Choi
Music: Exogenesis: Symphony Part 3 by Muse

4S
3A+3T
3F+3T
3Lo
Flying Camel Spin 4
Choreo Sequence
3A
3Lz+2A+2A+SEQ
3S
Change Foot Combo Spin 4
Change Foot Sit Spin 4

Beautiful performance - solid all the way across all the elements, and nice to see the emotion at the end of the program.

171.09 = 1st Place
255.91 = 1st Place

 

[tony]

For those in the arena - is Takeshi Honda part of the kiss & cry interview team? Blast from the past. I think I've seen him a few times hovering around it. @Andrey aka Pushkin

 

[Kateri]

You can tell he's good, because Minkyu is making me have emotionsd about Exogenesis.

 

[tony]

I don't understand some of these positive GOEs for the jumps in the middle of the program that are barely scraping by. Definitely ready to jump into senior and probably immediately go to Worlds, but this lost it's way a bit and with the questionable jump rotations and not as much to show presentation-wise until the end, I'd give this to Minkyu.

Anyways, he's still amazing.

 

[skatingguy]

Rio Nakata
Rank after SP: 1
Coach: M. Nakata, K. Nakaniwa, M. Nagumo, A. Tanooue
Music: Gladiator (soundtrack)

4S
4T+3T
4T - somehow managed to stay on one foot
Change Foot Camel Spin 4
3A - tight landing
3A+1Eu+2S
3F+2A+SEQ
3Lo - two-footed, step out
Change Foot Combo Spin 3 - loss of centre
Choreo Sequence
Flying Sit Spin 4

Excellent start to the performance, but things started to get away from him, and he lost the flow of the program.

163.22 = 2nd Place
249.70 = 2nd Place

 

[Kateri]

I love him and he's such a fighter, but that was rough as hell. The second mark shouldn't be close to Minkyu today, who was sublime.

 

[tony]

Fair result there IMO! But Krouglov really should be on the podium with them.

 

[tangerine dream]

It's great that these two guys have been able to push each other while they've been stuck in juniors. Both are clearly ready for senior competitions!

 

[kwanfan1818]

The issue with being as good and starting as well as Nakata is that when lesser things follow, the comparison to himself is clear. Seo's quality was so consistently wonderful throughout.

 

[Kateri]

I slept through everyone but the top 2, will have to catch up. But Minkyu deserves this - he's really grown up, even in the months since his JGPs, he seems taller, more mature, the quad is there, but so is the emotional expression. Wonderful.

 

[victorskid]

Jr Men FS results
1 Minkyu SEO KOR 171.09 91.64 79.45 7.75 8.07 8.04 0.00 #5
2 Rio NAKATA JPN 163.22 85.07 78.15 7.79 7.64 8.04 0.00 #6
3 Lucius KAZANECKI USA 153.72 84.85 68.87 7.14 6.79 6.75 0.00 #3
4 Denis KROUGLOV BEL 151.31 78.65 72.66 7.36 7.25 7.21 0.00 #4
5 Taiga NISHINO JPN 138.59 74.66 64.93 6.36 6.25 6.89 1.00 #1
6 Habin CHOI KOR 129.76 68.09 62.67 6.00 6.07 6.75 1.00 #2

Protocols link: https://results.isu.org/results/sea...OR----FNL-000100--_JudgesDetailsperSkater.pdf

Overall results
1 Minkyu SEO KOR 255.91 2 1
2 Rio NAKATA JPN 249.70 1 2
3 Lucius KAZANECKI USA 225.85 4 3
4 Denis KROUGLOV BEL 225.60 3 4
5 Taiga NISHINO JPN 202.60 6 5
6 Habin CHOI KOR 200.70 5 6

 

[her grace]

Watching unspoiled

Nishino: I’m just going to have to be an uber. The speed he carries across the ice is amazing, to quote Frank Carroll’s phrasing “like a bat out of hell.” Exciting and dynamic, even the 3a wipeout was spectacular. Hope he can get his axel sorted because he has a bright future

Chao: hard day for him, very hot and cold in his jumps and not a lot of presentation to save him

Kazanecki: 4t-3t could use more flow out—second quad was better in this respect, did a nice job hitting the musical accents, hope he can add more emotion to his presentation in the future, clean skate

Krouglov: nice flow across the ice and good linking footwork connecting his elements, cool knee slide spin move, excellent body control, confident, comfortable, complete performance, only thing missing was a quad

Seo: looks a bit distracted by fangirls as he takes his opening pose, 4s okay, leans forward some on his jump landings, skates big, moving with fluidity and freedom, excellent skate

Nakata: 4s done with ease, 4t-3t with ice spray, 4t dug deep to hold, not the tidiest jumps today. Nice presentation with some audience-friendly moments

Fantastic set of programs, well done, men

 

[zigzig]

Love the way Seo powers into those jumps - seems like a tiny guy but he just motors into jumps with such great length and exit speed.

 

[Capt. DeSoto]

I'm just starting to watch now (couldn't get to it before work).

My first though in the warm ups... Mark kind of went on and on about Lucius was very late getting his 3A. He referenced Lucius' social media post from Dec 2023 which made him about 15.75 years old at that point. Is that really considered late to the game for men?