Richmond Hiller Andrei Rogozine recently glided to men’s gold at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Gangneung, South Korea. According to Skate Canada, this is the first time a Canadian has taken home this title in men’s in more than 30 years. It was last won by Dennis Coi in 1978. Rogozine’s win followed a third-place finish at the Junior Grand Prix finals in Beijing. Going into the competition, Rogozine’s goal was to get a medal. He said he felt the pressure in his short program but not in his long program.
“Up until the last jump, I didn’t really realize I was skating really well,” he said. “Only then it hit me, so then I tried to finish off the program on a good note and not make any mistakes.” Scoring 132.86 on his long program, Rogozine soared to first place with a total tally of 200.13 points.
As for bringing the title back to home to Canada?
“It’s great because nobody’s done it in a while, so it feels kind of special,” he said. Coming up, Rogozine will be skating in a couple of shows and is already starting to train for the next senior season.
