2018–19 ISU Challenger Series

The 2018–19 ISU Challenger Series was held from August to December 2018. It was the fifth season that the ISU Challenger Series, a group of senior-level international figure skating competitions, was held.

2018–19 ISU Challenger Series
Type:	ISU Challenger Series
Date:	August 1 – December 8, 2018
Season:	2018–19
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Competitions

This season, the series included the following events.^[1]

Date	Event	Location	Notes	Results
August 1–5	2018 Asian Open Trophy	Bangkok, Thailand	Pairs competition did not qualify as a Challenger Series event.	Details
September 12–16	2018 Lombardia Trophy	Bergamo, Italy		Details
September 12–16	2018 U.S. International Classic	Salt Lake City, Utah, United States		Details
September 19–22	2018 Ondrej Nepela Trophy	Bratislava, Slovakia	Pairs competition did not qualify as a Challenger Series event.	Details
September 20–22	2018 Autumn Classic International	Oakville, Ontario, Canada		Details
September 26–29	2018 Nebelhorn Trophy	Oberstdorf, Germany		Details
October 4–7	2018 Finlandia Trophy	Espoo, Finland		Details
November 11–18	2018 Inge Solar Memorial – Alpen Trophy	Innsbruck, Austria	Pairs competition did not qualify as a Challenger Series event.	Details
November 26 – December 2	2018 Tallinn Trophy	Tallinn, Estonia		Details
December 5–8	2018 Golden Spin of Zagreb	Zagreb, Croatia		Details

Medal summary

Men's singles

Competition	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Results
Asian Open Trophy	Sōta Yamamoto	Tsao Chih-i	Byun Se-jong	Details
Lombardia Trophy	Shoma Uno	Dmitri Aliev	Andrei Lazukin	Details
U.S. International Classic	Nam Nguyen	Michal Březina	Jimmy Ma	Details
Ondrej Nepela Trophy	Mikhail Kolyada	Sergei Voronov	Keiji Tanaka	Details
Autumn Classic International	Yuzuru Hanyu	Cha Jun-hwan	Roman Sadovsky	Details
Nebelhorn Trophy	Keegan Messing	Alexander Majorov	Artur Dmitriev	Details
Finlandia Trophy	Mikhail Kolyada	Cha Jun-hwan	Morisi Kvitelashvili	Details
2018 Alpen Trophy	Daniel Grassl	Roman Sadovsky	Tomoki Hiwatashi	Details
2018 Tallinn Trophy	Maxim Kovtun	Vincent Zhou	Anton Shulepov	Details
2018 Golden Spin of Zagreb	Jason Brown	Mikhail Kolyada	Alexander Samarin	Details

Ladies' singles

Competition	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Results
Asian Open Trophy	Lim Eun-soo	Yuna Shiraiwa	Mako Yamashita	Details
Lombardia Trophy	Elizaveta Tuktamysheva	Sofia Samodurova	Mako Yamashita	Details
U.S. International Classic	Satoko Miyahara	Lim Eun-soo	Kim Ye-lim	Details
Ondrej Nepela Trophy	Rika Kihira	Elizabet Tursynbaeva	Stanislava Konstantinova	Details
Autumn Classic International	Bradie Tennell	Evgenia Medvedeva	Maé-Bérénice Méité	Details
Nebelhorn Trophy	Alina Zagitova	Mai Mihara	Loena Hendrickx	Details
Finlandia Trophy	Elizaveta Tuktamysheva	Elizabet Tursynbaeva	Viveca Lindfors	Details
2018 Alpen Trophy	Anna Tarusina	Serafima Sakhanovich	Brooklee Han	Details
2018 Tallinn Trophy	Serafima Sakhanovich	Ting Cui	Viveca Lindfors	Details
2018 Golden Spin of Zagreb	Bradie Tennell	Anastasiia Gubanova	Mariah Bell	Details

Pairs

Competition	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Results
Lombardia Trophy	Natalia Zabiiako / Alexander Enbert	Aleksandra Boikova / Dmitrii Kozlovskii	Nicole Della Monica / Matteo Guarise	Details
U.S. International Classic	Ashley Cain / Timothy LeDuc	Audrey Lu / Misha Mitrofanov	Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya / Harley Windsor	Details
Autumn Classic International	Vanessa James / Morgan Ciprès	Kirsten Moore-Towers / Michael Marinaro	Haven Denney / Brandon Frazier	Details
Nebelhorn Trophy	Alisa Efimova / Alexander Korovin	Alexa Scimeca Knierim / Chris Knierim	Deanna Stellato / Nathan Bartholomay	Details
Finlandia Trophy	Evgenia Tarasova / Vladimir Morozov	Kirsten Moore-Towers / Michael Marinaro	Aleksandra Boikova / Dmitrii Kozlovskii	Details
2018 Tallinn Trophy	Miriam Ziegler / Severin Kiefer	Tarah Kayne / Danny O'Shea	Jessica Calalang / Brian Johnson	Details
2018 Golden Spin of Zagreb	Alisa Efimova / Alexander Korovin	Alexa Scimeca Knierim / Chris Knierim	Deanna Stellato / Nathan Bartholomay	Details

Ice dance

Competition	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Results
Asian Open Trophy	Wang Shiyue / Liu Xinyu	Rachel Parsons / Michael Parsons	Misato Komatsubara / Tim Koleto	Details
Lombardia Trophy	Charlène Guignard / Marco Fabbri	Rachel Parsons / Michael Parsons	Sara Hurtado / Kirill Khaliavin	Details
U.S. International Classic	Madison Hubbell / Zachary Donohue	Christina Carreira / Anthony Ponomarenko	Misato Komatsubara / Tim Koleto	Details
Ondrej Nepela Trophy	Victoria Sinitsina / Nikita Katsalapov	Lorraine McNamara / Quinn Carpenter	Betina Popova / Sergey Mozgov	Details
Autumn Classic International	Kaitlyn Weaver / Andrew Poje	Olivia Smart / Adrián Díaz	Carolane Soucisse / Shane Firus	Details
Nebelhorn Trophy	Piper Gilles / Paul Poirier	Rachel Parsons / Michael Parsons	Christina Carreira / Anthony Ponomarenko	Details
Finlandia Trophy	Alexandra Stepanova / Ivan Bukin	Olivia Smart / Adrián Díaz	Marie-Jade Lauriault / Romain Le Gac	Details
2018 Alpen Trophy	Charlène Guignard / Marco Fabbri	Lorraine McNamara / Quinn Carpenter	Marie-Jade Lauriault / Romain Le Gac	Details
2018 Tallinn Trophy	Christina Carreira / Anthony Ponomarenko	Anastasia Skoptcova / Kirill Aleshin	Natalia Kaliszek / Maksym Spodyriev	Details
2018 Golden Spin of Zagreb	Piper Gilles / Paul Poirier	Natalia Kaliszek / Maksym Spodyriev	Betina Popova / Sergey Mozgov	Details

Medal standings

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Russia (RUS)	14	9	8	31
2	United States (USA)	6	12	8	26
3	Canada (CAN)	5	3	2	10
4	Japan (JPN)	5	2	5	12
5	Italy (ITA)	3	0	1	4
6	South Korea (KOR)	1	3	2	6
7	France (FRA)	1	0	3	4
8	Austria (AUT)	1	0	0	1
	China (CHN)	1	0	0	1
10	Spain (ESP)	0	2	1	3
11	Kazakhstan (KAZ)	0	2	0	2
12	Poland (POL)	0	1	1	2
13	Chinese Taipei (TPE)	0	1	0	1
	Czech Republic (CZE)	0	1	0	1
	Sweden (SWE)	0	1	0	1
16	Australia (AUS)	0	0	2	2
	Finland (FIN)	0	0	2	2
18	Belgium (BEL)	0	0	1	1
	Georgia (GEO)	0	0	1	1
Totals (19 entries)		37	37	37	111

Challenger Series rankings

The ISU Challenger Series rankings were formed by combining the two highest final scores of each skater or team.^[1]

Men's singles

No.	Skater	Nation	First event	Score	Second event	Score	Total score[2]
1	Mikhail Kolyada	Russia	Ondrej Nepela Trophy	274.37	Golden Spin of Zagreb	253.14	527.51
2	Cha Jun-hwan	South Korea	Autumn Classic International	259.78	Finlandia Trophy	239.19	498.97
3	Jason Brown	United States		233.23	Golden Spin of Zagreb	263.42	496.65
4	Dmitri Aliev	Russia	Lombardia Trophy	250.55	Finlandia Trophy	224.95	475.50
5	Daniel Grassl	Italy	Alpen Trophy	230.50	Golden Spin of Zagreb	229.82	460.32

Ladies' singles

No.	Skater	Nation	First event	Score	Second event	Score	Total score[3]
1	Elizaveta Tuktamysheva	Russia	Lombardia Trophy	206.07	Finlandia Trophy	202.85	408.92
2	Bradie Tennell	United States	Autumn Classic International	206.41	Golden Spin of Zagreb	202.41	408.82
3	Elizabet Tursynbaeva	Kazakhstan	Ondrej Nepela Trophy	192.30	Finlandia Trophy	200.74	393.04
4	Mariah Bell	United States	Nebelhorn Trophy	188.97	Golden Spin of Zagreb	196.60	385.57
5	Anastasiia Gubanova	Russia	Tallinn Trophy	180.73		198.65	379.38

Pairs

No.	Team	Nation	First event	Score	Second event	Score	Total score[4]
1	Aleksandra Boikova / Dmitrii Kozlovskii	Russia	Lombardia Trophy	191.99	Finlandia Trophy	188.54	380.53
2	Kirsten Moore-Towers / Michael Marinaro	Canada	Finlandia Trophy	193.93	Autumn Classic International	176.32	370.25
3	Alisa Efimova / Alexander Korovin	Russia	Nebelhorn Trophy	178.94	Golden Spin of Zagreb	183.89	362.83
4	Miriam Ziegler / Severin Kiefer	Austria	Finlandia Trophy	176.09	Tallinn Trophy	184.60	360.69
5	Alexa Scimeca Knierim / Chris Knierim	United States	Nebelhorn Trophy	177.22	Golden Spin of Zagreb	182.84	360.06

Ice dance

No.	Team	Nation	First event	Score	Second event	Score	Total score[5]
1	Piper Gilles / Paul Poirier	Canada	Nebelhorn Trophy	194.12	Golden Spin of Zagreb	201.27	395.39
2	Charlène Guignard / Marco Fabbri	Italy	Lombardia Trophy	193.28	Alpen Trophy	195.39	388.67
3	Christina Carreira / Anthony Ponomarenko	United States	Nebelhorn Trophy	177.49	Tallinn Trophy	180.22	357.71
4	Lorraine McNamara / Quinn Carpenter		Ondrej Nepela Trophy	178.64	Alpen Trophy	174.35	352.99
5	Rachel Parsons / Michael Parsons		Lombardia Trophy	170.68	Nebelhorn Trophy	180.95	351.63

Top scores

For the all-time highest scores, see list of highest scores in figure skating.

For the season's highest scores, see 2018–19 figure skating season § Season's best scores.

Men's singles

Top 10 best scores in the men's combined total

No.	Skater	Nation	Score	Event
1	Shoma Uno	Japan	276.20	2018 Lombardia Trophy
2	Mikhail Kolyada	Russia	274.37	2018 Ondrej Nepela Trophy
3	Yuzuru Hanyu	Japan	263.65	2018 Autumn Classic International
4	Jason Brown	United States	263.42	2018 Golden Spin of Zagreb
5	Cha Jun-hwan	South Korea	259.78	2018 Autumn Classic International
6	Keegan Messing	Canada	257.16	2018 Nebelhorn Trophy
7	Dmitri Aliev	Russia	250.55	2018 Lombardia Trophy
8	Maxim Kovtun		247.55	2018 Tallinn Trophy
9	Andrei Lazukin		243.45	2018 Lombardia Trophy
10	Sergei Voronov		239.73	2018 Ondrej Nepela Trophy

Top 10 best scores in the men's short program

No.	Skater	Nation	Score	Event
1	Shoma Uno	Japan	104.15	2018 Lombardia Trophy
2	Yuzuru Hanyu		97.74	2018 Autumn Classic International
3	Mikhail Kolyada	Russia	97.04	2018 Golden Spin of Zagreb
4	Jason Brown	United States	95.50
5	Keegan Messing	Canada	90.63	2018 Nebelhorn Trophy
6	Cha Jun-hwan	South Korea	90.56	2018 Autumn Classic International
7	Andrei Lazukin	Russia	87.92	2018 Lombardia Trophy
8	Dmitri Aliev		86.57
9	Alexander Samarin		86.29	2018 Golden Spin of Zagreb
10	Matteo Rizzo	Italy	85.51	2018 Lombardia Trophy

Top 10 best scores in the men's free skating

No.	Skater	Nation	Score	Event
1	Mikhail Kolyada	Russia	177.55	2018 Ondrej Nepela Trophy
2	Shoma Uno	Japan	172.05	2018 Lombardia Trophy
3	Cha Jun-hwan	South Korea	169.22	2018 Autumn Classic International
4	Jason Brown	United States	167.92	2018 Golden Spin of Zagreb
5	Maxim Kovtun	Russia	166.64	2018 Tallinn Trophy
6	Keegan Messing	Canada	166.53	2018 Nebelhorn Trophy
7	Yuzuru Hanyu	Japan	165.91	2018 Autumn Classic International
8	Dmitri Aliev	Russia	163.98	2018 Lombardia Trophy
9	Kévin Aymoz	France	162.93	2018 Autumn Classic International
10	Sergei Voronov	Russia	157.96	2018 Ondrej Nepela Trophy

Ladies' singles

Top 10 best scores in the ladies' combined total

No.	Skater	Nation	Score	Event
1	Alina Zagitova	Russia	238.43	2018 Nebelhorn Trophy
2	Rika Kihira	Japan	218.16	2018 Ondrej Nepela Trophy
3	Mai Mihara		209.22	2018 Nebelhorn Trophy
4	Bradie Tennell	United States	206.41	2018 Autumn Classic International
5	Elizaveta Tuktamysheva	Russia	206.07	2018 Lombardia Trophy
6	Evgenia Medvedeva		204.89	2018 Autumn Classic International
7	Loena Hendrickx	Belgium	204.16	2018 Nebelhorn Trophy
8	Serafima Sakhanovich	Russia	202.62	2018 Tallinn Trophy
9	Satoko Miyahara	Japan	201.23	2018 U.S. International Classic
10	Elizabet Tursynbaeva	Kazakhstan	200.74	2018 Finlandia Trophy

Top 10 best scores in the ladies' short program

No.	Skater	Nation	Score	Event
1	Alina Zagitova	Russia	79.93	2018 Nebelhorn Trophy
2	Elizaveta Tuktamysheva		73.83	2018 Finlandia Trophy
3	Loena Hendrickx	Belgium	71.50	2018 Nebelhorn Trophy
	Bradie Tennell	United States	71.50	2018 Golden Spin of Zagreb
5	Evgenia Medvedeva	Russia	70.98	2018 Autumn Classic International
6	Elizabet Tursynbaeva	Kazakhstan	70.95	2018 Finlandia Trophy
7	Mai Mihara	Japan	70.94	2018 Nebelhorn Trophy
8	Rika Kihira		70.79	2018 Ondrej Nepela Trophy
9	Serafima Sakhanovich	Russia	70.33	2018 Tallinn Trophy
10	Mariah Bell	United States	70.02	2018 Nebelhorn Trophy

Top 10 best scores in the ladies' free skating

No.	Skater	Nation	Score	Event
1	Alina Zagitova	Russia	158.50	2018 Nebelhorn Trophy
2	Rika Kihira	Japan	147.37	2018 Ondrej Nepela Trophy
3	Elizaveta Tuktamysheva	Russia	140.38	2018 Lombardia Trophy
4	Mai Mihara	Japan	138.28	2018 Nebelhorn Trophy
5	Bradie Tennell	United States	137.15	2018 Autumn Classic International
6	Evgenia Medvedeva	Russia	133.91
7	Satoko Miyahara	Japan	133.77	2018 U.S. International Classic
8	Loena Hendrickx	Belgium	132.66	2018 Nebelhorn Trophy
9	Serafima Sakhanovich	Russia	132.29	2018 Tallinn Trophy
10	Ting Cui	United States	132.23

Pairs

Top 10 best scores in the pairs' combined total

No.	Team	Nation	Score	Event
1	Vanessa James / Morgan Cipres	France	210.21	2018 Autumn Classic International
2	Evgenia Tarasova / Vladimir Morozov	Russia	198.98	2018 Finlandia Trophy
3	Natalia Zabiiako / Alexander Enbert		196.15	2018 Lombardia Trophy
4	Kirsten Moore-Towers / Michael Marinaro	Canada	193.93	2018 Finlandia Trophy
5	Aleksandra Boikova / Dmitrii Kozlovskii	Russia	191.99	2018 Lombardia Trophy
6	Alisa Efimova / Alexander Korovin		183.89	2018 Golden Spin of Zagreb
7	Alexa Scimeca Knierim / Chris Knierim	United States	182.84
8	Nicole Della Monica / Matteo Guarise	Italy	178.18	2018 Lombardia Trophy
9	Deanna Stellato / Nathan Bartholomay	United States	176.44	2018 Golden Spin of Zagreb
10	Miriam Ziegler / Severin Kiefer	Austria	176.09	2018 Finlandia Trophy

Top 10 best scores in the pairs' short program

No.	Team	Nation	Score	Event
1	Vanessa James / Morgan Ciprès	France	73.81	2018 Autumn Classic International
2	Evgenia Tarasova / Vladimir Morozov	Russia	73.27	2018 Finlandia Trophy
3	Natalia Zabiiako / Alexander Enbert		72.50	2018 Lombardia Trophy
4	Aleksandra Boikova / Dmitrii Kozlovskii		67.81	2018 Finlandia Trophy
5	Nicole Della Monica / Matteo Guarise	Italy	66.93	2018 Lombardia Trophy
6	Kirsten Moore-Towers / Michael Marinaro	Canada	66.52	2018 Finlandia Trophy
7	Miriam Ziegler / Severin Kiefer	Austria	66.08	2018 Tallinn Trophy
8	Alisa Efimova / Alexander Korovin	Russia	65.84	2018 Golden Spin of Zagreb
9	Ashley Cain / Timothy LeDuc	United States	64.34
10	Alexa Scimeca Knierim / Chris Knierim		64.04

Top 10 best scores in the pairs' free skating

No.	Team	Nation	Score	Event
1	Vanessa James / Morgan Ciprès	France	136.40	2018 Autumn Classic International
2	Kirsten Moore-Towers / Michael Marinaro	Canada	127.41	2018 Finlandia Trophy
3	Aleksandra Boikova / Dmitrii Kozlovskii	Russia	126.78	2018 Lombardia Trophy
4	Evgenia Tarasova / Vladimir Morozov		125.71	2018 Finlandia Trophy
5	Natalia Zabiiako / Alexander Enbert		123.65	2018 Lombardia Trophy
6	Alexa Scimeca Knierim / Chris Knierim	United States	118.80	2018 Golden Spin of Zagreb
7	Alisa Efimova / Alexander Korovin	Russia	118.05
8	Deanna Stellato / Nathan Bartholomay	United States	116.32
9	Ashley Cain / Timothy LeDuc		113.95	2018 U.S. International Classic
10	Miriam Ziegler / Severin Kiefer	Austria	113.83	2018 Finlandia Trophy

Ice dance

Top 10 best scores in the combined total (ice dance)

No.	Team	Nation	Score	Event
1	Piper Gilles / Paul Poirier	Canada	201.27	2018 Golden Spin of Zagreb
2	Alexandra Stepanova / Ivan Bukin	Russia	200.78	2018 Finlandia Trophy
3	Madison Hubbell / Zachary Donohue	United States	197.42	2018 U.S. International Classic
4	Kaitlyn Weaver / Andrew Poje	Canada	197.27	2018 Autumn Classic
5	Victoria Sinitsina / Nikita Katsalapov	Russia	196.42	2018 Ondrej Nepela Trophy
6	Charlène Guignard / Marco Fabbri	Italy	195.39	2018 Alpen Trophy
7	Rachel Parsons / Michael Parsons	United States	180.95	2018 Nebelhorn Trophy
8	Christina Carreira / Anthony Ponomarenko		180.22	2018 Tallinn Trophy
9	Olivia Smart / Adrián Díaz	Spain	180.07	2018 Finlandia Trophy
10	Anastasia Skoptcova / Kirill Aleshin	Russia	179.78	2018 Tallinn Trophy

Top 10 best scores in the rhythm dance

No.	Team	Nation	Score	Event
1	Piper Gilles / Paul Poirier	Canada	79.80	2018 Golden Spin of Zagreb
2	Alexandra Stepanova / Ivan Bukin	Russia	79.16	2018 Finlandia Trophy
3	Madison Hubbell / Zachary Donohue	United States	79.11	2018 U.S. International Classic
4	Charlène Guignard / Marco Fabbri	Italy	76.96	2018 Alpen Trophy
5	Kaitlyn Weaver / Andrew Poje	Canada	76.53	2018 Autumn Classic
6	Victoria Sinitsina / Nikita Katsalapov	Russia	75.96	2018 Ondrej Nepela Trophy
7	Olivia Smart / Adrián Díaz	Spain	72.61	2018 Finlandia Trophy
8	Anastasia Skoptcova / Kirill Aleshin	Russia	71.17	2018 Tallinn Trophy
9	Carolane Soucisse / Shane Firus	Canada	70.79	2018 Finlandia Trophy
10	Lorraine McNamara / Quinn Carpenter	United States	70.37	2018 Ondrej Nepela Trophy

Top 10 best scores in the free dance

No.	Team	Nation	Score	Event
1	Alexandra Stepanova / Ivan Bukin	Russia	121.62	2018 Finlandia Trophy
2	Piper Gilles / Paul Poirier	Canada	121.47	2018 Golden Spin of Zagreb
3	Kaitlyn Weaver / Andrew Poje		120.74	2018 Autumn Classic
4	Victoria Sinitsina / Nikita Katsalapov	Russia	120.46	2018 Ondrej Nepela Trophy
5	Charlène Guignard / Marco Fabbri	Italy	118.43	2018 Alpen Trophy
6	Madison Hubbell / Zachary Donohue	United States	118.31	2018 U.S. International Classic
7	Rachel Parsons / Michael Parsons		110.93	2018 Nebelhorn Trophy
8	Christina Carreira / Anthony Ponomarenko		110.64	2018 Tallinn Trophy
9	Natalia Kaliszek / Maksym Spodyriev	Poland	109.01
10	Anastasia Skoptcova / Kirill Aleshin	Russia	108.61