BARRIE, Ont. — Meaghan Duhamel of Lively, Ont., and Eric Radford of Balmertown, Ont., landed a quadruple Salchow throw for the first time in competition on Thursday en route to the gold medal in pairs at the Skate Canada Autumn International.
Gabrielle Daleman of Newmarket, Ont., also added a victory in women’s competition as Canadians earned six medals at the ISU Challenger Series event.
Duhamel and Radford, bronze medallists at the last two world championships, totalled 203.16 points in a decisive victory. Haven Denny and Brandon Frazier of the United States were second at 167.28 and their compatriots Jessica Calalang and Zach Sidhu were third at 156.46.
“We know that if we want to nail it by the time the world championships come around we are going to have to try it at every single competition,” said Duhamel. “The key for us is that we’ve been landing it every single day in practice and that’s given us a lot of confidence to attempt it in our program.”
Natasha Purich of Sherwood Park, Alta., and Andrew Wolfe of Calgary were fourth, Vanessa Grenier of Sherbrooke, Que., and Maxime Deschamps of Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que., fifth and Toronto’s Brittany Jones and Joshua Reagan were seventh.
In women’s competition, Daleman won the gold medal with 165.59 points. Angela Wang of the U.S. was second at 163.68 and Julianne Seguin of Longueuil, Que., third at 158.99.
It was also a big night for 16-year-old Nam Nguyen, from Toronto, who landed his first quadruple Salchow in competition to soar from fifth after the short program to the silver medal. He scored a personal best 159.55 to win the free skate and totalled 225.63. Ross Miner of the U.S. was first overall at 227.36 for the gold and Vancouver’s Jeremy Ten of Vancouver took bronze at 212.64.
Kevin Reynolds of Coquitlam, B.C., was sixth and Andrei Rogozine of Newmarket, Ont., 11th.
In ice dancing, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France took top spot with 150.20 points. Piper Gilles of Toronto and Paul Poirier of Unionville, Ont., climbed from fourth to second overall at 142.52 and Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sorensen of Denmark were third at 131.62.
Alexandra Paul and Mitchell Islam of Barrie were fourth, Nicole Orford of Burnaby, B.C., and Thomas Williams of Okotoks, Alta., sixth and Andreanne Poulin of Ile-Bizard, Que., and Marc-Andre Servant of Vaudreuil, Que., eighth.