NAGOYA, Japan — Canadian ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier sit third after the rhythm dance at the Grand Prix Final on Thursday.
The event features the top six entries in each figure skating discipline from the Grand Prix season.
Gilles and Poirier scored 82.89 points, with Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates leading at 88.74 and Montreal’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry — now representing France — and partner Guillaume Cizeron second with 87.56. The Canadians won the Grand Prix Final in 2022, earned bronze in 2023 and finished fifth last year.
“We’re pretty happy with our performance. We wanted to skate with a lot of confidence and joy, and we succeeded. We felt in control and believed in ourselves,” Poirier said.
The free dance is on Saturday.
In pairs, Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps are sixth after the short program with 71.07 points. The Canadian duo won bronze at the 2023 Grand Prix Final and qualified again in 2024, but withdrew before the event due to Deschamps' illness.
Japan’s Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara lead the pairs competition with 77.32 points, followed by Italy’s Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii at 77.22 and Georgia’s Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava at 75.04.
Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama is the surprise leader after the men’s short program. World champion Ilia Malinin of the United States dropped to third after an early mistake, with Japan’s Shun Sato in second.
Competition continues Friday with the pairs free skate and the women’s short program.
In junior pairs, the Winnipeg duo of Ava Kemp and Yohnatan Elizarov are third with 62.82 after missing one element in their short program. China’s Rui Guo and Yiwen Zhang lead with 63.84, and Xuanqi Zhang and Wenqiang Feng are second at 62.89.
“We prepared well and felt good. Even though we made a mistake, we can put it aside and be proud of the rest,” Kemp said.
Fellow Canadians Jazmine Desrochers and Kieran Thrasher are fifth (54.45), and Julia Quattrocchi and Étienne Lacasse are sixth (51.88). Junior ice dancers Layla Veillon and Alexander Brandys skate their rhythm dance on Friday.
Malinin hasn't lost a competition in more than two years and is the gold medal favorite for the Milan Cortina Olympics but stepped out of his opening jump, a quadruple axel-triple toe loop combination, and finished third behind Kagiyama and his Japanese compatriot Shun Sato.
Malinin wasn’t fazed by the mistake on the quad axel, calling it an experiment that was something he likely wouldn't attempt at the Olympics.
“I just wanted to try this combo out,” Malinin said. “It was the first time in a competition and it didn't work out so I had to just continue with the program.”
Malinin also lost points on a quadruple lutz-triple toe loop combination and finished third with 94.05 points, more than 14 behind Kagiyama.
The American said he wasn’t worried about whether the shaky start to the Grand Prix Final might impact his confidence for the Olympics in February.
“I don't think it's really going to affect my confidence,” said Malinin, who has won the last two GP Finals. “This is just a place for me to try new things. I didn't really come here to win a Grand Prix Final again, I’m mainly here to try new things and see if maybe I'll have a different decision in what I want to do for the Olympics.”
Skating to Stevie Wonder's “I Wish,” Kagiyama delivered an up-tempo routine that produced a season's best score of 108.77.
The Japanese skater landed a quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop combination, a quadruple salchow and a triple axel.
“I went in with the mindset that I am the best and it really helped,” Kagiyama said. “It felt like the Beijing Olympics (where he won the silver medal).”
Sato landed two quad jumps and a triple axel for 98.06 points.
The Grand Prix Final features the top six in each discipline — men, women, pairs, ice dance — and is the gathering of the world's top skaters before the Winter Olympics.
— with files from AP.
9:28