Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps Repeat as Pair Champions at Skate ...
Halifax, CAN (October 26, 2024) – The 50th edition of Skate Canada International (SCI) continued Saturday at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax, N.S., and saw the reigning pair World Champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps retain the SCI crown for the second year in a row. Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier also made their season debut in ice dance and are sitting in first heading into the final day of competition on Sunday.
Stellato-Dudek of Chicago, USA and Deschamps of Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que., had a strong lead heading into Saturday’s competition which was enough for them to retain their title despite having issues with some of their jumps and throws that saw them finish second in the free skate with a score of 124.10. They finished the day with a total score of 197.33 to win gold over Ekaterina Geynish and Dmitrii Chigirev of Uzbekistan who took silver (189.65), and Anastasia Golubeva and Hektor Giotopoulos Moore of Australia who captured bronze (186.14).
“That was certainly not easy tonight. This is going to happen sometimes, and we just have to learn from it and move forward,” commented Deschamps following the competition. “The positive thing is we’re going to learn from this. When things go bad, you learn. When things go well you don’t really learn anything.”
Kelly Ann Laurin of St-Jérôme, Que., and Loucas Éthier of St-Alphonse, Que., were looking to come back strong after a disappointing result yesterday but still struggled a bit in the free skate and finished the pairs competition in eighth place overall (163.60).
The ice dance competition kicked off earlier in the day and saw Gilles of Toronto, Ont., and Poirier of Unionville, Ont., cruise to the top of the leaderboard with a fun new program set to music from the Beach Boys that awarded them a score of 86.44.
“I think it was really good as a first outing,” said Poirier who together with Gilles is looking to secure their fifth-straight SCI title. “I think we both got into the performance, and I think we both noticed a few places that we were a bit ahead of the music, or behind the music and just not working 100% together, but that’s to be expected for the first time performing a program. We felt confident and we felt strong, and we enjoyed the program.”
Finishing just behind Gilles and Poirier were Marjorie Lajoie of Boucherville, Que., and Zachary Lagha of Saint-Hubert, Que., who scored 77.34 for their Austin Powers-inspired performance. Sitting in third heading into the free dance on Sunday are Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud of France with a score of 76.76. Alicia Fabbri of Terrebonne, Que., and Paul Ayer of Brossard, Que., are sitting in 9th with a score of 70.10.
The women’s competition wrapped up with their free skate and saw Japanese skaters dominate the podium with three-time World Champion Kaori Sakamoto wining gold (201.21), Rino Matsuike taking silver (192.16), and Hana Yoshida taking bronze (191.37).
Madeline Schizas of Oakville, Ont., finished as the top Canadian in fifth place with a total score of 190.04. Kaiya Ruiter of Calgary, Alta., finished eighth (162.32) and Sara Maude Dupuis of Montreal, Que., finished 10th (160.46).
“It was important for me to show that I can put out two skates that are pretty good, if not perfect,” said Schizas whose score over 190 points was something she hasn’t accomplished for the last two seasons. “I’ve put out some good skates in practice, but I’ve had such a hard time translating it to competition. I just came in with a fiery attitude this weekend and it really helped me perform my best.”
The men’s competition also kicked off Saturday and saw Stephen Gogolev of Toronto, Ont., finish as the top Canadian in fifth place with a score of 82.70 for his short program. Aleksa Rakic of Burnaby, B.C., is sitting in ninth (76.74), while Roman Sadovsky sits 12th (63.37).
Ilia Malinin of the USA, the reigning World Champion, is leading the men’s competition, followed by Shun Sato and Sota Yamamoto of Japan in second and third respectively.
Skate Canada International concludes Sunday with medals awarded for ice dance and the men’s competition.
For full results please click here.
