Weaver and Poje win silver in ice dance thriller at ISU World Figure Skating Championships

SAITAMA, Japan – Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Waterloo, Ont., won the silver medal on Saturday in ice dancing finishing a mere 0.02 points from top spot at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships.

Canada ends the four-day competition with two medals. On Thursday, Meaghan Duhamel of Lively, Ont., and Eric Radford of Balmertown, Ont., earned bronze in pairs.

In ice dancing only 1.05 points separated the top four finishers. Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte of Italy held on to top spot despite the fourth best free dance of the day with 175.43 points. Weaver and Poje ranked third in the free and followed at 175.41 to remain second. Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat of France were third at 175.37.

‘’I’m just feeling ecstatic right now,’’ said Poje. ‘’This one moment is because of the combination of all the hard work that we’ve had, especially over these past couple of years, and showing by our grit and determination that we wanted to be up near the top. I feel that we deserve to be up here now.’’

‘’I can’t believe that we performed the free dance today the best we have all year under the pressure of the circumstances of the top teams being so close,’’ added Weaver. ‘’I’m just so proud of Andrew and I and the work we have done this year.’’

Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Toronto took eighth place and Alexandra Paul and Mitchell Islam of Barrie, Ont., were 10th.

‘’We’re really pleased with the performance,’’ said Poirier. ‘’ I don’t think it was 100 per cent perfect, but I don’t think we have any regrets about how it went. ‘’

In women’s competition, Mao Asada of Japan won the gold medal. Kaetlyn Osmond of Marystown, N.L., was 11th and Gabrielle Daleman of Newmarket, Ont., 13th.

‘’It wasn’t the performance I wanted to have,’’ said Osmond, eighth after the short. ‘’I love this program, I have loved skating it and I really wanted to show it off tonight.’’

Full results: http://www.isuresults.com/results/wc2014/index.htm

Louis Daignault

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