Canadian ice dancers snare silver in international debut

COLORADO SPRINGS – Mackenzie Bent of Uxbridge, Ont., and Dmitre Razgulajevs of Ajax, Ont., won the silver medal in ice dancing on Saturday at the third stop on the ISU Junior Grand Prix figure skating circuit.

Both Canadians have previous Junior Grand Prix experience but it was their first competition as a team.

Lorraine McNamara and Quinn Carpenter of the U.S. won the gold medal with 159.31 points, the Canadians followed at 133.27 and Sofia Polischuk and Alexander Vakhnov of Russia were third at 129.83.

‘’It’s very exciting to have such a great start,’’ said Bent. ‘’We had no expectations. Our main focus was to just stick to our plan on the ice.’’

While the two skaters hooked up this past April, they have actually known each other for 10 years having both trained at the Scarborough Figure Skating Club.

‘’I think knowing each other so well really helped us adapt quickly,’’ said Razgulajevs. ‘’We both have similar skating style.’’

Payten Howland, a St.Louis native, and Simon-Pierre Malette-Paquette were sixth only six points from third place.

In pairs, Bryn Hoffman and Bryce Chudak of Calgary came within less than five points of the podium placing fourth. Anastasia Gubanova and Alexei Stintsov of Russia were the winners.

Emy Decelles of Baie-Comeau, Que., was 12^th in women’s competition. On Friday, Antony Cheng of Richmond Hill, Ont., was 13^th in men’s singles.

The fourth stop on the circuit is this Thursday to Saturday in Linz, Austria.

Full results: 2015 Colorado Springs