Triple gold for Canada at Skate Canada International

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – Patrick Chan of Toronto, pairs skaters Meagan Duhamel of Lively, Ont., and Eric Radford of Balmertown, Ont., as well as ice dancers Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Waterloo, Ont., all won gold on Saturday at Skate Canada International.

In men’s competition, Chan landed a quad toe and triple Axel en route to the gold with 271.14 points in his return to competition after sitting out last season.  Yuzuru Hanyu and Daisuke Murakami of Japan were second and third at 259.54 and 252.25

‘’It was a high stress and challenging competition for me,’’ said Chan. ‘’I didn’t feel good in the warm –up and I was scared about going on. But I talked it through with my coach Kathy Johnso.  I went out there and skated because I enjoy it and hopefully I can be consistent throughout the season.’’

Nam Nguyen of Toronto was fifth and Keegan Messing of Sherwood Park, Alta., 11th.

In pairs, world champions Duhamel and Radford collected their second victory this season with 216.16 points. Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov of Russia followed at 191.19 and Kirsten Moore-Towers of St. Catharines, Ont., and Michael Marinaro of Sarnia, Ont., were third at 174.85.

“We were pretty nervous going out there today,” Radford said. “I don’t know if we can really put a finger on why. . .we were both feeling the same thing, a little out of our bodies, not as centred as we normally are.’’

Moore-Towers and Marinaro overcame a mistake on a lift.

‘’It was a big mistake but we didn’t let it snowball,’’ said Moore-Towers. ‘’A lot of the stuff we were working we really accomplished tonight. It was a huge step up from our previous competition.’’

Vanessa Grenier and Maxime Deschamps of Vaudreuil, Que., were seventh.

In ice dancing, Weaver and Poje prevailed at 173.69 with Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani of the U.S. second at 168.36 and Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev of Russia third at 161.11.

‘’We are definitely proud with how our free dance went today,’’ said Poje. ‘’We put pressure on ourselves to make sure we made improvements in both the short dance and free dance. We showed we are ready for the season and ready to push our limits.’’

Alexandra Paul and Mitchell Islam of Barrie, Ont., were sixth and Elisabeth Paradis of Loretteville, Que., and François-Xavier Ouellette of Laval, Que., eighth.

In women’s competition, Gabrielle Daleman of Newmarket, Ont., was fifth, Veronik Mallet of Sept-Iles, Que., 10th and Kaetlyn Osmond of Marystown, N.L. 11th.

Ashely Wagner of the U.S. took the gold.

Full results: 2015 Skate Canada International