Led by Patrick Chan’s gold, Canadians fill their Cup of China with medals

BEIJING – Three-time world champion Patrick Chan won the gold medal in comeback fashion in men’s singles on Saturday to highlight a four-medal day for Canadians at the Cup of China figure skating competition, the fifth stop on the ISU Grand Prix circuit.

Chan, third after a shaky short program, roared to the title in his free skate with 279.72 points overcoming a 13-point deficit on Boyang Jin of China, second at 278.54. Sergei Voronov of Russia was third at 243.76.

‘’The program felt very methodical,’’ said Chan, also the Skate Canada International winner three weeks ago. ‘’I didn’t give it more energy than it needed. I told myself to relax and not try and rush through the program.’’

Chan made sure to keep an even keel during the skate.

‘’Even the fall during the quad Salchow I made sure I didn’t panic and just continued to do the program as I did at home and forget about the mistake.’’

In women’s competition, Kaetlyn Osmond of Marystown, N.L., took the silver with 196.00. Elena Radionova of Russia was the winner at 205.90 and her compatriot Elizaveta Tuktamysheva third at 192.57.

‘’I started the program really strong,’’ said Osmond. ‘’Then I did two mistakes that were really uncharacteristic for me. That’s something I just have to work on leading into the next big competitions. I need to keep my focus a little bit longer even if the program is going really well.’’

In ice dancing, Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Waterloo, Ont., were the silver medallists with 181.54. Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani of the U.S., took gold at 185.13. Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin of Russia were third at 177.41.

‘’This season is all about building,’’ said Weaver. ‘’There are many new things for us. We are learning from the beginning and that takes time and it’s not always an instantaneous result. Everything can get better even though we didn’t make any major mistakes.’’

In pairs, Lubov Ilyushechkina and Dylan Moscovitch of Toronto added a bronze behind two Chinese teams with 191.54. Xiaoyu Yu and Hao Zhang took the gold at 203.76 and Cheng Peng and Yang Jin were second at 197.96.

The sixth stop on the circuit is next weekend in Sapporo, Japan.

Full results: ISU GP Audi Cup of China 2016

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