Three medals for Canada at ISU Four Continents

GANGNEUNG, South Korea – World champions Meagan Duhamel of Lively, Ont., and Eric Radford of Balmertown, Ont., and Lubov Ilyushechkina and Dylan Moscovitch of Toronto won silver and bronze in pairs and Gabrielle Daleman of Newmarket, Ont., added a silver in women’s singles on Saturday at the ISU Four Continents figure skating competition.

In pairs, Wenjing Sui and Cong Han of China took the gold with 225.03 points. Duhamel and Radford followed at 212.23 and Ilyushechkina and Moscovitch were third at 205.31.

Duhamel and Radford started their free skate with an impressive triple twist but their side-by-side, throw quad Salchow and throw triple Lutz were not as smooth.

‘’It was one of those fighting skates for us which has been a theme for us this season,’’ said Radford. ‘’But considering how we were feeling coming into this long program we are both very proud of ourselves and did some pretty good things.

‘’It’s always an up and down through the season and we’ll take this as a step up towards the world championships in March.’’

Ilyushechkina and Moscovitch were on fire in their free skate landing a triple twist, side-by-side triple toe-double toe, side-by-side triple Salchow and throw triple flip. The only glaring mishap was Ilyushechkina falling on a throw triple loop near the end of the program.

‘’It got rough near the end and some spots were sticky but we got through it,’’ said Moscovitch. ‘’Each event this season we have been improving and we’ve worked very hard to keep moving in the right direction.’’

Kirsten Moore-Towers of St. Catharines, Ont., and Michael Marinaro of Sarnia, Ont., were seventh.

In women’s competition, Mai Mihara of Japan moved from fourth after the short program to top spot with 200.85. Daleman followed in second – a career-best international result – at 196.91, Mirai Nagasu of the U.S. was third at 194.95 and Kaetlyn Osmond of Maystown, N.L. fourth at 184.17.

Daleman produced a strong start and ending with a little blip in the middle on which she stepped out of a jump and put her hand down after landing a double Axel.

‘’I’d never been at a big championship leading after the short so it was a whole new experience,’’ said Daleman. ‘’It’s wasn’t my best skate at all but I’m happy to be leaving here with an international medal.’’

Daleman and Osmond were 1-2 after Thursday’s short program. In her free skate, Osmond struggled after opening with a powerful triple flip-triple toe and double Axel-triple toe combos.

‘’The beginning went super well,’’ she said. ‘’I’ve been getting a lot better and being able to refocus after I miss an element and today that just didn’t happen.’’

Alaine Chartrand of Prescott, Ont., climbed from 14th to 11th after producing the eighth best free skate.

Competition ends Sunday morning with the men’s free program (9 p.m. Saturday evening EST on cbc.ca)

Full results: ISU Four Continents Championships 2017

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