Canadian ice dancers in medal contention at ISU World Junior Championships

TAIPEI CITY – Marjorie Lajoie of Boucherville, Que., and Zachary Lagha of Greenfield Park, Que., are in the medal hunt standing fifth after Thursday’s short dance at the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships.

‘’It went super well, we were really well focused on the ice,’’ said Lajoie, 13th with her partner at last year’s world juniors. ‘’To be fifth right now is better than we expected but it’s not going to affect how we prepare for the free skate. We are going keep the same plan and not worry about results.’’

Alla Loboda and Pavel Drozd of Russia are first at 67.59, Rachel Parsons and Michael Parsons of the U.S. second at 67.29 and Anastasia Skoptcova and Kirill Aleshin of Russia third at 63.38. Lajoie and Lagha notched 60.79.

Ashlynn Stairs of Calgary and Lee Royer of St. Albert, Alta., are 12th.

‘’We put out our best and that’s what we wanted to do,’’ said Stairs. ‘’Everything was clean and done to the best ability that we could. It gives us a lot of confidence that we can do the same in the free skate.’’

In men’s competition, Vincent Zhou of the U.S. prevented a Russian medal sweep taking the gold with 258.11. Dmitri Aliev was second at 247.31, Alexander Samarin third at 245.53 and Alexander Petrov fourth at 243.47.

Nicolas Nadeau of Boisbriand, Que., was 12th, Conrad Orzel of Woodbridge, Ont., 13th and Roman Sadovsky of Vaughan, Ont., 17th.

‘’I’m proud of what I’ve done at my first junior worlds,’’ said Orzel, a two-time silver medallist this season at international junior events. ‘’I did everything I planned and delivered my best skate of the season. I was a bit star truck this week with the great skaters here and the whole experience was very inspiring.

‘’I’ve learnt I can deal with the biggest worlds stage pressure and can adapt to situations even though it’s not perfect.’’

Competition continues Friday with the pairs free skate and women’s short program.

Full results: ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2017

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