Brasseur and Bardei win bronze at Warsaw Cup

WARSAW – Justine Brasseur and Mark Bardei of Montreal won the bronze medal in pairs on Saturday at the Warsaw Cup figure skating competition, a stop on the 2019 ISU Challenger series.

In pairs, Jessica Calalang and Brian Johnson of the U.S. took the gold medal with 191.46 points, Alena Pepeleva and Roman Pleshkov of Russia were second at 188.79 and Brasseur an Bardei moved from fourth after the short program to third at 172.21.

“We came over here very well prepared and we skated to the best of our abilities,” said Brasseur. “We still had some small errors but we worked hard to perfect some elements and that really helped us.”

Bardei is a former skater with Ukraine and joined forces with Brasseur in 2017. He saw his parents for the first time in two years this week at the event.

“At this point I was just happy to see them,” said Bardei. “It didn’t put any additional pressure on me or make me anxious with them in the audience.”

Lori-Ann Matte and Thierry Ferland of Lévis, Que., were seventh and Nadine Wang and Francis Boudreau-Audet of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., were ninth.

“We came back strong after a subpar short program,” said Matte. The pair scored a personal best free skate of 100.88. “There was some challenges with the scheduling here this week but that’s only going to make us stronger.”

In men’s competition, Andrei Mozalev led Russia to a 1-2 finish while Joseph Phan of Laval, Que., took fifth spot with 198.80 less than seven points from third.

“It was an OK performance with errors in both programs,” said Phan. “But I had no doubts in my program and attacked it.”

After the short program in women’s competition, Alison Schumacher of Tecumseh, Ont., is fifth and Emily Bausback of Vancouver ninth.

After the rhythm dance, Alicia Fabbri of Terrebonne, Que., and Paul Ayer of Calgary are sixth.

The women’s free skate and the free dance are on Sunday.

Full results: 2019 Warsaw Cup