Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Soerensen win bronze at ISU Grand Prix

SOCHI, Russia – Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Soerensen of Montreal won the bronze medal Saturday in ice dancing to conclude the Rostelecom Cup, the sixth stop on the ISU figure skating circuit.

It was a fourth medal in four competitions this season for the veteran couple. They were also third at their previous Grand Prix assignment at Skate America last month and also won silver medals at two ISU Challenger Series events.

Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov of Russia won the gold medal with 211.72 points. Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy were second at 203.71 and Fournier Beaudry and Soerensen followed at 191.40.

‘’We feel we’ve been improving from competition to competition,’’ said Fournier Beaudry. ‘’We’ve still got little things to work on, but we are happy with the progression. We had five weeks between Grand Prix so that’s been a good measuring stick for us.’’

In men’s competition, Roman Sadovsky of Vaughan, Ont., delivered by far his best performance of the season and was fourth with 253.80. Morisi Kvitelashvili of Georgia won the gold with 266.33, Mikhail Kolyada of Russia was second at 264.64 and Kazuki Tomono of Japan third at 264.19.

Sadovsky was third after Friday’s short program and produced a clean skate in his long. He had slight turns on his opening quad Salchow  and triple Axel landings but would later comeback to land a clean quad Salchow in combination with a triple Salchow.

‘’To beat my season’s best by 30 points is a huge step for me,’’ said Sadovsky, 22, the 2020 Canadian champion. ‘’That was more or less what I wanted to do. I wanted to reflect the changes made since my last competition. I’m just going to keep going from here and keep training. ‘’

It was also a solid event for Madeline Schizas of Oakville, Ont., who placed sixth with a season’s best 192.14. The Russians swept the medals led by Kamila Valieva in first.

‘’My free skate wasn’t exactly what I was hoping,’’ said Schizas, fourth after the short program. ‘’I was happy with the fight I showed through the program. I’ve been really motivated this season by the quality of skating I’ve seen at the senior level.’’

It was another Russian medal sweep in pairs while Kirsten Moore-Towers of St. Catharines, Ont., and Michael Marinaro of Sarnia, Ont., improved from seventh after the short program to fifth with the fifth best free skate.

‘’We definitely have much more than that but it was nice to get some confidence today,’’ said Marinaro. ‘’We still have quite a ways to go to be where we want to be.’’

Full results: http://www.isuresults.com/results/season2122/gprus2021/CAT004RS.htm