Wesley Chiu Wins Free Skate, Nears Podium in Personal Best Performance at Warsaw Cup

WARSAW – A great season continued for Richmond, B.C.’s, Wesley Chiu on Friday as he won the free skate and placed fourth overall with a personal best score in men’s competition at the Warsaw Cup, a stop on the ISU Challenger Series.

The 16-year-od Chiu, a gold and bronze medallist on the ISU Junior Grand Prix circuit this season, sparkled against a senior field on Friday roaring from 11^th after Thursday’s short program to near the podium with 232.39 points.

‘’It went amazing,’’ said Chiu. ‘’Missing that combination jump in the short really motivated me to go after it on the long program. I came here to get some minimum scores for senior competitions and I definitely achieved that.’’

Sota Yamamoto of Japan was the winner with 247.65, Daniel Grassl of Italy was second at 242.96 and Peter Gumemnik of Russia third at 242.91.

Chiu cleanly landed his seven jumps in his free program. That included back-to-back quads, three combo jumps and the triple Axel. It was the first time he landed two quads in a free skate.

‘’I knew I could do one quad toe so there was no reason why I can’t do a second one,’’ he said. ‘’But it was a tough aspect to learn in practice. Training overall has been going really well leading into this competition.’’

Stephen Gogolev of Toronto was 11^th.

In pairs, Russia swept the medals with Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov in first. Lori-Ann Matte and Thierry Ferland of Levis, Que., were 10^th and Deanna Stellato Dudek and Maxime Deschamps of Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que., 11^th.

In the women’s short program, Gabrielle Daleman of Newmarket, Ont., stands fifth at 61.57 just over three points from third place. Maiia Khromykh of Russia leads with 69.24.

In ice dancing after the rhythm dance, Molly Lanaghan, and Dmitre Razgulajevs of Ajax, Ont., are in eighth place with 67.81 and appear on route to improve on their 11^th place at last week’s Cup of Austria. Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin of Russia are the leaders at 81.30.

Competition ends Saturday with the women’s free skate and the free dance.

Full results: https://page.pfsa.com.pl/results/2122/CSPOL21/