Lajoie and Lagha win gold at ISU Challenger Series event

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (October 1, 2022) – Canadian ice dancers Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha  won their first international senior event Saturday at the Nepela Memorial figure skating competition, a stop on the ISU Challenger Series circuit.

The 2022 Olympians posted an ISU event personal best score 193.35 points bettering the 192.11 they skated at the 2020 Four Continents meet.

Eva Pate and Logan Bye of the U.S. were second at 178.69 and Marie Dupayage and Thomas Nabais of France third at 165.78.

For their first senior victory, Lagha, from St-Hubert, Que., and Lajoie, from Boucherville, Que., the 2019 world junior champions, weren’t screaming off the rooftops.

‘’It was O.K. for a first skate despite a little mistake,’’ Lagha, 23. ‘’We don’t want to do mistakes anymore.’’

Lajoie, 21, was happy to return to competition.

‘’It was a long time since we competed,’’ she said. ‘’You have to get use to that feeling again and for us, we wanted to skate very good and have a good result. But there is a lot to improve.’’

Lajoie and Lagha were the only Canadians at the event.

Full results: Challenger Series Ondrej Nepela Memorial 2022