Astana, KAZ (October 5, 2024) – It was a dream start to the season for Alicia Fabbri and Paul Ayer as they set new personal best scores across the board on their way to capturing bronze in ice dance at the Denis Ten Memorial competition taking place in Astana, Kazakhstan from October 3-5, 2024.

Starting things off with their new rhythm dance set to classic tunes from Elvis Presley, Fabbri from Laval, Que., and Ayer from Calgary, Alta., had the best skate of the night and were first heading into the free dance with a new personal best score of 73.66. They set another personal best score of 109.32 with their free dance, which put them in third place for the day, and snagged them the bronze with a total score of 182.98 – yet another personal best score.

“We’re extremely happy,” said Fabbri following the competition. “In such a strong field, being able to finish in a good position with good scores is more than we could ask for. Our goal coming into the competition is always to focus on the competition, ourselves, and being better than what we were yesterday. When we’re gifted with a medal at the end it’s even better, but it wasn’t the main focus.”

Lily Hensen of London, Ont., and Nathan Lickers of Six Nations of the Grand River, Ont., finished 11^th overall with a total score of 157.43. Natalie Taschlerova and Filip Taschler of Czechia won gold with a total score of 189.23, while Oona Brown and Gage Brown of the USA took silver with a total score of 186.96.

Skating in her first senior international competition, Uliana Shiryaeva of Coquitlam, B.C., had a fantastic competition posting second-place scores for her short program (178.83), and fifth-place scores for her free program (114.40) to finish fourth overall in the women’s competition with a total score of 178.83.

Speaking following the competition she said: “I felt very excited because this is a huge competition, but I felt like I was ready. I was very shocked and very happy with my score (in the short program). I was more nervous with the pressure (for my free skate), but I fought to get each element done and I felt like it was ok.”

Reigning senior women’s Canadian Champion Kaiya Ruiter of Calgary, Alta., made her debut this season and finished seventh overall with a total score of 159.75. Anastasiia Gubanova of Georgia won gold (195.91), while Sofia Samodelkina of Kazakhstan thrilled the hometown fans by taking silver (189.67), and Lara Naki Gutmann of Italy took bronze (188.86).

New senior national team member Aleksa Rakic of Burnaby, B.C., also made his debut for the season and finished eighth overall in the men’s competition with a total score of 198.47. Kazak athlete Mikhail Shaidorov also made the local fans happy, winning gold with a total score of 262.33. Vladimir Litvintsev of Azerbaijan took silver (246.00), and Nika Egadze of Georgia took bronze (242.43).

The next stop on the Challenger Series Circuit is the Budapest Trophy taking place in Budapest, Hungary from October 11-13, 2024.

For full results please click here.