BARRIE, ON: It was a magical moment, for sure. The moment of the night, at the finale of the first Autumn Classic International, a senior B event. It’s not just about Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford winning the pairs event with a bold throw quad Salchow, their first in a competition, but it was the way they did it that mattered: with resolve, with lightness, with confidence, enough to make them feel they are in the running to win a world title. They have won two world bronze medals.

They did it with a free skate that is what Radford calls probably the most difficult free skate ever done by pair skaters: the quad throw, two triple Lutzes, one a throw, a three-jump combination (although there was a bobble on the final double toe loop), a big triple twist, some tough lifts, and all done with good speed.

“We just wanted to stand up,” Radford said. “I think we did better than that.” They got a standing ovation.

He said he knew when he released Duhamel in the quad Salchow that it was going to be good. Duhamel grazed the ice with a paw, and then threw her fist – she knew she would – and off they went, not giving it another thought. That was part of the plan.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Duhamel said. Four years ago, they had wanted to try that quad, but it wasn’t time. She took a hard fall on the throw quad at a Quebec competition a couple of weeks ago, but they felt pretty confident they could do it, all the same. They felt that way the first time they rotated one, that it could be done.

Afterward, five-time world champion Robin Szolkowy of Germany, congratulated Duhamel and Radford, saying that although they had made mistakes, it was a top performance for this point in the season. He was here as a coach for a Russian pair team.

What gives them confidence for the future is that they earned personal best scores – 203.16 overall – with a few mistakes. There’s room to grow. They won by almost 36 points over Haven Denny and Brandon Frazier of the United States. Another American team, Jessica Calalang and Zack Sidhu were third with 156.46 points.

Natasha Purich and Drew Wolfe, together only five months, were fourth with 147.95 points, a good start for a promising career. Wolfe had never skated pairs before he met up with Purich. Last year’s Canadian junior champions Vanessa Grenier and Maxime Deschamps were fifth with a rack of tough lifts, their specialty.

There were other highlights. Nam Nguyen landed his first quad Salchow – he’d been landing them consistently only for a week in practice.  U.S. skater Ross Miner held onto the overall win with 227.26 points, although he flipped out of his quad Salchow. Nguyen finished second overall with 225.63 (he’d been fifth after the short). Nguyen earned a standing ovation for his La Scala routine.

Some members of the crowd also stood for Jeremy Ten, who finished third overall with 212.64 points for his memorable “Hallelujah” routine. He didn’t attempt a quad because he got a new pair of boots a week ago, but got his triple Axel in. “I can’t put into words what I feel,” he said. “For me, it was more about the emotional performance.”

Kevin Reynolds valiantly attempted to give his heart to his effort but boot problems scuttled his performance. He did land a quad Salchow at the beginning and it gave him heart for the future. He was fifth in the free and sixth overall.

Gabby Daleman won the women’s event with 165.59 points although Angela Wang of the United States edged her in the free skate by 1.09 points. Daleman made mistakes in the free, but her routine was almost a complete overhaul from what she had shown at the Thornhill Skate. She started off with a new jump series: a triple Lutz- half loop – triple Salchow. A double Axel – triple toe loop just sung. She fell on a second triple Lutz, and put a foot down on a triple flip. She fell on a triple loop.

“I’m not going to lie,” Daleman said. “Last Friday was only the third time I had done the long program in the last week. It’s kind of a disadvantage. I’m not making excuses. But I didn’t give up. “

Amazingly, there were fans in the crowd from Tokyo, who endured a 15-hour flight to catch the action. “I was so grateful,” Daleman said.

Julianne Seguin finished third in the free skate, just behind the top two with 104.81 points. She was third overall with 158.99 points. She’d like to finish in the top five at Canadians and make the national team as a singles skater, although she and pair partner Charlie Bilodeau are the top-ranked team among ISU Junior Grand Prix finalists.

Three teams from the dance school of Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon finished within the top five in the dance event. Their team from France, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron won the dance event with 150.20 after sweeping both the short dance and free skate.

Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier moved up from fourth after the short dance to be second in the free and second overall with 142.52 points. Third was Dubreuil and Lauzon’s Danish team, Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sorensen, with 131.62 (they were third in the free dance). Beaudry is a Quebecker.

All went wrong for Alexandra Paul and Mitchell Islam in the free skate when they missed an entry into a spin and lost all points for it, even though they attempted it. Islam also slipped while stroking. They dropped from second to fifth in the free and fourth overall.

Dubreuil and Lauzon’s third team, Sara Hurtado and Adria Diaz of Spain finished fifth overall after being third in the short dance.

BARRIE, Ont – Meagan Duhamel of Lively, Ont., and Eric Radford of Balmertown, Ont., grabbed the lead in pairs and Gabrielle Daleman of Newmarket, Ont., tops the women standings after Wednesday’s short programs at the Skate Canada Autumn International figure skating competition.

The competition is the sixth stop on the new ISU Challenger Series.

In pairs, Duhamel and Radford lead with 68.92 points with Jessica Calalang and Zack Sidhue of the U.S. second at 59.02 and Natasha Purich of Sherwood Park, Alta., and Andrew Wolfe of Calgary third at 54.84.  Vanessa Grenier of Sherbrooke, Que., and Maxime Deschamps of Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que., are sixth and Brittany Jones and Joshua Reagan of Toronto are eighth.

‘’We felt really comfortable out there and skated with freedom,’’ said Radford, the world championship bronze medallist with his partner the past two seasons.  ‘’Even though we are seasoned competitors, you’re somewhat looking for your bearings at the beginning of the season.’’

In women’s competition, Daleman leads after the short program with 59.38 points.  Angela Wang of the U.S. is second at 56.38 and Julianne Seguin of Longueuil, Que., third at 54.18.

‘’It felt fantastic to compete that short program for the first time,’’ said Daleman, 16, an Olympic and world championship team member last season.  ‘’It was great to see the how crowd enjoyed it.’’

Canada is also in the medal hunt in ice dancing and men’s competition.

Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France are first after the short dance at 59.74, crowd favorites Alexandra Paul and Mitchell Islam of Barrie are second at 55.30 and Sara Hurtado and Adria Diaz of Spain are third at 54.14 just ahead of Piper Gilles of Toronto and Paul Poirier of Unionville, Ont., in fourth at 53.42.

‘’We are super happy with the performance we put out today,’’ said Islam.  ‘’It was our first competition of the season and we just wanted to get things out there although we probably got dinged hard by the judges for struggling with our lift at the end.’’

Nicole Orford of Burnaby, B.C., and Thomas Williams of Okotoks, Alta., are sixth and Andréanne Poulin of Ile-Bizard, Que., and Marc-André Servant of Vaudreuil, Que., are 10th.

After the men’s short program, Ross Miner of the U.S. is first at 80.24, Ronald Lam of Hong Kong second at 73.75 and Jeremy Ten of Vancouver is third at 69.22.

‘’I’m disappointed in missing my Axel because I had been landing it consistently in training, said Ten, 25. ‘’Still, I came back strong for the rest of the program.  That shows how much I’ve matured as a skater.’’

Nam Nguyen of Toronto is fifth, Kevin Reynolds of Coquitlam, B.C., seventh and Andrei Rogozine of Newmarket, Ont., 11th.

Competition ends Thursday with the free skates in all four event.

Full results: 2014 Autumn Classic International

Barrie, Ont. – The Skate Canada Autumn Classic International is Canada’s first senior B international event and who did they get to fill the holes on the ice during the remake after the women’s short program? World champion Jeffrey Buttle, his ID flying around his neck, with his bare hands, watching for every crease.

Buttle trained at the Mariposa Skating Club at the Allandale Recreation Centre for many years, and above his head is a plaque, bearing his name and achievements. Now he can add ice bucket boy to them.

And even better, the crowd knew they were in a place with a sign at the end of the arena that said: “You are now in quad country,” so because of the multiple-rotating Elvis Stojko, but Buttle too landed his rare quad toe loop – triple toe loop while training at the Mariposa with Lee Barkell.

And the quads were back on Wednesday night. American Ross Miner, looking very fit, landed a quad Salchow and leads the men’s short program with 80.24 points. And surprise of all surprises, unheralded Ronald Lam, who has trained with coach Bruno Delmaestro of Coquitlam, B.C, since he began to skate, landed a quad toe – triple toe and is in second place at 73.75.

Lam, formerly in Skate Canada’s fold, switched nationalities to Hong Kong in the run-up to the Sochi Olympics. He didn’t make it to Sochi, but quietly silenced many other more highly ranked skaters with his efforts on Wednesday.

In third place is Jeremy Ten at 69.22, without a quad. He’s decided to forgo the quad at this competition because he just got a new pair of boots a week ago and didn’t want to risk injury. He’ll save the pyrotechnics for Skate Canada in two weeks. He’s got a quad though, and was pleased to know that Buttle was at the event: Buttle was his hero.

Kevin Reynolds, Canada’s Quad King, is in seventh place at 64.56 and not at all sure how he’s going to get through the long program on Thursday. Boot problems continue to frustrate him to distraction. Last year, he went through nine pairs of boots, trying to resolve problems surrounding his uncommonly narrow heel, and this year, thinking he was on a track to solve it, well forget it. He’s gone through four more. Each new pair breaks down in a week or two. As he said, it’s “unsustainable” for him to catch the feeling. He was hoping for better in the next week, but competitions don’t wait.

Even Brendan Kerry of Australia landed a quad in the short program. It’s not new for him. He landed one at Australian nationals in 2012, and everybody at home got excited at the first quad by an Australian in a decade when Anthony Liu competed.  Kerry is in sixth place, about a point and a half behind Nam Nguyen, who popped his Lutz and has 66.08. Nam plans a quad Salchow for the long. And he declared that he wants to win the Canadian championships this year.

The other quad people – Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, who promise a throw quad Salchow in the free – skated with a freedom they’ve never enjoyed before to win the pair short program with 68.92 points, well ahead of Jessica Calalang and Zack Sidhu of the United States with 59.02 points. An exciting new Canadian team, Natasha Purich and Drew Wolfe are in third place with 54.84 points – even though Wolfe had never skated pairs before five months ago. Coach Richard Gauthier says he’s never seen a skater learn pair skills so quickly.

In ice dancing, French skaters Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron won the short dance and Canadian silver medalist Gabby Daleman won the women’s short program with an energetic performance.

Papadakis and Cizeron came to Canada for choreography last spring. They ended up staying.

And Wednesday, they used the spit and polish that they learned from Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon – and French import Roman Haganauer – to win the short dance at the Autumn Classic, the first senior B international event ever held in Canada. Granted the Mariposa School of Skating has seen lots of international skaters in its heyday, but never so many in a competition.

Papadakis and Cizeron won with 59.74 points, 4.44 points more than Alexandra Paul and Mitchell Islam, who are skating with a newfound confidence after making it to the Sochi Olympics last February. The experience left a mark on Paul and Islam – in a good way – and they performed an expressive Paso Doble.

Daleman fired off a confident triple toe loop – triple toe loop combination and stumbled a bit on the landing of a triple flip, but the effort was stellar, worth 59.38 points, especially considering she was ill a week before the Autumn Classic.

She was sick for a week, she said, and finally went for some tests that confirmed only that she had pushed too hard in training while suffering from a virus that’s hard on the body. “I couldn’t walk without shaking,” she said. But she was back on the ice for a week before this event.

“This is a great way to start the season,” she said. “I had a little difficulty with the flip, but I’m so proud of what I’ve done.” She said she’s come to this season with a new attitude: grateful to have the chance to do what she loves.

She sailed past Angela Wang of the United States, who is in second place. Julianne Seguin got 54.18, even though she had little time to train for this event. She had just returned from Dresden where she and pair partner Charlie Bilodeau won the Junior Grand Prix and qualified for the Final. So far, she’s juggling both pairs and singles.