Canadians spin more gold at Skate Canada International

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Patrick Chan of Toronto and ice dancers Tessa Virtue of London, Ont., and Scott Moir of Ilderton, Ont., won gold medals on Saturday evening to conclude Skate Canada International.

In men’s competition, Chan posted the second best free skate but hung on to top spot with 266.95 points. He edged Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan who won the free skate to climb from fourth to second at 263.06.

Kevin Reynolds of Coquitlam, B.C., landed three of his four quad jumps and took the bronze medal at 245.06. It is his first Grand Prix medal in his career.

Chan entered his highly anticipated free skate which was scheduled to include three quad jumps. He landed one, fell on the quad Salchow, which he was attempting for the first time in competition, and tripled the last one. Still he got strong scores from the judges for his artistic performance.

‘’It was a bit rough,’’ admitted Chan, a three-time world champion. ‘’I had a great opening but anytime you put in a new quad it feels different. The additional pressure of having it tired me out and you could see I faded as the program went along.

‘’Still it’s a great start to the season and I feel it’s a well deserved win.’’

Reynolds was at his first Grand Prix since 2012.

‘’It’s great to be on the podium in my first Grand Prix in many years,’’ he said. ‘’And to do it in such a high pressure environment with skaters like Patrick and Yuzuru makes feel really confident going forward.’’

Liam Firus of North Vancouver was ninth.

In ice dancing, Virtue and Moir ranked second in the free dance and held on to first with 189.06. Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the U.S., took silver at 188.24 while Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Toronto were third at 182.57.

‘’It was mixed emotions out there for us,’’ said Moir. ‘’It wasn’t kind of the moment we really wanted but the fans really helped us through that one. At the end we were proud of it.’’

Virtue said they rejigged the program after the Autumn Classic event in Montreal earlier this month. The couple are back in action this season for the first time since the 2014 Olympic Games.

“We’ve made some great strides with this free dance,’’ she said. ‘’Both technically and emotionally we went back to the drawing board and really got back to the intention of each movement and we made a lot of improvements.’’

Alexandra Paul of Midhurst, Ont., and Mitchell Islam of Barrie, Ont., were eighth.

Canada ends the competition with seven medals. Earlier Saturday, Meagan Duhamel of Lively, Ont., and Eric Radford of Balmertown, Ont., won the pairs event with Lubov Ilyushechkina and Dylan Moscovitch of Toronto third. Kaetlyn Osmond of Marystown, N.L. won silver in women’s competition.

Full results: 2016 Skate Canada International