Ruest and Wolfe earn Canada’s best result at ISU Grand Prix

GRENOBLE, France – Camille Ruest and Drew Wolfe earned Canada’s best result on Saturday at the ISU Grand Prix with a sixth place finish in pairs and a personal best score.

Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov led Russia to a 1-2 finish with Haven Denney and Brandon Frazier of the U.S. third.

Ruest, from Rimouski, Que., and Wolfe, from Calgary, equaled their result from Skate America two weeks ago with a sixth place but bettered their overall score to 166.15, a two pint improvement on their previous best set in a fifth place finish at last year’s Grand Prix in France.

“There were some technical mistakes we had to deal but overall we’re happy with both programs,” said Wolfe. “We showed some great quality lifts, improvements in our twist and bettered our component scores.”

In men’s competition the top-three remained the same with two-time world champion Nathan Chen of the U.S. first with 297.16 points. Alexander Samarin of Russia took the silver at 265.10 and Kevin Aymoz of France was third at 254.64.

Nicolas Nadeau of Boisbriand, Que., opened with triple Axel triple toe combo on route to the sixth best free skate to climb from ninth to seventh overall.

“I was really frustrated with my short program, so I’m happy I was able to redeem myself with the long,” said Nadeau, seventh at Skate Canada International last week. “I did full on plan A in my free. I got all my spins levels, I didn’t let go of any points, did all my stuff and I’m really happy with how it turned out.”

Nadeau was also pleased with the progress of his quad toe.

“It’s not very stable right now, it’s my Hail Mary jump,” he said. “It was on two feet today, but I was still up and my butt didn’t touch the ice.”

World champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France won the ice dance competition with 222.24. Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the U.S. were second at 204.84 and Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy were third at 203.34.

Carolane Soucisse of Chateauguay, Que., and Shane Firus of North Vancouver remained seventh at 175.80.

“We gave two performances we were proud of,” said Soucisse. “It wasn’t the scores we wanted but we really have something to build on.”

The fourth stop on the circuit is next Friday and Saturday in China.

Full results: ISU GP Internationaux de France de Patinage 2019

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