Canada takes pairs gold at Four Continents skating championship

SHANGHAI — Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps held on the to their lead from the short program to win the gold medal at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships.

The 2023 Four Continents bronze medalists opened with a triple twist and went on to complete a throw triple salchow and loop.

Deschamps stumbled on the side-by-side triple salchow but the Canadians scored 129.32 points for a total of 198.80, comfortably ahead of world champions Rika Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan who were second with 190.77.

“We’re very happy with the result. We had some of our reliable elements cross us a bit – I really hurt my arm on the twist and it was hurting throughout the whole program, so we were happy with the fight that we were able to give despite that,” said Stellato-Dudek.

“There is definitely still a lot of growth in the performance, we know we can do a lot better than that, and we’re looking forward to doing that at Worlds.”

Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan settled for silver (190.77), while Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea of the USA captured bronze (187.28).

Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud finished fifth.

Wesley Chiu was the top-ranked Canadian finisher in the men’s competition, finishing seventh with a total score of 240.38.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 3, 2024.