(Grenoble) Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier won silver in ice dance at the French figure skating international on Saturday.
The quadruple world champions, the French Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, won the gold medal with a total of 221.25 points. The Torontonians amassed 203.16 points.
Russians Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin took third place, with a harvest of 200.29 points.
“This week has been a success,” said Poirier. We didn’t have our best rhythm program, but we felt the free skate was a nice improvement. Our scores were lower this week so we’ll have to listen to the comments and see what we can do to increase them. ”
This second position, combined with their victory at the Skate Canada International last month, saw Gilles and Poirier secure their ticket to the ISU Grand Prix finals, which will take place December 9-12 in Osaka. , in Japan.
“It was very satisfying to qualify for the finals because it will be an important event to lead us to the Olympics,” said Poirier. It gives us a lot of motivation. ”
As a couple, Canadians Vanessa James and Eric Radford showed their best scores since they started as a team in April, but their 196.34 tally left the duo at the bottom of the podium.
Russian duos Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovskii (216.96) as well as Iuliia Artemeva and Mikhail Nazarychev (205.15) climbed the first two steps of the podium.
Americans Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier (201.69) won the bronze medal.
On the men’s side, the Japanese Yuma Kagiyama edged his compatriot Shun Sato to win the gold medal. American Jason Brown completed the podium.
The Canadian Keegan Messing had to settle for the sixth step. He landed his two triple axels, but he touched the ice with his hand during his quadruple jump.
“After Skate Canada International my coach and I analyzed my long program and decided to change things up a bit. I believe we have a system that will work for the rest of the season, ”Messing said.
Reigning world champion Anna Shcherbakova and NAFTA Kostornaia of Russia dominated the women’s competition. Japan’s Wakaba Higuchi prevented a Russian sweep by winning the bronze medal.
The next event will take place on Friday and Saturday in Sochi, Russia.