Cdn. pair 7th at worlds

Canada’s Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro finished in seventh in pairs on Thursday at the world figure skating championships.

Moore-Towers, of St. Catharines, Ont., and Marinaro, of Sarnia, Ont., scored 126.94 points in the free skate event for a total score of 200.02 points.

They had notched 73.08 points on Wednesday in the short program to enter Thursday’s competition sitting in fifth spot.

“It wasn’t our day, I suppose, we’re not really sure,” said Moore-Towers. “We were so prepared. Our mindset was perfect all week. We were so ready and excited. Our warm-up was perfect. Unfortunately it didn’t work out.”

Wenjing Sui and Cong Han scored 234.84 for gold. Russian skaters took silver and bronze, with Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov scoring 228.47 followed by Natalia Zabiiako and Alexander Enbert at 217.98.

Evelyn Walsh of London, Ont., and Trennt Michaud of Trenton, Ont. came in 12th in their worlds debut.

Meanwhile, defending champion Nathan Chen upstaged two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu to lead the short program.

Skating to “Caravan” by Duke Ellington, Chen performed a lively program that featured a triple axel, a quad lutz, and a quad toeloop-triple toeloop combination for a season-best score of 107.40 points.

Canadian champion Nam Nguyen of Toronto was 13th and Keegan Messing of Sherwood Park was 14th.