Medvedeva, Chan take top spots at Skate Canada
Three-time world champion Patrick Chan held off another late charge by Yuzuru Hanyu and reigning world champ Evgenia Medvedeva lifted the women’s title Saturday at the Skate Canada Grand Prix.
The 25-year-old Canadian Chan claimed his second straight Skate Canada men’s title over Olympic champion Hanyu. The Canadian, debuting a new free program that included three planned quadruple jumps, landed one, fell on the second and turned the third into a triple.
Runner-up Hanyu had to rally from a disappointing short program for the second year in a row. He placed fourth on Friday-not as bad as in 2015 when he finished seventh in the short but leapfrogged over five skaters to claim the silver behind Chan. Chan finished with a total of 266.95 points, while Hanyu won the free skate completing two of four quadruple jump attempts-en route to a total of 263.06. “The whole week was a fight,” Chan told Canada’s TSN network. “I had a bit of a lower back issue even before the short program. I didn’t let that distract me, just committed to the plan with the quads.
“I’m looking forward to the next competition.” Canada’s Kevin Reynolds was third with 245.06 points at the Hershey Centre Arena in Mississauga, Ontario, 28 kilometers (17 miles) southwest of Toronto.
World and European champion Medvedeva continued her streak of winning performances by earning the women’s title. After a personalbest short program score, the 16-year-old Russian finished first in the free skate for a total score of 220.65 to easily beat Canadian runnerup Kaetlyn Osmond. Skating to the soundtrack from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close in the free skate, Medvedeva labored through some of her jumps but stuck to her game plan to earn a score of 144.41 points.
“So happy that I’m first today. Thank you so much,” she said. Two-time Canadian champion Osmond finished more than 14 points back with 206.45 points while Japan’s Satoko Miyahara was third in 192.08. Russia’s Medvedeva became the youngest world champion since Tara Lipinski in 1997 with her triumph in Boston in April. Since winning the junior world title in 2015 she has been all but unstoppable, with victories in the Grand Prix Final, the European championships and Worlds. The 20-year-old Osmond is still working her way back from a double leg fracture suffered in 2014. “Definitely compared to last year, I’m beyond excited to be where I am now,” Osmond said. “Even more, I’m excited by the fact that I did make personal best scores this week.
“And there’s still a lot of room for improvement in my programs. So I’m super-happy that I was able to compete at this level this early in the season.”
CANADIAN DUOS TRIUMPH
Two-time world champions Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford of Canada once again dominated the pairs division by earning 218.30 overall points to beat out second-placed Yu Xiaoyu and Zhang Hao of China.
Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, returning to Grand Prix competition for the first time since winning silver at the Sochi Winter Olympics two years ago, won the ice dance crown. The Canadian duo led after the short dance and despite finishing second in the free dance won the title with a total of 189.06 points. Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates topped the free dance but settled for silver on 188.24 points ahead of third-placed Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier on 182.57 points. —AFP