Virtue, Moir pick up where they left off
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. The fans spotted them the moment they stepped onto the ice for the group warmup, and the cheering barely let up.
More than two years after their silver medal skate at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir made a triumphant return — finally — on Friday, winning the short dance at Skate Canada International. It was a moment not lost on anybody.
“The feeling out there today was right where we wanted it to be,” Moir said. “The fans were electric for us, and that was a truly special moment. Technically we have to work on getting a little bit stronger, but we’re right where we want to be at this time of year.”
Virtue and Moir, who won Olympic gold in Vancouver then silver in Sochi before stepping away from competition, scored 77.23 points with their program to music by Prince, and take a one-point lead over Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates into Saturday’s free dance.
Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Toronto were third.
Patrick Chan is the leader after the men’s short program, while Canadian teammate Kevin Reynolds is third.
Earlier Friday, Canada’s twotime world champions Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford easily won the pairs short program, while Lubov Ilyushechkina and Dylan Moscovitch were third.
And Kaetlyn Osmond, a 20year-old from Marystown, N.L., is second after the women’s short program.
In any other season, Virtue and Moir’s lead would be more than a mere point, but they said coming back, they knew this would be “an 18-month plan, we’re ticking the days off,” Virtue said.
“We’re stepping back into a field that doesn’t have room for us, kind of in a way,” Moir added. “So it’s interesting to find where we’re going to slot in, and we feel like we’re starting from the beginning. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”