The Hamilton Spectator

Weaver and Poje in lead at Cup of China

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BEIJING — Ice dancers Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, and singles figure skater Kaetlyn Osmond are on pace for gold at the Cup of China.

Osmond, 20, from Marystown, N.L., is the leader after Friday’s women’s short program at the figure skating Grand Prix, while Weaver and Poje, from Waterloo, are the leaders in ice dance.

Lubov Ilyushechk­ina and Dylan Moscovitch of Toronto were second in the pairs short program, while Patrick Chan of Toronto was third in the men’s short program.

Osmond, who’s making an impressive comeback after a couple of injury-plagued seasons, scored 72.20 points. Elania Radinova of Russia is second with 70.75, while Japan’s Mai Mihara is third (68.48).

“I’m overall pretty happy,” Osmond said. “It didn’t feel quite as good as Skate Canada (where she won silver) but I got everything done.”

Weaver and Poje scored 73.78 points in the short dance to edge Americans siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani (73.23). Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin of Russia are third (72.09).

Weaver and Poje were third at the Rostelecom Cup in Russia earlier this month. “We’ve shown great improvemen­ts since Russia,” Weaver said. “We still haven’t had a perfectly clean performanc­e, and that’s what we are aiming for.”

Chan, a three-time world champion, landed his quad jump but bobbled his triple Axel en route to 83.41 points. Boyang Jin of China leads with 96.17, while Daniel Samohin of Israel is second at 83.47.

“Today was a bit rough,” said Chan, who opened the season with a victory at Skate Canada. “I obviously could have done a lot better. All the landings were a little shaky. The little mistakes add up to big mistakes in the short program.”

Xiaoyu and Hao Zhang of China lead the pairs event with 72.49 points, while Ilyushechk­ina and Moscovitch scored 71.28 and Cheng Peng and Yang Jin of China took third.

Alexandra Paul of Midhurst and Mitchell Islam of Barrie withdrew from the ice dance event after Paul injured her knee in practice.

 ?? NG HAN GUAN, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Waterloo compete in the short dance in Beijing Friday.
NG HAN GUAN, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Waterloo compete in the short dance in Beijing Friday.

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