Osmond, Hickey in podium finishes

Skater from Marystown settles for bronze at Grand Prix event in Japan after errors cost her in long program

A couple of Newfoundlanders headed to South Korea this winter — Olympian Kaetlyn Osmond and Paralympian Liam Hickey — won medals for Canada at major international events over the weekend.

Kaetlyn Osmond of Marystown contributed to a three-medal performance for Canada at the ISU Grand Prix Final, the last major international figure skating event before the Olympic Winter Games in February.

However, she vows to be better.

In the women’s singles competition, Osmond finished third after a couple of errors in her Black Swan skate, including a fall on her triple Salchow, dropped her the first-place position she held after the short program.

“The mistakes that I made were silly ones and they won’t happen again,” said Osmond after Saturday’s final “I made a lot of changes to my program since my last competition and I did those well.”

It was a 1-2 Russian finish in the women’s event, with Alina Zagitova first at 223.30 and Maria Sotskova second at 216.28.

Osmond had 215.16 points.

Canada’s other medals came from Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who took the silver in ice dancing, and Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, who added a bronze in pairs

Virtue and Moir lost for the first time since their return to competition last season.

“We made a couple of uncharacteristic glitches that we don’t even make in training that often,” said Moir of Ilderton, Ont. “We don’t like not winning competitions but in the grand scheme of things it was still a performance we were proud of.”

The three-time world champions are pleased with their progress towards the Olympics.

“We’re on track,” said Virtue of London, Ont. “We’ve had an extremely successful season and we just have to continue taking care of the little details and making the tweaks so our programs are at their best come February.”

In pairs, it was a comeback medal for Duhamel and Radford who climbed from fifth place after the short program to the medal.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO/ KOJI SASAHARA Kaetlyn Osmond was third in the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Nagoya, Japan, finishing behind a couple of Russian skaters.