Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier captured the ice dance title at the ISU’s Four Continents event on Saturday in Seoul, South Korea.
Toronto’s Gilles and Poirier of Unionville, Ont., narrowly edged world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States. The Canadians entered Saturday’s competition with a one-point lead and took gold by posting the second-best score in the free dance.
Chock and Bates had the best free dance, but finished with a total of 217.93 points – 0.53 behind Gilles and Poirier’s 218.46.
Gilles and Poirier were joined on the podium by fellow Canadians Marjorie Lajoie, of Boucherville, Que., and Zachary Lagha, of Greenfield Park, Que. The duo took bronze with a total score of 201.04.
Shaidorov takes men’s title
In the men’s event, Mikhail Shaidorov won the free skate with a season-best score to become the first skater from Kazakhstan to win the Four Continents title since Denis Ten in 2015.
Shaidorov held a 12-point lead after the short program and was equally impressive in the free skate, landing four quadruple jumps for 190.37 points for an overall total of 285.10.
Cha Jun-hwan of South Korea was second with 265.02 points followed by Jimmy Ma of the United States with 245.01.
Roman Sadovsky was the top Canadian finisher, scoring 213.90 points for a 10th-place result. Matthew Newnham (205.34) and Aleksa Rakic (197.91) finished 12th and 16th, respectively.
Shaidorov opened with a superb triple axel, single Euler and quad salchow combination that set the tone for his routine. He followed with a quad lutz and a quad toe loop before adding another quad toe-triple toe combination later in his routine.
Cha was fourth after the short program and turned in a spectacular free skate to grab the silver medal before the home fans.
The South Korean skater started his routine with a quadruple salchow. His next element was supposed to be a quad toeloop but he could only manage a double, but that was the only major mistake for the 2022 Four Continents champion.
Ma, who was second after the short program, fell on a triple loop early in his routine and touched down on triple axel but was otherwise solid and finished with the bronze medal.
The competition finishes Sunday with the women’s free skate.