Canadian ice dancers Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac gained bronze on the ultimate day of Skate America, the opening ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating occasion of the season.
The duo from Quebec completed with 178.30 factors following a third-place end within the free dance on Sunday in Norwood, Massachusetts.
The Canadians entered the day in podium place after ending third in Saturday’s rhythm dance with 72.12 factors, they usually secured bronze with one other sturdy efficiency.
“It was a dream we have had for a very long time. Now that we have reached this purpose it opens the door to many extra goals we would prefer to see come true,” Lauriault mentioned.
Lauriault and Le Gac have been married since 2015. They represented France till 2020 earlier than switching to signify Canada.
WATCH | Canada’s Lauriault, Romain Le Gac win ice dance bronze:
Canadian ice dancers Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac end third at Skate America with a complete rating of 178.30.
Chock, Bates win gold
Madison Chock and Evan Bates stood atop the rostrum at Skate America for the primary time in seven years, and alongside the best way, stepped into the highlight because the preeminent American ice dancers following the retirement of shut associates and longtime coaching mates Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue.
Despite a miscue on their character step sequence — they bought no factors for the free dance ingredient — Chock and Bates nonetheless managed to squeak by fellow Americans Kaitlin Hawayak and Jean-Luc Baker by the slimmest of margins.
Chock and Bates scored 202.80 factors, whereas Hawayak and Baker completed with 202.07.
WATCH | Chock, Bates high ice dance podium:
Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States end first within the ice dance competitors at Skate America.
“Obviously there’s work to do,” Bates mentioned, “however we’re not a pair to draw back from that. We undoubtedly know what we have to work on. We have a few weeks at house earlier than we head off to Japan for NHK Trophy and we all know what to do.”
Chock and Bates, who had been third at worlds this 12 months and have become engaged in June, acknowledged they did not carry out as properly at the Tenley E. Albright Performance Center close to Boston as that they had been at their coaching base in Montreal.
They lamented a few bobbles throughout their rhythm dance Saturday, although it was nonetheless adequate to depart them in first place. Then got here the error on their character step sequence throughout their free dance, when they didn’t stretch the ingredient from the boards on one aspect to the boards on the opposite and acquired no credit score for it.
“It will not occur once more,” Chock mentioned with fun. “We will repair it.”
Meanwhile, the pairing of Hawayak and Baker — who practice with Chock and Bates below Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon in Montreal — nearly claimed the most important title of their careers. Their free dance was almost excellent Sunday, giving them the win on the day if not their first Grand Prix win because the 2018 NHK Trophy.
“Today felt actually aligned between Jean-Luc and I. We felt actually grounded going into the occasion,” Hawayak mentioned, “and actually carried out, as a result of this season, we’re actually getting into a spot the place we’re proudly owning what we’re doing. And we’re believing what we’re doing is sweet sufficient to be the perfect on the earth. We’re simply actually pleased with the response immediately.”
Canada’s Carolane Soucisse and Shane Firus completed eight with 163.65 factors following a seventh-place lead to free dance. The duo completed ninth in Saturday’s rhythm dance.
WATCH | 2022 Skate America – Ice dance free dance:
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Watch the ice dance free dance at Skate America from Norwood, Mass.
World champion Sakamoto wins girls’s competitors
In the ladies’s competitors, world champion Kaori Sakamoto of Japan carried out brilliantly to carry off 15-year-old American star Isabeau Levito, who made a chic Grand Prix debut to complete second. Amber Glenn of the U.S. was third.
Levito had floor to make up after her brief program, and he or she spun out of a gap triple lutz-triple toe loop Sunday. But she roared again to hit a triple salchow, a pair of double axels round a triple flip, then fought for the touchdown on a triple lutz-triple toe loop. She completed with one other mixture to publish a rating of 206.66 factors.
The Olympic bronze medallist by no means wavered throughout her free skate to “Elastic Heart” by the Australian singer-songwriter Sia. From her opening double axel, maybe the perfect in all of determine skating, to a double axel-triple toe loop that landed close to the tip of her program, Sakamoto stored the sellout crowd in Norwood, Massachusetts, downright captivated.
Sakamoto completed with 217.61 factors to win a Grand Prix occasion for the third straight 12 months.
“I used to be fairly upset that I missed the combo, the primary ingredient,” Levito mentioned afterward. “You have your most vitality at first and I used to be fairly upset that I missed that, however I used to be considerably glad by the remainder of this system.”
WATCH | Sakamoto claims Skate America title:
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Kaori Sakamoto of Japan wins the ladies’s competitors at Skate America with a complete rating of 217.61.