Two Canadians claim gold in international ice dance program

VANCOUVER –

Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier have once again claimed gold on home soil, finishing on top of the ice dance program at Skate Canada International.

The pair, skating in a competition for the first time since Gilles shared her ovarian cancer diagnosis in May, had a score of 131.46 in the free dance for a total score of 219.01.

“We’re really thrilled,” said Gilles. “It’s taken a long time for us to get to this moment in our career and I think we’re really starting to enjoy each moment we step out onto that ice. I think we believe in ourselves just a little bit more.”

Great Britain’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson, who had the audience clapping along to their “Rocky” themed program, finished just over five points behind the Canadians in the free dance to end up second overall.

Lithuania’s Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius rounded out the unchanged top three from Friday’s competition.

“It’s been a long road for us, especially teaming up as we had our different careers,” said Ambrulevicius. “Long work and dreams do come true.”

Gilles and Poirier are the first team to win four consecutive Skate Canada gold medals since fellow Canadians Victor Kraatz and Shae-Lynn Bourne. Kratz and Bourne won five straight Skate Canada medals from 1994-95.

“Canada has such a strong legacy of ice dance,” said Poirier. “We’ve been so inspired by so many teams that came before us and we owe, in part our success, to all those teams who always pushed us to be better throughout our careers.”

Kaori Sakamoto continued her momentum, and dominance, in the women’s competition at Skate Canada International to claim gold on Saturday.

The reigning world champion scored a season-best score of 151 in the free skate program to finish first in the competition and overall with a total score of 226.13.

“Today I was able to perform exactly how I wanted to perform, so I’m really relieved and also very satisfied with the performance overall,” she said through a translator.

Sakamoto celebrated her winning result alongside her coach by pretending to eat a giant stuffed piece of sushi given to her by a fan from the crowd.

Chaeyon Kim, 16, of South Korea finished second overall in her Grand Prix debut.

“I had an ankle injury last week so I was worried, so even though the program wasn’t perfect I hope the results are good,” she said.

Sakamoto’s Japan teammate Rino Matsuike rounded out the top three, the same order as Friday’s short program.

Canada’s Madeline Schizas finished fourth overall (189.91) after a dramatic rise up the rankings from eighth due to the strength of her second-place free skate program.

Schizas said her short program score on the first day of the event was the lowest score she’s ever posted outside of competing as a junior.

“I was kind of upset yesterday,” she said. “I went and looked at skating scores and that was (my) lowest score ever.

“So I wasn’t thrilled but I knew I could rally today. The error I made yesterday was pretty fluky.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 28, 2023.