Boston / United States

The competition at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2016 continued Saturday in Boston, USA with the Pairs Free Skating.

Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford (CAN) strike gold

Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford of Canada came from second place in the Short Program to strike the Pairs gold. China’s Wenjing Sui/Cong Han earned the silver medal and Aljona Savchenko/ Bruno Massot of Germany captured the bronze medal in their debut as a team at the World Championships.

Duhamel/Radford put out a flawless performance to “Hometown Glory”, nailing a triple twist, side by side triple Lutz, throw quadruple Salchow, triple toe-double toe-double toe combination, a throw triple flip as well as four level-four elements. The Canadian Champions posted a new personal best of 153.81 points and totaled 231.99 points to defend their World title. “It was an out of body experience. We knew we were better than what we’ve done this season. It was to come here and do it for ourselves. Back in October at the Grand Prix, I thought we were out of contention for a medal at Worlds, I thought we would be fighting for 4th or 5th. So what a turnaround we made, it feels so unbelievable”, Duhamel commented.

Sui/Han opened their program to “Samson and Dalilah” with a quadruple twist and followed up with a triple toe-double toe combination. They also produced a throw triple flip and level-four lifts, but Sui fell on the throw quadruple Salchow and doubled the side by side Salchow. The Four Continents Champions scored 143.62 points, slightly improving their personal best, and accumulated 224.47 points overall to repeat as silver medalists. “We are not very satisfied with our performance today, because both of our throw jumps had some problems, and the quality of another element was not good. We couldn’t do the best we can today. We were of course a bit nervous, I think that’s normal, but I think we adjusted pretty well”, Han noted.

Savchenko/Massot’s routine to “Somewhere” by Wax Tailor was highlighted by a triple twist, triple toe-triple toe sequence, throw triple Salchow and difficult lifts, but she doubled the side by side Salchow. The European silver medalists earned 141.95 points and pulled up from fourth to third at 216.17 points. “It means so much to me, my dreams come true. All medals have a story behind it. And this is a new life, a new beginning. To start this partnership with a medal is amazing. I’m extremely happy, we thought before (the free skate) that we had nothing to lose”, Savchenko said.

Ksenia Stolbova/Fedor Klimov (RUS) came fourth (214.48 points), followed by their teammates Evgenia Tarasova/Vladimir Morozov (206.27 points). Olympic Champions Tatiana Volosozhar/ Maxim Trankov (RUS) dropped from third to sixth as they made several errors including on a lift that received no value (205.81 points). 

The competition at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2016 concludes Saturday evening with the Ladies Free Skating. For more information and full results please see: www.isu.org and www.worlds2016.com .