2023 ISU Four Continents bronze medallists Deanna Stellato-Dudek/Maxime Deschamps of Canada beat Japan’s reigning ISU World and Four Continents Champions Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara by almost four points in the Pairs Short Program. Chelsea Liu/Balazs Nagy (USA) are currently ranked third.
Stellato-Dudek/Deschamps opened their program to “Oxygène” with a big triple twist, but then Deschamps crashed on the side by side triple toe. The ISU Grand Prix Final bronze medalists recovered to land a nice throw triple loop and picked up a level four for the lift, step sequence, spin and death spiral as well as for the twist. The Canadian Champions earned 69.48 points.
Deanna Stellato-Dudek/Maxime Deschamps (CAN) recovered from a slip to lead the Pairs competition after the Short Program. © ISU
“We have been working super hard when we came back from nationals. I had some issues with my jumps. I worked super hard on them, it was going super well at home. Unfortunately, we made mistakes today. But the rest was super strong,” Deschamps noted.
Stellato-Dudek agreed theis season was a work in progress. “Eventually the work always transfers into competition, but not always immediately. So hopefully it'll transfer when the time of the World Championship is around,” she said.
Stellato-Dudek admitted that she has been struggling with jet lag since arriving in China.
“For me, this is going to be the worst I've ever felt competing. We've had early practices here, we've had late practices, and we're on a 12-hour time difference with jet lag. So I've had three hours of sleep and it's past 11 o 'clock at night right now.
“So this was not a great feeling for me, but this is when you find out what you're made of and I'm often tired of practice and we do the run through anyway. So that really helped us out tonight to keep everything else together,” she explained.
The competition marked the return of Miura/Kihara who had missed most of the season so far due to Miura’s back injury. Performing to “Dare You to Move”, the reigning World Champions produced a triple twist, throw triple Lutz and two-level four elements. However, Miura doubled the toeloop and the spin and the death spiral were graded a level three. The 2023 ISU Four Continents Champions scored 65.61 points which was a season’s best.
World Champions Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara (JPN) returned from injury to achieve a season's best and sit in second place. © ISU
“We haven't competed for a long time, and we are a little nervous about whether we can be ready in this short time,” Kihara commented.
“Today's score feels like there is room for improvement. In the free skating, we will try our best to do what we can do now, confirm our own level, and work hard towards March [for the World Championships],” he added.
“I'm also nervous,” added Miura. “He [Kihara] was injured last year, and I was injured this year, which was a difficult time. I hope we can skate to the end without injury in free skating.”
Liu/Nagy’s program to “Dive” by Ed Sheeran was highlighted by a high triple twist and throw triple Salchow, but Liu stumbled out of the triple Salchow. Nevertheless, the Grand Prix Skate America bronze medalists set a personal best of 61.90 points.
Chelsea Liu/Balazs Nagy (USA) showed off their well-drilled throws to lie in bronze position in their last competition of the season. © ISU
“One of our biggest goals here was just to skate better than we did last week at nationals,” said Liu.
“We have been working so hard on our throws and they've been so good since the New Year. I'm super happy that we were able to show that.
“[In the Free Skating] Hopefully [we can do] what we did today and just to be a little bit better because this is our last competition for the season. So we really just want to showcase all the hard work that we put into training all year,” she concluded.
US Champions Ellie Kam/Danny O’Shea (USA) placed fourth and are only a little over a point behind their teammates (60.72 points). Cheng Peng/Lei Wang (CHN) finished fifth on 60.18 points ahead of ISU Grand Prix Finalists Lia Pereira/Trennt Michaud (CAN) on 59.89 points.
Schedule of the event
The schedule of the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships is as follows:
Thursday, February 1: Women’s, Men’s & Pairs Short Programs
Friday, February 2: Rhythm Dance & Women’s Free Skating
Saturday, February 3: Pairs & Men’s Free Skating
Sunday, February 4: Free Dance & Exhibition Gala
For full entries and results, please see the ISU event page and the official website. Follow the discussion on social media using #4ContsFigure and #FigureSkating.
Where to watch the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships 2023:
The ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships will be live streamed on the Skating ISU YouTube Channel. Geo-restrictions will apply in markets where TV rights are in place. You will find the full list in the Where to Watch news here.
Subscribe to the Skating ISU YouTube Channel to receive alerts when the live streams start and when new videos are posted.
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