Ice dancers Gilles, Poirier make history at home with Skate Canada International victory
CBC
Canada's Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier made history at the Skate Canada International figure skating competition on Sunday.
They became the first ice dance pair to win six consecutive golds at the event with a total score of 202.89.
Gilles and Poirier narrowly beat out Lithuania's Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius, who finished with 200.92. Canada's Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha took bronze with 192.41.
Gilles and Poirier were first after Saturday's rhythm dance with a score of 85.38, while Reed and Ambrulevicius had 80.89.
However, the Lithuanians earned 120.03 in Sunday's free dance, which proved to not be enough to close the gap with Gilles and Poirier getting 117.51.
Earlier in the day, Roman Sadovsky was the top Canadian finishing in seventh after the men's free dance with 236.73 while fellow countryman Stephen Gogolev finished just behind him with 236.48. Aleksa Rakic was 12th with 216.90.
Ilia Malinin of the United States won the event at 333.81.
Malinin broke the world record for the free skate with ease, keeping his two-year unbeaten streak intact and underscoring his status as favourite to win Olympic gold at the Milano-Cortina Games.
The 20-year-old from Fairfax, Virginia, landed six quads along with a triple axel during a sublime free skate, set to music from the French supernatural thriller "Les Bal des Folles." That left the two-time and reigning world champion 76.6 points clear of second-place Aleksandr Selevko, an absurd margin in figure skating's elite events.
Malinin's free-skate score of 228.97 surpassed the previous record under the current scoring system of 224.92, set by Olympic champion Nathan Chen at the 2019 Grand Prix Final, when the American set the overall record with 335.30.
Selevko, who is from Estonian, finished second with 257.21 points Sunday. Kao Miura of Japan took bronze with 253.69 points.
Malinin has not lost since November 2023, when he finished second at the Grand Prix de France. The three-time U.S. champion's streak of perfection includes the past two world titles and championships at the past two Grand Prix Finals.
Skate Canada is the third of six events in the Grand Prix series. The NHK Trophy is next weekend in Japan, followed by Skate America in Lake Placid, N.Y. The Finlandia Trophy is the final chance to qualify for the Grand Prix Final.
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