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AFP/barcelona
Canada’s Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford surged to their first pairs crown with career best scores at the ISU Grand Prix of figure skating final yesterday.
In a performance that included a difficult throw quad salchow, the two-time world bronze medallists made their first podium in their fourth appearance in the elite six-skater event.
“It was our goal to come here and stand on the podium, and it’s just a bonus for us to win. We’re also very pleased with our personal best (scores),” said 29-year-old Duhamel.
They took gold ahead of Olympic silver medallists Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov with China’s Sui Wenjing and Han Cong taking bronze.
Already leading after the short programme the Canadians took to the ice at Barcelona’s International Conventions Centre last for their free skate to the music of rock band Muse.
And the Montreal-based pair had the crowd on their feet as they scored 146.22 points for the free skate and 220.72 overall.
Stolbova, 22, and Klimov, 24, winners of Olympic team gold with Russia, had an error in their combination jump and achieved 141.39 for the free skate to a Spanish version of ‘Notre Dame de Paris’ and 213.72 overall.
“It was almost our best performance this year,” said Klimov.
“Except for a little mistake we did all of our elements good.”
Sui and Han, one of three Chinese teams competing, fell in their skate to Tchaikovsky’s ‘Francesca da Rimini’ but held third with 194.31.
“Even though we fell and are very sad about that we feel very lucky to get this medal,” said 22-year-old Han.
Duhamel and Radford, both 29, follow Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, the only other Canadians to win the pairs title in 2000 and 2001.
It gave Canada a double in the pairs after Julianne Seguin and Charlie Bilodeau won the junior title on Friday.
China’s Peng Cheng and Zhang Hao were fourth (191.79) ahead of teammates Yu Xiaoyu and Jin Yang (187.79).
Russia’s Yuko Kavaguti, 33, and Alexander Smirnov, 30, finished last with 184.54 overall as the two-time world bronze medallists make their comeback after missing the Olympic season through injury.
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