HALIFAX — Reigning world champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps rocked the house and placed first in the pairs short program at Skate Canada International on Friday.
The Canadians posted a score of 73.23 to kick off their second competition of the season while skating to a remix of Beyoncé’s "Crazy In Love" at Scotiabank Centre.
"Going out there, being in front of our home crowd, for the first time since Worlds -- that was great," Deschamps said. "We did a lot of stuff that we improved since the last competition, and we're happy with that."
"I actually noticed the difference in volume from our announcement versus everybody else's," Stellato-Dudek added about the crowd. "It was that noticeable. But yeah, I mean, I felt stressed, and just wanted to do well."
A minor stumble on their throw triple loop prevented them from reaching their goal of "high 70s," but they still took a significant lead going into the free program.
Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel of Germany finished second (64.82) and Anastasia Golubeva and Hektor Giotopoulos Moore of Australia were third (64.81).
Kelly Ann Laurin of Saint-Jerome, Que., and Loucas Ethier of St-Alphonse, Que., ranked last with a score of 52.16.
Later Friday, Madeline Schizas of Oakville, Ont., Calgary’s Kaiya Ruiter and Montreal’s Sara-Maude Dupuis compete in the women’s short program, headlined by three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto of Japan.
The rhythm dance and men's short take place Saturday afternoon, followed by the pairs and women's free programs in the evening. The competition wraps up Sunday afternoon with the men's free program and the free dance.
The Grand Prix, the top series in figure skating, consists of six events and a final. Skate Canada is the second of the event this year after the circuit kicked off at Skate America last week.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 25, 2024.
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press
