ISU 2024 Four Continents Championships (4CC) - Shanghai, China - 29 Jan.-4 Feb. 2024

[Elizabeth]

Skate Canada press release after the 3rd day of competition: https://skatecanada.ca/2024/02/stellato ... ontinents/

Stellato-Dudek & Deschamps Golden at Four Continents
February 3, 2024/by Skate Canada

Shanghai, China (February 3, 2024) – Canadian pair skaters Deanna Stellato-Dudek of Chicago, USA and Maxime Deschamps of Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que., won their first major championships gold medal on Saturday in Shanghai, China at the ISU Four Continents Championships, setting themselves up nicely for the World Championships in Montreal this March.

The two-time Canadian national champions had a healthy lead after their short program, and despite a couple of mistakes in their free skate, were able to retain the lead with a score of 129.32 and a total score of 198.80 to take the win. Last year’s champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan settled for silver (190.77), while Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea of the USA captured bronze (187.28).

“We’re very happy with the result. We had some of our reliable elements cross us a bit – I really hurt my arm on the twist and it was hurting throughout the whole program, so we were happy with the fight that we were able to give despite that,” said Stellato-Dudek. “There is definitely still a lot of growth in the performance, we know we can do a lot better than that, and we’re looking forward to doing that at Worlds.”

Lia Pereira of Milton, Ont., and Trennt Michaud of Trenton, Ont., had a shortened training period preparing for this competition due to a back injury that Michaud sustained just following nationals, so were pleased with their fifth-place finish and total score of 182.05.

“We’re very proud of ourselves for this long program today. We really wanted to showcase our performance. We’ve been working with our choreographers and coaching team at home to really push the performance aspect, and I think we did that today, so we’re really happy,” said Pereira.

Kelly Ann Laurin of St-Jerôme, Que., and Loucas Éthier of Deux-Montagnes, Que., finished in eighth-place with a total score of 174.47.

Wesley Chiu of Vancouver, B.C., was the top-ranked Canadian finisher in the men’s competition, finishing seventh with a total score of 240.38.

“It’s been really eye-opening to be with all these amazing athletes. It’s not often you get to skate with five of them in a single warm-up,” said Chiu who skated in the final flight with the top skaters. “But when the music came on, and it was my turn to skate, I felt my heart rate go down and felt a little bit more like myself. In the warm-up, my legs were feeling like jello, so I was able to tap back into my own training and do everything how I do normally.”

Roman Sadovsky of Vaughan, Ont., who skated in his first international competition this season due to a series of travel mishaps this fall, finished in 10th place with a total score of 217.83, while Conrad Orzel of Toronto, Ont., finished 17th.

“There are definitely a lot of improvements that I can do here and there, and just optimize the program overall. I was just super pleased that I had the opportunity to do it somewhere, and take notes, and have the opportunity to apply those notes in training later on,” said Sadovsky who last competed at the Four Continents Championships in 2020 where he finished 16th.

2022 Olympic silver medallist Yuma Kagiyama of Japan won gold (307.58) with a commanding 32-point lead over the silver medallist, his teammate Shun Sato (274.59). Junhwan Cha of Korea took the bronze (272.95).

[Elizabeth]

Day 4 overview


The final event in the competition was the Free Dance.


SPOILERS FOLLOW


Free dance results


Overall results


Top 3






Podium picture

A first ISU Championship GOLD medal for Piper & Paul


Press conference fun

The other CDN team was third in the free dance to move up to 5th overall:

[Elizabeth]

And a few hours after the FD finished, the Exhibition Gala took place.

EXHIBITION PROGRAM


Some Canadian content
I always enjoy a good cat program

[Elizabeth]

The Skate Canada 4CC press release after the final day of competition: https://skatecanada.ca/2024/02/gilles-p ... pionships/

Gilles & Poirier Golden at ISU Four Continents Championships
February 4, 2024/by Skate Canada

Shanghai, China (February 4, 2024) – Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier’s dream season continued on Sunday at the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Shanghai, China as they won their first ISU Championships title in the ice dance competition. They were joined on the podium by Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Soerensen who captured silver for the second year in a row.

Gilles of Toronto, Ont., and Poirier of Unionville, Ont., led the competition from start to finish, making their performance to “Wuthering Heights” look effortless in their free skate today, garnering them a score of 128.87, and a total score of 214.36 for the win.

“It has been a long wait, but it’s been worth the wait,” said Gilles of the win after having come so close several times in the past to a win at this level. “You have to earn these moments, and I feel like we’ve finally timed things right and have finally earned it. We’re just really proud of this moment. Standing on top of the podium felt really surreal – I almost got a little bit emotional.”

Poirier added: “We’re really proud of ourselves. We had two really solid, enjoyable skates for the two of us. We really enjoyed our skating here and are proud of how we skated.”

Skating a dramatic love story to “Notre Dame de Paris,” Fournier Beaudry and Soerensen of Montreal, Que., had their best free skate of the season, earning a season’s best free skate score of 125.52 for a total score of 207.54 to earn them a silver medal for the second consecutive season.

“It was such a wonderful performance, with a lot of emotion, it was just a big relief, and a huge pleasure for us,” said Soerensen.

“We really felt free today and it was super fun to just perform. I think we stepped it up this week and we just will have a lot of motivation back home to build up towards Worlds,” added Fournier Beaudry.

Canadian skaters had all three of the top scores in the free dance as Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac of Ste-Anne-des-plaines, Que., performed brilliantly to their “Corpse Bride” music, scoring 119.57 for their efforts – a season’s best score, which moved them up from seventh to finish fifth overall with a total score of 190.83 – also a season’s best score.

Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko of the USA captured the bronze medal to round out the podium with a total score of 194.14.