Season’s best for Weaver/Poje and Chartrand second after short

MOSCOW – Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Waterloo, Ont., lead in ice dancing and Alaine Chartrand of Prescott, Ont., stands second in women’s singles after Friday’s short programs at the Rostelecom Cup, the fifth stop on the ISU Grand Prix figure skating circuit.

Weaver and Poje produced a season best 69.49 points in their program skated to Johann Strauss waltzes. Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte of Italy are second at 67.82 and Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov of Russia third at 63.63.

“I think that we skated fairly well,’’ said Weaver. ‘’We’ve doubled the amount of training time for this program since Skate Canada. So that feels great to have a little bit more mileage. We definitely can perform it better and we’re looking forward to growing on this program and make it the best it can be.’’

In women’s competititon, Elena Radionova of Russia is first at 71.79. Chartrand earned 67.38 and Evgenia Medvedeva of Russia is third at 67.03.  Chartrand opened with a perfect triple Lutz-triple toe combo and never looked back roaring to a personal best score.

“I’m excited to be back in Russia,’’ said Chartrand, 19, a bronze medallist here last season. ‘I’ve been training really well and I’m glad I showed that today”,

On the men’s side 17-year-old Nam Nguyen of Toronto landed a quad jump and triple Axel but fell in the second part of his triple Lutz combo to stand seventh.

Adian Pitkeev of Russia (87.54 points) Spain’s Javier Fernandez (86.99), and  Ross Miner of the U.S. (85.36.) are holding down the top three spots, respectively.

In pairs Kirsten Moore-Towers of St. Catharines, Ont., and Michael Marinaro of Sarnia, Ont., are seventh and Hayleigh Bell of Rudi Swiegers of Regina are eighth.

The four free skates are on Saturday.

Full results: http://www.isuresults.com/results/season1516/gprus2015/index.htm