Messing wins silver, Moore-Towers/Marinaro and Gilles/Poirier add bronze at Skate Canada International

LAVAL, Que. – Keegan Messing of Sherwood Park, Alta., won the silver medal in men’s competition while Kirsten Moore-Towers of St. Catharines, Ont., and Michael Marinaro of Sarnia, Ont., as well as Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Toronto added bronze in pairs and ice dancing on Saturday at Skate Canada International.

Shoma Uno of Japan fell twice but landed four quadruple jumps and won the men’s gold medal with 277.25 points. Messing, first after the short, landed his first quad toe but fell on his second one finished with 265.17. Junhwan Cha of South Korea was third at 254.77.

Messing, who also landed two triple Axels, earned his first career medal on the Grand Prix circuit. His previous best was fifth.

‘’To win my first Grand Prix medal at Skate Canada is an honour,’’ said Messing, who skated a Charlie Chaplin themed routine. ‘’That program has so much opportunity for character to come out and is so much fun to do in front of a big crowd like this.’’

Nam Nguyen of Toronto skated cleanly and gained two spots to place fifth at 240.94. He landed two quads and two triple Axels including one in combination.

‘’The difference this week is the energy the crowd has been giving off, including the practices,’’ he said. ‘’It was a blast. This sets me up in terms of confidence on a good path. I hope to continue improving. The work I put in this summer is paying off.’’

Roman Sadovsky of Vaughan, Ont., was 12th.

In pairs, Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres of France won the gold medal with 221.81. Cheng Peng and Yang Jin of China followed at 201.08 edging Moore-Towers and Marinaro third at 200.93 points.

‘’It’s frustrating to lose the silver medal by a fraction of a point,’’ said Marinaro ‘’I got over-excited at the end on the death spiral and that cost us a half a point and the silver. That’s a disappointment and a learning experience. We are going to move on.’’

Evelyn Walsh of London, Ont., and Trennt Michaud of Trenton, Ont., were fifth at 172.53 and Camille Ruest of Montreal and Andrew Wolfe of Calgary were eighth at 162.16.

‘’We’re happy with that skate and coming back strong from last week,’’ said Walsh. ‘’We kept focused on our key elements and we got a big boost from the crowd which was really loud and supportive.’’

In ice dancing, Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier roared from sixth to third place with a mesmerizing skate to Don McLean’s hit song Vincent.

Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue of U.S. claimed a Grand Prix gold for a second straight week with 200.76. Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov of Russia were second at 195.17 and the Canadians followed at 186.97. There was only a 0.49 point different in the top-three free dance scores.

‘’We definitely redeemed ourselves today,’’ said Gilles. ‘’We came in a lot more composed and we wanted to gout there and do our job. To get that crazy score was very special for us.’’

Carolane Soucisse of Chateauguay, Que., and Shane Firus of North Vancouver were eighth and Haley Sales of Burnaby, B.C., and Nikolas Wamsteeker of Vancouver were ninth.

In women’s competition, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva of Russia held on narrowly to top spot for gold at 203.32 despite the third best free skate. Fifteen-year-old Mako Yamashita of Japan was second at 203.06 and two-time world champion Evgenia Medvedeva of Russia won the free skate to soar from seventh to the bronze with 197.91.

Both Canadians had clean free skates. Alaine Chartrand of Prescott, Ont., was eighth and Alicia Pineault of Varennes, Que., 10th.

‘’I showed a lot of improvement over last week’s Grand Prix,’’ said Chartrand. ‘’There were good things from everything and I need to stay on the same path.’’

Meanwhile at the Golden Bear event in Zagreb, Croatia, Canada has two entries in junior women’s competition. After Saturday’s short program, Catherine Carle of Georgetown, Ont., is seventh and Amelia Orzel of Woodbridge, Ont., ninth out of 39 entries.

Full results: 2018 Skate Canada International