Moore-Towers and Marinaro edged off podium at NHK Trophy

HIROSHIMA, Japan – Canada’s Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro were less than a point from a podium berth and took fourth spot Saturday in pairs at the NHK Trophy figure skating competition, the fourth stop on the ISU Grand Prix circuit.

Natalia Zabiiako and Alexander Enbert of Russia won the gold medal with 214.14 points, Cheng Peng and Yang Jin of China were second at 207.24, Alexa Scimeca Knierim and Chris Knierim of the U.S. third at 190.49 and the Canadians followed at 189.66.

It was a fourth competition in seven weeks for Moore-Towers, of St. Catharines, Ont.,  and Marinaro, of Sarnia, Ont. They skated a clean program to a Pink Floyd medley but they touch downed with a hand on a couple of landings

“We were pretty solid in the first three competitions but we are a little disappointed in this performance,” said Moore-Towers. “There are some areas we did improve but now we have some time before nationals (in January) to come back a deliver a special performance.”

In men’s competition, Olympic silver medallist Shoma Uno of Japan won the gold with Sergei Voronov of Russia second and Matteo Rizzo of Italy third.

Kevin Reynolds of Coquitlam, B.C., moved from 12th to 11th with the 10th best free skate.

“There are some positives I can take from this week,” said Reynolds. “I was able to perform the programs artistically the way I was hoping but the jumps were not where they needed to be.”

In the short dance, Carolane Soucisse of Chateauguay, Que., and Shane Firus of North Vancouver are fifth at 66.01 just over three points from third spot. Tiffani Zagorski and Jonathan Guerrero of Russia are first at 75.49 ahead of two American couples.

“We went out there and did our job,” said Firus. “It was a good performance but a little disappointed with our placement right now.”

The free dance is on Sunday.

Full results: GPJPN 2018 NHK Trophy

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