Lajoie and Lagha lead Canada to 1-2 finish at Bavarian Open

OBERTSDORF, Germany – Marjorie Lajoie of Boucherville, Que., and Zachary Lagha of St-Hubert, Que., led Canada to a 1-2 finish in junior ice dancing Saturday at the Bavarian Open figure skating competition.

Lajoie and Lagha, tuning up for next month’s world juniors, posted a decisive win with 169.34 points.  Alicia Fabbri of Terrebonne, Que., and Paul Ayer of Calgary followed for silver at 144.64. There were 22 entries.

“This is really a test run for the world juniors when you include the travel and time management,” said Lagha. “It’s a great learning experience for us and we reached our objectives for this event. Now we need to go back home for the next three weeks and keep polishing the program.”

Fabbri and Ayer are also headed to the juniors worlds March 4-10 in Zagreb.

“We’ve gained some confidence here with another international event under our belts,” said Ayer. “We were able to put down a solid program and stay together through the whole thing.”

In senior competition, Aurora Cotop of Thornhill, Ont., is third after the women’s short program and Conrad Orzel of Toronto is fourth after the men’s short program but he is less than five points from the lead.

Their free skates are on Sunday.

Canada added five medals in novice competition:

• Canada was 1-2 today in Novice I ice dance with Sophia Kaglovskaya and Kieran MacDonald of Wellesley, Ont., winning gold and Kiera Kam of Burnaby, B.C., and Mathew Carter of Langley, B.C., the silver.
• In the men’s event Wesley Chiu of Richmond, B.C., won gold in advanced Novice I.
• In the women’s event Kaiya Ruiter of Calgary won the bronze in advance Novice I while in advanced Novice II Mélaurie Boivin of Alma, Que., took silver, Doriela Lugo-Mayrand of Rouyn-Noranda, Que., was fourth and Melody Zhu of Vancouver sixth.

Full results: http://www.deu-event.de/results/BO2019/index.htm