Canadians earn bronze in pairs and ice dance at Skate America

MILWAUKEE – Pairs skaters Julianne Seguin and Charlie Bilodeau and ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier won bronze medals on Saturday at Skate America.

Seguin, of Longueuil, Que., and Bilodeau, of Trois-Pistoles, Que., were the only entry to skate clean in the final flight and produced a personal best 189.49 points. It was their first international medal at the senior level. Last winter they took silver at the world juniors.

“We didn’t expect to win a medal so early in our senior careers,” said the 22-year-old Bilodeau.

Their program was highlighted by remarkable lifts.

“We’ve put a lot of focus on improving our lifts,” said the 18-year-old Seguin. “We’ve worked at making them more challenging and original as well.”

China’s Wenjing Sui and Cong Han took the gold at 202.00 and Alexa Scimeca and Chris Knierim of the U.S. were second at 191.91.

Gilles and Poirier, both of Toronto, recorded their second international medal this month with a score of 157.58. Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates won the gold at 173.22 and Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov of Russia were second at 162.21.

“Our goal this year is to make the Grand Prix Final so that result will make it more difficult for us,” said Gilles. “Still we were very happy with the performance and we felt it was a step-up from Slovakia.”

Three weeks ago, Gilles and Poirier won gold at an international event in Bratislava.

In women’s competition, world junior champion Evgenia Medvedeva of Russia won the gold medal with Gracie Gold of the U.S. second and Satoko Miyahara of Japan third. Alaine Chartrand of Prescott, Ont., was 12th.

The competition is the first stop on the ISU Grand Prix figure skating circuit. The next stop on the circuit is Skate Canada International starting on Oct. 30 in Lethbridge, Alta.