Duhamel, Radford look to continue their undefeated streak at Grand Prix Final

The Grand Prix Final holds special meaning for Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford.

It was their first victory among a world’s best field, a launching pad that helped propel them to their first world championship title three months later. It was also part a winning streak that remains intact to this day.

Canada’s top figure skating pairs team will be the favourite to win again at the Grand Prix Final this week in Barcelona.

“Winning the Grand Prix Final (last year), we didn’t have a very clear idea of placement when we went in,” Radford said on a recent conference call. “And then all of a sudden there we were and we were on top of the podium, and it was like ‘Wow, we really can be the best in the world.

“And that sort of realization I think started the ball rolling towards the world championships.”

Duhamel, from Lively, Ont., and Radford, from Balmertown, Ont., haven’t lost in more than a year. They clinched their spot in the Final with dominant victories at Skate Canada International and the NHK Trophy two weeks ago in Japan.

Duhamel called last year’s win at the Final an “aha moment.” She added they made a statement to the rest of the world with the performance, and it helped give them a champion’s mindset.

Julianne Seguin of Longueuil, Que., and Charlie Bilodeau of Trois-Pistoles, Que., are Canada’s second pairs entry in the Final.

Canadians Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje are favourites to repeat as ice dance champions, while Patrick Chan faces a tough test against Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan in men’s singles. Hanyu shattered the world record scores in both the short and long program, plus overall points in winning the NHK Trophy two weeks ago.

The 24-year-old Chan took a competitive break after winning silver at the Sochi Olympics. He returned this fall and defeated Hanyu at Skate Canada, but had a shaky short program at the Trophee Bompard in Bordeaux, France, finishing fifth.

The second day of competition was cancelled after the terrorist attacks in Paris.

“I’ll be honest … initially I was kind of relieved that I didn’t have to do a long program,” Chan admitted. “When you’re in those high stress moments, that’s a natural reaction, to just run away from it. I felt I got my runaway.”

Looking back, the three-time world champion from Toronto wishes he had had the chance to complete that competition.

“I trained so hard to perform this beautiful program,” he said. “I really didn’t get a chance to prove that there’s more to my skating than just the short program.”

Weaver and Poje, from Waterloo, Ont., won last year’s Grand Prix Final, then had to settle for third at the world championships — their one event last season and this season that they didn’t win.

“I think it was an amazing accomplishment for us, especially given the margin that we won by,” Weaver said of the Final. “It gave us a ton of confidence going into the rest of the year. But one thing we learned from last year is that that really doesn’t mean anything at worlds. And you still have to bring it every competition, and there’s nothing that means you’ll then be the champion at some other event.

“And so, we’ve learned that the hard way, and I think that we undoubtedly again want to repeat to be champions in Barcelona, but we understand we have to grow and push and push and push every event until the bitter end to become world champions.”

The short programs are scheduled for Friday. The long programs are set for Saturday.