Canada claims pair of gold medals at junior figure skating Grand Prix

OSTRAVA, Czech Republic – Canadians swept the gold medals in pairs and ice dancing at an ISU junior Grand Prix figure skating event Friday.

Mackenzie Bent of Uxbridge, Ont., and Garrett MacKeen of Oshawa, Ont., won the ice dance for their second junior Grand Prix victory.

”We delivered what we’d been doing in training and that’s very pleasing,” Bent said. ”It wasn’t a perfect skate but we headed into this competition confident with both programs.”

Julianne Seguin of Longueuil, Que., and Charlie Bilodeau of Trois-Pistoles, Que., won the pairs, delivering a near-flawless performance to music by Peter Gabriel.

“We worked really hard for this so we are not totally surprised,” Seguin said. “We knew we had improved a lot from last season.”

The pair joined forces last season and produced two top-five finishes on the ISU junior Grand Prix circuit.

Canada has another medal shot in men’s singles, as Roman Sadovsky of Vaughan, Ont., leads going into Saturday’s long program.