Chiba wins women’s title, Malinin leads at Skate Canada

Montreal (AFP) – Japan’s Mone Chiba captured the Skate Canada women’s title on Saturday while two-time reigning world champion Ilia Malinin led the men’s short program.

Chiba, a 20-year-old from Kyoto who was third at this year’s world championships, followed her victory in Friday’s short program by taking Saturday’s free skate at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, with judges awarding her 144.94 points. That gave Chiba a combined total of 217.23 points to defeat 18-year-old American Isabeau Levito, last year’s world runner-up, by 7.46 points. Japan’s 17-year-old Ami Nakai, the ISU Grand Prix winner at France two weeks ago, finished third on 203.09.

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Canada’s Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps, last year’s world champions, won the Skate Canada pairs title with 213.40 points after taking the free skate. Germany’s Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin, this year’s world pairs runners-up, were second overall on 207.18 after winning the short program but placing third in the free skate. Americans Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea were third on 199.11 after a runner-up free skate finish.

Malinin, a 20-year-old American, also won the past two ISU Grand Prix Final crowns, the past three US national titles, and captured the France title two weeks ago. Malinin, fancied for Olympic gold in Italy next February, was awarded 104.84 points by judges, with Japan’s Kazuki Tomono second on 92.07 and Estonia’s Aleksandr Selevko third on 91.28.

“I feel overall pretty good with my performance today,” Malinin told NBC Sports. “I would say that compared to Grand Prix France, this one was a lot better feeling, even though it seems like the scoring for the whole event was strict.”

Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, second at the past two world championships, topped the rhythm dance with 85.38 points, with Ukraine’s Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius second on 80.89 and Americans Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko third on 76.83. The men’s and ice dance titles will be decided with the free skate and free dance on Sunday.

© 2024 AFP