Canadian pairs duo Stellato-Dudek, Deschamps 3rd after short program at Grand Prix Final
Shoma Uno leads men's competition after scoring world-leading 99.99 points
Canada's Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps are in podium position at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final after finishing third in the pairs short program with 69.34 points on Thursday in Torino, Italy.
''Our goal tomorrow is just to go in and have it feel like it did in practice. We want all the work that we've put in to show and we especially want to have fun," Stellato-Dudek said.
The 39-year-old Stellato-Dudek set the record for oldest Grand Prix winner at the Grand Prix de France in November.
World champions Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier did nothing to harm their chances of becoming the first American pairs team to win the prestigious Grand Prix Final, delivering their best program of the season to earn 77.65 points on Thursday.
Miura and Kihara, the winners of Skate Canada and the NHK Trophy, landed their side-by-side triple toe loop and a big throw triple lutz to earn 78.08 points, nearly eclipsing their own season best.
The Canadians were followed by the two Italian teams of Sara Conti and Niccolo Macci, and Rebecca Ghilardi and Filippo Ambrosini, as well as the second American team of Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe.
WATCH | Canada's Stellato-Dudek, Deschamps in podium position after short program:
In the men's event, world champion Shoma Uno led a Japanese sweep of the first three spots following his short program, scoring a world-leading 99.99 points to "Gravity" by John Mayer. Sota Yamamoto and Kao Miura were close behind, while American phenom Ilia Malinin was in fifth after a series of shaky jumps.
Uno, who has two silver and two bronze medals from the Grand Prix Final, did what he could to position himself for gold. He landed his opening quad flip, a quad flip-triple toe loop and triple axel in his best short program this season.
Yamamoto was more than five points behind with 94.86 for his short program. Miura scored 87.07 points, while Daniel Grassl (80.40) performed well for his home crowd.
Malinin faltered through his program to leave him playing catch up, though his big-air quads — and the quad axel that only he has landed in competition — keep his podium chances alive.
Watch live coverage of the Grand Prix Final on CBCSports.ca, CBC Gem and the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android. Action continues on Friday with the junior ice dance rhythm dance at 9 a.m. ET.
The Grand Prix Final features the top six skaters or teams from the Grand Prix circuit.
WATCH | Uno leads after men's short program at Grand Prix Final:
With files from CBC Sports and The Canadian Press
