Rostelecom Cup: Canada's Weaver, Poje win ice dance gold

Canadian ice dancers Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje continued their stellar season after claiming gold Saturday at the Rostelecom Cup in Moscow.

Weaver and Poje, who also took home the Skate Canada title more than two weeks ago, won both the short and free dance programs with a combined score of 173.58.

The Canadians held off the Italian team of Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte, who earned silver (171.61), while Russians Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katalapov finished third (167.40).

It was the fifth straight victory on the Grand Prix circuit for the Waterloo, Ont., duo. The win in Russia was only 0.21 points lower than the score Weaver and Poje posted at Skate Canada.

"We can feel very strong here about our competition in Moscow," said Weaver. "We had two clean performances.  Both can be better of course. The free was a little bit conservative but it is still early in the season and we are growing so much with this program."

Weaver said the program can look even more effortless.

"We could have been a little bit more free," she said. "Especially with the emotions and also with the speed.  But we got the job done, we did the important things, we'll build each time we are out."

Chartrand falls from podium position

After a spectacular ladies short program Friday, Canada's Alaine Chartrand was sitting in second place ahead of Saturday's skate. 

The Prescott, Ont. native could not maintain that momentum and settled for sixth with a combined score of 173.42 after the free skate.

Russia's Elena Radionova led the country's podium sweep. Evgenia Medvedeva and Adelina Sotnikova claimed silver and bronze, respectively. 

Fernandez rebounds to claim gold

Javier Fernandez of Spain won the men's gold at the Rostelecom Cup Grand Prix figure skating competition Saturday, powering back from a disappointing short program.

The reigning world champion wasn't able to do a quad in his short program on Friday, but opened his free skate with two of them, tacking a triple toeloop onto the second one. But his aim of doing three failed when he launched badly and fell after two rotations.

Russian Adian Pitkeev picked up silver, his first Grand Prix medal, despite a troubled free skate that placed him fifth in the segment. American Ross Miner was third.

Canada's Nam Nguyen held down seventh place after the free skate. 

"It was a good fight from yesterday," Nguyen said. "But I felt my energy level was really low so my performance suffered on that front."

Later in the pairs skate, Russia's Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov skated to the top of the podium. Russia also claimed another silver thanks to Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov, and Chinese pair Cheng Peng and Hao Zhang rounded out the medal finishes.

Canadians Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro took seventh, while Hayleigh Bell and Rudi Swiegers came in eighth place.