Gilles, Poirier struggle at Grand Prix final after fall in rhythm dance
Canadian teammates Lajoie, Lagha 4th; Malinin of U.S. builds big lead in men's event
Canadian ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier have an uphill climb at the ISU Grand Prix Final in Grenoble, France.
Toronto's Gilles and Poirier, from Unionville, Ont., finished last out of six teams in Friday's rhythm dance after an uncharacteristic fall when Poirier caught his foot on the boards.
"You never want to come out and make large errors so that's disappointing for us, but we have to focus on the job for tomorrow and I think when we get home, focus on the positives of this event — there were some improvements that were made in the program," Poirier said.
"When we get home, we'll look at how we're training and making sure that we're prepared to not make mistakes in competition when we go into the second half of the season."
Gilles and Poirier, Grand Prix Final champions in 2022 and bronze medallists in 2023, settled for a score of 72.15 points.
The duo came into the competition ranked third in the Grand Prix standings after capturing their fifth-straight Skate Canada International title and a silver medal at the Finlandia Trophy.
WATCH | Ice dancers Gilles, Poirier 6th after latter falls:
Marjorie Lajoie of Boucherville, Que., and Zachary Lagha of Saint-Hubert, Que., were the top Canadian team heading into Saturday's free dance after finishing fourth in the rhythm dance with 77.73 points.
"We're very happy, it was really good," Lagha said. "We just had fun. We would much rather do our best performance and then score whatever, than feel like we didn't do our best and get an amazing score."
Reigning world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States were first, followed by Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy and Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson of Britain.
WATCH | Lajoie and Lagha 4th entering free dance Saturday:
World champion Ilia Malinin took a big stride toward retaining his figure skating Grand Prix Final title after building an imposing 12-point lead in the short program on Friday.
The 20-year-old American skater landed a quadruple flip, triple axel and quad lutz-triple toeloop combination in a near-flawless program to score 105.43 points for the lead, narrowly missing his personal best.
Olympic silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama of Japan was a distant second on 93.49 ahead of Saturday's free skate after falling on his opening quad lutz, skating to "The Sound of Silence."
Kazakhstan's Mikhail Shaidorov was in the competition only because France's Adam Siao Him Fa withdrew with an ankle injury. He made the most of it, landing two quads on his way to 91.26 for third to the "Dune" soundtrack.
Skating in his hometown, France's Kevin Aymoz had a nightmarish start with falls on his first two jumps and placed last at 68.82.
WATCH | Malinin builds 12-point lead with near-flawles short program:
Also, Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin retained their Grand Prix Final title in the pairs event. The Germans had an early setback when Hase put her hand down on landing a jump combination but recovered to finish clear of the field on a 218.10 total.
Japan's Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara held on for second on 206.71 against a strong challenge from Georgia's Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava, who were third with 205.78.
"This time was for sure much harder than last year," Hase said. "Last year we didn't come with any expectation, and this year as defending champion it's for sure more pressure, so we just are so happy that we made it."
They're the first pair to repeat as Grand Prix Final champion since 2012 by fellow Germans Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy.
WATCH | Hase, Volodin retains Grand Prix Final title:
With files from The Associated Press
