VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) – Nathan Chen recovered from a surprise battle last weekend at Skate America to lead Friday’s short program at Skate Canada.
The 22-year-old American, who finished third in Las Vegas last week after winning 14 straight tournaments since March 2018, scored 106.72 points to open the competition at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Center.
“Anytime you don’t do well in both training and competition, I want to be given another opportunity to try right away,” said Chen. “I don’t know if it will be successful or I want the next opportunity. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to try again instead of waiting three or four weeks. “
Chen, the three-time world champion who won the Grand Prix final in Vancouver in 2019, had a brilliant technical element value of 60.29.
American Jason Brown finished second at 9:00 p.m. and Canadian Keegan Messing came third at 9:28 p.m. in front of about 600 fans on the University of British Columbia ice rink.
“To have the crowd was amazing,” said Missing. “I almost forgot what it’s like to skate with a crowd. They pumped me up and got me going. I felt like my feet were floating on the ice tonight. “
During the night in the women’s short program, 15-year-old Kamila Valieva scored 84.19 points, leading a Russian battle for the first three places. Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, the 2015 world champion, finished second with 81.24 and Alena Kostornaia third with 75.58.
The Chinese Sui Wenjing and Han Cong led the pairs after the short program with 78.94. The Russians Daria Pavliuchenko and Denis Khodykin finished second with 69.46 minutes. The Americans Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc finished sixth with 61.68.
In ice dancing, Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier led the rhythm program with 85.65. They won the 2019 Kelowna event.
“It was a scramble for a couple of weeks to really nail everything down and make it as smooth as possible,” said Poirier. “We knew this was going to be our first appearance in front of a live audience in almost two years. What we really tried to do was manage our energy with the energy of the crowd behind us. “
The Italians Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri came second with 78.82, followed by the Spaniard Olivia Smart and Adrian Diaz with 76.97.
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