The ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships 2017 continued in Gangneung, Korea, Friday with the Free Dance and the Men’s Short Program. The Four Continents Championships 2017 serve as a test event for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.
Virtue/Moir take Four Continents Ice Dance title for the third time
Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir of Canada danced off with the gold medal, taking home their third Four Continents title. USA’s Maia Shibutani/ Alex Shibutani earned the silver medal and their teammates Madison Chock/Evan Bates claimed the bronze.
Virtue/Moir delivered a strong Free Dance to “Pilgrims on a Long Journey” and “Latch”, collecting a level four for their lifts, the twizzles, the diagonal step sequence and the spin and a level three for the circular step sequence. The 2014 Olympic silver medalists set a new personal best with 117.20 points and accumulated 196.95 points overall. “What an honor for Tessa and I to be Four Continents Champions. It was obviously a goal of ours just to qualify for this event at the beginning of the year. It was such a great competition. Today was an interesting performance for us as we left a couple of points on the board, but it was really special for us to be in that venue. We really felt the energy and we’re really happy with certain parts of our performance. We’re going to be pretty excited, looking forward to the next five weeks for the World Championship which is in Helsinki, Finland”, Moir commented.
Shibutani/Shibutani’s dance named “Evolution” featured six level-four elements as well. The 2016 Four Continents Champions posted a new personal best with 115.26 points for the Free Dance and totaled 191.85 points to win their fourth medal at this event. “I’m so proud of how we handled this entire week. It was really thrilling competing in the Olympic venue and the two performances we did this week were a great preview to really test what it could be like a year from now”, Maia Shibutani noted. “It really feels like our programs are starting to come into their own. We’ve been doing a lot of great work this season and we’re just looking forward to continuing to train for Finland”, she added.
Dancing to “Under Pressure” by David Bowie and Freddy Mercury, Chock/Bates delivered a smooth performance as well and got a level four for five elements and a level three for the footwork to score 110.91 points. Overall the two-time World medalists earned 185.58 points. “We’re very pleased with the way that the second half of this season has gone thus far, and today was a continuation of that. It was another strong skate for us, and I think, just in general, we’re really happy with the direction our skating is headed. I think the World Championships will continue the momentum we’ve built”, Bates told the press.
Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue (USA) completed a strong showing for team USA by coming fourth at 180.82 points. Kaitlyn Weaver/Andrew Poje (CAN) remained in fifth place (180.09 points) followed by teammates Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier in sixth (170.14 points).
The ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships 2017 continue Friday with the Free Dance and the Men’s Short Program. For more information, full entry lists and results please see:
www.isu.org and the official event website https://www.hellopyeongchang.com/FigureSkating/en/sub/index Hashtag: #4ContsFigure