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GPFS USA Madison Hubbell Zachary Donohue USA Charlene Guignard Marco Fabbri ITA Tiffani Zagorski Jonathan Guerreiro RUS 1052715678

Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri (ITA) Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue (USA) and Tiffani Zagorski/Jonathan Guerreiro (RUS) 2018©International Skating Union (ISU)

The Ice Dance event produced several firsts: Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue (USA) danced to the first Grand Prix gold medal of their career while silver medalists Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri of Italy and bronze medalists Tiffani Zagorski/Jonathan Guerreiro of Russia made the podium at a Grand Prix event for the first time.

Maddison Hubbell Zachary Donohue (USA) 2018 ©International Skating Union (ISU)

Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue (USA) 2018©International Skating Union (ISU)

Performing to “Romeo and Juliet”, Hubbell/Donohue put out a strong dance that was highlighted by smooth footwork, difficult lifts and interesting choreographic elements. The World silver medalists collected a level four for their lifts, the spin and the twizzles. The U.S. Champions scored 122.39 points for their Free Dance and totaled 200.82 points. “Zach and I put in a lot of work since our first competition in Salt Lake to really dive into the emotions of Romeo and Juliet and to put more skating quality, more power into the program. I think we were able to show those changes well, but we’re also looking forward to more and more improvement and hopefully have a cleaner skate next week in Skate Canada,” Hubbell said.

GPFS USA Charlene Guignard Marco Fabbri ITA 2018 CREDIT Guetty Images 1052705480

Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri (ITA) 2018©Lindsey Wasson/Getty Images

Guignard/Fabbri danced to the “La La Land” soundtrack and produced five level-four elements to earn 117.29 points. Overall, they accumulated 192.30 points. “We felt a lot better than last night. Even though the legs were more tired, but we probably were a bit more focused,” Fabbri said. “It (the first Grand Prix medal) is a great reward for us. We started from zero when Charlene and I started skating together. I had just started ice dance and she didn’t have international experience. We are proud of what we have achieved.”

GPFS USA Tiffani Zagorski Jonathan Guerreiro RUS 2018 CREDIT ISU 1052705882

Tiffani Zagorski/Jonathan Guerreiro (RUS) 2018©International Skating Union (ISU)

Zagorski/Guerreiro’s dance to “Blues for Klook” featured level-four lifts and twizzles and a level-four spin. However, the team from Moscow lost two points for extended lifts. They ranked fourth in the Free Dance on 108.08 points, but overall held on to third place with 181.38 points. “We didn’t know what was going to happen in the free dance today. We haven’t had this many free dance run-throughs under our belts, so we just kind of prayed and hoped for the best. Overall, it’s a good start,” Guerreiro said.

2016 World Junior Champions Lorraine McNamara/Quinn Carpenter (USA) were third in the Free Dance, but remained fourth overall on 180.57 points. Lilah Fear/Lewis Gibson (GBR) placed fifth (170.70 points).