Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac won a 7e place on Sunday in ice dancing at the conclusion of the first ISU Grand Prix of the season in Allen, Texas. The Quebec duo finished the free program with a score of 104.53 for a cumulative score of 174.91.
Posted at 8:01 p.m.
“It’s certain that we wanted to be on the podium. We had visualized it and we had really prepared for it so it’s really a low point not to have achieved this objective,” said Marie-Jade Lauriault in a disappointed but hopeful tone. the other end of the phone with Sportcom.
“It’s been 6 very intense weeks that we’ve been progressing slowly in training and we came here sure of what we were presenting and sure of our preparation. It’s definitely a bit of a disappointment,” she added.
Sixth at the end of the short program on Saturday, Lauriault and Le Gac took seventh place in the free program this Sunday.
“We didn’t deliver a performance that we’re used to. This clearly does not represent the way we trained before this event. An error occurred very early in the program and it surprised us a little. This meant that we were in a bit of catch-up mode for the rest of the program. We are proud to have been able to deliver part of the program, but we are disappointed not to have succeeded in showing what we are usually capable of doing,” admitted Romain Le Gac.
“Our coaches and the rest of our team told us that this performance does not define us. If we had to share something with younger people, this is what we would tell them. You are not defined by a performance or by a score, you are defined, among other things, by the person you are in training and by how you present yourself on the ice,” added his partner.
Despite a technical error which was costly from the start of their performance, the Quebec duo remains confident in their abilities for future competitions.
“We are going to discuss with our coaches to see if there are really things to change or if we just need to clarify certain steps. It is certain that with a week before the next competition, the goal is not to change everything and we [faisons] trust [aux] programmes. »
Provisionally first after the rhythm dance which took place on Saturday, the British duo formed by Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson narrowly managed to maintain their ranking by winning gold with a cumulative score of 206.38. Very close behind, it was the Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates who won silver (205.63) ahead of Olivia Smart and Tim Dieck (189.44).
The other Canadian duo in the running formed by Alicia Fabbri and Paul Ayer took 10e place in the long program this Sunday (94.21) for a cumulative score of 165.96 and a 10e place in the final ranking.
The next stop of the ISU Grand Prix season will be in France, in Angers, from 1is until November 3.
“The goal was the podium. We haven’t reached it, but we’re not going to change the target just yet. At the next Grand Prix, we are still aiming for the podium. Our preparation remains the same and so do our objectives,” concluded Le Gac.
