Angers, FROM (November 2, 2024) – The ISU Grand Prix continued this weekend in Angers, France at the Grand Prix de France and saw Canadian pair skaters Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud, and ice dancers Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac both post top-10 finishes against top international talent.
Pereira of Milton, Ont., and Michaud of Brantford, Ont., came into the competition as the reigning pair champions from this competition last season and posted a new season’s best score in their short program on Friday to sit in third place heading into the free skate on Saturday. Unfortunately, a series of errors, including falls on both of their throws, left them in fifth place overall with a total score of 170.67.
“I don’t know what went wrong,” said Pereira following their free skate performance. “Usually, you can say I felt nervous, or I felt this, but I felt like I usually do. We’ve both worked with mental performance coaches and I think it’s been a really great addition to our team, so I think it was just mistakes in the moment.”
Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany, the reigning Grand Prix Final champions, won gold with a total score of 211.69. Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii of Italy took silver (203.39), while Rebecca Ghilardi and Filippo Ambrosini, also of Italy, took bronze (176.62).
The ice dance competition saw Lauriault of St-Anne-des-Plains, Que., and Le Gac of Laval, Que., finish seventh overall with a season’s best total score of 175.85. They also set a new season’s best score of 72.54 for their rhythm dance on Friday.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t reached our goals yet, but we know we’re going to keep working, and it’s still the beginning of the season,” said Le Gac who also finished seventh at Skate America two weeks ago with Lauriault in their season debut. “We’re proud of our week. We learned a lot at the last two Grand Prix and we’re going to keep working for our next event.”
Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud of France, who took home bronze from Skate Canada International last weekend, climbed to the top step of the podium this weekend, winning gold with a total score of 195.27. Last year’s champions, Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy, settled for silver (189.08), while Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville of the USA took bronze (185.88).
The ISU Grand Prix circuit continues at the NHK Trophy taking place in Tokyo, Japan from November 8-10, 2024 where Stephen Gogolev will be Canada’s lone competitor in the men’s competition.
For full results please click here.
