Gilles and Poirier win silver, book ticket to Grand Prix Final
Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier are off to the Grand Prix Final after earning their second silver medal of the season, this time at the Trophée Éric Bompard in Bordeaux, France.
The ice dancers had previously finished second at Skate Canada International in a one-two final for Canadians behind Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje in Kelowna, British Columbia earlier this month.
Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France took the gold in front of a home crowd with a score of 166.66. Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue of the United States took the bronze medal scoring 152.11. Gilles-Poirier’s 157.58 allowed them one step up from the Americans in the podium.
Gilles and Poirier during the short program in Bordeaux on Saturday.
In Friday’s short program Gilles and Poirier scored 61.90, just shy of their personal best of 62.38 according to Skate Canada. Papadakis and Cizeron had the lead with 64.06 and couldn’t be reeled in at Saturday’s free skate.
Sochi 2014 competitors for Canada Alexandra Paul and Mitch Islam came in sixth place with 138.99.
Other Canadians competing at Trophée Éric Bompard were Veronik Mallet in the ladies competiton where she finished in 10th place.
In pairs, Olympian Kirsten Moore-Towers and new partner Michael Marinaro were seventh. This is the first season of competition for Moore-Towers and Marinaro as a pair.
The Grand Prix Final – which skaters qualify for by winning points in the season’s six Grand Prix competitions – will take place in Barcelona, Spain from December 11-14. After which the season will continue with other national and international events.
Gilles and Poirier are the only Canadians to qualify for Barcelona to date. Weaver and Poje will have a chance to book their ticket in ice dance next week in Japan, as will Skate Canada International pairs gold medal-winning team of Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford.
