Kaori Sakamoto takes women’s lead, Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps win pairs short at Skate Canada

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (AP) — Three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto took the lead after she won the women’s short program at Skate Canada International Friday with a 74.97-point performance.

Japan’s Sakamoto, who’s Skate Canada’s defending champion, finished ahead of American Alysa Liu (67.68) and Switzerland’s Kimmy Repond (66.94). Her performance puts her in the lead and in a position to repeat.

Canada’s Madeline Schizas finished fifth with a 65.28, and teammates Kaiya Ruiter and Sara-Maude Dupuis placed seventh and ninth.

Reigning pairs world champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps placed first in the pairs short program.

“Going out there, being in front of our home crowd, for the first time since Worlds — that was great,” Deschamps said. “We did a lot of stuff that we improved since the last competition, and we’re happy with that.”

“I actually noticed the difference in volume from our announcement versus everybody else’s,” Stellato-Dudek added. “It was that noticeable. But yeah, I mean, I felt stressed, and just wanted to do well.”

A minor stumble on their throw triple loop prevented them from reaching their goal of “high 70s,” but they still took a significant lead going into the free program.

The Canadians scored a 73.23 to kick off their second competition of the season while skating to a remix of Beyoncé’s “Crazy In Love” at Scotiabank Centre.

Germany’s Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel finished second with an 64.82, just above Anastasia Golubeva and Hektor Giotopoulos Moore’s 64.81 for Australia.

Canadians Kelly Ann Laurin and Loucas Ethier ranked last in the eight-team competition (52.16).

The rhythm dance and men’s short take place Saturday afternoon, followed by the pairs and women’s free programs in the evening. The competition wraps up Sunday afternoon with the men’s free program and the free dance.

The Grand Prix, the top series in figure skating, consists of six events and a final. Skate Canada is the second of the event this year after the circuit kicked off at Skate America last week.

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The Associated Press