Finlandia Trophy 2024: Stellato-Dudek/Deschamps fight past schedule issues to claim pairs win
The world champions were happy with their reworked free skate in Helsinki, which earned them their second Grand Prix victory of the season despite a number of errors.
Figure Skating
World champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps had to overcome a short turnaround between practice and competition but powered through with a reworked free skate to win the pairs figure skating competition at the 2024 Finlandia Trophy Grand Prix on Sunday (17 November).
They were hampered in Helsinki on Sunday – as many other teams were – by having only three hours between the end of morning practice and the start of competition, popping a planned triple Salchow to a double, Stellato-Dudek spinning out of the throw triple Lutz, and also falling unexpectedly while not in an element.
The duo obtained 131.55 points in the free skate for a total of 207.44.
"The schedule was really difficult," Stellato-Dudek said afterwards. "There's no time to come down and you have to build yourself back up again. The Lutz was a little surprising, I haven't missed any throw Lutzes in weeks so I need to see the video.
"But the [Salchow], we knew going into it we were off-pattern already." Stellato-Dudek also appeared to have hurt her wrist on the fluke fall, although she later said: "The fall was so weird I just janked it, but I'll be fine."
The Canadians revealed on Saturday that they had changed up the order of elements in their free skate since their last event at the Skate Canada International in October and, aside from the mistakes, the duo expressed happiness with their reworked routine, set to music by renowned composer Hans Zimmer.
"We made some changes and obviously it was better than Halifax, than Skate Canada. I think it's a good change and I'm happy with it. We'll keep it," Stellato-Dudek said. But the work doesn't end there – the duo, who have now qualified for December's Grand Prix Final by winning their second Grand Prix of the season, will continue to adjust it.
Stellato-Dudek said: "There's always more to be done. If you're staying still, you're not improving, you're not evolving. It's good to add things and constantly be fresh and challenge yourself.
"It's going to continue to evolve and change."
"All the way until Worlds," Deschamps added. "We have the Grand Prix Final coming, so we'll just try to keep improving. After that we'll have a longer period to be able to work on some more stuff and that's when we'll try to improve for the second half [of the season] to the Championships."
Maria Pavlova/Alexei Sviatchenko of Hungary finished second (184.21) for their third career Grand Prix medal, leapfrogging a distraught Rebecca Ghilardi/Filippo Ambrosini (181.59) who had a disastrous free skate which left the Italians with bronze.
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Finlandia Trophy 2024 pairs final results
- Deanna Stellato-Dudek / Maxime Deschamps (CAN) 207.44
- Maria Pavlova / Alexei Sviatchenko (HUN) 184.21
- Rebecca Ghilardi / Filippo Ambrosini (ITA) 181.59
- Kelly Ann Laurin / Loucas Ethier (CAN) 178.57
- Emily Chan / Spencer Akira Howe (USA) 174.40
- Nagaoka Yuna / Moriguchi Sumitada (JPN) 171.80
- Milania Vaananen / Filippo Clerici (FIN) 160.73
- Naomi Williams / Lachlan Lewer (USA) 153.34
Fear/Gibson produce Halo to land second win
Meanwhile, British pair Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson clinched victory in the ice dance competition for their second win of the season, with the rhythm dance leaders Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier struggling in the free dance.
Skating to Beyoncé's Halo, Fear and Gibson enthralled the crowd at the Helsinki Ice Hall with a strong routine, although Gibson was assigned only level one technical grades on both his serpentine step sequence and one foot turns sequence. The British duo also lost a point for an extended lift, but obtained 121.19 points in the free dance for a total of 203.22.
That was enough to earn them the win as Gilles and Poirier had issues on their twizzles and also suffered a fluke fall, posting a score some 12 points off their season best and totalling 200.79 points.
Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis won bronze on 196.60, the only Finnish athletes to reach the podium this weekend.
Finlandia Trophy ice dance final results
- Lilah Fear/Lewis Gibson (GBR) 203.22
- Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier (CAN) 200.79
- Juulia Turkkila/Matthias Versluis (FIN) 196.60
- Natalie Taschlerova/Filip Taschler (CZE) 190.43
- Emilea Zingas/Vadym Kolesnik (USA) 189.48
- Orihara Yuka/Juho Pirinen (FIN) 183.64
- Eva Pate/Logan Bye (USA) 180.35
- Oona Brown/Gage Brown (USA) 176.57
- Hannah Lim/Quan Ye (KOR) 175.36
- Mariia Pinchuk/Mykyta Pogorielov (UKR) 134.34