Ice dance: Chock/Bates capture third Four Continents title with career-best scores
The Americans added to their triumphs in 2019 and 2020 in Colorado Springs with Montreal training mates Laurence Fournier-Beaudry and Nikolaj Sørensen taking silver.
Figure Skating
Madison Chock and Evan Bates saved the best for last.
The duo, skating the final competitive program of the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Colorado Springs, Colorado, set career-best scores in both the free dance and overall to capture their third victory at the event.
They looked on with shocked expressions on Sunday (12 February) as their 133.14 for the free flashed up, giving them a winning total of 220.81 which saw them add to their titles from 2019 and 2020.
The veteran duo held off Montreal-based training mates Laurence Fournier-Beaudry and Nikolaj Sørensen, who had skated to their own record scores just prior to Chock/Bates.
The Canadians settled for silver with a 214.08 (127.80).
Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha, also of Canada, claimed bronze with a 200.00.
American teams Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko (189.78) and Caroline Green and Michael Parsons (186.88), finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
Chock/Bates, who won bronze at Worlds last year, will likely clash next month with another Canadian duo in Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier at the World Championships in Saitama, Japan.
Gilles/Poirier, who beat them at the Grand Prix Final, have missed the last several weeks after Gilles had an appendectomy.
"We put in a lot of work in December after the Grand Prix Final," said Bates. "We knew there was going to be less oxygen in the building [in Colorado] and worked really hard to be ready for it."