Shoma Uno and Evgenia Medvedeva shine in Skate Canada free skates

Classy performances from PyeongChang 2018 silver medallists Shoma Uno and Evgenia Medvedeva saw the former take top spot and the latter battle back from 7th to 3rd at Skate Canada 2018.

Japanese star Uno overcame a 6.18 point deficit after a disastrous short program on Friday allowed Canadian Keegan Messing to top the leaderboard.

Four quads in the free skate landed Uno on 277.25 points despite falling on his final two free skate jump passes.

Messing managed one quad and finished second overall, 12.08 behind Uno.

Next are Hanyu and Chen

Uno will have one eye on Helsinki next week (November 2-4) where his Japanese teammate and double Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu will make his Grand Prix season debut.

After Nathan Chen's spectacular Skate America win and with Uno shining at Skate Canada, it's Hanyu's turn to show he has the hunger and desire to match his two biggest rivals this season.

The three will not meet until December’s Grand Prix Final, should they qualify.

Elizaveta Tuktamysheva wins Skate Canada

Olympic silver medallist and two-time world champion Evgenia Medvedeva made a remarkable recovery: the worst program of her senior career on Friday was followed by the best free skate of the competition on Saturday.

It wasn’t flawless, however, nor was it enough to overtake fellow Russian Elizaveta Tuktamysheva.

A rare sweet moment to savour for the 21-year-old 2015 World champion, who fell into the shadow of Medvedeva's stellar rise in 2016 and 2017, when the latter won at every major tournament.

Tuktamysheva didn't even make the Russian team for the PyeongChang Olympics, but managed to hold off her compatriot's comeback charge in Quebec and take her first Grand Prix title since 2015.

Landing a first triple axel since 2015 in her short program was another milestone for Tuktamysheva but couldn't do it again in the free skate.

The winner amassed 203.32 points, finishing 5.41 points ahead of Medvedeva overall.

What now for Medvedeva?

A strong free skate couldn't fix the cracks in the ice for Medvedeva: this is her fourth straight defeat since her return from a broken bone in her foot in January.

“Been a long 24 hours, huh?” was coach Brian Orser's comment to his new scholar.

“Oh yeah,” Medvedeva answered.

After finishing second to former training partner Alina Zagitova in Korea, Medvedeva decided to split from their coach, Eteri Tutberidze, and moved from Moscow to Toronto under Orser.

Things haven't exactly gone to plan but Medvedeva showed a lot of character to make the podium in Quebec.

Zagitova will skate in Helsinki next week.

Pairs

With none of the Olympic medallists competing in pairs this season it's a chance for up-and-comers to show what they can do.

French pair Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres certainly took their opportunity by winning their first ever Grand Prix title.

The French duo skated to the highest score in the world this season — 221.81 — winning by a comfortable 20.73 margin.

Ice Dance

Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue won their second straight Grand Prix despite placing second in the free skate

They’re the first skaters in any discipline to qualify for the Grand Prix Final.