SAITAMA, Japan (March 23, 2023) – Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps of Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que., continued a strong season Thursday placing fourth in pairs at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships®.
Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan won the gold medal with 222.16, edging out defending champions Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier of the U.S. who won the free skate but finished second overall with 217.48. Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii of Italy were third at 208.08. Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps, in their second season together, remained fourth at 199.97, a personal best international score. The duo won four international medals this season including two gold as well as its first national title.
‘’It’s all learning,’’ said Deschamps. ‘’There were some nerves and it was our first time at Worlds as well. The whole season was the highlight for us.’’
First-year partners Lia Pereira of Milton, Ont., and Trennt Michaud of Trenton, Ont., produced the fourth best free skate but remained sixth overall with a personal best 193.00. Brooke McIntosh and Benjamin Mimar of Toronto, Ont., were 11th with 181.95. McIntosh and Mimar, world junior bronze medalists last year, also had personal bests right across the board.
In the men’s competition, Canada’s Keegan Messing is in the medal hunt after producing a clean skate and ranking fourth for his short program with a personal best international score 98.75. Defending champion Shoma Uno of Japan leads with 104.63, Ilia Malinin of the U.S. is second at 100.38 and Junhwan Cha of South Korea third at 99.64.
Messing, competing at his sixth worlds, has announced this is his final season.
‘’To pull out this performance on this stage is what I’ve been looking for all year,’’ said Messing, whose previous best at worlds is sixth in 2021. ‘’I was a little scared going in on how much I felt I did have this. I wasn’t feeling nervous, I was feeling free and everything was lining up. But I was able to reign myself in and keep myself at a constant level.’’
Conrad Orzel of Woodbridge, Ont., ranked 26th and will not advance to the free skate.
Competition continues Friday with the rhythm dance and the women’s free skate. The event is available for Canadian viewers on the CBC Sports website. For full results, click here.