Figure Skating – COURCHEVEL, France – Aleksa Rakic of Burnaby, B.C., won the silver medal on Saturday in men’s competition to conclude the opening stop on the ISU Junior Grand Prix figure skating circuit.
Yuma Kagiyama of Japan took the gold with 234.87 points. Rakic, ranked third in both his short and long programs, to snare the silver with a personal best 200.71. Andrei Kutovoi of Russia was third at 198.06.
It was a first career medal for Rakic, the Canadian junior champion, on the circuit in three appearances. He skated a clean long program to music by Rachmaninoff. His landed jumps included three in combination, two double Axels and a triple Lutz.
‘’I feel great and I’m happy with how I skated,’’ said Rakic, 14. ‘’My goals were to do what I do in training and skate with more speed and flow. I didn’t worry about results because I knew there were other guys who had the triple Axel.’’
Iliya Kovler of Richmond Hill, Ont., remained 10th.
In ice dancing, Canada came agonizingly close to another medal finish. Emmy Bronsard and Aissa Bouaraguia of Montreal were fourth with a personal best 151.36 points, a mere 0.19 points from the bronze. They were fifth after the rhythm dance.
Elizaveta Shanaeva and Devid Naryzhnyy of Russia won the gold with 163.90, Loicia Demougeot and Theo le Mercier of France were second at 161.01 and Ekaterina Katashinskaia and Aleksandr Vaskovich of Russia third at 151.65.
Olivia McIsaac of Burlington, Ont., and Corey Circelli of Toronto moved from 10th to ninth.
The next stop on the circuit is this Thursday to Saturday in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Full results: ISU JGP Grand Prix de Courchevel 2019