Gilles, Poirier struggle at Grand Prix final after fall in rhythm dance

GRENOBLE — Canadian ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier have an uphill climb at the ISU Grand Prix Final.

Toronto's Gilles and Poirier, from Unionville, Ont., finished last out of six teams in Friday's rhythm dance after an uncharacteristic fall when Poirier caught his foot on the boards.

“You never want to come out and make large errors so that’s disappointing for us, but we have to focus on the job for tomorrow and I think when we get home, focus on the positives of this event – there were some improvements that were made in the program,” Poirier said.

“When we get home, we’ll look at how we’re training and making sure that we’re prepared to not make mistakes in competition when we go into the second half of the season.”

Gilles and Poirier, Grand Prix Final champions in 2022 and bronze medallists in 2023, settled for a score of 72.15 points.

The duo came into the competition ranked third in the Grand Prix standings after capturing their fifth-straight Skate Canada International title and a silver medal at the Finlandia Trophy.

Marjorie Lajoie of Boucherville, Que., and Zachary Lagha of Saint-Hubert, Que., were the top Canadian team heading into Saturday's free dance after finishing fourth in the rhythm dance with 77.73 points.

“We’re very happy, it was really good," Lagha said. "We just had fun. We would much rather do our best performance and then score whatever, than feel like we didn’t do our best and get an amazing score."

Reigning world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States were first, followed by Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy and Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson of Britain.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 6, 2024.

The Canadian Press