Meryl Davis and Charlie White Win Gold at Skate Canada International

This was the 35th edition of Skate Canada International.

Ice Dancing, Free Dance

The competition at Skate Canada concluded with the Free Dance. It was an exciting competition with a few surprises. Meryl Davis/Charlie White (USA) danced to victory and claimed their first gold medal on the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating. Vanessa Crone/Paul Poirier of Canada captured the silver medal in their first senior Grand Prix event while France's Nathalie Pechalat/Fabian Bourzat settled for the bronze.

Davis/White gave a powerful and dramatic performance to "Samson and Delilah" by Camille Saint-Saens, telling the story of seduction and betrayal. They completed a difficult dance spin (level four), a curve rotational lift with several changes of position and fast, well synchronized twizzles. The 2008 Four Continents silver medalists earned a level three for both the circular and the midline step sequence, but the last rotational lift got only a level one. Davis/White received 88.24 points (45.00/44.24) for their Free Dance and accumulated a total of 178.89 points.

"We've always enjoyed skating in front of a Canadian audience.We are both very excited to start the season. We've worked very hard this summer on both our programs", Davis told the press.

"Our coach Marina (Zueva) is very excited to put out this program. She told us a few months ago how special this music is to her. I think that performing here in our first competition this season we both are really excited to just get our material out there", she continued.

"We felt like we did a good program out there today. We were happy with the way it was received. We are looking forward to building on a success year", White said. "It (the first Grand Prix title) means a lot. It's nice to see all the hard work we put in pay off. Going in each competition generally we don't focus on placement too much. We just set standards for ourselves in terms of how we want to skate. Obviously getting first place is wonderful."

Crone/Poirier, who stood in fifth place following the Original Dance skated to "Doce de Coco", and their theme was "A Perfect Day". The day turned out to be perfect for the 2008 World Junior silver medalists indeed as they produced a technically demanding and flowing dance. The stationary lift with him spinning while holding her as well as the other lifts and the twizzles and the spin were graded a level four by the Technical Panel. The circular step sequence got a level three and the diagonal steps were a level two. Crone/Poirier earned 81.89 points (44.40/37.49) and moved up to second with 162.13 points overall.

"I think the silver medal is definitely an incredible feat for the first senior GP that we've ever done. Skating in front of a home crowd helped us a lot, it def brought the energy level up and helped us to bring the program to life", Poirier said.

"We are just glad that we got good performances out and this is our first Grand Prix and we are very proud of what we did. The crowd was amazing and made us proud to present Canada", Crone added.

Pechalat/Bourzat portrayed two clowns in an entertaining circus program that contained two level three footwork sequences and a level four dance spin. However, two errors marred the program. Bourzat slipped after the exit of the serpentine lift and fell and the following straight line lift didn't receive credit as he didn't hold her for the required minimum of three seconds.

"This was not a successful competition for us and I'm happy that it is over now. I can't wait for our second Grand Prix and to make up for it and to do better, because what we did here is not on our level. We are very disappointed with our performance", Pechalat commented.

"We don't really know what happened. We came here and were well prepared. This is totally different from what we used to do. I think it just happens sometimes that we go through a competition without thinking, go out on the ice without our brains", Bourzat said.

Kristina Gorshkova/Vitali Butikov (RUS) finished fourth at 157.83 points in their debut at the senior Grand Prix. They delivered a solid performance to "The Godfather" soundtrack. Kimberly Navarro/Brent Bommentre (USA) who stood in third place after the Original Dance, dropped to fifth. They made no error in their dynamic program to a medley of songs by Fatboy Slim, but got only a level two for their footwork, twizzles and the dance spin (157.54 points). 2007 World Junior Champions Ekaterina Bobrova/Dmitri Soloviev came in sixth (151.62 points).

Davis/White collected 15 points and will compete again at the Cup of Russia in Moscow. Crone/Poirier got 13 points and are scheduled to compete at the Trophee Bompard in Paris in two weeks. Pechalat/Bourzat picked up 11 points and their next competition is the NHK Trophy in Japan in four weeks.

For full results, please refer to www.isu.org. The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating continues next week in Beijing with the Cup of China.

For further information please contact:

ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating & Final
Devra Pitt-Getaz, ISU Media Coordinator
+41 21 612 66 66
email: pitt@isu.ch

Skate Canada International
Barb MacDonald, Press Officer
 +1 613 595 1430 (press room)
 email: bmacdonald@skatecanada.ca