News: 2005-2006

Virtue and Moir skate into first-place after compulsory dance

(September 24, 2005)

Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir

Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir wowed the Montreal crowd with an outstanding compulsory dance on Friday evening at the ISU Junior Grand Prix event.

This is the second ISU Junior Grand Prix event for Virtue and Moir this season. They won a gold medal in Canillo, Andorra earlier this month.

The duo skated with intensity and passion and maintained good flow and unison throughout the dance. Their score of 33.30 points put them in the lead ahead of Russians Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev, who earned a total of 29.65 points.

There are two other Canadian teams skating in the ice dance event in Montreal. Mylene Lamoureux and Michael Mee currently stand in sixth-place with 24.97 points, while Alice Graham and Andrew Poje are eighth with 24.74 points.

In the Men's event, Patrick Chan, of Toronto, finished the short program in second-place. The 2005 Canadian Junior Men's Champion filled his program with strong spins and executed a stunning triple flip-triple toe loop combination. Although he popped his planned triple Lutz into a single, Chan finished his program with a strong double Axel, crisp footwork and a fast combination spin. He carried good energy throughout the program and achieved a good level of difficulty in many of his elements, and was awarded a total of 52.82 points.

Both making their debut on the ISU Junior Grand Prix circuit, Canada's Joey Russell and Jamie Forsythe currently stand in sixth and eighth-place, respectively. Russell earned a total of 43.36 points for his short program, which featured a strong triple Salchow-double toe loop combination and a double Axel. Forsythe carried himself with energy throughout his performance that was highlighted by a triple loop-double toe loop combination. Forsythe has 42.21 points heading into the free skate.

Michelle Cronin and Brian Shales currently stand fifth after the pair short program. They opened their program with an impressive split double twist and followed it up with a throw triple loop with a slightly two-footed landing. The duo also presented strong pair spins with good levels of difficulty. They experienced difficulty on the side-by-side double Lutzes when Cronin popped her jump. The duo has a total of 40.03 points going into the free skate.

Mylene Lamoureux / Michael Mee	Alice Graham / Andrew Poje	Michelle Cronin / Brian Shales
Patrick Chan	Joey Russell	Jamie Forsythe
	Photos: F. Scott Grant

The ISU Junior Grand Prix event continues in Montreal on Saturday with the Ladies short program, the original dance and pair free skate.

See complete results.