Canadian ice dancers Makita, Gunra finish fourth at ISU Junior Grand Prix

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This article was published 21/09/2019 (2230 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

GDANSK, Poland – Miku Makita and Tyler Gunara of Vancouver improved their score and equalled their result from their last appearance on the ISU Junior Grand Prix, placing fourth in ice dancing Saturday at the fifth stop on the circuit.

Avonley Nguyen and Vadym Kolesnik of the United States won the gold medal with 174.68 points, Loicia Demougeot and Theo le Mercier of France were second at 162.70 and Ekaterina Katashinskaia and Aleksandr Vaskovich of Russia were third at 162.19.

Makita and Gunara totalled 154.11, bettering the 149.63 they skated three weeks ago at the second stop in Lake Placid, where they also placed fourth.

“We needed to skate our best to get in the top-four again,” said Gunara. “It’s nice to see that only in our second international competition we improved.”

Jessica Li of Brossard, Que., and Jacob Richmond of Toronto were ninth.

In men’s competition, Joseph Phan of Laval, Que., finished fifth with 207.70 points. Daniil Samsonov of Russia won the gold with 250.51, Yuma Kagiyama of Japan was second at 245.35 and Daniel Grassl of Italy third at 228.64.

Corey Circelli of Toronto was 10th with a personal best 172.72 and four ranks higher than in his international debut in Riga.

The sixth stop on the circuit is next week in Zagreb, Croatia.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2019.