Chock and Bates lead at Four Continents figure skating

Chock and Bates, fresh off their fourth national championship, scored 87.67 points to their program set to “Let’s Dance” by David Bowie. That was enough to edge Canadian national champs Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Soerensen, who scored 86.28 points, and Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha, who scored 79.04 points.

The pairs competition also began Friday at Broadmoor World Arena in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where world silver medalists Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan led with 71.19 points after their short program. Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps of Canada were second and Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe of the U.S. were third.

The competition continued Friday night with the first medals awarded in the women’s competition.

Chock and Bates set a goal this season of finally winning an elusive world championship, and Four Continents — which brings together the top skaters from non-European countries — is an ideal final tune-up for next month in Japan.

The pair showed their usual poise and precision on Friday night for their best international score this season.

“We did a lot of the prep work for this competition before we left for nationals. We were prepared and we let our training carry us into this week,” said Chock, who along with Bates won Four Continents in 2019 and 2020. “Our season’s best is an amazing feeling going into world championships. It feels so good to be skating the way we are training.”

Beaudry and Soerensen, performing to music from Gloria Estefan, also scored an international season’s best, topping their rhythm dance from the NHK Trophy that set them up for the Grand Prix win that weekend.

“We’ve really been focusing on changing our approach by having a little bit more fun and trying to combat some of the stress that’s inevitable in competition,” Soerensen said. “Inspire the people who watch skating and make them enjoy it.”

Miura and Kihara, unbeaten in international competition this season, established their lead in the pairs event despite her fall on their side-by-side triple toe loop, thanks in part to a nice throw triple lutz to finish the program.

“I was nervous and therefore I made the mistake,” Miura said. “We were able to score higher than 70 points. That shows what we’ve been accumulating in the past and I think it’s proof of how we’ve grown.”

Nobody was perfect in pairs: Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps had a mistake on their throw triple loop, and Chan and Howe were shaky on their throw before he fell on their side-by-side triple toe loop.

“Every time we come out to these competitions, we don’t have a lot of expectations for medals. When we are awarded with those, it’s a bonus for us,” Howe said. “Really we’re out here to just better ourselves.”