Canada’s Kelly Ann Laurin and Loucas Éthier secured a fifth-place finish in pairs figure skating at the Four Continents Championships held in Beijing, China. Hailing from St-Jerome and St-Alphonse-de-Granby in Quebec, Laurin and Éthier achieved a personal best score of 122.59 in the free program, accumulating a total of 188.27 points.
Expressing their satisfaction with the score, Éthier acknowledged the effort put into their performance, emphasizing that despite some errors, they attained a commendable score. The duo’s performance was captured in a video highlighting their top-5 finish at the championship.
In a competitive field, Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov from the United States clinched the top spot, surpassing the reigning Olympic champions from China. Meanwhile, Yuna Nagaoka and Sumitada Moriguchi of Japan claimed the third position.
Ava Kemp and Yohnatan Elizarov, previous Canadian Junior Grand Prix Final medalists from Winnipeg, achieved an eighth-place finish with a score of 159.20 in their Four Continents debut. In the men’s competition, Roman Sadovsky, the 2026 national silver medalist from Vaughan, Ont., secured the ninth spot after scoring 79.96 in the short program.
Reflecting on his performance, Sadovsky expressed contentment with his overall display, citing the positive crowd response and his enjoyment of the moment. The competition also saw Wesley Chiu from Richmond, B.C., making a comeback after a previous season’s injury, landing in 15th place with a score of 73.61, followed by Aleksa Rakic from Burnaby, B.C., in 16th place with 68.83 points.
Japanese skaters dominated the men’s short program, led by former world junior champion Kao Miura, who is set to compete in the upcoming Milan Cortina Olympics. Kazuki Tomono and Sota Yamamoto secured the second and third positions, respectively. The men’s competition will conclude with the free skate event scheduled for Sunday.