Canada takes two fourth-place finishes in figure skating at Youth Olympics

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Pairs skaters Brooke McIntosh of Toronto and Brandon Toste of Mississauga, Ont. and men’s entry Aleksa Rakic of Burnaby, B.C., both finished fourth in figure skating action Sunday at the Youth Olympic Winter Games.

McIntosh and Toste, Canada’s No. 2 junior team, climbed to fourth overall with a personal best 146.15 points in the pairs event. They were fifth after Friday’s short program.

“We’ve been training really hard leading into this moment,” said Toste, 17. “We definitely wanted to move up in the standings. We adjusted some elements to make our overall program better and despite a shaky warm-up were able to nail those elements.”

Apollinariia Panfilova and Dmitry Rylov led Russia to a 1-2 finish with 199.21 followed by Diana Mukhametzianova and Ilya Mironov at 175.42. Alina Butaeva and Luka Berulava of Georgia were third at 157.29.

In men’s competition, Yuma Kagiyama of Japan took the gold with 239.17, Andrei Mozalev of Russia was second at 237.94 and his compatriot Daniil Samsonov third at 215.21.

Rakic remained in fourth spot with a personal best 205.23.

“I feel great with how I skated and that I was able to show my abilities,” said Rakic, 15. “I didn’t think about the possibility of a podium and just focused on myself and nothing else. I stayed calm and didn’t get ahead of myself.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 12, 2020.

The Canadian Press