Canada’s Stellato-Dudek, Deschamps, second in France

Canadians Dina Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps finished second after their pairs short program at the French Grand Prix of Figure Skating on Friday.

At the opening of the Grand Prix stage, a high-profile doubles fight took place between two sets of world champions.

Japan's Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, world champions in 2023 and this year, led the short program ahead of Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps, who won world gold in 2024.

Both pairs performed nearly flawless short programs, but Miura and Kihara, who performed a string cover of “Paint It Black,” took the lead with a score of 79.44. Stellato-Dudek, who was born in Chicago but competes for Canada, and Deschamps, from Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec, scored 74.26 points in Carl Orff's “Carmina Burana.”

Hungarians Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko were third with a score of 70.15, ahead of two US pairs, Katie McBeath and Daniil Parkman with a score of 63.31, and Audrey Shin and Balazs Nagy with a score of 61.79.

Meanwhile, in the women's short program, Ami Nakai edged out three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto.

In her Grand Prix debut, former World Junior bronze medalist Nakai landed the competition's only triple Axel early in her program to score 78 points.

Japanese figure skater Nakai Sakamoto scored just 76.20, while 2024 world silver medalist Isabeau Levito of the United States was third with 73.37 heading into Saturday's free skate.

The French Grand Prix is ​​the first of six regular-season Grand Prix events, with the final taking place in December. The series is a key competitive test for top-level figure skaters hoping to win medals at the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina in February.

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