Fourth after the short program, Quebecer Maxime Deschamps and his partner Deanna Stellato-Dudek tried everything to carve out a place on the podium at the end of the free program presented Thursday at the World Figure Skating Championships. Their efforts, however, did not pay the expected dividends and they had to settle for fourth place in Saitama, Japan.
For the occasion, Deschamps and Stellato-Dudek received a score of 127.16, which gave them sixth place in the session. A fall during a double salchow made them lose important points.
“The free program was a bit more difficult than I expected. We are a little disappointed with the performance as such, but there are a lot of things we learned here. There are positives that come out of our time at the worlds,” commented Maxime Deschamps after the competition.
“I don’t know how I feel yet, it’s too recent,” he added.
In the final standings, the Maple Leaf duo finished in fourth place with their collection of 199.97 points. Japan’s Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara were crowned world champions with 222.16 points.
The new defending champions were ahead of the Americans Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier (217.48 points), as well as the Italians Sara Conti and Niccolo Macci (208.08 points).
With several medals in international competitions and the title of Canadian champions, Deschamps and Stellato-Dudek said they were satisfied with what they managed to accomplish during the 2022-2023 season. They are already turning their attention to the next campaign which will culminate in Montreal, in exactly one year, for the World Championships.
“The whole season has gone well. We had great performances and good results. We are really satisfied with our season. We will continue to push each other, especially for the worlds in Montreal next year,” concluded Deschamps.
Dancers Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sorensen will make their debut Friday at the World Championships.
