Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Ottawa, Ontario have won the 2022 Espoo Grand Prix of Figure Skating ice dancing event in Finland on Saturday. It was the fourth Grand Prix gold medal for Gilles and Poirier, as they previously won Skate Canada three times in 2019 in Kelowna, British Columbia, in 2021 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and in 2022 in Mississauga, Ontario. In fact, Gilles and Poirier have won the last three Skate Canada events, as the event in 2020, scheduled for Poirier’s native city of Ottawa, was cancelled due to Coronavirus.
In the weekend’s ice dancing competition in Europe’s Nordic country, Gilles and Poirier had 219.49 points. Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker of the United States won the silver medal with 202.46 points. Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis of Finland won the bronze medal with 191.79 points. Gilles and Poirier reached the podium by 30.69 points over the American duo of Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko, who finished in fourth place with a score of 188.8 points.
Canada will now be well represented at the 2022 International Skating Union Grand Prix Final in Turin, Italy from December 8-11. Joining Gilles and Poirier in the ice dance event are Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sorensen of Montreal, Quebec. Meanwhile in the pairs event, the Canadians will be Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps of Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec.
