Canadian ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier achieved their best Grand Prix result of the season on Friday.

The duo scored 87.55 points after the rhythm dance, their best result since Gilles’ cancer diagnosis was announced.

“I never questioned whether I would continue or not,” Gilles said. In fact, it even pushed me to do more. Skating is a part of my life, it makes me forget about my health worries.

The Canadians defeated Brits Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson.

At last year’s Skate Canada International, Gilles began to feel unwell, which made him want to come back strong.

It’s the first stop of the season for the Canadiens and they’re looking forward to seeing their fans again.

“We are blessed to have competition at home in addition to the national championships,” Poirier said. It’s a gift to give them a show.

Lithuanians Saulius Ambrulevicius and Allison Reed took third place (75.60), their first Grand Prix podium.

Canadians Alicia Fabbri and Paul Ayer placed 7th in rhythm dance, two places ahead of Molly Lanaghan and Dmitre Razgulajevs.

Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps are at the top as a pair

Canadians Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps finished the short program in first place with a score of 72.25.

It was the first time the team ran together in five weeks. Their compatriots Brooke McIntosh and Benjamin Mimar took 5th place and Kelly Ann Laurin and Loucas Ethier took seventh place.

Sakamoto is at the top among women

Kaori Sakamoto set the tone for the women’s short program on Friday. The reigning world champion achieved the benchmark score (75.13) in her first Grand Prix, almost five points ahead of Korea’s Chaeyeon Kim.

Canada’s Madeline Schizas finished 8th (57.44), frustrated by technical errors in her program.

As for the program itself, I think it worked well despite the errors. It’s a shame this happened to me here.