Canadian ice dancers Gilles, Poirier in the lead at Finlandia Trophy Grand Prix

HELSINKI — Canadian ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier brought their figure skating beach party to the Finlandia Trophy Grand Prix and won Saturday's rhythm dance.

This year's world championship silver medallists scored top marks of 84.65 points with their "Barbie and Ken at the beach" routine set to music by The Beach Boys.

"I just want to thank the Finnish audience," Gilles told the International Skating Union. "It was absolutely a blast.

"The moment we started, we could hear them clapping and it was like 'OK, take your time.' They've got great energy.

"We need to enjoy what we're doing in order to continue to skate. By choosing music that we really love and we really believe in, makes performing and doing our job just that much easier."

Britain's Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson ranked second with 82.03 points and Finland's Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis third with 78.31.

Toronto's Gilles and Poirier of Unionville, Ont., will skate the free dance Sunday.

World pairs champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps of Montreal also led heading into Sunday's free skate after finishing first in Friday's short program.

Both teams were victorious at Skate Canada International in Halifax in October.

"There were a few things we had to think about throughout the performance, but overall, for me, it felt better than Skate Canada," Gilles said.

"I felt we levelled up with the performance and I'm super-happy about that, but I know we have more to do for tomorrow."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 16, 2024.

The Canadian Press