Music: {allcanada} CANADA'S EDWARDS, PANG FINISH 5TH AT JUNIOR GRAND PRIX EVENT

Saturday, October 1, 2011

{allcanada} CANADA'S EDWARDS, PANG FINISH 5TH AT JUNIOR GRAND PRIX EVENT

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INNSBRUCK, Austria -- Canada's Madeline Edwards and Zhao Kai Pang finished fifth in ice dancing Saturday to conclude their international debut at the fifth stop on the ISU Junior Grand Prix figure skating circuit.

Victoria Sinitsina and Ruslan Zhiganshin of Russia won the gold medal with a 15-point cushion over second place finishers Alexandra Aldridge and Daniel Eaton of the United States. Maria Nosulia and Evgen Kholoniuk of Ukraine were third.

Edwards of Port Moody, B.C., and Pang of Burnaby, B.C., gained a spot in the spot in the standings with the fourth best free dance of the day. They totalled 122.90 points, less than six points from the bronze medallists.

"We are really excited about our whole experience here," said Edwards, 15, a year younger than her partner of four years. "For us, wearing the Canadian colours and representing our country was such a thrill. And then to come out have very satisfying performances augurs well for the rest of the season."

Nicole Orford of Burnaby, and Thomas Williams of Okotoks, Alta., were fourth after the short dance but dropped to sixth overall on Saturday. They had won the gold medal earlier this month at the second stop in Brisbane, Australia.

"It was a disappointing performance," said Orford. "We struggled on our opening sequence and just never recovered from that. Obviously we want to find some consistency with our program and the only way to do that is go back and train hard."

In men's singles, Han Yan of China won the gold medal, Gordei Gorshkov of Russia was second and Keiji Tanaka of Japan third.

Liam Firus of North Vancouver remained 11th.