Canada's Duhamel, Radford win ISU pairs

Canadian skaters Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford win the pairs at the ISU Grand Prix event in Barcelona.

Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, of Canada

Skaters Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford have won the pairs at the ISU Grand Prix event in Barcelona. (AAP)

Canada's Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford surged to their first pairs crown with career best scores at the ISU Grand Prix of figure skating final on Saturday.

In a performance that included a difficult throw quad salchow, the two-time world bronze medallists made their first podium in their fourth appearance in the elite six-skater event.

"It was our goal to come here and stand on the podium, and it's just a bonus for us to win. We're also very pleased with our personal best (scores)," said 29-year-old Duhamel.

They took gold ahead of Olympic silver medallists Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov with China's Sui Wenjing and Han Cong taking bronze.

Already leading after the short program the Canadians took to the ice at Barcelona's International Conventions Centre last for their free skate to the music of rock band Muse.

And the Montreal-based pair had the crowd on their feet as they scored 146.22 points for the free skate and 220.72 overall.

Stolbova, 22, and Klimov, 24, winners of Olympic team gold with Russia, had an error in their combination jump and achieved 141.39 for the free skate to a Spanish version of 'Notre Dame de Paris' and 213.72 overall.

"It was almost our best performance this year," said Klimov.

"Except for a little mistake we did all of our elements good."

Duhamel and Radford, both 29, follow Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, the only other Canadians to win the pairs title in 2000 and 2001.

It gave Canada a double in the pairs after Julianne Seguin and Charlie Bilodeau won the junior title on Friday.

Elizaveta Tuktamysheva led a Russian 1-2 ahead of Elena Radionova in the women's event on Saturday.

Ashley Wagner prevented an unprecedented Russian podium sweep when the American moved up from last after the short program to grab bronze after the free skating final.

The 23-year-old was followed by Anna Pogorilaya and Julia Lipnitskaya who were fourth and fifth with Japan's Rika Hongo finishing last in the six-woman field.

Tuktamysheva, 17, led all the way, scoring highest in Thursday's short program and gave a strong free skate to 'Batwannis Beek' and 'Sandstorm' to score 204.58 overall.

Radionova, 15, scored 198.74 for her skate to Rachmanionov Selections to move up from third as Lipnitskaya dropped from second after errors in her performance to Romeo and Juliet.

Wagner scored 189.50 overall after her performance to the Moulin Rouge soundtrack for her third consecutive Grand Prix final medal.


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