Patrick Chan's best skate of season sets up shot at gold
Duhamel and Radford are third in pairs after a couple of mistakes
Patrick Chan, along with fellow Canadians Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, put themselves into podium positions after Thursday's short programs at the ISU Grand Prix Final in Marseille, France.
Chan was second behind Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu in the men's competition while Duhamel and Radford sit third in the pairs.
Hanyu took the lead with an electrifying performance and a season-best score of 106.53 points to stay on course for a fourth straight Grand Prix Final figure skating title.
"This program can't be completed without the audience," Hanyu said through a Japanese translator. "When I got out on the ice this morning I felt really comfortable. I feel like my body was well rested."
Chan, a three-time world champion, put some pressure on Hanyu with his season-best score of 99.76. Spain's Javier Fernandez was third with 91.76.
"I felt pretty happy about [Thursday's] performance," said Chan, who is also a two-time Olympic silver medalist. "It's my first good short program internationally for a long time."
Canadian pairs holding on to podium spot
Duhamel and Radford have some work to do to win back the title they lost last year to Russians Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov.
Duhamel and Radford were winners at the NHK Trophy in Sapporo, Japan last month, but the two-time world champions are in third place with 71.44 points after a couple of major errors in their program. Duhamel put one hand on the ice landing a triple lutz and fell backward on the throw triple axel.
"Well it wasn't the way I wanted to have my birthday go," said Duhamel, who turned 31 Thursday.
"We're trying some really difficult elements, the triple Lutz and the throw triple Axel," Radford said. "It's frustrating because they were really good in practice but they're not transferring into the performance and [Thursday] they weren't even close. We're going to have to review this when we get home."
Russians Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov are in first, followed by China's Yu Xiaoyu and Zhang Hao.
It proved to be a tricky night for Canadians, with pairs Julianne Seguin and Charlie Bilodeau in last place with a score of 60.86 after each fell during their routine.
''Even though we missed some technical elements we really enjoyed the program,'' Séguin said. ''We really have to trust ourselves for the free program and I think we will do well.''