Stellato-Dudek, Canada's Deschamps lead after pairs short program at Finlandia Trophy
Yuma Kagiyama holds 13-point advantage midway through men's event in Helsinki
Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps led after Friday's pairs short program at the Finlandia Trophy in Helsinki, the fifth stop on the Grand Prix figure skating circuit.
Stellato-Dudek, who is from Chicago but is in the process of acquiring Canadian citizenship, and Deschamps, from Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que., scored 75.89 points for their routine set to a remix of Beyonce's Crazy in Love.
Rebecca Ghilardi and Filippo Ambrosini of Italy were second with 67.43 points, followed by Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko of Hungary (61.29).
Kelly Ann Laurin of Saint-Jerome, Que., and Loucas Ethier of Saint-Eustache, Que., were fourth with 60.45 points.
The free skate is scheduled for Sunday.
Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps are the reigning pairs world champions and are coming off a victory at the Skate Canada Grand Prix last month in Halifax.
WATCH | Stellato-Dudek, Deschamps top Italians by 8 points to lead short program:
Elsewhere, Japanese figure skater Yuma Kagiyama was on course for back-to-back wins in the Grand Prix series after he took the lead in the short program at the Finlandia Trophy on Friday in Helsinki.
Skating to The Sound of Silence, Olympic silver medallist Kagiyama opened with a quadruple salchow and landed a quad toeloop-triple toeloop combination for a score of 103.97.
That gave Kagiyama a commanding 13-point lead ahead of Saturday's free skate, though it was nearly two points below his short score on his way to winning the NHK Trophy on home ice last week.
Countryman Kazuki Tomono was second on 90.78 after landing two quads in the only other clean skate of the day. Kevin Aymoz of France was third on 85.13 despite bailing out of a planned triple lutz.
There are no Canadians in this competition.
WATCH | Kagiyama scores 103.97 in short program at Finlandia Trophy:
In the women's short program, Japan's Hana Yoshida took a narrow lead against a field which was depleted by the withdrawals last week of world silver medallist Isabeau Levito of the United States and European champion Loena Hendrickx of Belgium.
Yoshida landed a triple lutz-triple toeloop combination, though the second jump wasn't fully rotated, and a triple loop for her best short score of the season of 67.87 as she aims for a second career Grand Prix win.
Italian skater Lara Naki Gutmann got a spot in the competition because of the withdrawals and made the most of it with a personal-best 67.06 for second place with a program themed around the Netflix show Squid Game.
Sarah Everhardt of the United States was third on 66.28 for her Irish dance-inspired program.
The Finlandia Trophy is the fifth of six rounds in the Grand Prix series. Each skater or pair can compete twice at most. The best-placed skaters overall qualify for the Grand Prix Finals next month in Grenoble, France.
There are no Canadians in this competition.
WATCH | Yoshida lands triple lutz-triple toeloop combination for slim lead:
With files from The Associated Press
