Ice dancers Madeline Edwards of Port Moody and fellow competitor Zhaio Kai Pang of Burnaby took home a bronze medal on Saturday after competing in the fourth stop of the International Skating Union junior Grand Prix figure skating circuit in Istanbul, Turkey.
Nerves got the better of the duo during the warmup, when the 16-year-old Edwards and Kai Pang stumbled and crashed into the boards.
"We were feeling okay after the fall," said Edwards. "We just trusted in our training. We kept telling ourselves that we had done this routine a thousand times."
But the Canadian pair bounced back and produced the second best free dance of the day, climbing from fourth to third overall with a personal best 135.01 points. It was their second bronze medal this season on the circuit and puts the team in position to compete in the Grand Prix final this December in Sochi Russia, the host city for the 2014 Winter Olympics.
"We were not expecting this kind of start to the season at all," said Kai Pang. "We just go out and try to skate our best. We know that if we work hard, we keep improving."
Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin of Russia won the gold medal with 147.73 points, while Shari Koch and Christian Nuechtern of Germany were second at 136.21. In men's singles, 14-year-old Nam Nguyen of Vancouver added a second career Junior Grand Prix medal finishing third, behind gold medalist Jason Brown of the U.S. and second place finisher Alexander Petrov of Russia.
