World figure skating champions Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps win in pairs at Finlandia Trophy

HELSINKI, Finland — World champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps survived a fall to win the Finlandia Trophy pairs event on Sunday and book their spot at the figure skating Grand Prix Final, while Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson won the ice dance.

Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps had a strong lead from Friday's short program and were easily in first place again in the free skate, even though Stellato-Dudek slipped part-way through their program after having landed a difficult throw triple lutz.

The Canadians won with a total 207.44 points, their best of the season, far ahead of Hungary's Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko on 184.21. Third place went to Rebecca Ghilardi and Filippo Ambrosini of Italy on 181.59.

“We'd like to continue to improve. Every season is a different roller coaster ride and this year is no different," Stellato-Dudek said. "This year we're hoping to have a slow burn of an increase each competition, so every time get a higher and higher score, and so far it's looking in that direction.”

In the ice dance, Britain's Fear and Gibson won their second Grand Prix title of the season with a score of 203.22 for their Beyoncé medley after a fall cost Canada's Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, who had been leading after Saturday's rhythm dance.

Poirier seemed to lose his balance after a twizzle sequence and fell, nearly bringing down Gilles too. The Canadians were still able to score a total 200.79 for second place, staying ahead of Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis of Finland on 196.60.

“We wanted to go out and just do ourselves proud today and skate how we've been training, with charisma, with confidence and with joy," Fear said. "I feel like we accomplished that and I'm really proud and happy.”