Virtue, Moir nab Skate Canada ice dance crown

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir hit a couple of pot-holes this weekend on the road to their home-country Olympics in February, but they were still the class of the ice dance field at Skate Canada.

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada skate to victory in their free dance in the ice dance competition at the 2009 Homesense Skate Canada International in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. Virtue and Moir hit a couple of pot-holes this weekend on the road to their home-country Olympics in February, but they were still the class of the ice dance field at Skate Canada.

The reigning world bronze medallists led from start to finish and on Sunday claimed their second ISU Grand Prix series gold medal with a total score of 204.38, the highest score posted anywhere in the world this season.

With that, they clinched a spot in the Grand Prix Final in Tokyo in two weeks.

They earned 103.12 for their free dance set to Symphony No.5 by Gustav Mahler.

"Tessa and I were extremely determined today to come out and skate well. We obviously didn't have our best skate yesterday, so we were a little bit fired up," Moir said.

"When we started the program, we just tried to keep it together and check off the elements one by one," he added.

French couple Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat claimed silver with 185.07 points and also booked their ticket to Tokyo.

Their programme set to Requiem for a Dream was an intense offering that contrasted with the emotionally uplifting choreography of the first and third-place Canadians.

Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, who call this city home, earned their first Grand Prix medal with a total of 165.64 points for bronze.

Their passionate performance to Phantasia by Andrew Lloyd Webber brought the cheering fans to their feet in a rousing ovation.

The French scored 93.47 for their freedance and Weaver and Poje 82.28.

Virtue and Moir's four-minute routine seemed to go by in a flash, a tribute to their ability to capture the imagination of the audience with sophisticated elegance and refined choreography.

Their sweeping edges and smooth turns were punctuated by ultra-risky lifts incorporating multiple and varied changes of position.

Skate Canada is the sixth of six events in the ISU Grand Prix series which culminates with the Grand Prix Final for the top-six points-getters in each discipline.

Virtue and Moir scored their first victory of the season at the opening Grand Prix event in Paris last month. Pechalat and Bourzat were second there.

The two-time Canadian champions missed the Grand Prix series last season after Virtue underwent surgery to repair painful, chronic injuries in both shins.

Looking ahead to the Final, Moir said "If we go there and put down two good programmes, it will go a long way for future competitions."

In addition to Virtue and Moir, double winners on the Grand Prix circuit included Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White and Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto.

The three couples trained together in Michigan until Belbin and Agosto relocated to Pennsylvania last season.

The three couples will compete against each other for the first time this season at the Grand Prix Final.