Canada's Gilles, Poirier claim another ice dance silver at figure skating worlds

Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, of Canada, perform during the ice dance free dance program at the figure skating world championships, Saturday, March 29, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

BOSTON — Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier will settle for silver once again.

For the second straight year, the Canadian ice dancers finished second behind American rivals Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who claimed their third consecutive title on Saturday at the world figure skating championships.

Toronto’s Gilles and Poirier, from Unionville, Ont., scored a second-best 130.10 points in their enthralling free dance to Annie Lennox’s version of “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” for a total of 216.45 in their 12th world championships together.

Chock and Bates tallied a winning total of 222.06, a season’s best, after their jazz medley before the home crowd at TD Garden in Boston. The Americans built a 3.74-point cushion in Friday’s rhythm dance, a large margin by ice dance standards.

Britain’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson took bronze with 207.11.

Marjorie Lajoie of Boucherville, Que., and Zachary Lagha of Saint-Hubert, Que., fell to seventh (200.41) after ranking fifth in the rhythm dance. Alicia Fabbri of Terrebonne, Que., and Paul Ayer of Brossard, Que., were 20th (170.88).

The combined placement of nine from Canada’s top two teams helped the country retain three provisional ice dance spots for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.

Gilles and Poirier also finished second behind Chock and Bates at last year’s worlds in Montreal, despite winning the free dance.

The four-time Canadian champions — who also won world bronze in 2021 and ‘23 — edged the Americans at last month’s Four Continents Championships in Seoul, setting up an anticipated showdown at worlds this weekend.

Later Saturday, American star Ilia Malinin was set to compete for his second world championship in the men’s free skate, the final competition of the Boston worlds.

Malinin, the self-proclaimed “Quad God,” posted a whopping 110.41 in Thursday’s short program, 3.32 points ahead of Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama in the two-man race for gold.

Roman Sadovsky of Vaughan, Ont., ranked 15th (80.25). The 25-year-old would need to climb into the top 10 to earn Canada a second provisional entry in the men’s event at next year’s Olympics.