Two-time world champs Duhamel, Radford golden at Skate Canada International

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — With the risks have come plenty of rewards for Canada’s two-time world pairs champions Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford.

“But you take the risks, and you take the falls sometimes,” Duhamel said.

Duhamel and Radford, who have changed the face of pairs skating with their sky-high level of difficulty, overcame a nasty fall to win gold at Skate Canada International on Saturday.

Skating to Edith Piaf’s “Non Je Ne Regrette Rien,” they scored 218.30 points, but Duhamel crashed hard on their throw quad Salchow, her legs splaying when she hit the ice.

“That really hurt,” Duhamel said. “I had a moment where I got up and looked at Eric and I was kind of like ‘Oh my god, am I going to be able to?’ Because there was still a jump and a throw left in the program, and it’s my landing leg. Is it going to support me to do two more jumps? 

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“Adrenalin takes you through,” she added. “It’s sore now, but it’s going to be fine. It comes with the game.”

It was an uncharacteristic mishap for Duhamel, who, like a cat, virtually always lands on her feet.

“After the fall, even for me, I was a little worried ‘Is Meagan OK? Are we going to be able to keep going?’ I could see a little bit of worry in her face,” Radford said. “But I’m really happy with how we just fought back, I thought we finished the program really strong.”

China’s Yu Xiaoyu and Zhang Hao claimed the silver with 202.08, while Toronto’s Lubov Ilyushechkina and Dylan Moscovitch took the bronze (190.22).

Duhamel, from Lively, Ont., and Radford, from Balmertown, Ont., are the world’s only pairs team to consistently land a quad throw. They also added a throw triple Axel to their short program this season.

So as the level of difficulty continues to climb in both men’s and women’s singles skating, Duhamel and Radford continue to push the pairs event.

“It’s an honour,” Radford said of being leaders.

The quad jump actually sprouted from a joke with their coach.

“We were always saying ‘We want to do a quad,’ and our coach (Richard Gauthier) would never let us,” Radford said.

“We told him ‘We don’t care, we’re doing it,’” Duhamel added.

“They’re such incredibly difficult elements and sometimes I don’t think we realize just how consistent we’ve been able to make that element,” Radford said. “It’s not easy at all.”

Ilyushechkina and Moscovitch have been working on a throw quad Salchow, and had considered debuting it this week but decided it wasn’t quite ready.

Lori Ewing, The Canadian Press