Burnaby’s Zhao Kai Pang – with his Port Moody partner Madeline Edwards – came home from Japan victorious if exhausted Monday after a gold medal ice dance finish Sunday at the ISU Junior Grand Prix.
This year the team introduced new music and choreography into their program, which definitely seems to work for them.
They earned a combined score of 134.42 for their performances in Japan and were second in the both the free and short dance.
Gold at the fourth stop on the ISU circuit will likely mean a spot for the team, which trains out of Burnaby 8 Rinks, in the ISU Junior Grand Prix Final in Barcelona, Spain in December.
This was the pair’s first gold at a Junior Grand Prix, though they have made it to the podium six other times.
Among their many other accolades, Pang, 19, and Edwards, 18, were bronze medalists at the world junior championships last season and 2011 Canadian Winter Games gold medallists.
There has been little time for Pang to celebrate his latest gold. As soon as he landed Monday, he headed to class at SFU where he is in his third year of a kinesiology degree.
