Australian ice skaters collect first Grand Prix medal

Promising young pair Anastasia Golubeva and Hektor Giotopoulos Moore have captured Australia's first ever grand prix medal with a podium performance at Skate Canada.

Golubeva, 18, and Giotopoulos Moore, 22, won bronze behind reigning pairs world champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps in Halifax.

Russian-born Golubeva and Sydneysider Giotopoulos Moore train in Montreal at the same rink as the top-ranked Canadian team.

Attracting some of the world's best figure skaters, the event is the second of six ISU grand prix competitions with athletes looking to qualify for December's elite final in Grenoble, France.

The Australians skipped the American leg due to injury.

In their second year competing as seniors and fourth overall, they placed 10th at this year's world championships, while they won two silver medals in junior worlds.

They sat third after the short program and managed to hold on with an overall total of 186.14, despite the silver medal position changing with Uzbekistan pair Ekaterina Geynish and Dmitrii Chigirev vaulting onto the podium with a score of  189.65.

Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps were runaway winners, scoring 197.33 despite the latter falling on a triple-toe loop to start a sequence early in the free skate.

Leading into the competition, Golubeva said they were relishing training alongside the Canadian veterans after shifting to Montreal earlier this year.

"Skating with Deanna and Maxime is so good for us," she told adivinesport.com this week.

"I really enjoy training with them. We are friends."

Giotopoulos Moore, whose family lives in Seattle, said it gave them someone to look up to as they build towards the next Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina in early 2026.

"We really enjoy it here - it's a lot better-quality (training environment) for us (than Sydney)," he said.

"There are really no other (elite-level) pairs in Australia."