VANCOUVER: A trio of Russian women swept their Grand Prix podium at Skate Canada International on Saturday, while three-time world champion Nathan Chen grabbed gold in emphatic fashion. Kamila Valieva, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva and Alena Kostornaia finished 1-2-3 in Vancouver, repeating their success at Finlandia Trophy earlier this month. En route to victory, Valieva, 15, landed three beautiful quadruple jumps, two in combination with triples, in her magnificent interpretation of Ravel’s Bolero. Valieva, who performs most jumps with both arms overhead, smashed her own record scores from Finland, posting 180.89 for her finale and 265.08 overall, even with a step out on her triple Axel landing. With that, the 2020 world junior champion established herself as an Olympic gold medal favourite with the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing just 97 days away. “I did today everything planned in my program but I’m really excited about these scores, and I will try to do even better than that,” Valieva said. “The triple Axel could have been better, but I’m not planning to add more (technical) difficulty.” For Chen, it was mission accomplished as he rebounded from last week’s atypical bronze medal at Skate America with a masterful yet somewhat less risky skate.