Duhamel and Radford lead the way at Bridgestone Skate America

The Canadians turned in a clean routine to U2's ‘With or Without You', including hitting a side by side triple Lutz, triple twist and throw triple Lutz.

That was enough to score them 75.37 points from the judges in a closely scored competition.

"For me, there are aspects of this Short Program that I'm really proud of and aspects that I am frustrated with," Radford said.

"I am really proud of how we felt the program and stayed in the moment. I am frustrated with our levels. We lost levels on elements that we usually don't lose points on. We don't want to make those mistakes heading into the rest of the season."

Duhamel and Radford were closely followed by China's Xiaoyu Yu and Hao Zhang, who scored 73.67 while world silver medallists Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot of Germany were third with 72.55 points.

Meanwhile Four Continents champion Nathan Chen made a statement in the men's short program on Friday, taking the lead with 15 points to spare.

The American posted a new personal best score of 104.12 points to top the leader board ahead of compatriot Adam Rippon (89.04) with Russia's Sergei Voronov third on 87.51.

Chen said: "It was really exciting to be in America for my fourth ever Grand Prix.

"I made a little bobble on my Axel, but this is something I will try to focus on for tomorrow.

"The music has a really good beat, everybody can feel it and clap along. I definitely feel that, even in practice when I am just alone on the ice. When the music is playing, I can feel the character and I can really get into it."

Bridgestone Skate America is the sixth and last event in the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series and provides the last opportunity for skaters to qualify for the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Nagoya, Japan, in December.

Sportsbeat 2017