TORONTO (AP) — Piper Gilles shook her head as the scores popped up on the screen.

She and Paul Poirier had just delivered their cleanest free dance of the season at the Grand Prix Final in Nagoya, Japan. The kind of skate that has landed the Canadian duo on the world championship podium three years in a row.

Yet the judges saw it differently — and the marks weren’t enough to bring home a medal.

“It definitely is disheartening. We can’t lie, we’re human,” Gilles said. “We skated two successful programs, and we emotionally and physically felt so in shape and powerful in those moments, (only) to kind of be left questioning what we’re doing, Is it enough?”

The veteran ice dancers dropped from third after the rhythm dance to fourth following the free, finishing 0.06 points behind British pa

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