Canadians deliver golden moment

Stellato-Dudek, 40, and Deschamps on top of the world

- ROSIE DIMANNO

Canadian pairs skaters Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps won an event featuring 11 different countries.

Oldies but goldies. Literally golden for Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps.

The improbable team — she’s 40, he’s 32; she came out of a 16-year retirement and transitioned from American singles skater into Canadian pairs skater, he’s had eight former partners and a lifelong struggle with ADHD — reached the top podium at the world figure skating championships on Thursday evening.

In front of a hometown crowd (they train out of Montreal) that went absolutely giddy-berserk as the final marks blinked on the scoreboard at the Bell Centre.

Then everybody had to wait for the last pair — defending titlists Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara from Japan, who were sitting silver — to unspool their long program before all the dominoes toppled. And indeed, the Japanese won the free skate by a filament margin (144.35 versus 144.08) but, with a near five-point lead Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps brought in from their short program, the gold medal was theirs.

“I am even more happy at a dream come true,” Stellato-Dudek, who became the oldest female world champion in her sport, told the crowd in the couple’s on-ice interview. “Un grand merci and we love you all.”

In the end, it was Canada-JapanGermany for medals, in that order, with polished performances from all. But Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps were the glossiest of the bunch over two days, at least in their reflected glow, in an event that featured finals qualifiers — those who made the cut — from 11 different countries, indicating the extent of global parity these days in pairs competition.