(March 13, 2006)
It was a first for Canada at the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships.
The young ice dance team of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir captured the gold medal at the 2006 ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships, becoming the first Canadian ice dance duo to win the title.
Standing first after the first two portions of the event, Virtue and Moir, who are ranked third in the senior ice dance discipline in Canada, skated an outstanding version of their Malaguena free dance. The dance featured intricate serpentine and circular footwork sequences with many changes of holds and positions at good speed, as well as a difficult one-armed rotational lift. They also included a strong dance combination spin.
Virtue and Moir were awarded a total of 82.56 points for their free dance, which brought their combined total to 172.57.
“Our performance today felt really good. It was exactly what we wanted to do, it felt really comfortable,” said Moir. “We went out there and enjoyed every moment of the competition and still learned from it, get as much as experience as we can.”
''We're so honoured that we have a medal. It shows we worked very hard,” added Virtue.
Canada’s Allie Hann-McCurdy and Michael Coreno, the 2006 Canadian Junior Dance Champions, were eighth overall with a total score of 139.55.
Mylene Lamoureux and Michael Mee, also of Canada, placed 15th overall with a total of 121.97 points.
It was both Hann-McCurdy and Coreno’s and Lamoureux and Mee’s first time competing at the world junior championships.
The silver medal went to Russia’s Natalia Mikhailova and Arkadi Sergeev, while Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White captured the bronze medal.
In the men’s short program, Canada’s Patrick Chan delivered a personal best short program to stand third heading into today’s free skating portion of the event.
Chan, who is competing in his second world junior championships, completed a triple flip-triple toeloop combination, a triple Lutz and a double Axel, as well as difficult spins and footwork, to score 59.54, significantly improving his previous personal best of 53.24.
“This is by far my personal best. I’ve never skated this good so far,” said Chan. “I changed my program, have higher quality spins. It’s really the first time I’ve tried such a different program. It had worked very well for me. I went into the short program just relaxed and tried to focus but tried different technique, what’s best for me. Hopefully I can repeat the same preparations as I did today for tomorrow.”
Canada’s Kevin Reynolds stands 11th heading into the free skate with a total score of 53.04.
In the ladies final, Canadian Amélie Lacoste placed 15th with a total score of 109.91, while her teammate Diane Szmiett was 21st, earning a total of 102.20 points.