Nam Nguyen edged out of medals at Grand Prix

SHANGHAI – Toronto’s Nam Nguyen took fourth spot in men’s competition on Saturday in a memorable night at the Cup of China, the third stop on the ISU Grand Prix circuit in figure skating.

Maxim Kovtun of Russia won the gold medal with 243.34 points, Olympic and world champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan, who fell five times in his free skate, took the silver at 237.55 and Richard Dornbush of the U.S., was third at 226.73.

Nguyen totalled 221.85 to climb from sixth after Friday’s short program to fourth. Nguyen opened with a brilliant quad Salchow followed by a perfect triple Axel.  He singled his follow up triple Axel in combination but came back to land it perfectly a few seconds later. He completed his skate to a series of clean triple jumps including two in combination.

‘’I was happy I was able to come back and pull it off,’’ said the 16-year-old Nam about his triple Axel combo.  ‘’For me there was no question about whether I would attempt it again in the program. It’s a jump I have a lot of confidence with.’’

The men’s competition was marred by a nasty collision between Hanyu and China’s Han Yan  in the warm-up just prior to the last flight of skaters.  Hanyu suffered scrapes to his head and face and still competed with a bandage around his head.   Han also performed his free skate and finished sixth.

For Nguyen it was another impressive performance in his first season at the senior level.  Last winter’s world junior champion already has two medal performances including a bronze at Skate America last month.

In women’s competition, Russia was 1-2 with Elizaveta Tuktamysheva winning gold and Julia Lipnitskaia the silver. Gabrielle Daleman of Newmarket, Ont., was fifth in her senior Grand Prix debut.

‘’I wasn’t nervous, I felt confident,’’ said Daleman, 16, a 2014 Olympic team member.  ‘’I knew going in it was going to be a tough competition but I felt ready.  The big thing I learned this weekend is not to second guess myself and trust even more in my training.’’

In ice dancing Alexandra Paul of Midhurst, Ont., and Mitchell Islam of Barrie, Ont., were fifth and in pairs Natasha Purich of Sherwood Park, Alta., and Andrew Wolfe of Calgary were sixth.

‘’It’s pretty amazing for us just be here,’’ said Purich who joined forces with Wolfe only six months ago.  ‘’We’re just happy to see our career together starting to take off.  Today we made some little mistakes and left some points on the table but we are confident we will continue to improve.’’

The next stop in the circuit is next weekend in Moscow.

Full results: http://www.isuresults.com/results/gpchn2014/index.htm

2015 Skate Canada International tickets on sale now!

OTTAWA, ON: All-event tickets for the 2015 Skate Canada International are on sale now. Next year’s event takes place in Lethbridge, Alberta at the ENMAX Centre from October 30 – November 1, 2015.

“Coming off the excitement of last weekend’s Skate Canada International in Kelowna where Canadian skaters captured two gold and one silver, we are looking forward to welcoming the world’s best skaters to Lethbridge in 2015, and for continued success by our Canadians athletes” said Skate Canada CEO Dan Thompson.

All-event ticket packages for the 2015 Skate Canada International in Lethbridge, Alta., cost $150-$180, plus applicable surcharges. Tickets can be purchased online at www.enmaxcentre.ca, by phone at 403.329.7328, or in person at the ENMAX Centre Box Office.

The southern Alberta city will celebrate the silver anniversary of hosting the event in 1990 when Canadian skaters, led by Kurt Browning, swept the four titles.

Skate Canada International is the second competition in the annual ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating® series. The other events take place in the United States (Skate America), China (Cup of China), France (Trophée Eric Bompard), Russia (Rostelecom Cup) and Japan (NHK Trophy). The list of Canadian and international competitors for the event will be announced in late spring of 2015 when all six of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating® event assignments are determined.

New pair team Natasha Purich and Drew Wolfe set to take on Cup of China

Just when you thought pair skating (alas, everywhere) was down at the heels, tattered and torn and riddled with defections, along has come a little herd of intrepid risk-takers.

Like Natasha Purich and Drew Wolfe.

They – and other new and relatively new faces – are going to make the pair event at the Canadian Tire National Skating Championships a fiery contest, come January in Kingston, Ont.

The Purich and Wolfe partnership just seems right. They are buddies from Alberta, (she from Edmonton, he from Calgary), now both training in Montreal. (As luck would have it, they both were in French immersion schools.) They met each other skating sectionals in Alberta, from about the age of 10 or 11.

They have come at pair skating from oddly different directions: Wolfe has been a singles skater and for the last four or five years, an ice dancer. In Wolfe’s hand, Purich glows. At their first event, the Skate Canada Autumn Classic Intern ational, they finished third in the short program with a throw triple Lutz, a combo spin that earned a level four and an excellent death spiral, too.

That Wolfe can do a death spiral is an event in itself. Before he hitched up with Purich six months ago, he had never skated pairs. “When I was younger, I thought there’s not a chance that I’m going to put this girl over my head,” he said. “That just seems way too dangerous. “ Coach Richard Gauthier says he’s never seen a pair skater learn such skills so quickly. He shocked all of them, with what he could do in the first three days.

Okay, so what was hardest for both? Purich wants to say the twist. After all, the male not only has to throw the partner, but catch her as well. However, Wolfe says it’s that deadly death spiral. “It was a weird feeling to get used to the force that another skater would pull on you that much on an edge,” he said. The first one he did went okay. He figures that was beginner’s luck. The second one, not so much. That has changed since, however. They got a level four on their forward inside death spiral in the short program at the Autumn Classic.

As for Purich, who skated last year with former world bronze medalist Mervyn Tran (now off to skate for his third country), she has had to up her game with skating skills and edges to match the ice-dancing crafts of Wolfe.

Seemingly improving by leaps and bounds, they will further show off their wares at Cup of China, their only Grand Prix event.

Wolfe had been skating singles at the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club in Toronto with Ghislain Briand – and soaking up the influences of skating in the same rink as Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu and Javier Fernandez – when he thought he might like try pairs. “I’m a big tall guy,” he said. Briand and Gauthier are friends. The next thing Wolfe knew, he was in a tryout with Purich, doing some stroking and elements.

“Of course this was all new to me,” he said. Gauthier and Bruno Marcotte were welcoming and supportive.

“It seemed like they had some faith in me,” he said. ”It’s kind of unexpected, but it seems like the right fit. We both came from different sides of the sport.” And, he said, it’s been very motivating to skate in the same rink as two-time world bronze medalists Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford.

“Honestly, he’s just a natural,” Purich said of her new partner. “It’s kind of weird. I think we were doing double twists in two days.”

Because of his dance background, Wolfe said he knew how to place a partner in the right spot. Not everything went smoothly. They had their peaks and valleys. Working also with Syvie Fullum, Julie Marcotte and Cynthia Lemaire, nothing is left untouched in the school, Wolfe said. The learning environment is very positive. All of the teams push each other.

Goals for a new team? Their focus had been just to get to nationals and develop a solid base together. They hadn’t expected even the Autumn Classic. It was a big deal. Style will come with time. They want to be unique.

And it helps that Wolfe loves music. “I adore it,” he said. “Music is my favourite.” He likes to perform, to entertain. Three or four years ago, he skated to Santana and Colin James because his Alberta coach thought it would be a good fit for his style. Wolfe has always had the final say in his music choices. This time, he left it to Julie Marcotte, and made himself trust her. He planned to keep an open mind.

When Marcotte gave them a blues for their short program – “Three Hours Past Midnight” by Colin James – Wolfe just started to chuckle. “I guess I had no reason to worry,” he said. “It was pretty hilarious.” They skate the free to “The Artist” – and that’s a perfect routine for Purich. The programs are very different.

“It’s big and it’s broad and it’s also subtle,” Wolfe said of “The Artist” soundtrack. “There is a lot of variety and you can play with it and you can be powerful with it. And it’s really what Natasha does.”

So no, pair skating in Canada does not look so desolate as it did six months ago. “It makes it fun for us and the good thing is, it gets people interested,” Wolfe said. “New faces bring interest.”

Canadian skaters continue ISU Grand Prix circuit in Shanghai

OTTAWA, ON: Skate Canada will send four entries, for a total of six skaters, to the third stop on the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating, the Cup of China. The competition will take place at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center from November 7-9, 2014. Canada will have one entry per category in men’s, ladies, pair, and ice dance.

World Junior Champion Nam Nguyen, 16, Toronto, Ont., will be the Canadian entry in men’s. This season, Nguyen won bronze at his first senior ISU Grand Prix assignment, Skate America, and won silver at the Skate Canada Autumn Classic International. Nguyen is coached by Brian Orser and Ernest Pryhitka at the Toronto Cricket Skating & Curling Club.

Gabrielle Daleman, 16, Newmarket, Ont., will represent Canada in ladies. This will be the first senior ISU Grand Prix assignment for the 2014 Olympian. Earlier this season, the representative of Richmond Hill FSC won the Skate Canada Autumn Classic International. Daleman is coached by Andrei Berezintsev and Inga Zusev and trains at the Richmond Training Centre in Richmond Hill, Ont.

Natasha Purich, 19, Sherwood Park, Alta., and Drew Wolfe, 19, Calgary, Alta., are the Canadian entry in pair. This will be the first ISU Grand Prix assignment for the newly formed team representing CPA Saint-Léonard and the Glencoe Club. Earlier this season, they placed fourth at their first international competition, the Skate Canada Autumn Classic International. They train at CPA Saint-Léonard and are coached by Richard Gauthier and Bruno Marcotte.

Olympians Alexandra Paul, 23, Midhurst, Ont., and Mitchell Islam, 24, Barrie, Ont., will be the Canadian entry in the ice dance category. This will be their first time competing at this event. This season, the representatives of Barrie SC placed fourth at the inaugural 2014 Skate Canada Autumn Classic International. Paul and Islam train at the Detroit Skating Club with coaches Pasquale Camerlengo, Angelika Krylova, and Natalia Deller.

Skate Canada High Performance Director Mike Slipchuk will be the Canadian team leader at the event, and Siobhan Karam of Ottawa, Ont., will be the Canadian team physiotherapist. Nicole Leblanc-Richard of Dieppe, N.B., and Reaghan Fawcett of Aurora, Ont., will be the Canadian officials at the event.

For results and full entries please visit www.isu.org.

CANADIAN ENTRIES AT 2014 CUP OF CHINA

Discipline Name Age Hometown Club Coach
Mens Nam Nguyen 16 Toronto, Ont. Toronto Cricket Skating & Curling Club Brian Orser / Ernest Pryhitka
Ladies Gabrielle Daleman 16 Newmarket, Ont. Richmond Hill FSC Andrei Berezintsev / Inga Zusev
Pair Natasha Purich / Drew Wolfe 19/19 Sherwood Park, Alta. / Calgary, Alta. CPA Saint-Léonard / Glencoe Club Richard Gauthier / Bruno Marcotte
Ice Dance Alexandra Paul / Mitchell Islam 23/24 Midhurst, Ont. / Barrie, Ont. Barrie SC / Barrie SC Pasquale Camerlengo / Angelika Krylova / Natalia Deller

Meet Coaches Extraordinaire: Karen and Jason Mongrain

By Debbi Wilkes

Skating Coaches Karen and Jason Mongrain are nervous.

It’s not because their students are competing at Sectionals next week or because of the demands their community and rink are facing this week at Skate Canada International in Kelowna, BC. As top-notch figure skating coaches with some 40 years of combined experience, this husband and wife coaching team is accustomed to that kind of stress.

What makes them worried this week is the fact that for Sunday’s Exhibition Gala they have to design and teach close to six minutes of choreography to over twenty international skating stars, most of whom they have never met, many of whom do not speak English … and there is only ONE 45-minute rehearsal Sunday morning at Prospera Place in which to make it happen.

Sounds like a nightmare.

When Skate Canada called to ask them if they’d take the job, they instantly knew it would be a tough assignment but they also knew it was a rare opportunity that a coach may have only once in a lifetime. The chance to work with this elite level of skater, regardless of the situation, would be considered a coach’s dream. They agreed to the challenge despite the fact that this time of year is one of their busiest, with competitions and training at their most frantic pace.

So what’s the plan?

Key to the success of the number will be selecting great music. Karen and Jason have decided to use what they describe as “cheesy, 80’s hard rock”, made up of super-popular, positive and energetic music.

Keeping their choreography simple and showcasing individuals will also help build a great number. Between now and that first step on the rehearsal ice Sunday morning, Karen and Jason will do some additional research on-line to get to know the performers’ individual skills a bit  better and to look for any special tricks that will help make the number original. They’ll also encourage skaters to come up with a few of their own unique ideas to add to the choreography and give it some extra sizzle.

The team is well aware that after a week of competition and the stress that goes along with performing, the skaters want to break loose, show their personalities and have some fun. They’ll be counting on those motivators to engage the athletes who are an eager bunch and easy to inspire with new ideas.

Logistics will come into play once the teaching process begins.  The skaters will be spilt up into teams, likely playing the girls against the boys. And as always, the music will dictate exactly who goes where, does what and when.

Six minutes is a massive amount of choreography but, despite their nervousness, Karen and Jason will use their considerable experience to get the job done to create a finale hit which is memorable and fun for both the skaters and the fans. And the Mongrains have come to this challenge with the same kind of dedication, enthusiasm and energy that have been the trademarks of their successful coaching careers.

Jason admits it was just pure luck that got him into coaching. As a skater, he didn’t have any desire to coach … it seemed like a very stressful job! He’d just completed his second year of college and was unsure where he wanted to head when he received a phone call out of the blue from a club in the tiny remote village of Nakusp, BC, asking if he’d be interested in coaching their 60 members, over half of which were at the CanSkate level. Recognizing it would be a fascinating experience, Jason thought it would also give him time to make some decisions regarding his future. But once he started, he was surprised to realize just how rewarding coaching could be, and after the first season, he knew he was hooked!

On the other hand, Karen, his wife and coaching partner, always knew she wanted to be a coach. She was twenty-five or so the day she found a time capsule from her own Grade 5 school project. In it was a Q & A page that asked what she wanted to be when she grew up. Her answer? “Skating coach!”

Karen also started in a small community, Grand Forks, BC, and like Jason, counts herself fortunate to have begun her career in a small town where she learned to value different perspectives and was forced to develop her craft with limited resources.

Looking back, some of the couple’s happiest moments teaching have been seeing little kids having a blast on the ice. Watching children have fun on skates and being eager to learn are the qualities they notice most in skaters that become lifelong participants in the sport. Karen and Jason teach a lot of competitive skaters … and there is often high pressure involved … but at the end of the day, both coaches attempt to create an experience that’s still full of fun and adventure, one that will help build a desire to remain involved with the sport in some way after their competitive careers end.

“Nothing is more satisfying than coaching a skater from CanSkate all the way to the end of a long and productive career,” says Karen. “We will often get visits from our past skaters, updating us with their current lives … this is something we both cherish!”

Both partners find that coaching is a great competitive and creative outlet and are particularly proud of the amazing accomplishments of their skaters in Kelowna. In recent years the club has produced a good number of podium finishes at nationals up to the junior level, a special achievement for their club, thanks in part to the support and commitment of the club’s amazing volunteers.

“I love coaching and developing skaters,” adds Jason, “but I think the most important contribution I make is in working with young coaches. This has a greater impact on more skaters and on future generations. I’m also very proud to be part of a team with our club volunteers … a team that is raising the profile and value of figure skating in our city.”

Karen and Jason feel skating is a great life skill. The patience required to learn at all levels, to cope with fear, challenge creativity, fulfill fitness needs, deal with the ups and downs in both practice and performance, and most importantly, to persevere … are all skills to be transferred to life.

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir enjoy Skate Canada International in new roles

KELOWNA, B.C. – We have missed them, both.

We have wondered where they were, what they were doing, what they were going to do.

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir don’t know yet.

They’ve been rumbling the halls of the Prospera Centre this week, working for TSN on broadcast bits, finding out what they don’t know about the other side of the boards, inspecting possible new career paths. It’s a buzz for them, these new duties. Word has it that they are naturals as broadcasters.

But they still don’t know where their path lies. And that is okay with them.

At about the same time, out came the press releases this fall about Patrick Chan and Virtue and Moir taking the year off to ponder their futures. But the response to the press releases has been different. Chan might very well come back. Virtue and Moir? Many seemed to think the gig was up.

“To be 100 per cent honest, I think after Sochi, we thought we were done for sure,” Moir said in Kelowna this week. “But we knew that was probably an emotional decision after training for 17 years straight. We needed to make sure that we took the proper time.”

Halfway through the summer Moir admitted that they had a “glimmer of hope” that they might like to come back. But they don’t know if the glimmer is strong enough and they don’t know what having that glimmer means to them. They do know one thing: they are taking time to think about that glimmer and other things.

“We don’t want to put that pressure on ourselves right now,” Virtue said. “We’ve been dealing with that kind of stress for 10-12 years now. It’s kind of nice just to take that off our plates for now.”

True, there are wistful moments, now that they are in the rink, and hear that opening music that stirs the heart. Virtue said in those moments, she can’t help but wonder what she and Moir would have done for programs, for choreography, what it would feel like one more time to face that cheering Canadian crowd that they love.

And then they remember what fun it is to go grocery shopping and run mundane errands during mid-week and visit their parents and siblings any time they’d like. During those moments, Moir feels the pull of ordinary life. Now that they’ve tasted that, how to give it up for singled-minded training?

Virtue says she is currently straddling two worlds. She is finishing her psychology degree at the University of Western Ontario in her hometown, London, Ont. Yet she and her partner are doing speaking engagements and appearances. They did a little skating tour in China. But basically, they have been off the ice altogether over the summer and into the fall, although Moir has been playing a little hockey.

If they returned, they know they would do things differently. They would train differently. With their history of injury, they would take a more intellectual, scientific-based approach to training. And they’d like to try out new choreographers. They are already cooking up plans to work with Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon – who had been their idols and mentors as they grew up – and with the hugely talented Jeffrey Buttle, who they’ve already worked with on Stars on Ice.

Virtue and Moir are doing the Holiday Festival on ice gala in December. That means they are planning programs and also need to get back to training for that. They are looking forward to it.

At Skate Canada International, they were impressed with the routines of all three Canadian dance teams. In fact, Virtue was most impressed with the new faces of “Liz” Paradis and “Frankie” Ouellette, who finished seventh here, but who evoked an emotional rush with their “Un peu plus haut” free dance. Tears were shed.

Ice dance in Canada is in good hands right now, they see. “The other thing is, is there room for us to come back?” Moir says. “Geez.”

Skate Canada International a weekend of golden firsts

KELOWNA, B.C. – The Skate Canada International aura isn’t a secret. Skaters from Russia, China and elsewhere love the crowds. They love how they are loved, no matter the flag.

The exhibitions? Best ever. Chinese skaters wearing decorated sauce pans on their heads, denim overalls on the rest. The men breaking out brassy wigs. Duelling quad Salchows were seen. Exquisite music was heard, all on a day when a warm fall sun set light to the waters.

For Canadian skaters, it was a time to step out on home ice at an important Grand Prix in the quadrennial leading to the 2018 Olympics. Already there is huge success: Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford won the first Grand Prix gold medal for a Canadian pair since Jessica Dubé and Bryce Davison won at Skate America in 2007.

Strangely enough, despite the historic strength of Canadian pairs, the Canuck teams have seldom won pairs events at Grand Prix competitions. They’ve never won Cup of Russia or the Grand Prix in France, or Cup of China (which dates back to only 2003). A Canadian pair hasn’t won Skate Canada since Jamie Sale and David Pelletier in 2001. At NHK Trophy, Barbara Underhill and Paul Martini won gold in 1980 and 1982. And Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler won in 1993, the same year they won their world title.

So Duhamel and Radford’s victory takes on a brighter shine. They’ve broken ground and they expect more.

Kaitlyn Weaver and Andres Poje’s first Grand Prix gold medal, here at home this week, is another milestone on a long road of Canadian dance victories. Canada’s wins in dance Grand Prix events are almost too numerous to mention. At Skate Canada alone, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won five of them, Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon won two, Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz took six, and Tracy Wilson and Rob McCall grabbed two of them, not to mention single victories by Jacqueline Petr and Mark Janoschak, and Vanessa Crone and Paul Poirier.

Weaver and Poje’s exquisite “Four Seasons” routine made fond memories for some in an informal poll of favourite Skate Canada moments this week. They had become a unit, they said. They had taken a step up, even from their world silver medal last March. They came dressed to kill, and focused on the details.

Injuries robbed Canada of better results in men’s and women’s singles. Kaetlyn Osmond broke a fibula during the fall and had to withdraw from all Grand Prix events.  Canadian women delivered in the short program, and had a tougher go in the long, with Alaine Chartrand finishing seventh, Veronik Mallet 11th (was sixth in the short) and Julianne Seguin 12th.

With no Patrick Chan in the mix, and no Kevin Reynolds, out with boot problems and injuries, Canada had to take their victories other ways. Andrei Rogozine showed off his new “higher, faster, stronger” vibe to finish 10th, while Liam Firus fought back after a troubled short program and went on attack in the free to finish 11th overall.

That left other moments that didn’t always have to do with medals, although medals were sometimes rewards:  a transformed Takahito Mura winning the men’s event and weeping in the kiss and cry; tiny 16-year-old Satoko Miyahara winning bronze with a standing ovation and finally, the free dance of unheralded team Elisabeth Paradis and Francois-Xavier Ouellette. They finished seventh of eight, got a partial standing ovation, made people weep and Tessa Virtue to claim their “Un peu plus haut” her favourite of the night. Sometimes it’s not all about medals, although they help.

Takahito Mura takes gold in men’s; Meagan Duhamel & Eric Radford win first ever Grand Prix event

KELOWNA, B.C. – A seismic shift happened in men’s figure skating yesterday at the Skate Canada International Grand Prix.

A transformed Takahito Mura of Japan came out in the men’s final, and threw down such a powerful gauntlet that surely, Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu must be watching.

Mura broke down in tears in the kiss and cry (that’s what that corral is for) after his marks popped up: 173.24 for the free – a mark he thought he’d never attain – and 255.81 overall. Then he had to wait for two-time European champion Javier Fernandez of Spain to skate, but Fernandez left marks on the table, looking as if he was playing to catch up.

And Mura won. By almost 11 points.

With Daisuke Takahashi retired, Japan still has its Hanyus and its mighty Tatsuki Machidas, but now count Mura in the mix. Japanese nationals will be as hard fought as ever.

Mura had always looked like a bit of a hammer-thrower in the past to be sure, thundering through his jumps with power and thud. But he came out in the free skate dressed elegantly, as the Phantom of the Opera – a completely different look for him altogether. And he’d worked during last summer with Ilia Kulik, who helped him with the technique on his jumps and also with basic skating skills. And who had sweeter technique than Kulik, who would land his jumps with unparalleled softness of the knee? Mura is landing his jumps with a new softness of the knee.

His father/coach Takashi Mura (who skated singles and pairs at the world level in the early 1980s) said his son now rotates his jumps more completely, allowing him to land more correctly with the knee.

“I really thought it would take more time to reach 170,” Mura said after his performance. “I was really very surprised. It’s the result of a lot of hard work.  I have learned that hard work will translate into high scores.”

Now he knows that there are folk who will expect more of him. “There will be a lot of pressure for the next competition,” he said. Father Mura says he cannot rest on his laurels, there is more work to be done, and the Japanese nationals will sort out the Japanese men.

And it’s not just about the jumps for Mura. “It has taken me a long time to get to this point,” he said. “It took me a long time to figure out how to express myself and what Takahito Mura is about.” He admitted that Phantom of the Opera may have been overdone in the past, but although it was difficult to find his own Phantom, he has.

Fernandez had an off day, lost marks on all of the three quads he planned, (he fell out of a quad Salchow) and finished second with 158.51 for the free and 244.87 overall. Max Aaron, a former U.S. champion, took one step to regaining his confidence and his U.S. title back by finishing third.

Andrei Rogozine finished ninth overall after two-footing and under-rotating his quad, while Canadian bronze medalist Liam Firus got angry with himself for his short program the day before, and came out strongly enough to get a partial standing ovation. He finished ahead of Rogozine in the free, but was 11th overall.

In winning the pairs gold medal, Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford won their first Grand Prix title (after three silvers) and are the first Canadian pair to win a Grand Prix since 2007. They scored a season’s best of 210.74 points and feel there are many other opportunities to improve.

Duhamel stepped out of a throw quad Salchow, but they kept up their goal of accomplishing it at every event this season. The Chinese team of Sui Wenjing and Cong Han – using the choreography of Canadian David Wilson – landed a deft quad twist and finished second with 184.64 points, about 26 points behind the Canadians.

Russians Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov took the bronze medal at their first senior Grand Prix, the first time they have ever skated in Canada.

Canadians Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro landed in sixth place with 158.82 points. Brittany Jones and Joshua Reagan skated to a personal best in the free program for an overall score of 146.77 and finished in seventh place.

Golden skate in Kelowna for Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje

KELOWNA, B.C. – Hard to believe, but Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje had never won Grand Prix gold before.

They have been fractions of points away from so many major achievements: making an Olympic team, winning a national title, and most recently, winning a world title last spring (missing out by .02 points). They’ve had a wild, long string of seconds and thirds at Grand Prix events in recent years.

This time they left nothing to chance, steering to victory at the Skate Canada International by almost 20 points with a light touch, skating to Max Richter’s version of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.” With it came a standing ovation.

“Between this and Nebelhorn Trophy, we’ve never won so many gold medals,” Weaver said. “It’s kind of cool now.”

Poje intends to do it again.

“I think it has been our goal now, and it feels attainable and it doesn’t take a miracle to get us here,” Weaver said.

It wasn’t as easy as it looked. There was the pressure of being the top-ranked team coming into the event, with no Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir in the dressing room. And the pressure of making so many changes, more than they thought, to their free dance, to a lift, to a spin, to transitions, to many little nuances that mean so much since the Nebelhorn Trophy. It felt like they were putting out a new program, but best to make the changes now than later.

“Their not being there made us realize that we need to step into the spotlight with confidence in putting out our programs and everything that we have trained in the off-season,” Poje said. Conquering the pressure this week will be a confidence booster for the future, Weaver said.

“Now success feels attainable”, she added. “It doesn’t take a miracle to get us here.”

Weaver and Poje are the head of a powerful Canadian dance team. Proof of that came with Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier bounding up two places after a mistake in the short program, into winning a silver medal at Skate Canada International.

Elisabeth Paradis and Francois-Xavier Ouellette came from nowhere to look like a threat as well. Although they finished seventh of eight at Skate Canada, Virtue and Moir are impressed with their work from the school of Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon. (Virtue and Moir want to try out their choreography, too.)

“It’s an amazing thing,” Weaver said. “Success breeds success.”

The bronze medal was taken by Americans Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, who had been second after the short.

There were other standing ovations, too. Tiny 16-year-old Satoko Miyahara skated to “Miss Saigon” and had the crowd on its feet. She took the bronze medal in the women’s event with 181.75 points and a couple of under-rotations.

American Ashley Wagner got one too, for Moulin Rouge routine (and some under-rotations of her own) and she ended with the silver medal and 186.00 points.

The gold medalist was 16-year-old Russian Anna Pogorilaya, who had no under-rotations and earned 191.81 points. She looked shocked. Last year, she had surprised everybody to win Cup of China.

Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford win short program in Kelowna

KELOWNA, B.C. – It didn’t take long. As soon as Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford took their final pose, the crowd stood up, cheering, weaving Canadian flags.

Duhamel and Radford won the short program at the Skate Canada International with a season’s best of 72.70 points, about 7 ½ points more than Chinese skaters Sui Wenjing and Han (Mr. Personality) Cong.

(A note to put things in perspective: some elements this year – the lift and the death spiral – are worth less than they were last year.  Duhamel and Radford’s previous best score from last year was in the 76-point range so their effort here puts them in the range of that previous lofty score at the end of last season.)

The Canadians skated to “Un peu plus haut” and the wave of feeling that they created in the rink was the real triumph. Their goal, they said, was to feel happy with the way the skated, and hang the score. Mission accomplished.

In third place is the young Russian team of Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov with 64.14 points and a triple twist that defied gravity.

Radford admitted he’d never felt so calm going into a competition. Last year, their first event of the year was Skate Canada. It was indescribably tense. “Last year it felt like a big deal,” he said. “We knew we had to be good. We knew we had to make a splash with our first competition. But this time, it felt more like we want to give a good performance, like with Stars on Ice. When we concentrate on that, our focus is more on ourselves and not what it all means.”

It works.

Still, they didn’t take for granted their competition. The Chinese team had finished ahead of them last year. “They are there to give us our push to make sure we give our best,” Duhamel said “At the same time, we had our focus primarily on ourselves.”

On landing the triple Lutz jump, Duhamel almost struck the wall, but it didn’t faze her. Without Patrick Chan and Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir around to take most of the focus at the Skate Canada events, Duhamel and Radford have now stepped forward in prominence. They are taking full responsibility for that position.

“For the last four years, we were always the ones with the outside chance of having a bronze medal somewhere,” Radford said. “And now I think we’ve done a good job of stepping into that limelight, especially with that quad. It’s exciting for us to have a little bit more focus on us and especially on pairs in Canada. “

Speaking of other pairs, there were two other Canadian teams, trying to show off new partnerships with varying success. Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro were making their first appearance in a competition and finished sixth of eight, failing to receive any points for a death spiral.  Marinaro said he bobbled when he put his toe pick for the rotation. It was a pity, because they say, it’s their strongest element.

They’ve been together about five months. Moore-Towers’ face fell when she saw their mark: 53.79.

Their training mates, Brittany Jones and Josh Reagan are in seventh place with 49.80 points and say they were pleased with what they did.

In the men’s event, Javier Fernandez of Spain is leading with 86.18 after he doubled a triple Axel, but his Black Betty routine was a crowd pleaser and well received. Takahito Mura of Japan intended to do a quad-triple, but didn’t land the quad strongly enough to tack it onto the end. He had the presence of mind to put the triple toe loop on the end of a triple Lutz and finished with 82.57 points in second.

In third place is Konstantin Menshov, the oldest competitor at age 31. He landed two quads, but doubled his triple Axel for 81.70 points.

Andrei Rogozine heard only last Monday that he had the assignment for Skate Canada. It pumped him up. He took out a quad attempt, juggled his elements around, landed them all and finished ninth with 70.95 points. Canadian bronze medalist Liam Firus fell on a triple Axel and is 10th of 11 with 64.94 points.

Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje lead after short dance at Skate Canada International

KELOWNA, B.C. – Halloween night at Skate Canada International. Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje came dressed to the nines, in full splendid costume, and won the short dance by almost nine points.

There was no trick or treat about it. For almost every element they received bonuses of +2 and regrettably, lost a point for an extended lift. But their Paso Doble otherwise took flight, along with some healthy component marks as Weaver embodied a vermillion cape, and Poje the decorated toreador, sported jewel-encrusted epaulets and colourful embroidery up the yang yang. A work of art those costumes were.

They’ve come to the table with elements that are almost all new. “This is a time to push the boundaries and push ourselves and come up with new stuff,” Poje said. “And we’ve done that.”

They’ve renovated lifts. As Poje says: “We’ve put a backsplash on it.”

They’ve coming into this season battle-tested and ready for anything. “We’ve been through everything it seems,” Weaver said. “But that just makes us more confident in our partnership, in that we can rely on each other when we need to. What really matters is that the injury taught us so much about efficiency and really enjoying ourselves.”

The best part: there is still room for Weaver and Poje to maximize their levels. They fell short of a world title last March by only .02 points.

The 2011 world junior champions Ksenia Monko and Kirill Khaliavin of Russia are in second place while Americans Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue are in third, with only six solid weeks of training behind them. Hubbell underwent surgery for a torn labrum that hampered her last season, but complications ensued. They did not put out the programs on Friday that they had hoped, but it’s a start.

Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, eighth in the world last year, let slip a chance to finish in the top three when Poirier fumbled a twizzle that featured an outstretched leg. Close to the boards, he couldn’t pull the leg in front of him and it went awry. They got only a level one for that.

The charming Elisabeth Paradis and Francois-Xavier Ouellette, fourth at their first Grand Prix, Skate America, last week, are sitting in eighth place, with a miscue on a twizzle.

Russian women finished first and third in the women’s short program, with 16-year-old Anna Pogorilaya winning the event (with mistakes) and a revived Alena Leonova, 23, finishing third with an endearing version of Charlie Chaplin. She wanted to do it, she said, because men and pair skaters had done such things – but no women. It was a delight.

Ashley Wagner, a two-time U.S. champion is in second place, skating to “Spartacus.”

Pogorilaya chalked up technical points as if they were going out of style with her triple Lutz – triple toe loop, although she stumbled out of a double Axel. Wagner had higher component marks, about 3 ½ points more of them and with 63.86 points, was only 1.42 points behind Pogorilaya.

Leonova is third with 62.54. She, too, had higher component marks than Pogorilaya.

Leonova says she pays no attention to the multitudes of talented Russian skaters much younger than she is. She continues to skate, she says, because she loves it. It was tough for her to miss the Sochi Olympics, but she vows to continue to the 2018 Games in South Korea.

SCI 2014 OUR ATHLETE AMBASSADOR: CRAIG BUNTIN

By Debbi Wilkes

Craig Buntin, Skate Canada International’s Athlete Ambassador, was 10 years old and had never been on a pair of skates when his family moved from Vancouver to Kelowna.

He soon discovered that skating was BIG in Kelowna. The entire community and particularly all his classmates seemed to live and breathe hockey. Of course, like every child, he wanted to belong and suddenly, learning to skate went to the top of his priority list. He’d never stepped on the ice but he was hungry to discover what made skating so great in the eyes of his new friends.

His Mom joined him up at the local Memorial Arena where the Kelowna Figure Skating Club operated.

Next he needed hockey skates. Off to Canadian Tire.

That first CanSkate lesson showed Craig that he was different. First of all he was several years older than everyone else, older and bigger, but he recognized that he was also keener and more motivated. If he was going to learn to skate, he had to do it fast. And by the end of the first week he was already skating backwards and doing simple jumps to test his daring despite being in hockey skates.

He realizes now that he fell in love with skating the second his blades hit the ice.

Part of this was due to the attitude of his first coach, Karen Bond, a patient and caring teacher whose love for the sport was contagious. (To this day if Craig is in Kelowna, he’ll make a trip to the rink to visit with Karen.)

As a result, Craig soon recognized that it was figure skating rather than hockey that was so exciting. That meant another trip to Canadian Tire to select figure skates … but they were all white! That necessitated visits to every shoemaker in town to see if those white skates could be dyed black. Everybody said, “No!” probably because his skates were likely made of plastic rather than leather. No dye would take. Finally one shoemaker agreed to see what he could do.

“I think he used black spray paint” says Craig, “but I didn’t care, my skates looked great.”

With his new black figure skates, Craig was on his way. The adjustment to those new skates, however, wasn’t as easy as he thought and he found himself tripping over his toe picks a lot, something that he admits now taught him quickly how to balance and control his speed and edges. It was either learn to balance or end up face first on the ice.

It wasn’t long before the first coaching bill arrived too, the moment when both Craig and his Mom realized that skating was an expensive sport. As a single parent, Craig’s Mom knew this could be a disappointing moment for her enthusiastic son and sat Craig down for a family meeting to discuss what this meant for the future of his involvement in the sport.

Deep down she wanted him to continue with skating recognizing that the sport teaches great skills beyond the athletics, building character and teaching determination.

At 10 years of age and after just one week of lessons, Craig already knew what he wanted to do and immediately announced to his Mom, “I’m going to the Olympics.”

If the Olympics were really his goal, his Mom agreed to support him … on one condition. He had to work hard. This was a defining moment in young Craig’s life.

The rest, they say, is history. Craig’s mother never had to remind him about their deal.

The hard work she described did indeed take him to the Olympic Games in 2006 in Turino, Italy. It also took him to the top of the national podium where he and his partner, Valerie Marcoux, won three consecutive Canadian Pair titles from 2004 to 2006; to four World Championships with Val and to two with partner Meagan Duhamel.

Craig was proud of his Kelowna roots and continued to represent the Kelowna Skating Club all the way to the national championships. Even after he changed his affiliation, the club was always there for support offering words of encouragement and inspiration.

Looking back on his career, Craig identifies sport as a guiding light in his life. It was skating that taught him all the important lessons and helped in developing all aspects of his personality, teaching him about winning and losing gracefully, setting goals, and supporting everyone involved, even your competitors. It also released his creativity to the point where he now believes there is a sense of artistry in everything.

Craig was 18 when Skate Canada International was held in Kamloops in 1998. He remembers sitting in the stands watching the event, wanting to be out there on the ice and being inspired by the competition. He also remembers thinking back to when he was starting out, 10 years old, an age in skating considered too old to realistically make the Olympic Games.

But like all great champions, he refused to let anyone else write his story, believing that wherever you’re competing, you’re closer to your dream than you think.