The dressing of a synchronized skating team

Deanna Wright is the most intrepid of costume designers.

Ballpoint needles, sergers, stretchy fabrics, scissors, pins and fingers all fly when the synchronized skaters of the world need to step out, spiffed appropriately, at competition time.

And that’s where Wright comes in. Imagine her task: costumes for 21 skaters per team: 20 skirts, (and one pant, in the case of Nexxice, which has one man on the team); 21 bodices, millions of stitches and no time to breathe.

This past season, Wright designed the costumes for 19 synchro teams. NINETEEN. That’s 399 sets of frills and kirtles, and cuffs, knickers and gores. And that’s all when she wasn’t designing the frocks of the Sweet Adeline chorus groups – like North Metro, which this year had 157 members from 26 to 89 years old, singing barber-shop style, in a chorus. No wonder that Wright has contractors working for her, to do the cutting and the sewing.

Wright was able to catch her breath for a moment this week, after the Canadian synchro teams left for the world championships, which will be held this weekend in Italy. But already, she’s had a meeting with a coach who wants Wright to write her team in for the fall. “It’s good to know that it’s going to start again,” said the Mississauga stylist.

Strangely enough, Wright retired three years ago from all of her activities: a skating retail store, and a manufacturing business. “I thought I’d had enough,” she said. But it wasn’t long before Stephanie Klein, coach of the Leaside Synergy synchro team came knocking on her door. She’d just started to work with a new team and said: “Please Deanna, would you do my dresses?”

There aren’t many like Wright, with her knowledge of design and fabric, how to make patterns, how to cut the line just so – and skating. Wright had skated when she was young, getting her gold test in dance and diamond tests too, and then she skated again as an adult. Once to save time, she’d used a fabric supplier that had done synchro teams before to churn out a costume. But the sample didn’t look anything like the design.

So Wright made up the pattern herself and the coach loved it. It’s important, Wright, said, to listen closely to what they want, and to be able to translate it into reality. And that means having an appreciation of how the costume will move on the ice. “There are people who are pattern makers, but if they haven’t been involved in the sport or worked with the fabrics as much, they don’t understand how it’s going to translate on the ice,” she said. The dress has to hit the right line.

After speaking to the coaches, and doing some research, Wright presents a concept and illustrations, with fabric, for approval, measures up each skater on a team, makes a sample, grades the pattern for the different sizes, and fits the costumes to the individual skater. While contractors do the sewing and cutting, Wright and Linda Arnold, a former customer whose daughter was a competitive ice dancer, do the finishing.

There isn’t much time to work with these skaters, so the fur flies when the costumes are sewn. Just gluing crystals onto outfits for a team can translate into a 40-hour work week. (It takes a couple of hours a dress.) “When you’re in the middle of it, you work 12 to 14-hour days, seven days a week, in the fall,” she said.

Favourites? Two years ago, Wright did a Spiderman costume for the Leaside Synergy junior team. She crocheted a spider web, and fastened it to the open back of the dress with corded elastic. The front had crystals in the shape of a web. The skirt was a black lace mesh with a hint of glitter that was shaped like a web. The costumes always drew compliments. Wright was proud of them.

She has faced challenges. She had an intermediate team, skating to Alice in Wonderland, and the image of the clock was very important to the design. Wright hand painted the Roman numerals of the clock in the story around the border of the skirt. It took forever, but the effect was stunning.

And finally, Nexxice, her most visible creation and a favourite for a world gold medal this week. Because there is one man on the team, the female skaters always wear stockings the colour of Lee Chandler’s pants, so that they blend together as a unit.

Wright’s path to synchro took many turns, but all proved to be valuable steps for the work she does today. She was a home economics teacher in Alberta, teaching clothing and textiles. She returned to Ontario to take a four-year course in fashion at Ryerson, but she “couldn’t learn fast enough,” so she started her own children’s wear business.

After the first year, she was already selling children’s clothes to 56 retail outlets. The recession interfered.

She went to work for a fashion consulting firm, Sally Formy & Associates, which designed clothing for high-end hotels such as the Four Seasons. Wright had accounts with higher volume clients, such as grocery stores, P. Lawson Travel and Petro Canada. For many years, if you drove into a Petro Canada station, you would see an employee in a uniform designed by Wright.

Eventually, Wright decided she would start her own business and combine the things she loved the most: figure skating and design. She initially thought she’d be creating club jackets and pants, but she did have a flair for designing dresses, and that side of the business took off. She did all of the costumes for a Mississauga ice show, which effectively launched her business with synchro teams. She also had a retail store, Dress Wright On Ice, but closed the store in 2009, and continued manufacturing costumes for a few years before she retired.

Some retirement.

Beverley Smith

2015 Skate Canada Challenge Heads to Sportplexe 4 Glaces Pierrefonds in Montreal

OTTAWA, ON: Skate Canada announced today that its qualifying event for the national championships will be held for the first time in Montreal, Que. The 2015 Skate Canada Challenge will take place from December 3-7, 2014 at Sportplexe 4 Glaces Pierrefonds.

Over 500 of the finest skaters from across Canada will participate in the 2015 Skate Canada Challenge. Skaters qualify to compete through their respective sectional championships.  For novice, junior and senior skaters, this is the only opportunity to qualify for the Canadian Tire National Skating Championships, to be held in January 2015. The 2015 Canadian Pre-Novice Champions in men’s, women’s, pair and ice dance are determined at this event.

“We are excited to bring this competition to Montreal.  It’s an opportunity to see how young skaters who began in our CanSkate program are now competing at such a high level. This event is such an important stepping stone for all of our competitive skaters striving to make that next step to the national championships,” said Dan Thompson, Skate Canada CEO. “All of the components to host an event of this importance and magnitude are in place: a tremendous volunteer team, terrific hotels and a fabulous venue. We know it will be a wonderful experience for everyone.”

“It’s an honour for Montreal to host such a high calibre skating competition. In addition to allowing Montrealers to cheer on the best Canadian athletes in this discipline, the event will result in significant economic benefits for West Island businesses,” says Yves Lalumière, President and CEO of Tourisme Montreal. “We are delighted that our dealings with Skate Canada to attract this event to Montreal have been successful.”

More than 550 hotel rooms are used for the event, which generates economic activity to the region. At the senior level, many members of Canada’s National Team often compete in the event, as well as the junior athletes who have competed internationally.

 

Nexxice in third spot after short program at ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships

COURMAYEUR, Italy – Nexxice from the Burlington (Ont.) Skating Club is in third place after Friday’s short program at the ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships.

Two teams from Finland lead the field with Marigold Ice Unity first at 76.14 points and Rockettes second at 74.98 points. Nexxice, which performed the Midnight Waltz from Cinderella, produced five level-four elements and follows closely at 74.85.

“We were pleased with how we skated,” said Nexxice co-captain Lee Chandler, the first male ever to skate with a senior team in Canada. “We took to the ice very confident. We displayed great teamwork and showed some calm moves and effortless glides. We want to come out with the same kind of focus for the free skate.”

The other Nexxice skaters are Shannon Aikman-Jones, Maria Albanese, Ellicia Beaudoin, Kelly Britten, Courtney Broadhurst, Anna Cappuccitti, Carla Coveart, Samantha Defino, Yu Hanamoto, Victoria Kwan, Katia Leininger, Kristen Loritz, Bethany Rees, Renee Richardson, Victoria Smith, Kiersten Tietz, Jillian Tyler, Emily Van Den Akker and Julia Uhlitzsch.

Nexxice were the 2009 world champions and have earned silver the past two years at worlds.

A second Canadian entry, Les Suprêmes from St-Léonard, Que., are in eighth spot at 63.63 out of 23 entries. The Suprêmes skaters are Élodie Acheron, Audrey Bédard, Karyane Bélisle, Lydia Bergeron, Jessica Bernardo, Lou-Ann Bezeau-Tremblay, Josyane Cholette, Sara Irma Corona, Alexandra DelVecchio, Laurie Desilets, Maria-Victoria Langon, Sarah Leblond, Sophie-Anne Lemay, Clémence Lea Marduel, Agathe Sigrid Merlier, An Kim Nguyen, Chloé Perrin, Geneviève Rougeau, Marina Rousseau and Claudia Sforzin.

Competition ends Saturday with the free skate.

Full results: http://www.isuresults.com/results/wcsys2014/index.htm

Louis Daignault

Nexxice and Les Suprêmes en route to 2014 ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships

OTTAWA, ON: Canada will send two synchronized skating teams to Courmayeur, Italy, to compete at the 2014 ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships from April 4-5, 2014. The Courmayeur Forum Sport Center will host 23 teams from 18 countries as they vie for synchronized skating’s world title.

Nexxice and Les Suprêmes qualified for the event by winning gold and silver, respectively at the 2014 Skate Canada Synchronized Skating Championships.

The 2009 world champions, Nexxice, won silver at this event the past two years, and placed fifth in 2011 and 2010. The eight-time defending Canadian champions represent the Burlington Skating Club and are coached by Shelley Simonton Barnett and Anne Schelter.

Canadian silver medallists Les Suprêmes placed sixth at this event last season, seventh in 2012, and sixth in 2011. The four-time consecutive Canadian silver medallists and  2003 world bronze medallists represent CPA Saint-Léonard and are coached by Marilyn Langlois, assisted by Pascal Denis and Amélie Brochu.

Karen Robertson of Chelsea, Que., will be the team leader at the event. The Canadian medical staff onsite will be Dr. Ed Pilat of Winnipeg, Man., and physiotherapist Mireille Landry of Toronto, Ont. Diane Kamagianis of Mission, Ont., will be the sole Canadian official.

Synchro skaters from all over the world come together to chase a dream

All 32 blades are whispering over the ice of the Burlington Skating Centre, home of Nexxice, one of the world’s best synchronized skating teams. As they sweep past, in squadrons of four, all in spiral position, all inches apart, the effect is powerful. There are chills marching up an arm.

A team like no other, Nexxice is putting the finishing touches on training for the world championships in Italy. The first North Americans to break the Finland-Sweden stronghold on worlds in 2009, Nexxice is out to display the goods, come April 4 (short program) and April 5 (free skate) in the picturesque mountain town, Courmayeur, in northern Italy.

Last year, Nexxice finished second by only .52 points to a Finnish team at the world championships in Boston. They delighted the noisy crowd with their Die Fledermaus program, dressed in gold ruffles – and particularly at the end where three women lifted their only male team member, Lee Chandler, above their heads. The crowd went wild at the cheekiness of it all.

What sets this team apart from their world competitors isn’t necessarily the lifts and the tricks: it’s the very high quality of their skating skills and edges, thanks to choreographer Anne Schelter, a Canadian so respected in international circles, that she has given seminars on “The Second Mark” for the ISU. Her “Annie’s Edges” videos and practice routines – all aimed at improving skating skills – are highly sought around the world. “I didn’t know there were DVDs,” wrote one coach. “I’d buy them in a heartbeat, sight unseen.” It is said that when the music comes on in a rink from her “Circle Cycle” exercises, the entire rink stops what it is doing and joins in.

Schelter began watching synchro skating when Marie Lundmark, Finnish chair of the ISU synchronized skating technical committee asked her to do a seminar on the Second Mark for the synchro judges. “I got pretty hooked,” Schelter said. “These skaters were flying around the ice.”

She’s been working with Nexxice for eight years now. Her first plot: she wanted to bring more real skating to the game, so skaters would move across the ice more easily and effortlessly. “I had a great group to try out my stuff on,” she said, meaning Nexxice.

Nexxice became special when Schelter joined the team, said coach Shelley Burnett. “She has created something unique. She has turned it into more of a skating sport and she has really changed the face of synchronized skating for the better. She put the focus on edges and on good skating with beautiful flow.”

Now, Schelter says that the standard of synchro skating has risen so much that the requirements for the step sequence are as hard as any of the other disciplines, their lifts more dangerous. “And our job is to make it look easy,” Schelter said.

Nexxice has made such a mark internationally, that skaters from around the world seek to join its ranks. (All they have to do is get permission from their national federation to skip over to Canada.) On the team are: Yu Hanamoto, 20, who loves Yuna Kim and Joannie Rochette, and is from Japan; Katia Leininger, 23, from France, and Julia Uhlitzsch, 24, from Germany, who got a work permit for a year to come to Canada to skate for a world class team (“Nexxice is famous for its special style of skating,” says she, from a country with only two synchro teams – and hers has finished second the previous two years); to learn better English and to make that job at the pizza restaurant pay for the venture.

Most of the team members are from the Greater Toronto Area, but there is one from Sherbrooke, Que., and the trailblazing Chandler, 23, came from Boissevain, Manitoba and has been with Nexxice for four years. He is the first male ever to skate with a senior team in Canada.

“It was definitely a little bit different in the first year,” he said, referring to media attention. (European teams often have two or three male team members. There are some males on junior teams in Canada.)

“But we’ve grown together and it is one big family. I found that after a few years, it doesn’t matter.” He uprooted himself from Manitoba to come to Nexxice to improve his skating. Manitoba has synchro skating, but had never had a competitive team, even at the novice level.

“It was just an experience to compete for my country,” he said. Now he works full time at a Lululemon store and shares a townhouse with three other members of the team. They all make financial sacrifices to skate.

Kristen Loritz, 21, of Toronto, six years with Nexxice, remembers the first time she tried out, knowing nothing about synchro.  “It was very different from anything I’ve ever done,” she said. “You may think it’s easy, but when you get thrown in there, it’s a whole different story.” Loritz lives at home and studies communications at University of Toronto.

Becky Tyler, 22, of Etobicoke, Ont., likes the atmosphere of being “each other’s best friends” and having the support while competing internationally. “We look up to [Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir], and we are constantly in awe of what they do in their programs, like edge work and knee action and things that we can bring into our programs as well. I think our team really focuses on pushing the boundaries on skating skills. We like to keep it strong and poised, and I think our confidence level while we skate is what sets us apart.”

Anna Cappuccitti, 15, of Brampton, Ont., is the youngest member of the team and a first-year member. “It’s a really big accomplishment making the team,” she said. “It’s very hard. I know when I was little, I always used to look up to Nexxice. They got to travel the world, doing what you love every day, so that was just a dream. Now a dream come true.”

Already tryouts are starting for next year. A skater from Australia has sent a request to try out for the team. It’s that special.

Photo: Jim Coveart

Beverley Smith

Weaver and Poje win silver in ice dance thriller at ISU World Figure Skating Championships

SAITAMA, Japan – Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Waterloo, Ont., won the silver medal on Saturday in ice dancing finishing a mere 0.02 points from top spot at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships.

Canada ends the four-day competition with two medals. On Thursday, Meaghan Duhamel of Lively, Ont., and Eric Radford of Balmertown, Ont., earned bronze in pairs.

In ice dancing only 1.05 points separated the top four finishers. Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte of Italy held on to top spot despite the fourth best free dance of the day with 175.43 points. Weaver and Poje ranked third in the free and followed at 175.41 to remain second. Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat of France were third at 175.37.

‘’I’m just feeling ecstatic right now,’’ said Poje. ‘’This one moment is because of the combination of all the hard work that we’ve had, especially over these past couple of years, and showing by our grit and determination that we wanted to be up near the top. I feel that we deserve to be up here now.’’

‘’I can’t believe that we performed the free dance today the best we have all year under the pressure of the circumstances of the top teams being so close,’’ added Weaver. ‘’I’m just so proud of Andrew and I and the work we have done this year.’’

Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Toronto took eighth place and Alexandra Paul and Mitchell Islam of Barrie, Ont., were 10th.

‘’We’re really pleased with the performance,’’ said Poirier. ‘’ I don’t think it was 100 per cent perfect, but I don’t think we have any regrets about how it went. ‘’

In women’s competition, Mao Asada of Japan won the gold medal. Kaetlyn Osmond of Marystown, N.L., was 11th and Gabrielle Daleman of Newmarket, Ont., 13th.

‘’It wasn’t the performance I wanted to have,’’ said Osmond, eighth after the short. ‘’I love this program, I have loved skating it and I really wanted to show it off tonight.’’

Full results: http://www.isuresults.com/results/wc2014/index.htm

Louis Daignault

Sizzling short dance puts Weaver and Poje second at ISU World Figure Skating Championships

SAITAMA, Japan – Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Waterloo, Ont., are only 0.5 points from top spot after the short dance on Friday at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships.

Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte of Italy are first at 69.70, Weaver and Poje follow at 69.20 and Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat of France are third at 68.20.

“This is definitely where we want to be,” said Poje. “We are in the attacking position of the top spot. We feel that we’ve put great work into this season and we want to end on a high note and put out two solid performances.”

Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Toronto are 10th and Alexandra Paul and Mitchell Islam of Barrie, Ont., 11th.

It was a 1-2 finish for Japan in men’s competition with Yuzuru Hanyu earning the gold medal with 282.59 points and Tatsuki Machida the silver at 282.26. Javier Fernandez of Spain was third at 275.93.

The Canadian men were much better in the free skate. Kevin Reynolds of Coquitlam, B.C., climbed from 15th to 11th, world junior champion Nam Nguyen of Toronto from 16th to 12th and Elladj Balde of Pierrefonds, Que., from 22nd to 17th.

“I was able to stay on my feet throughout the jumps, and that really helped because there weren’t so many major disruptions in the program,” said Reynolds, who ranked 10th for the free skate. “The whole season was a giant learning experience, and I can take from that knowing I can still skate my best even though I’m not feeling even close to where I’d like to be.”

Nguyen executed a triple Axel triple-triple toe combo for the first time in a competitive program.

“This week my Axels weren’t on, so I was really worried,” said Nguyen, who ranked ninth for the free skate. “As I approached the first Axel, the adrenaline started building up and I went for it. It was amazing.”

Competition ends Saturday with the free dance and women’s free skate.

Louis Daignault

Weaver, Poje ready to step into ice dance spotlight

For the better part of their career, Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje have been riding shotgun to Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, patiently waiting for their chance to take the wheel.

That moment seems to have arrived.

With the towering flame at the Sochi Olympics no longer burning, Weaver, 24, and Poje, 27, have turned their attention to Saitama, Japan, where they are part of the 17-member team wearing the Canadian colours at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships.

For Weaver and Poje, this week signals both an end and a beginning – the end of another season, the beginning of what may become the defining chapter of their careers.

This time around, they are entering worlds as the de facto number one ice dance team in Canada. Virtue and Moir are passing on worlds this year, and while nothing official has been announced, the general consensus is the six-time Canadian ice dance champions and 2010 Olympic gold medallists will retire from competitive skating in the coming weeks.

Opportunity knocks for Weaver and Poje, and they are ready to walk right in.

“Everyone knew there would be a day when Tessa and Scott, Meryl (Davis) and Charlie (White) weren’t going to grace the competitive rinks but now that it’s here, it’s like ‘wait, what are we going to do now?’ It’s a little strange to not have them there on the list.

“We’re ready. I feel like we’re ready to take over.”

Not only are Virtue and Moir taking a pass on the world championships, but Davis and White, a month after claiming Olympic gold in Sochi, will not chase a third world crown in Japan.

These world championships represent the unofficial changing of the guard in ice dance, and Weaver and Poje, coming off a seventh place showing in Sochi, want to make sure they make their presence felt early on. For one week at least, Virtue, Moir, Davis and White aren’t putting up an imposing roadblock on the path to the podium.

“It’s going to be a free for all,” says Weaver. “I really do believe everyone is in this predicament where anything can happen.”

“We definitely want to make a great impression on the judges, because they’ll be wondering who will step up to the plate,” adds Poje.

It is unique a world championships as you will find, with the top two teams on the planet taking a rain check. But Weaver and Poje aren’t focused on who isn’t in Saitama. A world title is a world title. There won’t be an asterisk in the history books next to the 2014 world champions because Virtue, Moir, Davis and White didn’t compete.

As far as timing goes, Weaver and Poje know this is the chance they’ve been waiting for, and they’re ready to meet the challenge.

“We’ve always prided ourselves on being the underdogs, and we’ve been working so hard these past couple of weeks – we’ve been working so hard this whole season – because we knew this moment could be a reality,” says Weaver.

“We’ve been preparing our whole lives for these types of moments.”

Marty Henwood

Duhamel and Radford win bronze at ISU World Figure Skating Championships

SAITAMA, Japan – For the second straight year, Meaghan Duhamel of Lively, Ont., and Eric Radford of Balmertown, Ont., won the bronze medal in pairs on Thursday posting personal best scores at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships.

Olympic bronze medallists Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany took the gold with 224.88 points. Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov of Russia were second at 215.92 and Duhamel and Radford followed at 210.84.

“In some ways I think that this bronze medal feels even better than the last one,” said Radford, seventh with his partner at the Olympics. “This season was just a lot more difficult and we had a lot more downs. We had to really pull ourselves together after the Olympics.”

Kirsten Moore-Towers of St. Catharines, Ont., and Dylan Moscovitch of Toronto produced the third best long program to climb from sixth to fourth at 205.52.

“That felt awesome,” said Moore-Towers, fifth with Moscovitch in Sochi. “I felt that we really knocked off the elements one by one. We stayed calm. Probably with about four elements left I had to really tell myself not to get ahead. Because I was excited, and all I ever want in skating is that final moment.”

Paige Lawrence of Kennedy, Sask., and Rudi Swiegers of Kipling, Sask., were 12th.

In the women’s short program, Kaetlyn Osmond of Marystown, N.L., stands eighth with Gabrielle Daleman of Newmarket, Ont., 14th

“I was really excited with the program,” said Osmond. “It was really comfortable and to be able to pull off the (triple) flip, (triple) toe and the (triple) Lutz in a short program for the first time (in competition), it meant a lot to me to be able to do that here at worlds. Even with a slip up on the spin, I’m really happy with the program.”

Duhamel/Radford, Moore-Towers/Moscovitch and Osmond helped Canada earn the silver medal in the team event at the Olympics.

Competition continues Friday with the men’s free skate and the short dance.

Full results: http://www.isuresults.com/results/wc2014/index.htm.

Louis Daignault

Duhamel and Radford second after short program at world championships

SAITAMA, Japan – Meaghan Duhamel of Lively, Ont., and Eric Radford of Balmertown, Ont., will chase for gold at the ISU Word Figure Skating Championships after placing second in Wednesday’s pairs short program.

Olympic bronze medallists Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany hold a slim lead at 79.02 just ahead of the Canadian champions at 77.01 – a season’s best score. Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov of Russia are third at 76.15. Less than eight points separate the top-five.

‘’It was amazing,’’ said Radford, who took world bronze last year with Duhamel. ‘’We wish we could skate like that all the time. Most of this season, we tried so hard to please everyone and fight for every point. Today we were a lot more relaxed and it’s put us in a perfect spot heading into the free skate.’’

At the Games, Duhamel and Radford helped Canada to the silver medal in the team event and were seventh in pairs.

‘’We came back from the Olympics feeling like we had achieved all our goals,’’ said Duhamel. ‘’We feel very settled but from this point on we’re going to be competing for ourselves and not worry about every little point.’’

Kirsten Moore-Towers of St. Catharines, Ont., and Dylan Moscovitch of Toronto are sixth at 69.31 and Paige Lawrence of Kennedy, Sask.,  and Rudi Swiegers of Kipling, Sask.,  12th at 59.84. There were 23 entries. All three Canadian pairs competed at the Winter Olympics last month in Sochi.

Moore-Towers and Moscovitch also contributed to Canada’s team silver at the Olympics and were fifth in pairs. On Wednesday, the highlight was achieving a level three death spiral for the first time.

‘’We’ve worked hard all season to get our death spiral to a level three,’’ said Moore-Towers. ‘’It was nice to skate the program clean one last time. All those run-throughs paid off.’’

‘’I felt great, calm and confident,’’ added Moscovitch. ‘’The skate felt good. Our goal is to skate to clean programs and we are half-way there.’’

For Lawrence and Swiegers it is another valuable international experience.

‘’We’ve never been to the worlds before so it was an exciting prospect for us,’’ said Lawrence. ‘’It’s something we’ve been working towards for a long time now. In the free skate we want to carry the crowd’s interest from beginning to end and take them on a little journey.’’

In men’s competition, Tatsuki Machida of Japan stands first after the short program at 98.21 with Javier Fernandez of Spain second at 96.42 and Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan third at 91.24.

Kevin Reynolds of Coquitlam, B.C., is 15th, world junior champion Nam Nguyen of Toronto 16th and Elladj Balde of Pierrefonds, Que., 22nd.

‘’ I was feeling good going into the opening combination,’’ said Reynolds. ‘’ It was a little bit shaky and I just over-rotated it. I fought through the performance and I was fairly pleased. I’m going to do the best I can in the free and hopefully fight my way back up to the top ten.’’

Competition continues Thursday with the pairs free skate and women’s short program.

Full results: http://www.isuresults.com/results/wc2014/index.htm

Louis Daignault

Adult skaters descend on Regina for 2014 Skate Canada Adult Figure Skating Championships

OTTAWA, ON: Regina, Sask., will host hundreds of adult figure skaters this week as the 2014 Skate Canada Adult Figure Skating Championships takes place from March 28-30, at the Co-operators Centre at Evraz Place. Adult skaters from across the country will compete in four disciplines: free skate, interpretive, ice dance and synchronized skating.

“The Skate Canada Adult Figure Skating Championships is a fantastic showcase for our adult skaters. These individuals have truly embraced the skating for life principle, which reflects in their positive healthy lifestyle. Skate Canada and the City of Regina are looking forward to celebrating the accomplishments that these skaters have worked so hard to achieve,” said Leanna Caron, President, Skate Canada.

Tickets for the general public will be available for purchase at the Co-operators Centre at Evraz Place, at the registration desk. All-event tickets are $25.00 for adults and $15.00 for children 12 and under and seniors. Daily passes are $10.00 for adults and $5.00 for children 12 and under and seniors. Children five and under are free of charge.

Sky is the limit for newly-crowned world junior champion Nam Nguyen

As far as fleeting moments go, Nam Nguyen’s first – and to date, only – encounter with three-time world champion Patrick Chan was about as brief as they come.

Two years have passed since Nguyen, then a pint-sized 13-year-old competing as a senior for the first time at the national championships in Moncton, N.B., had a chance encounter with Chan in a hallway following practice.

“He asked me where the clock was,” the newly-crowned world junior men’s champion told reporters this week.

Cue the laughter.

“It was around the corner.”

With a world junior title now in his back pocket, thanks to a pair of dazzling programs in Sofia, Bulgaria, the skating prodigy – also the youngest Canadian to win national titles at the juvenile, pre-novice, novice and junior levels – is creating headlines of his own these days. There are even some inevitable whispers, as premature as they may be, that Nguyen could one day be Chan’s heir apparent.

“Some people say I might be the next Patrick Chan, and I think that’s a huge honour,” he adds with a wide smile.

“He’s the three-time world champion and Olympic silver medallist. That’s amazing.”

“When I saw the score, it was unbelievable, that’s the highest score I’ve ever (had) internationally,” said Nam, referring to the 217.06 total score he posted last weekend.

“When I sat down, there were so many things going on in my head. I saw the score and thought, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe it.’”

Less than a week after claiming the world junior title in Bulgaria, Nguyen will be back on a plane Saturday when he makes the trek across the Pacific for next week’s ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Tokyo. Making the trip with him will be Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu, the gold medallist from the Sochi Winter Olympics, and world bronze medallist Javier Fernandez of Spain. Nguyen trains with Hanyu and Fernandez at the Toronto Cricket Club under two-time Olympic silver medallist and 1987 world champion Brian Orser.

If recent history is any indication, Orser is becoming the coach with the Midas touch. Not only does he have Hanyu, Fernandez and Nam in his stable, but Orser also coached Yuna Kim to women’s gold at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010.

Orser’s been around long enough to know with the Sochi Games now in the rear-view mirror, it will likely signal a changing of the guard in men’s skating.

“This is going to be the new guard,” said Orser, referring to the top finishers last weekend in Bulgaria. “The top four or five – these are the guys we’re going to see down the road.

“There is a change now happening and it’s happening sooner than anybody thought.”

In Sofia, Nguyen skated a near-flawless free program punctuated with a pair of double Axels, but when he makes the jump to seniors –whenever that may be – Orser and Nguyen know they will have to up the ante. In the coming months, they plan on working on the quad before rolling it out next season.

But Nguyen’s handlers insist he isn’t on any sort of fast track.

“Winning a junior world title is not the end – it’s the start,” reasons Skate Canada High Performance Director Mike Slipchuk.

“I think this is a big building block for Nam.”

Stealing the show seems to be in the kid’s DNA. Four years later, and people are still talking about Nguyen’s memorable cameo in the gala at the Vancouver Olympics. At recent national championships, Nguyen has won over the crowd with his ear-to-ear grin and infectious enthusiasm.

But Orser says that persona needed a makeover to introduce a big-boy image, and not only because Nguyen has grown almost a foot, give or take, in the past year and a half.

“I told him ‘OK, enough of the cute factor’,” reasons Orser.

“It was fun and it was cute, and everybody was like, ‘Oh my god, he’s so cute.’ But now you’ve got to be a big boy and you’ve got to skate like that. There has to be maturity.’”

Nguyen says Orser helps keep his feet planted firmly on the ground, and that isn’t going to change with the world junior title.

But 15-year-olds are allowed to dream, and this kid isn’t any different.

“I want to be the Olympic champion, 2018,” he says, eyes lighting up. “I want to be the first Canadian men’s champion for the Olympics.

“That would be cool.”
Marty Henwood