Time To Seal The Deal

Here we go again, Joannie Rochette.
Time to put the lesson of Calgary to use.
The three-time Canadian women’s champion finds herself on top of the heap after Thursday’s women’s short program at the Four Continents Championship in Colorado Springs.
If the 21-year-old from Ile-Dupas, Que., can maintain that spot after Saturday’s free skate, she’d claim her most significant international triumph yet. And an enormous dose of momentum heading into the world championships in March in Tokyo.
The deal is anything but done, though. With 56.60 points for a short program that, outside of a step out on the front end of her planned triple flip-triple toe combination, was top notch, Rochette posted the score of the night. But she’s got plenty of company nipping at her heels.
American Emily Hughes is a mere 1.26 points behind Rochette. Even reigning world champion Kimmie Meissner of the U.S., who’s down in sixth spot, remains in hailing distance of Rochette, just 4.11 points back.
In other words, Rochette is going to need another quality skate on Saturday just to ensure a podium spot, let alone the gold.
For Rochette, the position should look familiar. At the 2006 world championships, she found herself in first place after the qualifying rounds. It was hardly expected and it showed in the short program: Rochette made two major errors that all but finished her medal hopes.
She vowed then that she’d learned something new about pressure, that it would make her a better skater in the future if/when the situation presented itself again.
Well, it has now.
Time to see whether Rochette has indeed learned how to close the deal.