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.

At The Four Front

Looks like the Four Continents Figure Skating Championship might finally have come of age.
Scan the entry list for the annual event — which begins later today in Colorado Springs — and you’ll see a world champion or medallist in every single discipline. That’s a far cry from the days (not so long ago) when Four Continents was filled with what you’d call a lot of ‘B’-list entries.
No more.
With a nearly two-month gap between Canadian and U.S. nationals and the world championships, Four Continents is the perfect place for skaters to keep sharp for the ultimate test at the end of March in Tokyo.
So it is that, with just two exceptions, Canada’s team in Colorado Springs will mirror exactly the one headed to Japan next month. Vancouver’s Mira Leung has chosen to take a pass on the event (former Canadian champ Cynthia Phaneuf of Contrecoeur, Que., takes her place), while surprise Canadian ice dance bronze medallists Kaitlyn Weaver of Houston, Tex., and Andrew Poje of Kitchener, Ont., will instead head to the world junior championships Feb. 26-March 4 in Oberstdorf, Germany (Vancouver’s Lauren Senft and Leif Gislason of Winnipeg become Canada’s third dance entry at Four Continents).
The quality of the overall field means Canada will be in tough to bring home the raft of medals it’s earned in the past. Expect Montreal’s Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, last year’s world silver medallists, to claim the ice dance gold. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of London, Ont., are good bets to join them on the podium.
Olympic bronze medallist Jeffrey Buttle, who showed at last month’s Canadian championships in Halifax that he’s back in form, rates as the men's favourite this week (Worth noting: Christopher Mabee of Tillsonburg, Ont., won the silver medal in this event a year ago, when he posted all his current ISU-best scores).
Three-time Canadian women’s champ Joannie Rochette of Ile-Dupas, Que., has some serious work to do to reach the podium against a field chock full of top U.S. (world champ Kimmie Meissner, Emily Hughes, Alissa Czisny) and Japanese (Miki Ando, Fumie Suguri) foes.
In pairs, new Canadian champs Jessica Dube of St. Cyrille de Wendover, Que., and Bryce Davison of Cambridge, Ont., face two Chinese teams with world championship pedigree (Qing Pang/Jian Tong and Xue Shen/Hongbo Zhao), along with new U.S. champs Brooke Castile and Benjamin Okolski and former American champions Rene Inoue and John Baldwin.
The more interesting question: How will Valerie Marcoux of Gatineau, Que., and Craig Buntin of Kelowna, Que., rebound from being dethroned as Canadian champs in Halifax? No place like here to start making amends.
The ice dance compulsories get the competition started this afternoon, followed by the pairs and men’s short programs. The women get rolling on Thursday.

As Good As It Gets

Another Skate Canada Junior Nationals.
One more medal for the Nepean Skating Club.
When Lisa Casselman and Ryan Behnia won the pre-novice ice dance crown on Friday night in Brampton, Ont., it extended a nice little run at this event for the west Ottawa club.
Last year, Brooke Paulin and Nathan Last earned a silver medal in novice pairs in Moncton, N.B.
In 2004, it was Mandy Valentine enjoying a golden moment in the novice women's event right at home at the Nepean Sportsplex.
The latest one, though, had to be the most thrilling.
Casselman and Behnia were fifth after he first compulsory dance (American Waltz), then moved up to third following compulsory No. 2 (Rocker Foxtrot). They made their big move to the top in the free dance.
Still, it was a nail biter. Check out the final overall numbers: Casselman and Behnia, 61.87 points; Quebec’s Marie-Philippe Vincent and Kevin Pierro, 61.29; Quebec’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Anthony Quintal, 61.13.
Three teams, separated by less than a point.
Doesn’t get much closer than that.
Casselman and Behnia were second-last to skate. But they had to wait out the performance of Vincent and Pierro before they finally knew.
That they’d gone from 10th a year ago to Canadian champs.
“Oh, my God. That was the first thing I said,” Casselman, 14, said on the afternoon after their triumph. “It was like ‘I can’t believe we actually did this.’ ”
Behnia, 16, was still overwhelmed by it all a day later.
“I don’t think it’s quite hit me yet,” he said. “It seems like such a big shock. We’ve been hoping for this all year, but I don’t think it’ll hit me until we get home.”
The young duo are in their sixth year together. They gave a hint of what might be possible at Junior Nationals back in December, when they posted the highest total score of any team at the East and West Challenges. But that was ancient history by the time they showed up at the Powerade Centre this week.
“You really can’t focus on that,” said Casselman. “You just have to put it behind you. This is a different competition, and anything can happen.”
Not that they hadn’t dreamed about what happened Friday night.
“We’ve been talking since the beginning of the year about how much we wanted to win nationals,” she said. “But it didn’t become real to us until (Friday) night. It’s one of those things that just hits you — you weren’t really expecting it, but you were wishing it would happen.”
Wish granted, you could say. After a few days of celebration, though, it’s back to work. The Canada Winter Games in Whitehorse await them early in March.
While many of the same teams they just skated against will be there, Behnia said “it’ll be a different atmosphere in a different place. It will feel like a mini-Olympics.”
But will it will like Friday night? That, my friends, will be tough to top.