Canada's golden couple aim for a comeback

Olympic and world ice dance champions Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir were at the Skate Canada Challenge event this week in Missisauga to support their team-mates, sign copies of their new book and to let people know that they will be back on the scene very soon.

The pair were forced to miss out on the Grand Prix season this year due to Tessa needing surgery to treat chronic exertional compartment syndrome in her legs. However, they have been back in training and hope to be ready to compete at the Canadian Championships in Victoria in January.

This is not finalised and they will likely leave the decision until they can be sure of being ready. The interview with them can be seen on Skate Canada's Skate Buzz website.

As for the other reigning Canadian champions-

• Patrick Chan will be competing next week at the Grand Prix final. He's had good scores so far this season but a number of falls so will be looking to gain consistency.

•  Jessica Dube competed singles this week at Challenge finishing seventh. She is skating on her own this season as her pairs partner Bryce Davison recovers from major surgery to his knee and femur. Bryce was at the event to cheer on Jess and also spoke with Skate Buzz. He hopes to be back on the ice around late March and states they are very keen to continue competing together and aim for Sochi 2014. 

• Joannie Rochette will not compete at nationals this year. She is touring with Stars on Ice but also states she has not given up competing. Despite missing the grand prix series she still has the highest free skate score of any international lady this season, from her single appearance at the Japan Open. 

The results from the Skate Canada Challenge can be seen here.
The Canadian Championships will take place Jan 21-23 in Victoria BC

Classy Performances @ Skate Canada

Well - Alissa Czisny and Patrick Chan have both taught me a lesson - don't count them out!
Although both of them had a fall in their free programmes, they took deserved golds with beautiful performances and skating skills. I was particularly impressed with Alissa's ability to fight for her landings more than in the past. She has a painfully long history of being inconsistent when the pressure is on (rather like another vistuoso skater, Sasha Cohen). Chan also showed he can land his quad when the pressure is on, and the more he can do that, the more he can contend for a world title.

I hope these videos stay around on you-tube. Link to more videos here.

Money Shots - podiums.

Ladies - Makarova (S), Czisny (G), Lacoste (B)

Mens - Oda (S), Chan (G), Rippon (B)

Pairs - Moore-Towers & Moscovich (Canada-Silver)
Iliushechkina & Maisuradze (Russia-Gold)
Lawrence & Swiegers (Canada-Bronze)

Dance - Sinead & John Kerr (GBR - Silver)

Crone & Poirier (Canada - Gold)

Chock & Zuerlin (USA - Bronze)

Full results here.

Skate Canada - Day 1

Day 1 in Kingston is a busy one with all disciplines competing. Although the action will continue until long after we Brits go to bed, I will do my best to keep everyone posted with updates.


Ladies
Sadly Sarah Meier had to withdraw after morning practice. She sprained her ankle training her triple lutz.
First skater out of the box was Agnes Zawadski - a relative unknown from the US making her senior debut after winning silver at the World Jr Champs last year. She laid down a great short programme scoring 56.29. Last week at NHK Carolina Kostner won the short with 57.27 and Kanako Murakami was 2nd with 56.10. Zawadski should place very well by the end of today.
Canadians Myriane Samson and Amelie Lacoste also put in clean performances to score 51.62 and 55.30 respectively.
Fumie Suguri (JPN) first competed at Skate Canada in 1998 - 12 YEARS AGO! she put out a decent performance with some underrotated jumps, putting her in 4th behind the two Canadians with a score of 48.17
Haruka Imai (JPN) Skated with great character and speed to a programme of gypsy music - scoring 52.52
Ksenia Makarova (Russia) hit her triple-triple competition and got the crowd on her side with a great flamenco programme. She goes into first with 57.90
Alissa Czisny (USA) had beautiful spins (as ever) but struggled fully rotating on some of her jumps (as ever). No falls but not quite the performance she may have hoped for - 55.95.
Cynthia Phaneuf (Canada) delighted the home crowd with her clean spanish programme, full of character and quality. She goes into the lead with 58.24.

So with less than 3 points separating the top 5 skaters - Skate Canada looks to be shaping up for a better competition than expected.
The top ladies after the short programme are-
Pairs
New Canadian pair Duhamel & Radford had an great GP debut. She doubled one of their side-by-side jumps but they performed well together for a new pair. 54.80
Young pairs Lawrence & Sweigers (Canada) and Castelli & Snapir (USA) gave impressive and fun performances.
The two highest ranking pairs coming into the competition, Kemp & King (GB) and Dong & Wu (China) underperformed badly and end up at the lower end of the rankings after underwelming performances.
The stars of the day were the young Russians Iliushechkina & Maisuradze (Whose names I always have a nightmare spelling!) who outclassed the field with difficulty and performance quality.


So the pairs standings are -

Mens
History was made in the Men's competition when Kevin Reynolds of Canada became the first man to land 2 quads (toe and salchow) in the short programme. Reynolds also has a THIRD quad (loop) in his arsenal. If he can further improve his transitions and maturity to match his jumps he could really be the cat amongst the pigeons on the World stage.
Canada's leading man, Patrick Chan however had less luck in the short programme with 3 falls, however the judges were still kind to him and he is currently still in 4th and not a million miles away from medal contension.
Nobunari Oda leads the men with a clean and difficult programme and Adam Rippon made a great season debut of his new Romeo and Juliet programme, currently in third.

Dance
It's super close in the Ice Dance stakes with the Kerrs leading Crone and Poirier by just 0.001 of a point going into the free dance. My patriotic wish for the Kerrs to finally win a grand prix gold is balanced by my love of C+P's youthful, fresh style. I'm going to sit on my fence and wish them both well!

Full Live Scores
Tweets from Patinaggio
Great live blogging from Flutzing Around

Skate Canada

The second stop on the Grand Prix season is the Skate Canada International in Kingston ON this weekend. Canada will unfortunately be missing a few of it's stars as Virtue & Moir and Dube & Davison have been forced to pull out due to injuries. Still - many others will be looking forward to make a first big impression on Canadian soil since Vancouver


Men
Canada's young star Patrick Chan will be looking to re-assert himself amongst the best in the world after a slightly disappointing olympics. His performances at minor summer competitions were well recieved and having been training at altitude in Colorado he should be fighting fit.
He'll face competition from other young talents - American Adam Rippon (now Brian Orser's most senior pupil), Japan's Nobunari Oda and mini-Plushenko Artur Gachinski

Ladies
After the splat fest that was the ladies competition last week at NHK, the door is open for some surprise entries to win a Grand Prix final spot with a good performance here. The list for skate Canada is somewhat devoid of big names.
World bronze medallist Laura Lepisto was due to compee but is not on the start list. She recently started university so may be focussing on that for the moment.
In her absense the medal contenders include russian diva Ksenia Makarova, Canadian Cynthia Phaneuf, and the veterains Sarah Meier, Fumie Suguri and Alissa Czisny.

Pairs
This will be the grand prix debut of canadian Megan Duhamel and new partner Eric Radford - who recently finished 3rd at the Nebelhorn trophy.
The main medal contenders may be relatively junior pairs in this fairly inexperienced field - Lubov Iliushenka & Nodari Maisuradze of Russia and Huibo Dong & Yiming Wu of China.

Dance
In the absense of Virtue and Moir this could be the chance for British pair Sinead & John Kerr to challenge for gold in a season which may be their swansong. The Scottish siblings had long planned to retire after the 2010 games but found they were not yet tired of competing.
The home favourites at this event will be Vanessa Crone & Paul Poirier. Americans Madison Chock & Greg Zuerlin (who train at the Canton school of Ice Dance champions!) could also challenge the Brits with a good performance.


As ever the season after the olympics is a changing of the guard. More famous faces vanish off the radar and new ones arise. We may see a glimpse of the future at Skate Canada.

Full starting orders and results here.
The competition for all skaters starts Friday.

Skating forward.

Last weekend one of the first 'big name' competitions of the 2010/2011 skating season took place - The Liberty summer competition in Pensylvannia. Universal Sports gave this report of how some of US and Canadian skating's big names did.

Patrick Chan

The two-time world silver medalist accomplished a major first at Liberty - first quad landed in competition.

In the debut of his new short program to "Take Five," Chan opened with an effortless quad toe.

He intended to add the element last season, but a series of injuries and illnesses prevented him from competing the quad in the Olympic season.

Now, with the jump planned in both programs, Chan could be difficult to beat. His ability to weave through a charismatic short program and re-choreographed free skate make a complex scoring system seem simple. Throw in a quad and Chan is in a class with few others.

Ashley Wagner

Wagner debuted a new short program set to Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir." The 2010 U.S. bronze medalist completed a triple flip - double toe combination, but was most excited about landing her triple Lutz.

In past seasons, Wagner was victim to deductions for an incorrect entry-edge. She spent the "off-season" re-learning the Lutz in order to correct her take-off edge.

It appears the hard work paid off, as she did not receive the deduction at Liberty.

With improved technique on the Lutz and a planned triple-triple in the short program, Wagner joins a strong field of U.S. ladies set to compete in the Grand Prix series this fall.

Watch Ashley's video blog about the competition here.

Agnes Zawadzki

The 2010 U.S. junior champ proved she's more than ready to make the jump to senior. The 15-year-old showed maturity in both programs to compliment impressive triple jumps and improved spins.

Zawadzki makes her senior Grand Prix debut at Skate Canada and might surprise there. Her speed across the ice and triple-triple in the short program could put her in contention for a medal.