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Post by Admin on Jan 18, 2020 18:11:02 GMT
The best figure skaters in Canada are coming to Vancouver next year, as UBC’s Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre has been announced as the host venue for the 2021 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships. The week-long event, taking place January 11-17, 2021, will feature approximately 250 skaters in the men, women, pairs, and ice dance disciplines, across three levels (senior, junior, and novice). “We are pleased to be heading back to the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre, in the beautiful city of Vancouver,” said Skate Canada CEO Debra Armstrong in a media release. “Each year at the Canadian Tire National Skating Championships we showcase the nation’s top figure skaters and are excited to work with our partners in Vancouver to host an outstanding event.” SENIOR WOMEN FREE PROGRAM (GROUPS 1 AND 2) “Over 40,000 spectators experienced the 2018 championships in Vancouver, and we are pleased to be working with Skate Canada to showcase our world-renowned destination again in 2021,” said Michelle Collens of Sport Hosting Vancouver. “Over the next 12 months, we look forward to working with our partners, Skate Canada and UBC, to build off our previous success, and ensure Vancouver is ready to shine next January.” SENIOR PAIR FREE PROGRAM (GROUP 1) The 2018 event was a star-studded event, with the likes of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (ice dance), Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford (pairs), Patrick Chan (men), and Gabrielle Daleman (women) capturing gold medals. Those skaters, along with Kaetlyn Osmond, won gold at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics one month later in the team event.
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Post by Admin on Jan 18, 2020 20:32:10 GMT
Piper Gilles leaned in to inspect one of the bottom buttons on Paul Poirier's shirt on Friday, then pulled a silvery hair from the button.
Their quickstep program went awry just seconds in when Gilles looped under Poirier's arm and caught the top of her braided crown of hair in Poirier's button. It took several seconds — with Gilles stuck, bent at the waist, her mouth agape in shock — for Poirier to unhook them.
"I even said 'Should we stop?'" Gilles said. "No, no, no."
The duo went on to score 88.86 points, well ahead of Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha, last year's world junior champions, who were second with 77.26. Carolane Soucisse and Shane Firus scored 75.83 to finish third.
Keegan Messing is the leader after the men's short program, while Alicia Pineault won the women's short program.
Wardrobe malfunctions are a hazard in the glittery, gauzy, sequined sport of figure skating. Skaters have split pants and bared breasts. At the Pyeongchang Olympics, the strap on Gabriella Papadakis's dress broke, exposing her breast. She and French partner Guillaume Cizeron won ice dance silver behind Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.
Getting stuck, Gilles said, was a first for her.
"We've decided you can throw really anything at us after that," said Gilles, a 28-year-old from Toronto. "Thank god we've got some random cues for how to pick up things."
"Romance" was their cue word for that portion of the program.
"So we were 'Romance! Romance! Romance!'" Gilles said. "It's great we have these cues but, god, it's a laugh, that's for sure."
Gilles skated the program with a portion of her pulled loose.
"I had the whole pile flapping on the side on my head. Like, yup, it's still there. How ridiculous do I look right now?" she laughed. "Because I was laughing about my hair, I don't think I was so focused on my feet and I just let myself go on autopilot and let the training do its work.
After competing in the shadows of Virtue and Moir for years, Gilles and Poirier, a 28-year-old from Unionville, Ont., are aiming for their first Canadian title. They've been runners-up four times, either to Virtue and Moir, or Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, who are taking the season off and could also retire.
In women's singles, Pineault landed three triple jumps to score 63.15 points for her program to Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black."
"A year ago I was in a wheelchair in the stands," said the 20-year-old from Montreal.
She'd suffered a high ankle sprain just before leaving for last year's Canadian championships, and tried to practise without success.
"It was really hard both physically and mentally trying to recover so quickly," Pineault said. "I did it give a try but at the end of the day, time was missing."
Madeline Schizas of Oakville, Ont., scored 60.66 points, while world bronze medallist Gabrielle Daleman of Newmarket, Ont., struggled throughout her program to finish third (59.51).
"I am absolutely pissed off at how I skated," Daleman said. "It was awful, it was not me or how I've been training. And I'm going to put it behind me and focus on (Saturday) and what I need to do, not focus on scores, not focus on placement, just focus on me and what I need to do."
The 22-year-old from Newmarket, Ont., has had a laundry list of ailments in the past couple of seasons, and sat out a good chunk of last season to deal with mental health issues. She finished fifth at the Canadian championships last year, but was a late addition to the world team after proving fitness. She finished 11th at the world championships, her worst result in five years.
Daleman said last week she was dealing with pneumonia, and had missed a few weeks of training earlier in the season with an ankle injury.
It showed Friday, as she stumbled out of a jump, and had difficulty reaching her blade with her hand on what would normally be a beautifully-executed and routine layback spin.
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Post by Admin on Jan 19, 2020 1:51:01 GMT
17-year-old Emily Bausback landed five triple jumps on her way to winning the women's singles event at the Canadian National Skating Championships. Ladies free (FINAL) 1. Emily Bausback - 175.54 (60.33, 56.31, 116.64) www.cbc.ca/player/play/16786202277772. Alison Schumacher - 168.94 (56.45, 56.54, 112.99) 3. Madeline Schizas - 168.07 (51.46, 55.95, 107.41) 4. Alicia Pineault - 165.77 (46.62, 56.00, 102.62) 5. Michelle Long - 155.02 (51.84, 54.07, 105.91) 6. Emma Bulawka - 148.88 (53.81, 48.58, -2.00, 100.39) 7. Veronik Mallet - 146.09 (36.94, 53.21, -2.00, 88.15) 8. Gabrielle Daleman - 145.68 (35.40, 54.77, -4.00, 86.17) 9. Amelia Orzel - 144.46 (49.96, 44.90, 94.86) 10. Amanda Tobin - 140.65 (45.13, 45.88, 91.01) 11. Kim Decelles - 139.61 (40.02, 48.17, -2.00, 86.19) 12. Hannah Dawson - 138.85 (40.16, 47.96, 88.12) 13. Beatrice Lavoie-Leonard - 137.73 (43.00, 45.03, 88.03) 14. Olivia Farrow - 125.27 (43.84, 40.67, -2.00, 82.51) 15. Viviane Fontaine-Maltais - 124.19 (41.42, 39.94, -2.00, 79.34) 16. Valerie Giroux - 117.35 (34.89, 38.69, -2.00, 71.58) 17. Sarah Tamura - 114.89 (30.60, 43.78, -4.00, 70.38) WD Aurora Cotop
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Post by Admin on Jan 19, 2020 20:52:12 GMT
Ice dancer Piper Gilles‘ hair got caught in partner Paul Poirier‘s costume during the Canadian Championships rhythm dance, but the couple still posted the top score in Mississauga, Ontario, on Friday. As they spun together, Gilles’ hair appeared to catch on one of Poirier’s shirt buttons. It stayed that way for about five seconds as the couple nearly came to a stop before Poirier untangled it. What was Gilles thinking? “Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap,” she said later. “It’s probably more swear words to that, but crap at that moment. “It was like one of those pure panic moments, like, what do I do? Do we stop? Do we keep going? Paul’s like, just keep moving.” Gilles and Poirier scored 88.86 points, taking an 11.6-point lead into the free dance. The couple eyes their first national title after finishing second or third seven times in the last eight years behind Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje. Gilles and Poirier rank fifth in the world this season. The panicky moment Friday was reminiscent of the PyeongChang Olympics, where French ice dancer Gabriella Papadakis‘ dress strap broke, exposing her breast. Papadakis and partner Guillaume Cizeron took silver and have been undefeated since.
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Post by Admin on Jan 20, 2020 4:43:02 GMT
With two months to go until the planet’s best figure skaters convene at the Bell Centre in Montréal for the 2020 World Championships, Skate Canada’s team is largely Team TBD as it stands at the moment. The host country has officially put names to only three of the eight entries they can send to the competition. The rest will be selected after the Four Continents Championships, set for Feb. 3-9 in Seoul, South Korea.
There were two obvious — and easy — choices for Worlds. Ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier won their first national title in record-breaking fashion at the Canadian Championships over the weekend, while Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro were runaway winners in the senior pairs event. Those two teams were Canada’s only entries at the Grand Prix Final in Italy in December, and will be the country’s best — and likely only — medal contenders in Montréal.
“We definitely feel that we have a team, in Piper and Paul, that is contending for the podium,” said Michael Slipchuk, Skate Canada’s high performance director. “Kirsten and Mike’s season put them in position where they could fight for the podium. Those are our two best chances (in Montréal).”
Canada has three ice dance spots at Worlds. Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha, the reigning World Junior champions, who were impressive second-place finishers behind Gilles and Poirier at nationals this weekend, are filling the second one. “They’ve had a great, strong season,” said Slipchuk. “They are the (2019) Junior World champions and they’ve made a great transition to seniors.”
The third spot might be the last one filled prior to Worlds. Skate Canada plans to give as much consideration as possible to Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sørensen, who were unable to compete at nationals. Sørensen had knee surgery in December, and was on crutches in Mississauga. He is not expected to even begin walking until the end of this month. The couple will likely only begin on-ice work in early February.
Fournier Beaudry and Sørensen had a standout fall season, winning bronze medals at both their Grand Prix events and second alternate status for the Final. The deadline for naming the World team is Feb. 24, and Slipchuk said Skate Canada intends to wait as long as possible to determine if they might be ready for Montréal. Fournier Beaudry and Sørensen, who previously competed for Denmark, were 10th at 2019 Worlds in Japan.
“We’ll give Nik and Laurence the opportunity to see where they are in their preparation,” said Slipchuk. “They’ve had an outstanding season, and we’d have to see them at a level at or above where they’ve been all season because you want to be successful.”
If they are not good to go for Worlds, national bronze medalists Carolane Soucisse and Shane Firus would be first in line to claim Canada’s third spot.
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