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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

Canada sends eleven entries to Japan for 2014 ISU World Figure Skating Championships

OTTAWA, ON: Skate Canada will send eleven entries for a total of 17 skaters to the 2014 ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Saitama, Japan, from March 24-30. Canada will have three entries each in men’s, pair, and ice dance, and two entries in ladies.

Three-time Canadian silver medallist Kevin Reynolds, 23, Coquitlam, B.C., is the first of three entries in the men’s discipline. The 2013 ISU Four Continents champion is coming off a 15th place finish at the Olympic Winter Games in men’s and a silver medal in the inaugural team competition. Last season, he placed a career-best fifth at the 2013 ISU World Figure Skating Championships. He is coached by Joanne McLeod at the BC Centre of Excellence.

Elladj Baldé, 23, Pierrefonds, Que., representing Club de Patinage des Deux-Rives, will be the second entry in the men’s category, and will be competing at this event for the first time. This season, he placed seventh at Skate Canada International, and 11th at the ISU Four Continents championships. He trains out of the Detroit Skating Club with coaches Yuka Sato and Jason Dungjen.

Rounding out the men’s entries is newly crowned 2014 Junior World Champion Nam Nguyen, 15, Toronto, Ont. This will also be his first time competing at this event. This season, Nguyen earned a fifth place finish at the 2014 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships in the senior category and placed 10th at the 2014 ISU Four Continents championships. He is coached by Brian Orser at the Toronto Cricket Skating & Curling Club.

Two-time Canadian champion Kaetlyn Osmond, 18, Marystown, Nfld. & Sherwood Park, Alta., is one of two entries in ladies. Last season, she placed eighth at this event. Most recently, she earned a 13th place finish at the Olympic Winter Games in the ladies event, and a silver medal in the team event. Osmond is coached by Ravi Walia and represents the Ice Palace Figure Skating Club.

Gabrielle Daleman, 16, Newmarket, Ont., will be the second Canadian entry in ladies. The two-time Canadian silver medalist won bronze earlier this season at the ISU Junior Grand Prix in Gdansk, Poland, and placed fourth at the ISU Junior Grand Prix Tallin, Estonia. She also competed at the Olympic Winter Games, placing 17th. Daleman is coached by Andrei Berezintsev and Inga Zusev and trains at the Richmond Training Centre in Richmond Hill, Ont.

Three-time Canadian champions Meagan Duhamel, 28, Lively, Ont., and Eric Radford, 29, Balmertown, Ont., are the first of three pair teams representing Canada. The representatives of Walden FSC and CPA Saint-Léonard won bronze at this event last season, placed fifth in 2012, and seventh in 2011. Most recently, they placed seventh at the Olympic Winter Games in pair, and won silver in the team event. They are coached by Richard Gauthier and Bruno Marcotte at CPA Saint-Léonard.

Also competing in the pair discipline are Kirsten Moore-Towers, 21, St. Catharines, Ont., and Dylan Moscovitch, 29, Toronto, Ont. This will be their third time competing at this event, having placed fourth last season, and eighth in 2011. Moore-Towers and Moscovitch placed fifth at the Olympic Winter Games in pair, and won silver in the team event. The duo trains at the Kitchener-Waterloo Skating Club with coaches Kris Wirtz and Kristy Wirtz.

Paige Lawrence, 24, Kennedy, Sask., and Rudi Swiegers, 26, Kipling, Sask., will be Canada’s third entry in the pair category. This will be their first time competing at this event. Representing Wawota FSC, the four-time Canadian bronze medallists placed 14th at the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Lawrence and Swiegers train in Melville, Sask., and Virden, Man., and are coached by Patricia Hole and Lyndon Johnston.

Kaitlyn Weaver, 24, Waterloo, Ont., and Andrew Poje, 27, Waterloo, Ont., are the first of three Canadian entries in ice dance. This will be their sixth time competing at this event. Last season, Weaver and Poje placed fifth at the 2013 ISU World Figure Skating Championships. This season, they placed seventh at the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Representing Sault FSC and Kitchener-Waterloo SC, the seven-time Canadian medallists are coached by Pasquale Camerlengo and Angelika Krylova in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Alexandra Paul, 22, Barrie, Ont., and Mitchell Islam, 24, Barrie, Ont., are the second Canadian entry in the ice dance category. This will be their first time competing at this event. Most recently, the two-time Canadian bronze medallists Paul and Islam placed 18th at the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Paul and Islam train at the Detroit Skating Club with coaches Pasquale Camerlengo, Angelika Krylova, and Massimo Scali.

Piper Gilles, 22, Toronto, Ont., and Paul Poirier, 22, Unionville, Ont., will also represent Canada in ice dance. Last season, they placed 18th at this event. This season, Gilles and Poirier won silver at the 2014 ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships. They are coached by Carol Lane and Juris Razgulajevs at Ice Dance Elite in Scarborough, Ont.

The team leaders for the event will be Skate Canada Director High Performance Mike Slipchuk, and Petra Burka of Toronto, Ont. Dr. Laura Cruz of Toronto, Ont., and physiotherapist Josiane Roberge of Sillery, Que., will be the Canadian medical staff travelling with the team. Beth Crane of Burnaby, B.C., Susan Heffernan of Roberts Creek, B.C., Leslie Keen of Vancouver, B.C., and Benoit Lavoie of Baie St-Paul, Que., will be the Canadian officials at the event.

Skate Canada announces ISU World Figure Skating Championship teams

OTTAWA, ON: The Canadian roster for the 2014 ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Saitama, Japan from March 24-30, 2014 was released today. Canada will send 17 athletes for a total of 11 entries. Canada will have three entries in men’s, pair and ice dance and two entries in women’s.

Senior Men’s
Kevin Reynolds, 23, Coquitlam, B.C.
Elladj Baldé, 23, Pierrefonds, Que.
Nam Nguyen, 15, Toronto, Ont.

Senior Women’s
Kaetlyn Osmond, 18, Marystown, Nfld. & Sherwood Park, Alta.
Gabrielle Daleman, 16, Newmarket, Ont.

Senior Pair
Meagan Duhamel, 28, Lively, Ont. & Eric Radford, 29, Balmertown, Ont.
Kirsten Moore-Towers, 21, St. Catharines, Ont. & Dylan Moscovitch, 29, Toronto, Ont.
Paige Lawrence, 24, Kennedy, Sask. & Rudi Swiegers, 26, Kipling, Sask.

Senior Ice Dance
Kaitlyn Weaver, 24, Waterloo, Ont. & Andrew Poje, 27, Waterloo, Ont.
Alexandra Paul, 22, Midhurst, Ont. & Mitchell Islam, 24, Barrie, Ont.
Piper Gilles, 22, Toronto, Ont. & Paul Poirier, 22, Unionville, Ont.

The Canadian team for the 2014 ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships was also announced. Canada will have 9 entries for a total of 14 skaters, two in men’s, two in women’s, three in pair and two in ice dance. The event will take place from March 10-16, 2014 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Junior Men’s
Nam Nguyen, 15, Toronto, Ont.
Roman Sadovsky, 14, Vaughan, Ont.

Junior Women’s
Alaine Chartrand, 17, Prescott, Ont.
Julianne Séguin, 17, Longueuil, Que.

Junior Pair
Julianne Séguin, 17, Longueuil, Que. &  Charlie Bilodeau, 20, Trois-Pistoles, Que.
Tara Hancherow, 18, Tisdale, Sask. & Wesley Killing, 21, Woodstock, Ont.
Mary Orr, 17, Brantford, Ont. & Phelan Simpson, 18, Lunenburg, N.S.

Junior Ice Dance
Madeline Edwards, 17, Port Moody, B.C. & ZhaoKai Pang, 18, Burnaby, B.C.
Mackenzie Bent, 16, Uxbridge, Ont. & Garrett MacKeen, 19, Oshawa, Ont.