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Heartbreak for Bent and MacKeen at world juniors

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TALLIN, Estonia – Mackenzie Bent of Uxbridge, Ont., and Garrett MacKeen of Oshawa, Ont., took fifth spot in ice dancing on Saturday at the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships.

Anna Yanovskaya and Sergey Mozgov of Russia won the gold medal, Lorraine McNamara and Quinn Carpenter of the U.S. were second and Alexandra Nazarova and Maxim Nikitin of Ukraine third.

Bent and MacKeen were second after Thursday’s short dance and appeared in contention for a medal until with seconds left in their free dance, MacKeen slipped and fell on both knees causing a major point deduction. Their free dance was ranked eighth.

Madeline Edwards of Port Moody, B.C., and ZhaoKai Pang of Burnaby, B.C., remained sixth despite posting the fourth best free dance.

In men’s competition, Shoma Uno of Japan took the gold with Boyang Jin of China second and Sota Yamamoto of Japan third.

Roman Sadovsky of Vaughan, Ont., was 14th.

Canada ends the competition with one silver earned by Julianne Séguin of Longueuil, Que., and Charlie Bilodeau of Trois-Pistoles, Que., in pairs on Thursday.

Full results: http://www.isuresults.com/results/wjc2015/index.htm

Bent & MacKeen win silver in Estonia

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TALLINN, Estonia – Ice dancers Mackenzie Bent of Uxbridge, Ont., and Garrett MacKeen of Oshawa, Ont., won the silver medal on Saturday at the Tallinn Cup, the fifth stop on the ISU Junior Grand Prix figure skating circuit.

Anna Yanovskaya and Sergey Mozgov of Russia slipped by the Canadians in the free dance tabulating 152.00 points.  Bent and MacKeen, first after the short dance, followed at 144.51 and Alexandra Nazarova and Maxim Nikitin of Ukraine were third at 128.59.

It was the second medal performance this season on the circuit for Bent and MacKeen.  Earlier this month they won gold at the third stop in Ostrava, Czech Republic but improved their overall score by six points on Saturday.

The performances put them in an excellent position to advance to the Junior Grand Prix Final December 11-14 in Barcelona.

‘’We are super excited about our performances this week,’’ said Bent, 17.  ‘’Our skating was much better than a couple of weeks ago.  It is very important for us to get to the Junior Grand Prix final after just falling short last season.’’

The couple now have five career Junior Grand Prix podium finishes.

‘’The key to our success today was duplicating what we’ve been doing in training,’’ said MacKeen.  ‘’For me, I felt our expression was a lot stronger.  To be this consistent early on in the season is a very good sign.’’

Canada stands a great chance to ice two dance teams at the Junior Grand Prix Final for the first time since 2004. Madeline Edwards of Port Moody, B.C., and ZhaoKai Pang of Burnaby, B.C., have also won two medals this season on the circuit.  Back in 2004, the eventual Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir as well as Allie McCurdy and Michael Coreno were the Canadian ice dance entries.

In women’s competition twin sisters Kim Decelles and Emy Decelles were 13th and 19th respectively.

Full results: http://www.isuresults.com/results/jgpest2014/

Great start for Bent & MacKeen in Estonia

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TALLINN, Estonia – Mackenzie Bent of Uxbridge, Ont., and Garrett MacKeen of Oshawa, Ont., hold a slight lead after the short dance on Friday at the Tallin Cup, the fifth stop on the ISU Junior Grand Prix figure skating circuit.

The Canadians tabulated 59.83 points with Anna Yanovskaya and Sergey Mozgov of Russia second at 59.56 and Carolina Moscheni and Adam Lukacs of Hungary third at 51.61.

Audrey Croteau-Villeneuve of Montreal and Jeff Hough of Russell,Ont., are seventh.

In pairs, Maria Vigalova and Egor Zakroev led a Russian medal sweep winning gold.  Mary Orr of Brantford, Ont., and Phelan Simpson of Lunenberg, N.S., were sixth and first-year partners Shalena Rau of Waterloo, Ont., and Sebastian Arcieri of Montreal seventh.

In men’s competition, Alexander Petrov of Russia was the winner.  Bennet Toman of St.Lazare, Que., was 10th and Edrian Paul Celestino of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Que., 11th.

In women’s competition after the short program, Kim Decelles and her twin sister Emy Decelles of Baie-Comeau, Que., are 11th and 18th. It is the international debut for both skaters.

The free dance and women’s free skate are on Saturday.

Full results: http://www.isuresults.com/results/jgpest2014/

Two golden skates for Canada at ISU Junior Grand Prix

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OSTRAVA, Czech Republic – Canada won the gold medal in pairs and ice dancing on Friday at the third stop on the ISU Junior Grand Prix figure skating circuit.

The winners were Mackenzie Bent of Uxbridge, Ont., and Garrett MacKeen of Oshawa, Ont., in ice dancing and Julianne Séguin of Longueuil, Que., and Charlie Bilodeau of Trois-Pistoles, Que., in pairs.

In ice dancing, Bent and MacKeen collected their second career junior Grand Prix win and fourth podium overall with a 138.17 score. The overall and free program scores were international bests for the Canadians. Betina Popova and Yuri Vlasenko of Russia were second at 131.42 and Lorraine McNamara and Quinn Carpenter of the U.S., third at 130.79.

‘’We delivered what we’d been doing in training and that’s very pleasing,’’ said Bent, 17. ‘’It wasn’t a perfect skate but we headed into this competition confident with both programs.’’

Last year, the couple saw a super season end on a sour note with a 12th place finish at the junior world championships.

‘’Obviously it was important for us to get off on the right track this season,’’ said MacKeen, 20. ‘’We’ve come in this season with some changes including two different programs and so far it’s really worked out.’’

Danielle Wu and Spencer Soo of Burnaby, B.C., were sixth.

In pairs, Séguin and Bilodeau delivered a near-flawless performance to music from Peter Gabriel to win the gold with 159.40 points.  Lina Fedorova and Maxim Miroshkin of Russia were second at 144.62 and their compatriots Kamilla Gainetdinova and Sergei Alexeev third at 134.43.

‘’We worked really hard for this so we are not totally surprised,’’ said Séguin, 17. ‘’We knew we had improved a lot from last season. We felt in control of our program and landing the side-by-side jump early in the program gave us a lot of confidence.’’

The pair joined forces last season and produced two top-five finishes in the ISU Junior Grand Prix circuit and were second at junior nationals. This season they want to start making noise at the senior level nationally.

‘’We want to skate like a senior pair team this year,’’ said Bilodeau, 21. ‘’Last year, we focused on developing chemistry on the ice. Now we’ve expanded to display emotion and maturity as well, and this program helps us do that.’’

Canada has another medal contender in men’s competition as Roman Sadovsky of Vaughan, Ont., grabbed the lead after an excellent short program on Friday earning 67.51 points. Alexander Samarin of Russia is second at 62.42 and Sei Kawahara of Japan stands third at 60.55.

In women’s competition after Thursday’s short program, Kim DeGuise-Léveillée of Sorel-Tracy, Que., is 10th.

Competition ends Saturday with the men’s and women’s free skates.

Videos of routines available on the ISU YouTube channel

Full results: http://www.isuresults.com/results/jgpcze2014/index.htm

Mackenzie Bent and Garrett MacKeen dance their way to gold in junior dance

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A year of work, a year of travel, a year of learning and finally, Mackenzie Bent and Garrett MacKeen are the Canadian junior ice dance champions.

Bent, 16, of Uxbridge, Ont., and MacKeen, 19, of Oshawa took the silver medal last year in junior and so took the past year to hone their skills further, get some junior grand prix events under their belt and try some new things.

They skated to a medley of Karen Carpenter, Beach Boys and other songs from the era, the idea spurred because coach Carol Lane particularly liked the winsome notes of Carpenter. So Bent and MacKeen danced to a host of tunes from the era, and even a vocal that wasn’t a singing voice, but a radio host voice.

“We wanted something a bit boppy,” Bent said. “It grew on us,” MacKeen said. The judges at the Canadian Tire National Skating Championships give it all the nod.

One of their lifts in the free dance caused them anguish before their international season started, when Bent fell and got a concussion from a lift where she lies on MacKeen’s back and he pushes her up, matching the lyrics. But a team skating behind them in practice made it all go awry. Bent spent three days in bed, doing nothing. It could have been worse: her tailbone took the first impact of the fall.

The new champions won the free dance with 82.98 points and the overall gold medal quite comfortably with 142.61 points.

Melinda Meng, 14, and Andrew Meng, 17, of Montreal won the silver medal with their beautiful routine to House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, choreographed by Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon. The young team was third in the free skate with 77.65 points and second overall with 134.54 points.

Bronze medalists Brianna Delmaestro, 18, of Port Moody, B.C., and Timothy Lum, 18, of Burnaby, B.C. finished only .29 points away from a silver medal (134.25) with a strong second-place finish in the free skate, earning 79.65 points, only three points away from a free skate win. Delmaestro and Lum joined forces only this year.

Bent and MacKeen had a season of strong international experiences, winning the gold medal at a junior grand prix event in Riga, Latvia. They finished seventh at the other, puzzled by the difficulty levels that the technical panel had handed them in the short dance – and then being unable to climb back out of the hole for the free. “We performed well,” MacKeen said.

“We didn’t get much feedback,” Bent said. “That was kind of the way it was. “ But the twosome came back with a new mindset, trusting their training. “It was a learning experience,” Bent said.

Beverley Smith

Madelyn Dunley stars in junior women’s short program; Bent and MacKeen head up stellar junior dance category

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OTTAWA: Madelyn Dunley of Campbellville, Ont., was the star of the show.

The 16-year-old – who was novice champion in 2012 – sparkled with a triple Salchow-triple toe loop combination, a high-flying effort for a group still trying to find itself. However, Dunley underrotated a triple loop and fell on it. Still, she finished first at 45.66 points.

She did get level fours of difficulty for her combination spin and a step sequence, and she’s in perfect position to win the junior women’s event, after being third last year.

In second place after the short is Julianne Delaurier, a 15-year-old from Kelowna, B.C., who skated to Chopin’s Fantasie Impromtu. In third place going into the free program on Wednesday is Kim DeGuise Leveillee, 15, of Sorel-Tracy, Que., after finishing sixth at Challenge in December.

Kelsey Wong delivered a stunning layback spin that ended in a Bielmann, but she fell on a triple loop and a triple Salchow.

Sandrine Martin attempted a triple Lutz, but fell and then singled a loop.

“It was good to see that we had a triple-triple from Madelyn Dunley,” said Michael Slipchuk, high-performance director for Skate Canada. “It was good to see junior girls starting to do triple-triples. They are still developing at this point.”

Never mind that there are junior-eligible women such as Gabby Daleman who are already competing at the senior level – and in fact Daleman, at age 15, has already earned an Olympic spot. “Only two years ago, they were here,” Slipchuk said. “It does change pretty fast. You’ve got to start trying triples at this stage. A year from now it’s [junior women] going to be a lot stronger. Some of them have been on the Junior Grand Prix circuit. It’s a good learning experience for them.

“It’s all about development.”

The junior dance category seems in good hands. Mackenzie Bent, 16, of Uxbridge, Ont., and Garrett MacKeen, 19, of Oshawa, Ont., won the short dance on Monday with 59.63 points. Silver medalist last year in junior dance, Bent and MacKeen are trained by Carol Lane and Juris Razgulajevs.

Youth surged to the fore in Melinda Meng, only 14, and Andrew Meng, 17, of Montreal. With their Pink Panther routine, they finished in second place with 56.89 points. Trained by Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, the Mengs were sixth last year in this category.

In third place are Brianna Delmaestro, 18, of Port Moody, B.C., and Timothy Lum, 18, Burnaby, B.C., with 54.60 after a scintillating midline footwork sequence.

Other gems: last year’s novice champions, Danielle Wu and Spencer Soo of Burnaby, B.C., are blasting up the ladder, with a fourth place finish in the short dance. Channelling Gene Kelly’s Singing in the Rain, Wu and Soo were brilliant, although a twizzle went awry. They are less than a point behind the more seasoned Delmaestro and Lum.

Beverley Smith