Top Skaters Put on Show at Canadian Nationals

Patrick Chan ties record for most men’s titles; Kaetlyn Osmond reclaims top women’s spot; pairs and ice dance champions impress.

The Canadian Figure Skating Championships took place this week in Ottawa, and the skating generally contained more good than bad. Canadian Nationals is a three-level event, with competitions for novice, junior, and senior skaters. Here Canadian skaters vied not only for spots on the Four Continents, World Junior, and World Championships, but also for top five placements which got them onto the Canadian National Team, which grants them funding for the next season.

But in three of the four disciplines, practically all the action was happening among the top three, at least in the senior division.

Men

Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

The men’s competition was the only one where there was a serious question of which skaters would be on the podium, rather than just who would take which medal. But the short program wasn’t a pretty sight. Even top man Patrick Chan stumbled on all three of his jumping passes, on his quadruple toe loop especially. His score was low for him, but still ten points above second-place Kevin Reynolds. Reynolds underrotated and fell on his quad salchow and didn’t get credit for a spin, but landed a quad toe-triple toe jump combination, the only quality quad element of the night.

Third was a surprise, in the form of Elladj Balde. An excellent performer without the technical content of some of the others, he didn’t try a quad, and went down on a flip fully downgraded to a double. But when everyone else was also making mistakes, he performed his way into the top three. Nam Nguyen was a close fourth behind him, despite a fall on a rotated quad salchow and less than clean combination. Nicolas Nadeau similarly took fifth, despite nearly falling on a quad toe and singling out his combination.

The free skate was a triumph for Chan. He did his best long program maybe ever, where everything looked seamless from start to finish, to truly breathtaking effect. He actually didn’t do all three intended quads, tripling the solo quad toe, but when it didn’t disrupt anything, nobody cared. Besides, he’d already pulled not only another one with a triple toe and a solo quad salchow, but also a three jump combination with a triple axel. He also got the highest possible value for his step sequence, which was appropriate enough. It was his highest free skate score even at Canadians, and he won his record-tying ninth national title in style.

Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

For Reynolds, things weren’t quite as perfect. He especially had difficulty with his opening quads, landing two shaky quad salchows and going down on an underrotated toe. He was generally better after that, even landing a good quad toe-triple toe in the second half of the program. But he also doubled his axel. Still, he ultimately did enough that winning silver and the second berth to Worlds wasn’t a problem. Sadly, the still well-performing Balde suffered a badly underrotated quad, a fully downgraded loop, and two more doubled jumps, including his intended second triple axel. It dropped him down to sixth, not only off the podium but also off the national team.

Nguyen took bronze instead, with a mostly clean skate that included a quad salchow combination. He did go down on the solo quad salchow, though, and had to hold on less than two and a half points ahead of Nadeau, who beat him in the segment to pull up to fourth. Nadeau more or less landed a quad loop and was especially strong and crowd-rousing in the first half of his Elvis free. In the second half, he doubled a couple of jumps, and lost credit for a planned double toe which became illegal as a result. But even after that, he managed to max out the value for his choreographic sequence, with the aid of the screaming audience.

Last year’s novice champion and rising star Stephen Gogolev was initially in second in the junior men’s, after he had trouble with his triple axel, while leader Conrad Orzel had less. Orzel even narrowly took the highest technical score in the free, landing a quad while Gogolev fell on one. But he had a fall of his own, and with a clean triple axel and no further major mistakes from both, Gogolev pulled ahead on presentation scores to win. They were the only two junior men to try the triple axel. Below them, Samuel Turcotte took the bronze on the strength of his short program, or perhaps more accurately, his presentation scores in both, even as he fell once in the short and three times in the free.

Women

Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

Canadian intranational competitions are unique in the skating world for referring to female skaters as women instead of ladies. In Ottawa, three women stood above the rest of the field. Also, two berths to the World Championships. The one questions were who would win, who else would get to Worlds, and who would be the odd woman out.

It turned out to be an exact reversal of last year. Kaetlyn Osmond, who was left in third then, first took the big lead with a flawless short program, strong from her triple flip-triple toe onward. Her long program was a little dicier. As typical she started out strong, landing the triple-triple again. Then halfway through she started struggling, falling twice. Still, she was the only one of the top three to pull off a difficult triple-triple, and the strength and power alongside her performance ability did the rest. Her win in the free was much narrower, but it made for a comfortable win of her third national title.

For triple-triples, Gabrielle Daleman had only a triple toe-triple toe to open each program. She did as much as she could with that, quite literally, as in she maxed out the available points for it in both programs. Like Osmond, she managed a clean short. Her long program had no major errors either. It did have a handful of minor ones, which kept her from winning the segment. But she repeated very easily as the silver medalist, and earned a repeat trip to Worlds.

Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

Things went wrong for last year’s champion from the start of the week. On Monday Alaine Chartrand twisted her ankle, and wasn’t even able to practice Tuesday. Nonetheless, she competed. Returning to her short program from last year, she failed to rotate her triple lutz-triple toe combination. That just got worse in the free, where it was only one four ugly underrotations. She said afterward she thought she’d done well considering the ankle, but she was still a distant third.

The only other women to even try a difficult triple-triple was Sarah Tamura. She went for a triple lutz-triple toe in both programs. She nearly got it in her short program. Ironically she did land it cleanly in her long program, where she also fell three times. She finished fifth.

As in the men, the junior women’s competition went to last year’s novice winner. Aurora Cotop easily won, landing the short program’s only clean triple-triple, a triple toe-triple toe, skating a free clean outside one last salchow gone wrong, and getting by far the highest presentation scores. Below her, Emily Bausback narrowly held on to silver over Alison Schumacher, who was second in the free but had to come back from fifth. Bausback went for the triple lutz-triple toe in the short and nearly got it, and her free had no major errors, but she didn’t quite get her attempted triple toe-triple toe there. Schumacher had lost her short program’s combination to a fall, but skated a clean, if triple-triple-less, free.

Pairs

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The pairs competitions were all alarming small. The senior field had seven teams, and the junior and novice fields only five. It was enough to trigger a meeting between officials to discuss how they could encourage the growth of more pairs teams for the country.

The withdrawal of Julianne Séguin & Charlie Bilodeau also removed all suspense regarding who would win. Not that Meagan Duhamel & Eric Radford did any slouching as a result. They broke 80 with a clean short that included their usual side by side and throw lutzes. Then they upped the ante in the free, pulling the lutzes off in combination for the first time. They had another go at the quad salchow too, but that they fell on. It wasn’t a day for throws anyway; she stumbled out of the throw lutz too. They did pull off triple salchows as their new side by sides, though. The mistakes kept them from breaking 150, but winning their sixth straight title still wasn’t a problem.

Initially, things were close between Lubov Iliuschechkina & Dylan Moscovitch and Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro, with only a point and a half between them after the short. This was because Moore-Towers & Marinaro landed their jump elements (but fumbled their final pose!), while Iliuschechkina singled on the side by side triple toes. But even then a harder throw lutz and general quality kept her & Moscovitch ahead. Things didn’t go well on the side by sides in the free either. This time she fell on the toes to lose the combination, and doubled on their salchows. But they were much stronger for the rest of the program, including another throw lutz. Meanwhile, Moore-Towers & Marinaro’s side by sides weren’t clean either, and they weren’t as hard. The rest of their program was general good, but Iliuschechkina & Moscovitch pulled away for silver.

Trennt Michaud, who won last year’s junior title with one partner, won this year’s with his new one, Evelyn Walsh. In the short program, they had to edge out the technically superior Lori-Ann Matte & Thierry Ferland on their presentation scores. But in the free, Matte & Ferland botched a lift, making it easier for Walsh & Michaud when they were mostly clean. The other three pairs, including bronze medalists Olivia & Mackenzie Boys-Eddy, were much messier.

Dance

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Nationals scores are always a little higher than international ones, but the Canadian judges are now quickly approaching the ceiling for how high the scores can go. When Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir were their usual brilliant selves through two programs, the judges went above and beyond rewarding them en route to their seventh title. In the short dance, where they got straight level fours for all their elements, they also got the highest score possible for their opening steps, closing lift, and one of their presentation marks. Things got truly crazy in the free dance. They actually didn’t get straight level fours, but they got the highest execution marks possible for everything except their dance spin, and only six of the fifty numbers that contributed to their presentation score weren’t perfect 10s. And those were all 9.75s.

They were generous in marking the other two top teams as well. Still, Kaitlyn Weaver & Andrew Pojé didn’t have the best time of it. In the short dance, her leg briefly slipped while they were doing the blues pattern, and they had other moments of slowness and unsteadiness. They barely stayed ahead of Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier, who were less uncertain and more energetic, and even beat their presentation scores. They would’ve been third if Gilles & Poirier hadn’t gotten hit with an extended lift deduction.

Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

Things went far better for them in the free dance, where they were easy elegance from start to finish. Meanwhile, Gilles & Poirier had a perilous moment from him on their twizzles, and finished far enough behind the music to get docked a point. But Weaver & Pojé got the extended lift deduction this time, and Gilles & Poirier got the higher presentation scores again. People have accused Gilles & Poirier’s coach of having too much influence with Canadian officials, but one wonders how this bodes, even internationally. However, a higher technical tariff helped Weaver & Pojé get another second place in the segment, and seal up the silver, leaving Gilles & Poirier with the bronze.

Marjorie Lajoie & Zachary Lagha, last year’s silver medalists on the junior level, this year went unchallenged for the title. They skated both programs well, their free especially. Below them, Aslynne Stairs & Lee Royer didn’t have much trouble winning the silver either. In the short dance, they were cited and docked a point for a tempo violation. But the technical panel was kinder to them in the free dance. They even granted them a higher tariff than the winners. Danielle Wu & Nik Mirzakhani matched that and even beat Stairs & Royer technically. That helped them pull up from fourth to win bronze.

View full results here.

ISU Championships Teams

Canada named their ISU Championship teams Sunday morning. As expected, Canada mostly went with the results of Nationals when naming the World team. They named the top two finishers in each singles discipline, and the dance podium. But, also as expected, they also included Julianne Séguin & Charlie Bilodeau, who join the top two in the pairs. With the Four Continents Championships taking place at next year’s Olympic venue, and Séguin & Bilodeau not going, the top three in all four disciplines are going instead.

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Both the junior national champions in singles are too young to attend the World Junior Championships. Instead, for the men, Conrad Orzel will be joined by Nicolaus Nadeau, and also by Roman Sadovsky. Though, he came in a disappointing ninth in the senior competition. Canada’s one ladies berth goes to Sarah Tamura. Canada has two berths in both pairs and dance, which have gone to the top two from those junior competitions.