Slovenia’s Urbas Battles for Recognition

For Slovenia’s Gregor Urbas, finding any competition in his own country is a challenge. “We’re only a small part of what used to be Yugoslavia,” he said. “We don’t have many skaters and everyone is interested in hockey. Things are getting better because of the Junior Grand Prix and the Grand Prix series, which give us an opportunity to compete against good skaters from other countries, but I only have a few promising juniors to compete with in Slovenia. It’s more fun when I go to Moscow and skate with the Russian skaters. Last year before Worlds, I went with Victor Kudriatsev to train in Delaware with Elena Sokolova and Roman Serov and his skaters and that was great.”

Urbas started skating when he was eight. “My younger sister was a…

Foot Injury Didn’t Stop Canada’s Scherrer

One of the most courageous performances at the 2004 Canadian Nationals came from Erin Scherrer, who won the bronze in junior ladies. Scherrer was injured in the practice session just before the junior ladies short program and received nine stitches to sew up the gash in her foot. “I stabbed the blade right through my boot on a jump just a few hours before the short,” she said. “My landing foot was really bruised and we thought we would have to cut out part of my boot to get it on if it swelled too much. The program was pretty hard on my foot, but we didn’t have to make any changes in it.”

Scherrer finished third in the short, then went on to land a triple salchow, triple…

2004 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships: Ice Dance Highlights

The ISU created the Four Continents Championships to give non-European skaters an additional opportunity to compete and to earn prize money. The event is also supposed to promote skating in countries where the sport is not as developed yet. The inaugural event was held in 1999, and the championships have continued to grow year by year. This year’s event was held Jan 19-25 at the Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ont. with 81 skaters participating from 11 different countries.

Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto (USA) were the winners in the ice dance event, capturing their first Four Continents gold medal. Canadians Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon won the silver for the second time (first was in 2000), while teammates Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe won the bronze for the second time (first was in 2002).

The Compulsory Dance (CD) of the event was the Yankee Polka, worth 20 per cent of the overall score. This fast-paced dance consists of two sequences….

2004 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships: Ladies Highlights

Japan’s Yukina Ota was the winner in the ladies event, taking home her first Four Continents medal. Cynthia Phaneuf of Canada won silver, while USA’s Amber Corwin took home the bronze.

In the short, Corwin opened her program with a solid triple toe-triple toe combination followed by footwork into a slightly cheated triple Lutz. She fought for and kept a clean double Axel and produced nice spirals. Her cosmopolitan routine to Henry Mancini’s Moon River scored marks from 4.9 to 5.8, placing the 1999 Four Continents silver medalist first after the short.

“It’s my trademark, so I’ve got to do it. It’s my secret weapon,” Corwin said about her triple-triple combination. “I felt fabulous out there, I felt like I was flying. Even the little things felt so strong, it was like magical.”

Angela Nikodinov (USA) opened her short program with a triple Lutz-double toe combination followed by a triple flip, a double Axel, a flying camel, and a classic layback spin…

2004 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships: Pairs Highlights

China’s Qing Pang and Jian Tong won the pairs event, while teammates Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang took the silver. Canadians Valerie Marcoux and Craig Buntin captured the bronze.

Pang and Tong opened their short program with side-by-side triple toeloops, but Pang slightly stepped out of the landing on hers. The team then executed a a high throw triple loop followed by a good lift, and nice side-by-side spins. The 2004 Chinese national champions earned marks ranging from 5.2 to 5.8 for their routine to Illumination by Rolf Lovland, placing first after the short.

“It was a little accident,” explained Pang on stepping out of the triple toeloop. “I didn’t quite have the rhythm when going into the triple toeloop. The best element today was the throw jump, I guess.” Tong agreed on the reaction of the crowd on their high throws, adding, “Every time we do an element well, we’re waiting and hoping for the reaction of the crowd. There…

2004 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships: Men’s Highlights

Canada’s Jeffery Buttle won his second Four Continents gold medal in the mens event. Teammate Emanuel Sandhu captured the silver while Evan Lysacek (USA) won bronze.

Defending Four Continents Champion, Takeshi Honda of Japan, was forced to withdraw after the warmup for the short program. Honda has been battling an ankle injury for several weeks. He suffers from tendonitis and ligaments injured in a fall during practice.

“It has been ten weeks now since I injured my (right) ankle,” Honda said. “I have been in treatment three times a day and have tried almost everything: physio, acupuncture, ultrasound. The doctors told me it wouldn’t get worse. But then it started swelling again. I carried on, trying to skate here, but today the pain was too much to deal with.” He added, “The Federation wanted me to skate, because I didn’t compete (since Skate Canada) but it is my body, and they don’t know the pain.”

Skating to Brubeck’s Take Five, Buttle fell…

Thirteen’s the Number for Canada’s Murphy

After taking the silver medal in junior men at the 2002 Canadian Nationals, British Columbia’s Keegan Murphy was hoping to have as much success in seniors as gold medalist Shawn Sawyer. But he’s been stuck on number 13 since then. Murphy finished 13th in senior men in both 2003 and 2004. This year he was 13th in both the short and the long. But he was more concerned about his little sister, Kelsey, who was competing in senior pairs with Ryan Shollert. “Finally, she’s getting some attention,” he noted. And where did his sister finish? She and Shollert were 13th in the short, the long and overall. Quite a pattern.

Murphy has competed in…

2004 Canadian Figure Skating Championships: Highlights

The 2004 BMO Financial Group Canadian Figure Skating Championships were held Jan 5-11 at the Skyreach Centre in Edmonton, Alberta.

Cynthia Phaneuf (QC) was the surprising winner in the ladies event, edging out Joanne Rochette (QC) who placed second, as well as the reigning Canadian champ, Jennifer Robinson (WO) who came in third.

The ladies event began with the qualifying round which accounts for 20 percent of the final score. The short program is worth 30 percent while the long is worth 50 percent.

In the short program, Rochette opened her routine with a double Axel but then fell on the triple Lutz as well as the triple flip. The disappointing skate earned her marks from 4.4 to 5.6 for a fifth place finish after the short.

Annie Bellemare (QC) fell on the triple Lutz portion of her combination and didn’t perform the second jump. She bounced back to complete a triple flip and double Axel to earn marks ranging from 4.8 to…