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- Jul 28, 2003
I thought this article was interesting for Canadian fans and anyone else who is interested.
23-year Canadian skating streak ends
Canadian Press
3/28/2004
DORTMUND, Germany (CP) - For the first time in 23 years, there were no medals for Canada at the world figure skating championships.
Another jolting fact: The last time there was no Canadians listed in the top seven in the results was 1949.
``Clearly, we're disappointed that we didn't get a medal here,'' said Skate Canada CEO Pam Coburn.
She quickly shifted her comments to positive developments during the season.
``Our focus is shifting to a broader, deeper base and when you look at the results on the year for us we ended up, on the senior circuit, with 23 medals. The year before, we had 12 medals,'' she said. ``So, from that perspective, we're looking at this as a transition to bigger and better things.
``That's where we're going. It's a transition year for us.''
The star of Canada's team turned out to be Joannie Rochette, an 18-year-old Quebecer who, while imagining before arriving that the top 10 was out of her grasp, zoomed all the way to eighth from 17th the year before.
``She put together three fabulous programs,'' said Coburn. ``She really showed fortitute.''
Coach Manon Perron has brought Rochette along perfectly.
``Each competition, she's better and better, and she peaked here at worlds,'' said Perron
Russians won three of the four events, and the level of technical difficulty in the sport continued to rise. Women will soon be routinely scheduling quads in their free-skating programs.
Total attendance was 53,300.
The women's final Saturday was won by Shizuka Arakawa, 22, of Japan. She was third at her nationals and had to overcome a strained left thigh muscle in Dortmund, and she pulled off an upset when she overtook American Sasha Cohen.
Cohen was left with silver and teammate Michelle Kwan, the five-time world champion, won bronze despite a four-minute delay in her start when Ben Bensimhon, 30, of Montreal burst onto the ice in a skirt on skates and mimicked a figure skater so he could get a casino website address shown around the world.
Kwan got the last perfect 6.0 mark as the International Skating Union prepares to scrap the 75-year-old standard and adopt a new judging system at its June congress.
Jennifer Robinson of Windsor, Ont., announced her retirement after her eighth worlds with a 14th-place showing - down five spots from the previous year.
``She's meant so much to the little girls in Canada,'' said Perron. ``Joannie has learned a lot from her.''
``I hope she stays in the (skating) family because she's amazing,'' said Coburn.
All three men's medallists were Europeans for the first time since 1979 in Vienna.
Evgeni Plushenko of Russia fell during his long program but was still good enough - two quads helped - to win the men's title a second straight year and third time in four years, Brian Joubert of France showed in winning silver that he'll be a force to be reckoned with for years to come and bronze was beautiful to German Stefan Lindemann.
``This was my toughest world championship,'' said Plushenko. ``There is a new generation of skaters pushing and developing the sport further.''
Canadian champion Emanuel Sandhu of Richmond Hill, Ont., would like to be counted among them. But he finished eighth, as he did last year. He left saying his confidence hadn't been shattered by a botched short program.
``With a little bit more in my repertoire, keeping to the same recipe, it's going to fall into place,'' he said.
``There has been steady progression during his career,'' said Coburn. ``He's making headway and that I think we have to celebrate.''<
There are whispers of a possible split with coach Joanne McLeod.
Ben Ferreira of Edmonton was 13th, slightly better than his 15th in 2002.
In pairs, Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin won gold with some gravity-defying lifts. Two-time champions Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao got 10 perfect marks for their free skating but were too far back to catch the Russians and had to settle for silver.
Anabelle Langlois of Grand-Mere, Que., and Patrice Archetto of Montreal were eighth, a drop from last year's fifth, but it was impossible to criticize them because he was wearing splints on a damaged right hand. The difficulty level of their programs will have to be elevated. A triple-throw loop will be necessary.
``We need something spectacularly different,'' said Archetto.
Valerie Marcoux of Gatineau, Que., and Craig Buntin of Kelowna, B.C., were ninth in their worlds debut.
``We're going to start putting a lot of new things on the ice,'' said Buntin. ``When you see one of the top three teams skate around the ice, you know they're a top-three team.
``We want to get that look and we're just going to have to work really hard to get it.''
Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov of Russia won ice dance gold, and Bulgarians Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski were a close second. The most compelling moment of the championships was when Kati Winkler and Rene Lohse saw their names pop up in third place in the final standings. The crowd roared its approval of the first dance medal for Germany in 21 years.
``I can't believe it, I just can't believe it,'' Winkler said of the unexpected trip to the podium. ``I can only tell everyone: believe in yourself and some day the dream will come true.''
Canadian champions Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon were eighth, which was two spots better than last year but considering there had been two retirements it wasn't the move up that the Montrealers anticipated.
``We have a plan to be on the podium in Torino (at the 2006 Olympics) and we'll have to make the plan more aggressive because it seems to be working a little bit slow right now for us,'' said Dubrueil.
Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe of Vancouver were 11th and Quebecers Josee Piche and Pascal Denis were 23rd. Canada's dance entry quota for next year drops to two from three.
Coburn hopes the new judging system will help Langlois and Archetto, and also Dubreuil and Lauzon.
Any help at all, from any source, will be welcomed by Canada's team.
23-year Canadian skating streak ends
Canadian Press
3/28/2004
DORTMUND, Germany (CP) - For the first time in 23 years, there were no medals for Canada at the world figure skating championships.
Another jolting fact: The last time there was no Canadians listed in the top seven in the results was 1949.
``Clearly, we're disappointed that we didn't get a medal here,'' said Skate Canada CEO Pam Coburn.
She quickly shifted her comments to positive developments during the season.
``Our focus is shifting to a broader, deeper base and when you look at the results on the year for us we ended up, on the senior circuit, with 23 medals. The year before, we had 12 medals,'' she said. ``So, from that perspective, we're looking at this as a transition to bigger and better things.
``That's where we're going. It's a transition year for us.''
The star of Canada's team turned out to be Joannie Rochette, an 18-year-old Quebecer who, while imagining before arriving that the top 10 was out of her grasp, zoomed all the way to eighth from 17th the year before.
``She put together three fabulous programs,'' said Coburn. ``She really showed fortitute.''
Coach Manon Perron has brought Rochette along perfectly.
``Each competition, she's better and better, and she peaked here at worlds,'' said Perron
Russians won three of the four events, and the level of technical difficulty in the sport continued to rise. Women will soon be routinely scheduling quads in their free-skating programs.
Total attendance was 53,300.
The women's final Saturday was won by Shizuka Arakawa, 22, of Japan. She was third at her nationals and had to overcome a strained left thigh muscle in Dortmund, and she pulled off an upset when she overtook American Sasha Cohen.
Cohen was left with silver and teammate Michelle Kwan, the five-time world champion, won bronze despite a four-minute delay in her start when Ben Bensimhon, 30, of Montreal burst onto the ice in a skirt on skates and mimicked a figure skater so he could get a casino website address shown around the world.
Kwan got the last perfect 6.0 mark as the International Skating Union prepares to scrap the 75-year-old standard and adopt a new judging system at its June congress.
Jennifer Robinson of Windsor, Ont., announced her retirement after her eighth worlds with a 14th-place showing - down five spots from the previous year.
``She's meant so much to the little girls in Canada,'' said Perron. ``Joannie has learned a lot from her.''
``I hope she stays in the (skating) family because she's amazing,'' said Coburn.
All three men's medallists were Europeans for the first time since 1979 in Vienna.
Evgeni Plushenko of Russia fell during his long program but was still good enough - two quads helped - to win the men's title a second straight year and third time in four years, Brian Joubert of France showed in winning silver that he'll be a force to be reckoned with for years to come and bronze was beautiful to German Stefan Lindemann.
``This was my toughest world championship,'' said Plushenko. ``There is a new generation of skaters pushing and developing the sport further.''
Canadian champion Emanuel Sandhu of Richmond Hill, Ont., would like to be counted among them. But he finished eighth, as he did last year. He left saying his confidence hadn't been shattered by a botched short program.
``With a little bit more in my repertoire, keeping to the same recipe, it's going to fall into place,'' he said.
``There has been steady progression during his career,'' said Coburn. ``He's making headway and that I think we have to celebrate.''<
There are whispers of a possible split with coach Joanne McLeod.
Ben Ferreira of Edmonton was 13th, slightly better than his 15th in 2002.
In pairs, Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin won gold with some gravity-defying lifts. Two-time champions Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao got 10 perfect marks for their free skating but were too far back to catch the Russians and had to settle for silver.
Anabelle Langlois of Grand-Mere, Que., and Patrice Archetto of Montreal were eighth, a drop from last year's fifth, but it was impossible to criticize them because he was wearing splints on a damaged right hand. The difficulty level of their programs will have to be elevated. A triple-throw loop will be necessary.
``We need something spectacularly different,'' said Archetto.
Valerie Marcoux of Gatineau, Que., and Craig Buntin of Kelowna, B.C., were ninth in their worlds debut.
``We're going to start putting a lot of new things on the ice,'' said Buntin. ``When you see one of the top three teams skate around the ice, you know they're a top-three team.
``We want to get that look and we're just going to have to work really hard to get it.''
Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov of Russia won ice dance gold, and Bulgarians Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski were a close second. The most compelling moment of the championships was when Kati Winkler and Rene Lohse saw their names pop up in third place in the final standings. The crowd roared its approval of the first dance medal for Germany in 21 years.
``I can't believe it, I just can't believe it,'' Winkler said of the unexpected trip to the podium. ``I can only tell everyone: believe in yourself and some day the dream will come true.''
Canadian champions Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon were eighth, which was two spots better than last year but considering there had been two retirements it wasn't the move up that the Montrealers anticipated.
``We have a plan to be on the podium in Torino (at the 2006 Olympics) and we'll have to make the plan more aggressive because it seems to be working a little bit slow right now for us,'' said Dubrueil.
Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe of Vancouver were 11th and Quebecers Josee Piche and Pascal Denis were 23rd. Canada's dance entry quota for next year drops to two from three.
Coburn hopes the new judging system will help Langlois and Archetto, and also Dubreuil and Lauzon.
Any help at all, from any source, will be welcomed by Canada's team.
