2010 Canadian Senior National Championships Preview

This weekend, London, Ontario, plays a pivotal role in Canadian figure skating history. The Canadian Championships return to southwestern Ontario and on Sunday, the 2010 Olympic Team will be announced. For the ice dancers, there are technically two spots on the Olympic team, but with one all but formally taken, the battle is for the second spot. Skate Canada reserves the right this year to consider the entire season in naming the second team. Teams for the Four Continents Championships, the World Championships, and the World Junior Championships will also be named this weekend, and the top five teams will be guaranteed a spot on the 2010-11 National Team. 

Of course, one of the Olympic team berths unofficially belongs to Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir. The two-time Canadian champions and two-time world medalists are poised to add another title to their resume this weekend. Realistically, the competition is just a formality, a way to showcase their programs before a home crowd before the big event next month, and an opportunity to get some extra feedback on their hyper-technical flamenco original dance and their contrasting, elegant free dance. It truly is a homecoming for the Canadian champions — Virtue hails from London and Moir from nearby Ilderton. The stands will be packed with friends and family anxious to see them make their first Olympic team. 

The battle for the silver medal and that second spot to the Olympics will most likely be a showdown between Vanessa Crone & Paul Poirier and Kaitlyn Weaver & Andrew Poje, last year’s silver and bronze medalists, respectively. The competition between the two teams at last year’s Canadian Championships was close, especially when Crone & Poirier faltered in the free dance, but Crone & Poirier extended their margin over Weaver & Poje the following month at the 2009 Four Continents Championships. The two have not faced each other since then. 

2007 Junior Canadian Champions Crone & Poirier burst into the senior ranks two years ago when they barely missed the podium and have not looked back since. The team is known for their innovative choreography and technical difficulty, though they have been criticized for looking a bit young on the ice. The duo, which trains in Scarborough, ON, has also chosen a flamenco for the original dance. In the free dance, they are taking a lyrical approach, skating to “Nocturne” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” played by violinist Lucia Micarelli. Crone & Poirier have a slight edge over Weaver & Poje in terms of results from this season — a fourth-place finish at Rostelecom Cup and a bronze medal at NHK Trophy made them second alternates for the Grand Prix Final. When two teams withdrew from the Final, Crone & Poirier seized the opportunity to participate. Although they finished sixth, the additional international exposure among the world’s elite may have raised the team’s standing in the eyes of the judges. 

After a slightly disappointing result at last year’s Canadian Championships where they dropped a spot in the rankings, Weaver & Poje have been on the rise. They finished last year with a strong performance at the Four Continents Championships, and then they made adjustments to their coaching over the summer. The team now spends much of their time training at the Detroit Skating Club with Pasquale Camerlengo and Anjelika Krylova, although they continue to work with Shae-Lynn Bourne in Toronto as well. They will also be performing a flamenco in the original dance and their free dance is a moving interpretation of Phantom of the Opera. A fantastic performance in the free dance helped them earn their first Grand Prix medal, a bronze at Skate Canada. American-born Weaver acquired her Canadian citizenship last year, and a trip to the Olympics would be the perfect way to celebrate her new nationality. 

Coincidentally, all three teams have chosen the same style — flamenco — for their original dances, despite having the option of using music from any country in the world. Whether that makes for good side-by-side comparison or for tedium to those in the arena remains to be seen. 

Last year, Andrea Chong & Guillaume Gfeller finished fourth at the Canadian Championships, five places higher than their debut in 2008. The team competed at Skate Canada for the second year in a row this season and placed eighth. Their marks at Skate Canada do not necessarily place them in contention for the Olympic team; however, they could certainly earn a trip to the Four Continents Championships, as the Olympic team members are not likely to go. They are sure to charm the crowd with their French original dance and their lyrical free dance highlights a soft style. 

2008 Canadian Junior Champions Kharis Ralph & Asher Hill competed for the first time as seniors in 2009 and made the national team with a fifth-place finish. This year, they competed as juniors on the international level, where they won two silver medals on the Junior Grand Prix. At their second appearance at the Junior Grand Prix Final, they finished fourth. As the top Canadian juniors on the international scene, Ralph & Hill will likely be sent to the 2010 World Junior Championships. 

Allie-Hann McCurdy & Michael Coreno, bronze medalists at the Canadian Championships in 2008, fell to sixth last year and lost their place on the national team. They have made some major changes to get back on track this year, including a move to train with Marina Zoueva and Igor Shpilband in Canton, Michigan. A trip to NHK Trophy in the fall yielded an eighth-place finish and most agreed that they had made improvements to their skating, but they are still flying under the radar heading into these championships. 

Several more teams could be challenging the current national team members for spots in the top five. Neither Mylène Girard & Jonathan Pelletier nor Tarrah Harvey & Keith Gagnon competed internationally this season, but both teams had good results at summer competitions before taking the top two spots at the 2010 Skate Canada Challenge. Both teams are also coached by recent former national team members — Marie-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon coach Girard & Pelletier in Montréal and Megan Wing & Aaron Lowe coach Harvey & Gagnon in Burnaby, BC. So Canada’s 2006 Olympians will be back to battle each other — this time from the other side of the boards. 

Girard & Pelletier are the 2010 Challenge champions and are in their second year of skating together. Last year, they finished ninth in Canada. This season marks Harvey & Gagnon’s first as a senior team and their 12th as partners. In 2009, they were the Canadian junior silver medalists and finished 12th at the World Junior Championships. 

Karen Routhier & Eric Saucke-Lacelle won the bronze medal at Challenge last month after a disappointing outing on the JGP circuit. After winning the silver medal at the JGP Budapest, the duo was poised to qualify for their first Junior Grand Prix Final, but mistakes at the JGP in Belarus left them in fifth place and out of the JGPF standings. Their struggles continued at Challenge, when they inadvertently turned in the junior cut of their free dance music and had to interrupt their program to retrieve the correct music from Saucke-Lacelle’s iPod. The Canadian Championships are a great opportunity for them to get back on the right track, since they are also favorites to make the World Junior team. 

Competition begins Thursday evening with the Tango Romantica and continues Friday evening with the original dance. On Saturday, the free dance concludes the competition and the Olympic team will be formally announced on Sunday evening.