Ice Dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, making their comeback after sitting out the beginning of the season for Virtue's surgery recovery, placed first in the ice dancing compulsories at the Canadian championships. They received a 39.33 for their Viennese Waltz. Vanessa Crone and Paul Poirier were second with a 35.62, and Siobhan Karam and Kevin O'Keefe were third with a 31.97. It's nice to see that Virtue and Moir started off performing well, although they are highly favored to win the competition.
Virtue, from London, Ont., and Moir, from Ilderton, Ont., haven't competed since they won silver at the world championships last spring in Sweden. Virtue had surgery in October for chronic external compartment syndrome, an overuse injury that caused pain in her shins.
"I'm quite close (to 100 per cent), I'm feeling really strong, and my shins feel great," Virtue said.
While the 19-year-old Virtue recovered, Moir, 21, trained alone at their base in Detroit, substituting props such as hockey sticks and sandbags for his partner. Virtue finally was able to return to the ice six weeks ago.
So nice to see skaters coming back from injury! Especially these days.