The Canadian national skating championships took place this weekend. For the most part, it sounds fairly predictable. Even the fact that Patrick Chan received a competition total of 285.85 points is predictable, since he skated clean and landed two quads in the free skate.
Men
Patrick Chan won, obviously. If he skates the way he reportedly skated on Sunday night, he will win the World Championships easily. I am very impressed with the reports of his skating and can't wait to watch the videos on youtube. I obviously think the scoring was likely a bit ridiculous, but it IS the Canadian Championships, after all. Although Chan doubled his triple axel attempt in the short program, it sounds like he landed absolutely everything planned in the free skate, according to news reports. That must have been a pretty impressive outing. Although I assume the Canadian scores were inflated, I do think that a two-quad Chan will break Daisuke Takahashi's championship total record (264.41) in international competition, set in 2008. Chan was followed by Shawn Sawyer and Joey Russell...but does any of that really matter? Chan is the only story this season and for the last three seasons in Canadian men's skating. Poor Kevin Reynolds made too many mistakes and was out of the running.
Ladies
Cynthia Phaneuf captured her first national title since 2004, although it wasn't a perfect free skate. She was followed up by Myriane Samson and Amelie Lacoste. Not a very exciting crop of ladies skaters up in Canada these days.
Pairs
Upstarts Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch continued their climb through the ranks by winning their first national championship in the absence of Jessica Dube (who was competing singles, apparently unsuccessfully) and Bryce Davison, who have been out of competition this season why Davison has been injured). Meagan Duhamel with new partner Eric Radford was able to snatch the second world championship berth by finishing second.
Ice Dancing
Vanessa Crone and Paul Poirier won this by a slight margin, but I have to say that I think more press is going to Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje in getting the chance to go to the world championships that they were denied last season. I think Crone and Poirier have the better odds of medaling at worlds, however. Alexandra Paul and Mitchell Islam received the bronze and the third worlds berth if Virtue and Moir do not make it back for worlds.
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