DALEMAN’S STRUGGLES CONTINUE AT NATIONALS
Skater frustrated by her short program, Richard Mauntah writes.
MISSISSAUGA, ONT. Gabrielle Daleman was not happy.
The veteran skater looked forward to a good start at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships. Instead, her struggles during the past 16 months became capsulized into two minutes and 40 seconds she’d rather forget.
“Absolutely awful,” the 22-year-old from Newmarket said. “That was a terrible skate for me. I have not been practising like that. I’m very disappointed with myself. It was not me.”
Performing to Jazz Man, Daleman struggled with an early triple toe loop, took a poor step out of a double axel, and was not sharp on a spin in the middle of her program. She did manage to hang onto a triple Lutz late in the program but overall she was a step slow and seemed to be anxious for all of it to be over.
Her score of 59.51 put her third, behind Alicia Pineault of Montreal and Madeline Schizas of Oakville, Ont.
Daleman has struggled since an Olympic appearance in 2018 where she was part of Canada’s gold medal-winning performance in the team event. She stepped away that fall to deal with depression and anxiety issues. She returned for the early part of this season, but suffered ligament damage in her ankle and a strained Achilles tendon at Skate Canada International in October. She returned to training a month later, but soon after suffered a bout of pneumonia.
Of course, Daleman can still win the championship with a bounce-back long program on Saturday. But it would take a major reversal of form.
“I’ve got to do what I know how to do,” she said. “I can’t focus on the score or placing.”
Pineault, who missed last year’s nationals with an injury, skated a clean performance to post a score of 63.35.
“You don’t win with a good short program, but you place yourself in a good position,” the 20-year-old said. “But it’s a good reflection with what I’ve been doing in training.”
Schizas, a newcomer to the senior ranks, skated a clean program and posted a score of 60.66.
It was a difficult day for Aurora Cotop of Edmonton, who skated despite having a back injury. Though after placing 12th, she will likely not skate on Saturday.
The road has been cleared for Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier to win their first Canadian championship together in ice dance. But their championships got off to a hairy start, literally. Thirty seconds into their rhythm dance program, Gillies’s hair got caught in one of the buttons of Poirier’s costume. But the veteran pair, skating to the soundtrack from Mack and Mabel, were near flawless after that, posting a score of 88.86 for a clear lead heading to Saturday.
“It was one of those pure panic moments,” Gillies said as they had a bit of a chuckle about the hair incident. “I was wondering if we should stop or keep going and he said keep going.”
Gillies, a native of Rockford, Ill. and Poirier, both 28, have skated together since 2011, the season after Ottawa native Poirier won the national title with then-partner Vanessa Crone. They have seven medals in eight years, but of course had to sit in the shadows behind two-time Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, and Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, who retired over the summer after winning their third title.
In second place is Marjorie Lajoie of Boucherville, Que. and
Zachary Lagha of Saint-hubert, Que. The 2019 junior champions scored 77.26.
Earlier in the week, junior and novice champions were crowned. Daleman’s brother Zack teamed with Patricia Andrew of London, Ont., to win the pairs division.
Despite skating with an injury, Corey Circelli of Toronto won the junior men’s division by five points. Kaiya Ruiter of Calgary took the junior women’s division by 31 points. Emmy Bronsard and Aissa Bouaraguia of Montreal won the junior ice dance.
In the novice competitions, Sandrine Gauthier and Quentin Thierien of St-bruno, Que. took the ice dance crown. Amy Shao Ning Yang of Vancouver won the women’s title. Lily Wilberforce and Aidan Wright of Kitchener, Ont. were the best in pairs and John Kim of Ontario took the men’s title.