Sadovsky takes Canadian men’s figure skating title in an upset

Gilles, Poirier capture their first ice dance title

MISSISSAUGA — The battle for Canada’s lone berth in men’s singles at the world figure skating championship was destined to be a dogfight.

But the toughest part for Roman Sadovsky on Saturday night was watching the skaters that took the ice after him.

The 20-year-old from Toronto won his first Canadian figure skating title, setting the standard with two clean quadruple jumps and a score of 260.57.

Then Sadovsky sat nervously and watched as pressure got the better of both Keegan Messing and Nam Nguyen. They both fell twice.

“When you’re skating it’s one kind of stress level, but you’re sort of in control of what you’re doing, but once you’re sitting down you have no control and you’re just watching and it’s not a good feeling,” Sadovsky said. “It’s sort of bittersweet because you want to place well, but, at the same, you want to see your friends compete well.”

Emily Bausback won a women’s singles event that saw three newcomers climb the podium, while Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro won their second consecutive pairs title, and Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier captured their first national dance title.

Canada has just one men’s spot at the world championships in Montreal based on last year’s results. The spot was playing out as a battle between good friends Messing and Nguyen. But Sadovsky, who’d captured a bronze on the Grand Prix circuit in the fall, never counted himself out.

“I put the pressure on myself, I definitely wanted it really badly, I’ve been thinking about it since last worlds when I found out we only had one spot,” Sadovsky said. “I’m still sort of in disbelief, I’ve always wanted to get a national title, not just in senior but anywhere. To win my first national title at senior is fine, I like it.”

In ice dance, Gilles and Poirier had stood on the national figure skating podium seven times, but never on the top step. But Saturday, after nearly a decade of skating in the large shadow of superstars Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, they captured gold.

“It’s obviously something that we’ve worked really hard to get and it hasn’t come easily,” said Gilles. “But I think everything is about timing in life ... we’re just both really proud of ourselves.”

Moore-Towers, from St. Catharines, Ont., and Marinaro, from Sarnia, Ont., handily won gold with a score 215.67, their only obvious error coming on their opening jump sequence — Moore-Towers singled their triple Salchow.

“I was proud of the recovery,” Moore-Towers said.

Two months out of the world championships in Montreal, the two said it was key to lay down a strong skate here.

“Our goal here was obviously to solidify ourselves as the No. 1 Canadian team and we’re thrilled to have done that in a year when the competition is a little steeper,” Moore-Towers said.

“We were a little bit slow and tight out there today,” Marinaro added. “Obviously, on the world stage we’re going to have to bring a bigger skate and bigger performance than we did today, but we’re headed there.”

The error-filled women’s singles event saw three first-time medallists stand on the podium. All three are still eligible to skate at the world junior championships.

Bausback, a 17-year-old from Vancouver, landed five triple jumps en route to scoring 175.54 points. Alison Schumacher, of Toronto, was second with 168.94, while Madeline Schizas, of Oakville, Ont., scored 168.07 for bronze.