ISLAND SNOWBOARDER HAS A TOUGH DAY
Canadian figure skater Patrick Chan said he went into the final competition of his career with “no fear.”
Skating to Jeff Buckley’s haunting Hallelujah at the Pyeongchang Olympics today, the three-time world champion from Toronto scored 173.42 points for an overall score of 263.43, putting him ninth in the men’s event.
He opened with a beautiful quadruple toe loop, but tripled his second quad jump in a shaky skate. Chan, 27, was sixth in Friday’s short program after he fell on his triple Axel.
The Canadian, who is retiring, ends his career with an Olympic silver in the men’s event from the 2014 Games and a team gold won earlier in Pyeongchang.
“This is the best Olympic experience out of the three, because I was in control,” he said. “I was not dying out of breath.”
It was a 1-2 finish for Japan, with two-time world champion Yuzuru Hanyu earning 206.17 points in the free skate for a total of 317.85 and the gold medal.
Shoma Uno took silver with a total score of 306.90, while Spain’s Javier Fernandez was third with 305.24.
Keegan Messing of Sherwood Park, Alta., was 12th, finishing with a total score of 255.43.
Freestyle skier Dara Howell, a gold medallist in women’s slopestyle four years ago in Sochi, finished a disappointing 21st.
Yuki Tsubota of Whistler was the top Canadian — and the only one of three to make the final. She placed sixth with a score of 74.40 points.
Kim Lamarre of Lac Beauport, Que., the bronze medallist from Sochi, was 22nd.
Back on the ice, the Canadian men’s hockey team suffered its first loss of the tournament.
Goalie Pavel Francouz was the shootout star as the Czech Republic edged the Canadians 3-2.
Wojtek Wolski scored for Canada in the shootout while Maxim Lapierre, Derek Roy, René Bourque and Maxim Noreau missed. Noreau beat Francouz with Canada’s final shot but the puck bounced off the goalpost.
Petr Koukal and Jan Kouvar were successful for the Czechs against Ben Scrivens.
Mason Raymond and Bourque scored for Canada, which wraps up preliminary-round play Sunday against South Korea. Bourque now has three goals at the tournament.
Dominik Kubalik and Michal Jordan scored in regulation time for the Czechs, who edged South Korea 2-1 in their opener.
Canada opened the tournament with a 5-1 over Switzerland. On Friday, a day when Canada didn’t figure into the medals, Rachel Homan and her Ottawa rink dropped to 0-3 in the women’s curling tournament with a 9-8 extra-end loss to Denmark.
Comox resident Carle Brenneman didn’t have the day she was hoping for in the women’s snowboard cross event at Phoenix Snow Park. Brenneman finished fourth in a quarter-final heat and failed to advance. She wound up 14th overall.
Friday was a better day for Calgary’s Kevin Koe, who improved to 4-0 in men’s curling competition with a 7-6 win over South Korea.
Ottawa speedskater Ivanie Blondin was fifth in the women’s 5,000 metres, and cross-country skier Alex Harvey of SaintFerréol-les-Neiges, Que., was seventh in the men’s 15-kilometre free.
With four gold, five silver and four bronze, Canada was tied for third with the Netherlands in the overall medal standings with 13. Canada was tied for fifth with Sweden in gold medals, behind Germany (9), Norway and the Netherlands (6) and the U.S.