Dance pair wins despite lift errors
VIRTUE AND MOIR troubled by violations at championships
MISSISSAUGA, ONT. — Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir will be spending the next few weeks training with a stopwatch in hand.
Virtue and Moir easily claimed their fifth national ice dance title at the Canadian figure skating championships Sunday, but were left troubled by their marks that included two violation point deductions.
The violations were for holding two lifts over the allowable time — and two points could be the difference between gold and silver when they meet American rivals Meryl Davis and Charlie White at the world championships in March.
“Marina (Zoueva, their coach) is going to be all over me now with a stopwatch,” said Moir — they also use video to monitor lift length.
“(Ice dancing) is a bit fussy. And to be honest, we were kind of excited because that was an awesome skate for us. There was no doubt in our minds. That’s exactly what we want to do. Now the (violations) don’t take away from it, but it would be nice to have a big number to go home and work off of.”
The two-time world champions and Olympic gold medallists scored 187.23 overall, and their dramatic and sultry Carmen free dance brought the capacity crowd of nearly 4,500 fans at the Hershey Centre to its feet.
Toronto’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier won the silver with 169.81 points, while Nicole Orford of Burnaby, B.C., and Thomas Williams of Okotoks, Alta., finished third with 152.56.
Virtue, from London, Ont., and Moir, who grew up just down the road in Ilderton, Ont., will be gunning for their third world title when London hosts the championships in March.
They also received a surprisingly low score on one of their spins.
Their Carmen program this season is a marked departure
“Marina (Zoueva, their coach) is going to be all over me now with a stopwatch.”
SCOTT MOIR
from their ethereal gold-medal free dance that most fans remember them for at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Virtue, wearing a black dress with a neckline that plunges down to her navel, opens by running her hand down Moir’s backside — the gesture prompted a wolf-whistle from someone in the crowd Sunday.
Virtue and Moir have never been afraid of taking risks and, despite not receiving the high marks they’ve been after so far this season, they’re still committed to the program.
“We wouldn’t be skating if we were just going to play it safe and do the same tricks every year,” said Moir. “We’re going after it. That’ll start to pay off. It already has started to pay off.
“To lose the points — it is disheartening, but it’s easy, too, at the same time. At least we have them in black and white, on paper.”
The Canadian championships were the qualifying event for the Four Continents, Feb. 6-11 in Osaka, Japan, plus part of the world championship team will be announced Monday.
The three ice dance medallists were named to the Four Continents team.
Patrick Chan will skip the Four Continents, so the three men competing there will be Kevin Reynolds of Coquitlam, B.C., Andrei Rogozine of Richmond Hill, Ont., and Elladj Balde of Pierrefonds, Que.
Kaetlyn Osmond, a 17-yearold from Marystown, N.L., leads the women’s contingent at Four Continents. Amelie Lacoste of Delson, Que., and Julianne Seguin of Longueuil, Que., are the other two.
The three pairs teams are Meagan Duhamel of Lively, Ont., and Eric Radford of Balmertown, Ont., Kirsten Moore-Towers of St. Catharines, Ont., and Dylan Moscovitch of Toronto, and Paige Lawrence of Kennedy, Sask., and Rudi Swiegers of Kipling, Sask.
Canada has a full three spots in ice dance at the worlds in London, Ont., and likely will at next year’s Sochi Olympics as well.