Messing jumps into lead after men’s short program
Alaska resident skating for Canada feels ‘pretty dang excited’ about clean routine
LAVAL Newly engaged and with his first Grand Prix figure skating title within reach — Keegan Messing couldn’t find words to describe his elation Friday night. “Cloud 9” didn’t quite cut it. “I’m above the clouds,” Messing said through a wide grin.
The Canadian is the leader after the men’s short program at Skate Canada International, less than a week after he asked the woman he loves — Lane Hodson — to be his wife on an Alaskan mountain top.
Skating to You’ve Got a Friend in Me from the movie Toy Story, the 26-year-old showman scored 95.05 points, opening with a gorgeous quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop combination, then landing a triple Axel en route to a clean program.
“I’m pretty dang excited,” Messing said.
Olympic silver medallist Shoma Uno is second with 88.87 points after a disastrous program that saw him crash on his triple Axel and slide back-first into the boards at Place Bell.
South Korean teen Cha JunHwan, who trains in Toronto with Canadian coach Brian Orser, finished just behind Uno with a score of 88.86.
Canada’s Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro were third in the pairs short program, scoring 71.26 points.
In ice dance, Americans Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue lead after the short program by almost six points.
Messing was born in Girdwood, an Alaskan resort town just south of Anchorage, where he now lives. He has dual citizenship because his mom Sally was born in Edmonton and raised in Peterborough, Ont., before moving to Alaska.
Messing is an avid outdoorsman, and so a mountaintop engagement seemed perfect. He and his girlfriend of two-and-a-half years set out for McHugh Peak of the Chugach Mountains, the backdrop for Anchorage, last Saturday.
“We had to pitch a wind block because it was blowing about 30-40 miles (50-65 kilometres) an hour up there. Everything went wrong. I made her favourite soup but then forgot the matches for the stove. So no soup. No hot chocolate,” he said. “But if she says ‘yes’ when everything goes wrong ...”
Messing was 12th in his Olympic debut in Pyeongchang, only four spots behind Canada’s three-time world champion Patrick Chan. With Chan’s retirement, Messing is a likely heir to the top spot in the country.
“It’s one step at a time right now,” Messing said. “Right now, just focus on skating and see where it takes me, and if it takes me to the top then I’m going to grasp it with two hands and smile while doing it.”
Nam Nguyen of Toronto pumped two fists in the air after a solid short program that included a quadruple Salchow. But he lost precious marks on his triple toe loop in his quad combination, and wound up seventh with 82.22
Moore-Towers and Marinaro find themselves in a similar situation to Messing, suddenly Canada’s top pairs team in the rebuilt postOlympic landscape. And moments after their program to a Leona Lewis version of Roberta Flack’s The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, they talked about their new role.
“It’s weird in that we see the opportunity, but we also feel a little bit of responsibility. A lot a bit of responsibility,” Moore-Towers said. “It was a bit of a mindset issue in the summer. Now we skate for ourselves, we do our absolute best for Canada.”
In dance, Hubbell and Donohue take a score of 80.49 points into Saturday’s free dance. Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier are down in sixth with 66.95 points after an uncharacteristic stumble. Gilles said they hit the boards. Their feet got entangled and Gilles ended up on one knee.