Novice skating’s No. 1 Phan
Aylmer-club athlete claims national title
“National champion” sounded pretty good to Joseph Phan, and he did what it took to earn that acknowledgment on Tuesday.
After performing the best short program on Monday and giving himself a fivepoint advantage, the 12-yearold representing Aylmer’s Asticou Skating Club added the second-best free skate to clinch his first national title in the novice men’s division of the Canadian skating championships at Canadian Tire Centre.
“My goal wasn’t really to win the nationals, this competition,” Phan said. “It was just to do my best in what I have to do.”
Phan received 77.44 points from the judges for his free skate and finished with a sum of 119.84, making him the first capital region-linked athlete to reign over the novice men’s division since Shawn Sawyer, who would later train at the Minto Skating Club, in 2000. Jeff Langdon of the Rideau Lakes Figure Skating Club in Smiths Falls won the Canadian novice title in 1991.
It might be the one and only novice title for Phan, whose family has bought a home in Laval so he could train in nearby Rosemère, Que.
He expressed a desire to move up a level into junior men’s singles, to test himself against stronger, more experienced competitors.
“I have to get all my (triple jumps), and I have to work on my expression,” added the soft-spoken Phan, who only a year ago was still in pre-novice skating, for which there is no Canadian championship.
“I learned a lot of stuff when I came here, like how to compete in a big rink, and I’m starting to get used to it.”
Edrian Paul Celestino of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Que., had the highest free-skate total, 81.33 points, moving to second in the final standings, with 115.60 overall, after ranking seventh in short program.
Nepean Skating Club’s Josh Allen had been second after Monday’s short program at the Bell Sensplex, but he was fifth-best in the free skate (70.25) and dropped a spot, to bronze-medal position, at 107.36.
Other results for capitalregion skaters: Nepean’s Andriyko Goyaniuk, 66.69 free skate, 102.33 total, eighth; Gloucester Skating Club’s Christian Reekie, 59.40— 91.75, 11th; and Cameron Hines, 52.04—84.51, 16th.
The novice women’s title was also captured by a 12-year-old, Sarah Tamura of Burnaby, B.C. The secondbest free skate, 65.81, ensured that Tamura remained ahead of 17 other competitors, with her 108.29 total.
Kim Decelles (64.34— 105.72) of Baie-Comeau, Que., was second, and Megan Yim (65.59—105.31) finished third. Minto’s Alexis Dion (55.55— 88.83) remained ninth, exactly where she had been after the short program.
Montreal’s Valérie Taillefer and Jason Chan of StLaurent, Que., produced the best novice free dance, 63.53, and claimed first place, with 90.54.
Short-program leaders Hannah Whitley of Barrie, Ont., and Elliott Graham of Angus, Ont., were second-best in the free skate (59.94) and second overall, at 87.12. In third were Megan Koenig-Croft of Scarborough and Jake Richardson (55.09—80.54).
Reekie and Minto’s Vanessa Chartrand earned 49.42 freeskate points and slid to eighth from fifth, at 72.93.
Calgary’s Keelee Gingrich and Davin Portz had the highest free-skate mark in novice pairs, overtaking Allison Eby of Ayr, Ont., and Brett Varley of Thedford, Ont., for first. Gingrich and Portz scored 69.44 for their free skate, giving them 108.06. Eby and Varley added 65.75 points, for 106.00.
Naomie Boudreau of Varennes, Que., and Cédric Savard of Ste-Julie, Que., (38.17— 97.60) were third, ahead of Justine Brasseur of Brossard, Que., and Jason Lapointe (37.98—97.21) of Acton Vale, Que.