Virtue and Moir capture gold
Canadian pair recover from near-fall and even find time to joke about it
HELSINKI, Finland — Scott Moir’s near-tumble to the ice in the free dance on Saturday elicited a loud gasp from the crowd at Hartwell Arena — and a spur-of-themoment joke from partner Tessa Virtue.
Their gorgeous program could have gone south in a hurry, their run at gold could have looked more like silver. But the Canadians recovered as if nothing had happened.
Moir said Virtue was to thank for her swift wit.
“Thank God my partner is awesome,” Moir said. “She had a really funny joke as soon as I got back up that snapped me back into character. She said: ‘That was a very dramatic movement.’ I kind of smiled out of the corner of my mouth. I thought that that was super-cute. She really lifted me up today. It’s a lot of fun to be able to do that after 20 years.”
Canada’s ice-dance darlings captured their third world figure skating title in Helsinki on Saturday and remain unbeaten in what’s been a remarkable comeback after a two-year hiatus.
“We’ve never had a, quoteunquote, perfect season, never had that kind of run of golds, and at this point it’s fun to have on our resumé,” Virtue said. “But more than that, what we’ve been able to accomplish personally as athletes has been the most satisfying.”
The two were otherwise virtually flawless, scoring 116.19 for their lyrical program to Pilgrims on a Long Journey by French Canadian artist Coeur de pirate, and Sam Smith’s Latch. They scored 198.62 points overall.
France’s two-time world champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, who train with Virtue and Moir in Montreal, claimed silver with 196.04, while American siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani claimed bronze, the only medal the U.S. team is taking home from Helsinki.
Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Waterloo, Ont., finished fourth with a score of 184.81, missing the medal podium by just 0.37 points.
“Story of my life,” Weaver said. “We’ve had many years of close calls, between not making the Olympic team [in 2010] by .3, missing a world gold by .02, it’s by fractions of a point. But this field I think is the strongest that it’s been in years. So to be where we are is incredible. We’re very happy to be part of this group that’s leading the way in ice dance.”
Toronto’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Unionville, Ont., were eighth with 178.99 points.
Virtue, a 27-year-old from London, Ont., and 29-year-old Moir, from Ilderton, Ont., survived their mishap thanks largely to their world-record score in the short dance that sent them in Saturday with a huge 5.5-point cushion.
A fall — even a near-fall — is so rare for the pair. Virtue said they’ll “go home and do their homework and make sure that doesn’t happen at the Olympics.”
The fierce competition set the stage for what could be a dog-fight of an Olympic season.
Virtue and Moir haven’t been shy in stating their goal is to reclaim Olympic gold after losing to longtime American rivals Meryl Davis and Charlie White in 2014 in Sochi, Russia.
Three-time world champion Patrick Chan, from Toronto, finished fifth in the men’s competition. Chan, fifth last year in Boston, scored 193.04 points for his program to A Journey, written by Canadian pairs skater Eric Radford, finishing with 295.16 points overall.
Japan’s Olympic gold medallist Yuzuru Hanyu landed four quads for a world-record free skate score of 223.30 points and a total of 321.59 points to take gold after entering the day fifth.
Japan’s Shoma Uno (319.31) won silver, while China’s Jin Boyang (303.58.) took bronze.
Kevin Reynolds of Coquitlam was ninth with a score of 253.84.