Emotion on display in pairs event
VANCOUVER— It might have been the most touchy-feely-weepy Canadian competition of all time.
Starting with Josee Picard, all but bawling at the boards as her pairs wards, Julianne Seguin and Charlie Bilodeau, came to the spinning conclusion of their Where’s My Love routine, the entirety of it clean and pristine.
Good enough for silver, where the Longueil, Que.-based duo, have been before — second at the 2016 Canadian figure skating championships.
But, oh, what a run of rotten luck the former world junior silver medallists have endured since then. Enough that Meagan Duhamel, who with partner Eric Radford collected a seventh pairs title on Saturday night, had to go over and embrace their coach before taking to the ice for her own free skate showtime moment, and afterwards collecting Seguin to her cut-muscle chest in the mixed zone, apparently more thrilled for the younger couple’s Olympic-punched ticket then her own farewell gold at Canadians.
Sometimes this sport is a bitch. And sometimes it really isn’t.
“Like we said earlier, last nationals we did we were second, it was two years ago last week,” said Bilodeau, 24, from Rimouski. “Last year we were not there because of the injury. And now we came back and we still finish second behind Meagan and Eric. It shows us that it’s our place behind them, so we’re really happy with that.” Well, it was a gracious remark. And they were a sizable distance behind Duhamel and Radford,144.49 to 152.77 in the free, 213.00 to 234.55 overall, with Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro claiming bronze.
All three teams qualifyied for the Games, with the formal roster to be named on Sunday by Skate Canada. The last time Moore-Towers was at the Olympics, 2014, it was with expartner Dylan Moscovitch, who is now squiring Lubov Ilyushechkina, They finished fourth.
And the men’s final: a tenth Canadian title for Patrick Chan, despite an error-riddled free skate. The 27year-old will likely be accompanied to South Korea with silver medalist Keegan Messing. Nam Nguyen finished with bronze, just 1.09 behind Messing, but Canada has qualified only two men for the Olympics.
“We said, right before going on the ice, we just want to be proud of us,” said the sweetly moon-faced Seguin, a 21-year-old native Montrealer. “The road to the Olympics is really hard and it’s really long. We got the energy from the crowd and it was just wonderful.”
Bilodeau: “And all what happened last year, all those things we deal with, we learned a lot from that. We came to this season with a complete different mind. So we’re really proud of that.”
To briefly review: As up-and-comers in 2016, yoked on the ice since 2012, the future looked rosy in the wake of national silver. Then it looked bloodied, with Bilodeau suffering torn ligaments and a bone contusion in a fall while practising a throw jump. That required three months recovery and forced the couple to withdraw from the 2016 worlds.
The following season, Dec. 24, 2016, Bilodeau sustained a concussion that kept them off the ice until last February, forcing a withdrawal from nationals. But they were sent to the world championships anyway and finished 11th in Helsinki.
That’s a lot of heartbreak over 14 months.
“For sure it was long, but it’s step by step,” said Seguin.
Bilodeau: “I also have an awesome partner.” What Duhamel and Radford were feeling, as they approach the end of their competitive career was relief and vindication for a late-call decision to revert to their 2016 Hometown Glory long program, a shift undertaken less than a month ago.
“It was one of the more nervewracking Canadians in the last two years,” Duhamel admitted, “for the long program especially. “It was our first time competing this program in two years. So that changes our expectations.”
They even had to pull their own costumes out of mothballs
Duhamel: “We’ll freshen them up for the Olympics, for sure.”