Chan sets points record
National champion skates flawlessly
MONCTON — There was a brief, anxious moment Sunday at the Canadian figure skating championships — just before Patrick Chan’s brilliant recordbreaking performance — that something might go awry.
The defending Canadian and world men’s champion nearly fell on a practice jump as he drifted near centre ice, minutes before the start of his long program, while the marks of the previous skater Kevin Reynolds were being tallied.
Chan stumbled. The audience gasped.
And then the music started. For four- and- a- half minutes, all fears melted away as Chan treated the 3,000 fans to a flawless display of technical wizardry and passion, earning him the highest marks ever in a men’s skating competition in the post- Salt Lake City scoring era.
The 21- year- old Torontonian captured his fifth consecutive Canadian title with a previouslyunheard- of 302.14 total points for his short and long programs.
No men’s skater anywhere has ever scored that high. However, because the mark was achieved in a national championship — where it could be argued that judges award higher scores due to nationalistic enthusiasm — the mark will stand as a Canadian record, but won’t be officially recognized by the International Skating Union.
Still, Chan was thrilled by the result.
“It’s not just great for me, it’s great for the country. We’re really pushing the boundaries of the sport,” he said afterwards. “I’m in the 300 club, the only one.”
Kevin Reynolds of Coquitlam, B. C., captured the silver medal Sunday with a total of 239.44 points. Vancouver’s Jeremy Ten placed fourth in the long program but won the overall bronze medal with a combined score of 207.50.
Reynolds, in particular, delivered a bold, impressive free skate filled with heart- stopping quadruple jumps. But no man in the competition scaled the heights attained by Chan.
Blazing around the rink in a fiery- red shirt, Chan moved with such ease and nimbleness that he appeared to be sliding on Teflon, not ice. He never missed a beat on all seven of his jumps Sunday, including two quad toe- loops, and skated all weekend with a soulful abandon unequalled by his Canadian peers.
After breaking the 100- point mark in his short program score Saturday, Chan said he knew a 300 score was possible after the long. He already had the championship in the bag, so he could have held back.
“I told myself, ‘ You don’t need to be greedy, you don’t have to score 300. I could have played it safe.’ “But that’s not his style. “I didn’t hold back, I just stuck to my plan,” he said.