Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (David Carmichael, Wikimedia Commons)
The 2013 World Figure Skating Championships wrap up in London, Ontario today with the ice dance competition (CBC, 2:00 p.m.) an the ladies’ long program (www.cbcsports.ca, 8:00 p.m.).
Canada has a very good shot at two more medals Saturday. Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of London, Ontario are in second place in the ice dance, while Sherwood Park resident Kaetlyn Osmond is in fourth place after the women’s short program.
If you watched the championship on Friday, you would know that the quality of skating has been poor for a World Figure Skating Championship.
Patrick Chan of Ottawa was completely dreadful last night in winning the men’s competition, but came away with the gold medal. After a great start where he executed the quad, he fell on two triples, double footed another jump and seemed exhausted in the latter half of his performance. At the end of the day, Chan defended his world title.
Ottawa, Ontario’s Patrick Chan successfully defended his World Men’s Figure Skating Championship Saturday in Nice, France. It is quite the accomplishment for the 21 year-old Chinese Canadian who is still very young in the sport and will be knocking on the door towards greatness at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia two years from now.
But in watching Chan’s performance as well as Japan’s Daisuke Takahashi, it remains very clear that figure skating judges continue to over reward strong footwork, artistry and presentation, and under reward the technical skills of each figure skater, such as the jumps, even with the new scoring system in place.
The bottom line is that Chan fell once with a minute left on his program during a rather simple Double Axel. He also stumbled slightly on another jump. Still, he did deliver two quads successfully. Takahashi meanwhile was technically cleaner, but the judges went with Chan’s artistry instead.
Interestingly, Chan wasn’t the only Canadian to make some slight errors and come away as champion this week. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir made some minor mistakes in their ice dance long program, but came away victorious.
The state of Canadian figure skating is strong however. Along with Canada’s two Gold medals, Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Waterloo, Ontario finished fourth in the ice dance and Meagan Duhamel of Lively, Ontario and Eric Radford of Toronto finished fifth place in the pairs.
Patrick Chan (David Carmichael, Wikimedia Commons)
2011 Lionel Conacher Award winner Patrick Chan of Ottawa, Ontario is one step closer to defending his title at the World Figure Skating Championships in Nice, France.
Today, Chan put down a solid short program, and leads the Czech Republic’s Michal Brezina by 1.74 points. Due to the fact the television coverage on CBC is absolutely lousy, the event can be seen live on www.cbcsports.ca or if you have Bold. The final flight of skaters in the men’s event is at 8am and the final flight of skaters in the women’s event is at 1:30pm on Saturday with Alena Leonova of Russia in the lead. In the pairs competition today, Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov hammered the strong German pair of Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy by 8.04 points, but only hung onto the silver medal behind the Germans after a poor short program.
Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue (David Carmichael, Wikimedia Commons)
For the second time in their careers, reigning Olympic champions Tessa Virtue of London, Ontario and Scott Moir of nearby Ilderton, Ontario are World Figure Skating Ice Dance Champions.
Thursday in Nice, France, according to the Canadian Press, Moir and Virtue recorded a grand total of 182.65 points to beat the reigning World Figure Skating Championships Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the United States.
Moir and Virtue previously won the 2010 World Figure Skating Championships in Torino, Italy, host city of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games.
But the bottom line is Moir and Virtue completely dazzle the crowds with their exceptional high level of personified entertainment whenever they compete on a sheet of ice. It also helps that they’re healthy. Virtue missed most of last year after having surgery on both of her legs, but was still able to win a World Championship silver medal last season.
It’s that time again folks – we’re back with a fresh episode of everyone’s favorite internet sports show: 15 Minutes of Fame!
This week on the show we’re talking about another concussion-filled week in the NHL, and going through the list of hired and fired coaches from around the league. As well, we react to the big news from last week in the CFL: The Edmonton Eskimos traded quarterback Ricky Ray, the face of the franchise, to the Toronto Argonauts.
In the GABBYs: Derek Jeter, Tebowing, Patrick Chan, the National Basketball League, fighting in hockey, Jerry Sandusky’s lawyers. The Punchline this week is the washrooms at the MTS Centre!
Patrick Chan (David Carmichael, Wikimedia Commons)
Canadian figure skater Patrick Chan of Ottawa, Ontario is the 2011 winner of the Lou Marsh Award, presented to Canada’s top athlete.
Chan won the 2011 World Figure Skating Championships in Moscow and the 2011 International Skating Union Grand Prix Final in Quebec City.
Other key events Chan won this past year were his fourth consecutive Canadian Figure Skating Championships at Victoria, British Columbia in January, Skate Canada at Mississauga, Ontario, and the Trophee Eric Bompard in Paris, France.
Chan is the first Canadian to win the Lou Marsh Award of Chinese-Canadian descent. He beat out speed skater Christine Nesbitt of London, Ontario, the World Champion in the women’s 1000m at Inzell, Germany and Dylan Armstrong of Kamloops, British Columbia, the silver medallist in the men’s shot put at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics in Daegu, South Korea.
Heading into the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, Chan is expected to contend for a Gold medal, alongside Daisuke Takahashi and Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan, Javier Fernandez of Spain, Evan Lysacek of the United States and Evgeni Plushenko of Russia.
This week on 15 Minutes of Fame we’re talking NHL realignment and how the Coyotes might mess it all up, another big week of “Shanabans,” and lots of controversy in the NBA as the new CBA comes into effect.
In the GABBYs: Tiger Woods, the Marlins and Angels, MLSE, dress codes, Tyler Seguin and Bob Vander Weide. The Punchline this week is Patrick Chan!
The Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames battle in Part Three of the Battle of Alberta tonight at the Scotiabank Saddledome (CBC, 8pm). Oilers fans will hope a different chapter is written this time around after the first two were significantly similar. In both occasions, the Flames came from behind in the third period to grab two points in the Northwest Division standings.
On October 18, Jay Bouwmeester and Alex Tanguay each scored in the last six minutes as the Flames defeated the Oilers 2-1. Then last Saturday, Derek Smith, Mikael Backlund and Olli Jokinen scored third period goals for the Flames that eliminated a 3-2 lead for the Oilers en route to a 5-3 Calgary victory.
If Edmonton is going to contend for a playoff spot in March, better consistency throughout the entire 60 minutes is in order. Last night in their 4-1 win over Colorado, they had a solid third period effort while leading 4-1 and didn’t allow a strong quality scoring chance for the Avalanche in the final twenty minutes.
As for the Flames, they are back on track a little bit, at the .500 mark at 13-13-2. They are three points back of the San Jose Sharks, Dallas Stars and Oilers for the final two playoff spots in the Western Conference.
The “15 Minutes of Fame” boys are back in the saddle for another go-round, taking a look at the best and worst from the world of sports in the past seven days! This week, Geoff Driscoll & Jim Kerr are recapping the first round of the NHL playoffs (the biggest surprise, most interesting storyline and the best moment) and UFC 129, while trying to figure out what’s happening in the NFL lockout.
In the GABBYs: MLB streaks, NHL celebrations, red cards, NBA upsets & lots more! In Quick Hits: Patrick Chan is at the top of the figure skating world, but how good is Kerrzy’s quad?
Check it out:
There’s a lot more after the jump. Click “continue reading.” ———————> (more…)
Patrick Chan (David Carmichael, Wikimedia Commons)
Canada’s Patrick Chan of Ottawa, Ontario has won the World Men’s Figure Skating Championship in Moscow, Russia.
Chan posted a personal best score of 280.98 to win his first World Championship. Chan also set a new World Record score in the process.
Chan joins Brian Orser of Belleville, Ontario (1986), Kurt Browning of Rocky Mountain House, Alberta (1989, 1990, 1991, 1993), Elvis Stojko of Richmond Hill, Ontario (1994, 1995, 1997) and Jeffrey Buttle of Smooth Rock Falls, Ontario (2008) as Canadian men to have won the World Figure Skating Championships.
But none have been able to accomplish something that all Canadian sports fans are looking for– an Olympic Gold medal.
Chan’s performance wasn’t perfect. He double footed one jump. But his choreography and artistry was spectacular. It also helped significantly that he had a huge lead after the short program.
Due to the recent devastation in Japan, the World Figure Skating Championships in Tokyo, scheduled to start March 21, will be postponed.
According to the Canadian Press, Yoyogi Stadium in Tokyo, did not experience any damage, but organizers from the International Skating Union are concerned about the damage to nuclear reactors in the area.
The earthquake which occurred Friday in Northeastern Japan, has killed over 2,800 people, with many still missing.
Among the Canadians that were to compete included Olympic gold medal winning ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, and Patrick Chan, the two-time World Championship silver medallist.
A decision of where the World Figure Skating Championships will be moved to is expected by Thursday. It is highly unlikely that they will remain in Japan. There is the possibility that the Championships would be cancelled for the first time since 1961. That year, a Boeing 707 aircraft crashed on its way from New York to Belgium, killing the majority of the American figure skating team.
This could be the first major international sports competition cancelled since the 2003 Women’s World Hockey Championship was cancelled in Beijing, China due to the SARS outbreak.
I’m blogging a day later than normal this week because I wanted to include my World Series thoughts that ended last night.
First off a congratulations to the San Francisco Giants on winning the 2010 World Series. It is good to see a great pitching duel, and pitching being at the forefront.
When World Series MVP Edgar Renteria smacked his three run home run off of Rangers’ ace Cliff Lee to put the Giants up 3-0 last night, Texas manager Ron Washington was criticized for pitching to Renteria with first base open and Aaron Rowand coming up to bat.
I say you cannot blame Washington. Even though the count was 2 and 0, (a hitter’s count), Lee is one of the best pitchers in baseball–period. If the Ranger lefty gets Renteria out, San Francisco starts off the next inning with Rowand leading off instead of Fernando Torres.
Kevin Reynolds (David Carmichael, Wikimedia Commons)
Happy Halloween from Any Sport Any Time everyone.
Sunday night I will be keeping a close eye to the television set, so I haven’t decided if I am going to be passing out candy so far.
The best costume in the sports world I have seen to date came from Tony Kornheiser on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption. On Friday’s show he dressed up as Spanish golf star Miguel Angel Jimenez–the mustache, cigar, wig and ponytail. As they say in the Mastercard commercial–priceless.
Here are the events I’m be watching this weekend.
Saturday–12pm–Skate Canada Pairs’ Long Program from Kingston–CBC–This will be my first glance of two up and coming Canadian figure skaters– 20 year old Paige Lawrence of Kipling, Saskatchewan and Rudi Swiegers of Brandon. The duo finished fourth at the 2009 World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria and are sitting in third place after the short program. The leaders are Russians Lubov Iliushechkina and Nodari Maisuradze of Russia.
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