The Mastercard Skate Canada International kicked off today (Thursday) with the Compulsory Dance, the Men’s and the Pairs Short Programs.

Ice Dancing, Compulsory Dance
The Compulsory Dance at Skate Canada is the Ravensburg Waltz. The Ravensburg Waltz was created by Angelika Buck/Erich Buck from Ravensburg, Germany and Betty Callaway. Its first performance dates back to the 1973 (West) German Figure Skating Championships.
Russia’s Tatiana Navka/Roman Kostomarov grabbed the lead in the first phase of the dance competition. The current European bronze medalists skated a smooth and expressive Waltz to score 23.64 points for technique and 16.40 points for program components. Close behind them are Albena Denkova/Maxim Staviski of Bulgaria. The World bronze medalists danced closely together and with confidence. Their Ravensburg Waltz was awarded 22.60 points for the technical score and 15.68 points for the three program components timing, performance and interpretation. Galit Chait/Sergei Sakhnovski (ISR) finished third. The 2002 World bronze medalists put out a good performance of the Compulsory Dance as well and scored 22.12 for technique and 15.58 points for program components. Navka/Kostomarov are leading now with 40.04 points, followed by Denkova/Staviski with 38.28 points and Chait/Sakhnovski who have 37.70 points.
“It was pretty good for ourselves”, Navka commented. “We’re happy that the little delay (before they skated) didn’t affect our performance. It’s unusual for us to be in first place.”

Denkova said: “This is just the beginning of the competition. It’s a new experience for us with the new judging system. We have two more days (of competition) to come, the most important days.”
When asked about the new code of point judging system that is being used for the first time at the ISU Grand Prix this season, Chait answered: “When we were making our programs (we wanted) to make the elements third level. We had to push ourselves to make it third level whereas in the past we maybe would have left it just like that at a level two. I think it’s pushing the skaters to make more difficult steps which we probably wouldn’t have done if we didn’t have to think about all these levels. So I think it’s going into a good direction.”

Pairs, Short Program
The Pairs Short Program was on a very high level with no couple making a serious mistake.
Reigning World silver medalists Tatiana Totmianina/Maxim Marinin were the first to skate of the top contenders and put out a strong Short Program set to “Variations on a Theme of Paganini” by Sergei Rachaminov. Their classical performance opened with a serpentine step sequence followed by a solid throw triple toeloop and side by side triple toeloops. The current World silver medalists landed also a double twist, but the exit of their one-armed lift looked labored. The team scored 67.24 points for this performance (35.20 element score/32.04 performance components).
The reigning World Champions Xue Shen/Hongbo Zhao of China opened the final flight of skaters. Their program to “Kismet” included a huge throw triple loop, side by side triple toeloops and a double twist, but the end of the side by side spin combination was a little bit out of sync. With a total segment score of 68.76 (35.48 element score/33.28 performance score) for their dynamic program, the Chinese stood on top of the standings.
The last team to skate were Canadians Anabelle Langlois/Patrice Archetto. They completed a throw triple Salchow, a tripe toeloop and an interesting lift with an original exit in their Spanish-themed program to “Leyenda” by Vanessa Mae. The couple just struggled at the end of the side by side spin. The judges awarded a score of 64.12 for this program, and Langlois/Archetto came in third. Standing in fourth place are Poland’s Dorota Zagorska/Mariusz Siudek.
“This wasn’t too good, our spin and our toeloop weren’t too good”, Shen admitted. “The ice was so white and I was almost blinded. We couldn’t skate freely”, Zhao added.
Totmianina commented: “The first impression was fine. We weren’t a 100 percent yet, we made a little mistake in the lift.”
The Canadian team was very pleased with their program. “We are satisfied. We made a few little mistakes here and there, we aren’t yet in top, top shape. But we’re very pleased with the first short program this season.”

Men, Short Program
Reigning World Champion Evgeni Plushenko of Russia won the Men’s Short Program ahead of World bronze medalist Takeshi Honda (JPN) and Canadian Emanuel Sandhu.

Plushenko hit a quadruple-triple toeloop combination early into his routine to a Tango and Flamenco, but then he unexpectedly doubled the Axel. The 20-year-old recovered to land a triple Lutz and excited the crowd with his footwork right on the beat. Plushenko scored 38.80 points for his elements and 42.45 points for the program components (skating skills, transitions, performance/ execution, choreography and interpretation) which added up to 81.25 points. “I’m so happy that I did my quad-triple combination today”; Plushenko told the press. “I came here and I couldn’t do it (in practice), I did only a triple toe or I fell. But then I’m not so happy that I did only a double Axel.” He went on to explain that he couldn’t train for five days before coming to Skate Canada as he had been sick.
Skating to “Romeo and Juliet” by Nino Rota, Honda also completed the quadruple-triple toeloop combination and did the triple Axel, but then suddenly missed the triple Lutz, the supposedly easiest jump in his program. Honda received 77.54 points for his lyrical performance.
”I’m happy with my program except for the triple Lutz”, Honda said. “Last week at Skate America, I was disappointed, I made two mistakes, I missed the quad toeloop and the Axel. I’m a bit tired, this is the first time for me to do back to back Grand Prix events.”

Sandhu was last to skate. The crowd sighed in resignation when the Canadian Champion fell hard on his opening quadruple toeloop, but they cheered when he recovered to land his triple Axel and a shaky triple Lutz. Sandhu drew extra applause for his difficult combination spin with many changes of position right at the end of his musical Tango routine. His short program score of 72.14 points put him in third place. “I have mixed feelings”, Sandhu commented. “In general, I’m quite satisfied with the way I performed the program. I thought everything had a quality that was good. Obviously, the quad toe at the beginning was not so good. But the fact is that I got up and I continued the rest of the program, I did everything else.”
Skate Canada continues tomorrow (Friday) with the Original Dance, the Ladies Short and the Pairs Free Program.

Results

Event website

Grand Prix page