Canadian Pairs 2012

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Thought we had a thread for Canadian pair news, but couldn’t find it, so here goes…….

Moore-Towers/Moscovitch: Figure skating pair head back to the drawing board

“We will work on some new lifts and we’re going to work on a throw quad, so that will be exciting. And, of course, our choreographer will come back and he will do some new programs for us,” Moore-Towers said

Why am I not surprised that a Wirtz team will be trying a quad throw? Very happy to hear about the new lifts though. Hopefully none include Kirsten grabbing her blade.


Lawrence/Swiegers: Virden's Lawrence earns bronze in pairs at nationals

AFTER suffering a concussion in a training mishap just before Christmas, Virden-based pairs skater Paige Lawrence had a tough choice to make ahead of the fast-approaching Canadian figure skating championships. Should she avoid all risk and withdraw from the competition, or stay in the game to keep her and partner Rudi Swiegers' season-long goals alive?

Lawrence, 21, chose the latter and, this past weekend in Moncton, delivered two gutsy performances that earned her and Swiegers a second consecutive nationals podium finish, again in bronze medal position

Oh Paige, more guts than brains. Wonder what type of “complications” she had last week and if she really should be competing……

[NorthernDancers]

So happy to hear that MT/M are picking themselves up, dusting themselves off, and getting back at it. They are both great ambassadors for the sport, and extremely hard workers. I feel they are just getting started. Their free program, although on one hand was a melt-down, on the other hand showed their fighting spirits. On Saturday night they were not first or second, but generally speaking they are up there with D/R, and I think those 2 teams will be battling out for top spot for a few years to come.

Pair girls are a special class of skater, I think. Tough, personality and tons of guts. But I do worry about skating like that on a concussion. She should concentrate on getting better and taking some time off to fully heal so they can have a great season next year. And she wouldn't want to have life-long complications from pushing too hard now. I'm sure Sidney Crosby would love to be playing hockey right now, but it's more important to have a full life with good health.

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Hayleigh Bell/Alistair Sylvester: Sylvester to skate at worlds

"It's extremely surprising that they would send the novice skaters up to the junior worlds -- that was a big shocker for us," Sylvester said. "It's kind of crazy and overwhelming for us as a pairs team because this is going to be our first international competition and right away we're being tossed into junior worlds. It blows my mind."

I’m so pleased to hear that these two have gotten the nod to go to Junior Worlds. They’re definitely ready for the junior ranks and this will be a great way to get them some international experience. It was such a shame that we only had two teams to send out on the JGP circuit this year. Hopefully we will have a few more for the upcoming season. In addition to Bell/Sylvester, Krystel Desjardins/Charlie Bilodeau and Shalena Rau/Phelan Simpson will likely be considered for JGP assignments. Margaret Purdy/Michael Marinaro will still be age eligible, and might spend another season on the junior circuit, depending on how they do at Junior Worlds. Dylan Conway/Dustin Sheriff-Clayton also may have an outside shot at getting an assignment if they decide to move up to Juniors.

And it appears we have our first post-Canadians causality in the Senior ranks – it was reported in the Canadian nats forum that Tou/Penasse have likely split as Matthew Penasse is back on icepartnersearch: http://icepartnersearch.com/showbio.php?i=3873. A bit of a shame since they had a nice look on the ice, but not really surprising given the big age difference. I wonder if Matthew and Kaleigh Hole have ever had a try out. She is definitely still looking for a partner and at 6’2” he’s tall enough for her.

So happy to hear that MT/M are picking themselves up, dusting themselves off, and getting back at it. They are both great ambassadors for the sport, and extremely hard workers. I feel they are just getting started. Their free program, although on one hand was a melt-down, on the other hand showed their fighting spirits. On Saturday night they were not first or second, but generally speaking they are up there with D/R, and I think those 2 teams will be battling out for top spot for a few years to come.

Pair girls are a special class of skater, I think. Tough, personality and tons of guts. But I do worry about skating like that on a concussion. She should concentrate on getting better and taking some time off to fully heal so they can have a great season next year. And she wouldn't want to have life-long complications from pushing too hard now. I'm sure Sidney Crosby would love to be playing hockey right now, but it's more important to have a full life with good health.

MT/M will be fine. We forget that Kirsten is only 19 and hasn't really had that much experience competing under pressure. They had a great GP season, but defending a title is a tough job. Lousy timing for a melt down, but she'll learn from it. ITA that they will back and battling with D/R for the top spot next season. L/S did remarkably well considering her injury. I just hope that she's being smart and not competing against physician's advice. A concussion protocol has been introduced in hockey as a result of Crosby's injury, but AFAIK, there isn't one for figure skating. Unfortunate since we likely have as many head injuries in skating as they do in hockey.

[shan]

New lifts for M-T/M? Yay!!

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As reported by Sylvia in the Canadian nats forum, Julianne Séguin & Andrew Evans also appear to be done. According to her profile on icepartnersearch, Julianne is looking for a JGP-eligible partner. Again, not a surprise given the big age gap (she just turned 15). She has oodles of potential as a pair girl, so hopefully can find a terrific age appropriate partner. There is one possible match for her on icepartnersearch, Maxime Deschamps. He is looking for a JGP-eligible partner as well, and also lives in Quebec. He was partnered briefly with Zoey Brown last season. I don’t believe they were together long enough to actually compete however. He does look quite good based on the info in his profile.

The other team I still have some ??? about after seeing them again at nats is Natasha Purich & Ray Schultz. They’ve made some great progress on the pair stuff – really nice speed togther, the cutest little (but very clean) 3twist, a nice big throw 3lutz – but Ray’s jumps don’t seem to be coming along, and I’m not convinced he’s strong enough personality-wise for Natasha. She is totally a little dynamo, and needs a partner who’s a bit more dominant to rein her in a little. The one fella I was eyeing up for her was Dustin Sherriff-Clayton who was second in the Novice pair event with Dylan Conway. Reminds me a great deal of a young David Pelletier. He’s only 5’6” though, so if his partner outgrows him, will be looking for a girl Natasha’s size to skate with. But, according to this article coach Ravi sounds happy with P/S’s performance:

“The two of them skated great in both programs which was very exciting,” he said. “They did the best they could do and got a personal best score, which is what you are always hoping for. They were really excited with that. It’s their first year at senior and the scores between eighth and fifth were very close. They had a lot of positive achievements at Canadians this year.”

I just hope that Ravi won’t wait too long to start looking for another partner for Natasha if Ray’s jumps don’t progress by the end of the upcoming season. She has far too much potential to be held back.

[fan]

I thought I could list all of the partnerships from Novice on up - makes it easier to keep track, now that it's splitting season.

Sr Pairs
Senior Pair
Rank Competitor(s) Section SP FP Points
1 Meagan Duhamel / Eric Radford QC 60.92 129.19 190.11
2 Jessica Dube / Sebastien Wolfe QC 60.65 110.95 171.60
3 Paige Lawrence / Rudi Swiegers SK 58.55 110.29 168.84
4 Kirsten Moore-Towers / Dylan Moscovitch WO 60.26 104.16 164.42
5 Taylor Steele / Rob Schultz WO 46.88 97.45 144.33
6 Margaret Purdy / Michael Marinaro WO 49.27 93.13 142.40
7 Brittany Jones / Kurtis Gaskell WO 53.16 88.10 141.26
8 Natasha Purich / Raymond Schultz AB/NT/NU 47.42 93.55 140.97
SPLIT - 9 Julianne Séguin / Andrew Evans QC 45.82 89.77 135.59
10 Noemie Arseneault / Simon-Pierre Côté QC 44.03 88.61 132.64
11 Alexie Gélinas / David Struthers QC 39.79 78.34 118.13
SPLIT - 12 Andrea Tou / Matthew Penasse CO 37.58 63.59 101.17

Junior Pair
Rank Competitor(s) Section SP FP Points
1 Katherine Bobak / Ian Beharry WO 51.17 98.79 149.96
2 Krystel Desjardins / Charlie Bilodeau QC 40.10 82.37 122.47
3 Mary Orr / Anthony Furiano WO 40.43 79.20 119.63
4 Shalena Rau / Phelan Simpson WO 38.82 76.75 115.57
5 Leah Hyslop / Bob Goodwin WO 33.45 69.37 102.82
6 Alexandra Young / Matthew Young NL 34.94 67.16 102.10
7 Tamara Jurkiewicz / Alexander Arpin QC 32.36

Novice Pair
Rank Competitor(s) Section SP FP Points
1 Hayleigh Bell / Alistair Sylvester CO 39.76 78.46 118.22
2 Dylan Conway / Dustin Sherriff-Clayton CO 37.92 67.98 105.90
3 Marie-Laurence Bradette / Felix-Antoine Garneau-Picard QC 32.21 61.67 93.88
4 Madelyn Dunley / Wesley Killing WO 32.57 58.93 91.50
5 Jordyn Harper / Shaquille Davis CO 32.90 58.17 91.07
6 Kendra Digness / Cole Vandervelden AB/NT/NU 31.65 53.31 84.96
7 Julia Mercer / Spencer Buchanan QC 28.12 56.50 84.62
8 Jessica Landry / Sebastian M. Arcieri QC 30.10 50.39 80.49
9 Sabrina Vigneault / Cedric Savard QC 25.29 47.27 72.56
10 Elizabeth Swenor / Rocky Swenor

[Sylvia]

Do you want to start a separate Canadian Dance 2012 thread and move the Dance results there?

ETA: Thanks for starting a new Canadian dance thread today, fan!

[halffull]

Would love to see the dance and pairs split into separate threads

MT/M will re-group and challenge again next year when D/R battle the nerves of "defending" their title. It's great for the sport!!!

I hope Paige is well enough for 4CC and not pushing things too hard. Hate to see her have any long term side effects.

Too bad Tou struggled with all her landings. She is a lovely skater. Sorry, but I've never been a fan of Penasse. He's down right creepy IMO

Purich is a gem and needs a stronger partner for sure. Not sure Sheriff-Clayton is strong enough for her but maybe if he gets some jpg this season he'll step it up.

Bobak/Beharry are still JPG age. Wonder what SC will do with them.

[euterpe]

Bobak/Beharry are still JPG age. Wonder what SC will do with them.

No problem, as they can do both JGP and GP.

[shutterbug]

Just because. An update on Craig Buntin’s business: Championship figure skater carves out niche with Teabean White Coffee

After the competition, one of the judges introduced Buntin to Neil Baldrey, 34, the owner of Somerset distribution who also manages Mighty Leaf Canada, a major high-end tea company.

Baldrey was so impressed with Buntin's product and business plan that he asked to be a partner in the company.

"Teabean is different, it's interesting, It appeals to coffee drinkers, tea drinkers, or people who just want caffeine," said Baldrey, who also was impressed with Buntin's attitude and character. "Craig is an honest guy, he's a gentleman, what you see is what you get, and he's very open to new ideas."

Bobak/Beharry are still JPG age. Wonder what SC will do with them.

Good question. I guess it will depend on how serious they are about taking a run at one of the spots for Sochi. Difficult to say at this point if that’s a reasonable goal or not. Doing both Jr. and Sr. GP’s might be a bit much for them if Katie is skating singles too

[Cant Skate]

Hi.....I'm a long time Lurker, first time poster The pairs events are my favorite.....these girls are so tough and gutsy! I tend to pay attention to the younger teams as I love watching them progress and excel as they move up the ranks. I was sorry to see from the Novice ranks that Jessica Landry and Sebastian have split, she is on Ice Partner Search I've also heard rumour that Kendra Digness and Cole Vandervelden have split. Although neither is on IPS....and this is pure speculation, I've heard he gave up pairs entirely and she was looking for a new partner. AAARRGG! WHY DO THESE KIDS NOT STAY THE COURSE?!?!

[Proustable]

re: Bobak/Beharry

Dube/Davison got one of the Olympic spots in 2006 despite just being up from juniors. I wouldn't be surprised if B/B stick to juniors another year just to up their game technically as they aren't attempting SBS triples yet.

[fan]

updated with split:

Novice Pair
Rank Competitor(s) Section SP FP Points
1 Hayleigh Bell / Alistair Sylvester CO 39.76 78.46 118.22
2 Dylan Conway / Dustin Sherriff-Clayton CO 37.92 67.98 105.90
3 Marie-Laurence Bradette / Felix-Antoine Garneau-Picard QC 32.21 61.67 93.88
4 SPLIT - Madelyn Dunley / Wesley Killing WO 32.57 58.93 91.50
5 Jordyn Harper / Shaquille Davis CO 32.90 58.17 91.07
6 Kendra Digness / Cole Vandervelden AB/NT/NU 31.65 53.31 84.96
7 Julia Mercer / Spencer Buchanan QC 28.12 56.50 84.62
8 Jessica Landry / Sebastian M. Arcieri QC 30.10 50.39 80.49
9 Sabrina Vigneault / Cedric Savard QC 25.29 47.27 72.56
10 Elizabeth Swenor / Rocky Swenor

Dunley's a talented novice champion - her and Killings' behaviour toward each other in the kiss and cry was very cold. unsure if she will continue in pairs, or focus on singles.

[Sylvia]

Wesley Killing (age 19) is the one listed on icepartnersearch as of today. Perhaps Madelyn Dunley wants to focus on singles after winning the Novice ladies title?

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Orr/Furiano’s plans for next season: Oshawa's Anthony Furiano wins bronze in Moncton

Being 21, Furiano is too old to qualify for the world junior championships. Nevertheless, with Bobak and Beharry moving up to senior next year, the plan is to stay at the junior level for one more year before considering the jump to senior as well.

"For us it was just really about doing as well as we could in the country, and we just hoped to medal, and we did, so we still attained our goal," he said. "We're not quite ready for the senior level internationally, so it makes sense for us to stay in junior and get some more experience, some more confidence, go for the win, and then go from there."

re: Bobak/Beharry

Dube/Davison got one of the Olympic spots in 2006 despite just being up from juniors. I wouldn't be surprised if B/B stick to juniors another year just to up their game technically as they aren't attempting SBS triples yet.

D/D were a bit younger when they started skating together. IIRC, Bryce had just turned 20 when they competed in Torino. Ian is 20 already and will be 21 for the majority of the upcoming competitive season. Time to get moving in the senior ranks, IMHO. They work on their sbs 3toes every day, according to Ian in a video interview with Debbi Wilkes at the JGPF, so hopefully they will be consistent by next season. Crossing my fingers that the sbs jumps are NOT going to be their weakness….Interestingly, they worked with a “performance development” specialist when they were putting together their programs last season: http://www.jbmentertainment.com/JBMTraining.html. Good to see this type of training included right from the beginning of their career together.

[flowerpower]

They work on their sbs 3toes every day, according to Ian in a video interview with Debbi Wilkes at the JGPF, so hopefully they will be consistent by next season. Crossing my fingers that the sbs jumps are NOT going to be their weakness.

I certainly wish them well, but consistent side-by-side triples are elusive for many pairs, and we just don't know if they will get them.

It'll be a crowded field at Nationals next year, which is great in terms of helping all the teams to raise their game.

[Sylvia]

Sudbury Star article with quotes from Meagan Duhamel about 4 Continents as well as looking ahead to Worlds: http://www.thesudburystar.com/Articl...aspx?e=3471075

"Music that moves me: Tchaikovsky lifts skater Eric Radford": http://radio3.cbc.ca/#/blogs/2012/2/...r-Eric-Radford

Article from before 4 Continents - Duhamel credits vegan diet for good health: http://www.news1130.com/sports/artic...or-good-health

[Vash01]

Why did MT&M drop so much? They did well in the GP series. Do they have a problem with the Canadian fed or did they just have a poor nationals and lost their rank?

[flowerpower]

Why did MT&M drop so much? They did well in the GP series. Do they have a problem with the Canadian fed or did they just have a poor nationals and lost their rank?

A problem with the Canadian fed? No.

M-T/M made a major error in the short program at Nationals, then had a disastrous long program. I expect they will bounce back next year.

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Very lucky bunch of kids! Skating champs to offer tips at seminar Feb. 23

Thursday night will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for local figure skaters.
Thanks to the support of the Ontario Winter Games Legacy Fund, skaters of the Huntsville Skating Club will join others from Muskoka, as they take to the ice for training seminars in Huntsville with Canadian Olympians Cynthia Phaneuf and Bryce Davison and Canadian skating champions Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch.