Thursday, January 24, 2002
Sandhu hurting
By STEVE BUFFERY -- Toronto Sun
Canadian figure skater Emanuel Sandhu has been forced to withdraw from this week's Four Continents championships in South Korea because of a knee injury and his Olympic Games participation may be in jeopardy.
Sandhu, who placed second at the Canadian national championships earlier this month, departed Seoul yesterday, where he was training for the competition, and was on his way home for an MRI to assess the severity of the injury.
Skate Canada officials would not speculate on the extent of his injury, or how it happened, only that the right knee was damaged enough it could not be treated in Seoul and he returned to Vancouver right away.
"As far as we know, he was healthy when he left," a Skate Canada official said yesterday. "We got a message (yesterday) saying that he was on his way home for treatment."
Missing the Games would be a severe blow to the Richmond Hill skater, who trains at the Burnaby 8 Rinks in British Columbia with coach Joannne McLeod.
Sandhu, considered one of the most talented skaters in the world, was left off the 1998 Nagano team after he skated spectacularly at the '98 Canadian championships, where he finished second to Elvis Stojko.
That caused a major uproar in the media. But four years later, Sandhu and Stojko give Canada a significant 1-2 punch in men's singles skating in Salt Lake.
If Sandhu can skate, that is.
The immensely artistic skater again finished second to Stojko, 29, at this year's nationals, missing a planned quadruple toe jump in his long program, but nailed seven triples in all, including a fine triple axel-triple toe combo.
When he's on his game, Sandhu, 21, could win a medal at any level of competition.
ROUGH WEEK
His weakness as a skater has been his tendency to fall apart emotionally at major meets. SC officials are hoping, with three-time world champion Stojko retiring after this season, Sandhu will put everything together and establish himself as a medal favourite for the 2006 Turin Olympics.
The news has been pretty rough this week for the Canadian team. Prior to Sandhu's injury, Canada's No.2 dance team, Marie France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, were forced to withdraw from the Four Continent Cup because Dubreuil is suffering from a respiratory infection, although they are expected to be fine for the Olympics, which begin Feb. 4.
It is too late to replace either Sandhu or the dance team at the Four Continents.
2002 Games Figure Skating Coverage
