Langdon carrying torch in men's event

By STEVE BUFFERY -- Toronto Sun Jeff Langdon is the kind of unassuming guy who could hang out at Cheers every day and nobody would know his name.
Skating in the shadow of Elvis Stojko, and now Emanuel Sandhu, has diminished Langdon's stature as a top-class skater. He certainly deserves more respect.
For instance, despite his solid ninth-place performance in his world championships debut last year, Langdon, 22, was basically the forgotten man on the Canadian figure skating team this year.
A good skate at this season's nationals was overshadowed by brilliant performances by Stojko and Sandhu.
His solid free-skate at the Nagano Olympics went virtually unnoticed, given the soap opera surrounding Stojko's injury at those Games.
His appearance at these world championships has been largely overlooked because of the presence of Sandhu.
So how ironic is it that the immediate future of the men's singles event in Canada rests on this forgotten man's shoulders? With Sandhu finishing out of the top 24 here, Langdon needs to move up to sixth after today's free-skate in order for the Canadian team to be able to enter two men at next year's worlds.
Anything lower than a sixth-place finish would mean, for the first time since 1980, only one Canadian would compete in the men's singles event at the worlds.
So in reality, Langdon is not just skating for himself, but for Stojko, Sandhu and every other contender for the Canadian title next season.
"I'm trying not to put that pressure on myself," said Langdon, who finished an impressive eighth in yesterday's short program. "That's not really fair to me."
Langdon denied that the hype surrounding Sandhu heading into this worlds bothered him. Langdon's coach had a different view.
"Of course it did. We're all human," Michelle Leigh said, adding that "every day in practice I had to remind him how good he is."

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