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A crying shame
Victor Kraatz bit his lip and held his Canadian ice dance partner tenderly as bronze medals were draped around their necks. The world figure skating championships had ended for this engaging team, the podium position no different than it had been for the past two years.
Their Riverdance free dance was golden, a magical four minutes that, so far at least, represents the defining moment of these championships. But the tangible reward, a medal of a higher color, wasn't to be.
Tears of frustration? It would have been so understandable, given that what happened on the judges' panel, once again, seemed to bear no relation to what transpired on the Target Center ice.
But Bourne was quick to say it simply wasn't so.
"I hope people don't think that," said the 22-year-old from Chatham at the end of an emotionally-draining evening. "It came to such a great ending for us. We're so pleased with our performance, and the crowd was so intense throughout ... you couldn't help but cry. I was just very, very happy."
It was hard for the audience, which embraced Bourne and Kraatz from the moment they stepped on the ice and never let go, not to cry, either. They cheered wildly for the Canadians clad in green, and booed lustily when the scoreboard showed their heroes were no better than third. An incredible 5.4 score handed out by the British judge to Bourne and Kraatz for technical merit for a program that was easily the toughest technically in this field was particularly irksome.
Russians Anjelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsiannikov skated a rather uninspired performance to Carmen, but were still rewarded the gold medal. The French duo of Maria Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat took silver.
Bourne and Kraatz earned two first-place ordinals but it wasn't enough. World bronze was theirs for the third straight year.
Said Bourne: "I don't think Victor and I ever skated this program so well ... we didn't care about the end result, and I think our skating spoke for itself. It was remarkable, and we'll never forget this moment in Minneapolis."
For Canada's No. 2 ice dance team, the standings didn't change, either. Chantal Lefebvre of LaSalle, Que. and Gatineau's Michel Brunet finished their season off with a strong performance of their mambo/cha-cha style free dance, but couldn't budge out of 19th position.
"We topped off (the season) the way we started it," said Brunet, 27. "We wanted to finish our season on a good note and we did."
There was also magic in the women's event, most of it supplied by heavy favorite Michelle Kwan of the U.S. Her short program, skated to a Rachmaninoff piano medley, earned one perfect 6.0 for presentation from Canadian judge Susan Heffernan.
Anna Rechnio of Poland, who hasn't been to a world championship in three years, is second, while France's Laetitia Hubert took third. Angela Derochie of Carlsbad Springs is 19th.