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Chinese first, Canadians third
KAMLOOPS, B.C. (CP) -- Jamie Sale and David Pelletier began their pairs figure skating partnership in impressive style by winning the bronze medals at the Sun Life Skate Canada International meet Saturday night.
They finished ahead of Canadian champions Kristy Sargeant and Kris Wirtz, who wound up fourth.
The $10,000 US won by Sale and Pelletier will come in handy because, since they are a new entry, they don't get the level of support from the Canadian Figure Skating Association that veteran pairs get, and they don't qualify for the monthly cheques the federal government sends athletes.
"It's nice to have that as a reward," Sale said.
"It'll help us pay to take our coach to Japan" for a competition later this month, Pelletier said. "Now I can pay for it before '99."
Added Sale: "Some of the athletes who are doing the Grand Prix who have been around longer definitely love figure skating, but they are in it for the money, too. But David and I have just begun and our focus here at Skate Canada was just to put out two decent performances to make a good impression on the international judges as well as the people, and I think we did that."
Sale, 21, of Edmonton, and Pelletier, 23, of Boucherville, Que., are coached by Richard Gauthier in St-Leonard, Que.
"It was a good performance, but it wasn't one of our best," Pelletier said.
The crowd got into their 4 1/2-minute free-skating performance.
"The audience really helped," Sale said. "They clapped even during the slow part.
"They were just behind us no matter what."
Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao of China, who were top seeds as the highest-ranking pair in the meet -- they were fourth at the 1998 worlds -- took home the gold medals and the $30,000 US first prize.
An agent was all over them in the media room after the post-skate interviews trying to sign them up for a competition later this week in Boise, Idaho.
Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov of Russia won silver medals and $18,000 US.
Sargeant fell on a side-by-side jump, fell again on a throw, and stumbled on another throw during her skate with Wirtz. They had finished second at Skate America in Detroit the previous week but were nowhere near as good here, where they didn't look at all like the world's No. 7 pair.
Marie-Claude Savard-Gagnon and Luc Bradet, the 1997 Canadian champions and No. 9 at the '98 worlds, finished fifth.They also made too many errors to stand a chance at the podium.
"I don't compare us to any other Canadian teams," Pelletier said. "This was just our first competition.
"Our biggest opponent tonight was us. It was our first long program in front of the judges and the people. We didn't even watch the others skate.
"It's nice to finish third here but now we have to focus on sectionals and the Canadian championships because we want to make it to worlds.
"If we don't make it to worlds, what is this medal worth?"
Results
KAMLOOPS, British Columbia (AP) -- Results Saturday in the Skate Canada figure skating:Women's Singles
Final standings
(Free skating result in parentheses)
1, (1) Elena Liashenko, Ukraine, 2.0 placement. 2, (2) Fumie Suguri, Japan, 2.5. 3, (3) Irina Slutskaya, Russia, 4.5. 4, (4) Laetitia Hubert, France, 6.5. 5, (5) Amber Corwin, Hermosa Beach, Calif., 9.0. 6, (7) Alisa Drei, Finland, 10.9. 7, (8) Diana Poth, Hungary, 10.0. 8, (6) Yulia Vorobieva, Azerbaijan, 10.5. 9, (9) Zuzana Paurova, Slovakia, 12.5. 10, (10) Keyla Ohs, Canada, 15.0. 11, Zoe Jones, Britain, 16.5.
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Men's Singles
Final standings
(Free-skating result in parentheses)
1, (1) Evgeny Plushenko, Russia, 2.0. 2, (2) Elvis Stojko, Canada, 2.5. 3, Szabolcs Vidrai, Hungary, 5.5. 4, (5) Ivan Dinev, Bulgaria, 8.0. 5, (4) Takeshi Honda, Japan, 8.5. 6, (7) Evgeny Pliuta, Ukraine, 8.5. 7, (6) Jayson Denommee, Canada, 9.5. 8, (9) Jeff Langdon, Canada, 11.0. 9, (8) Michael Hopfes, Germany, 12.0. 10, (10) Markus Leminen, Finland, 15.5. 11, (11) Daniel Hollander, Huntginton Woods, Mich., 16.0.
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Pairs
Final Standings
(Free-skating result in parentheses)
1, (1) Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao, China, 1.5. 2, (2) Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov, Russia, 3.5. 3, (3) Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, Canada, 4.0. 4, (4) Kristy Sargeant and Kris Wirtz, Canada, 6.0. 5, (5) Marie-Claude Savard-Gagnon and Luc Bradet, Canada, 7.5. 6, (6) Katerina Berankova and Otto Dlabola, Czech Republic, 9.0, 7, (7) Heather Allebach, Baer, Del., and Matthew Evers, Fargo, N.D., 10.5. 8, (8) Marsha Poluliaschenko and Andrew Seabrook, Britain, 12.0.