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Home ice of no help to Canuck
As a result, the darling of this year's Skate Canada competition dropped to second-place overall, behind Elena Liashenko of the Ukraine, a veteran of international skating wars. Russian Irina Slutskaya, the top-seeded skater here, remained in third.
The women's freeskate competition was unspectacular, even bordering on weak. And in the case of Canadian hopeful Keyla Ohs, a trifle sad.
Ohs, perhaps feeling the pressure of skating a major international meet in her home province, fell apart in much the same manner she did in the short, maintaining her 10th-place position out of 11 skaters.
The 19-year-old University of British Columbia student set the stage for her disastrous program by falling on an opening triple-toe loop. By the end of the performance, Ohs had managed no clean triples.
COMPOSED
"I think I tried too hard," said Ohs, who earned low marks for her program but high marks for maintaining her composure afterward. "The jumps are so easy."
Ohs, who placed second at the Canadian championships last season, was prepared for the inevitable questions concerning the poor state of women's singles skating in this country. A Canadian female singles skater hasn't won a medal at a worlds or Olympics since 1988 and the drought has hit new lows in recent years, culminating with Canada failing to qualify anyone for the event at the 1998 Nagano Olympics.
Ohs, who is coached by 1973 world champion Karen Magnussen, challenged the media to lay all the pressure on her shoulders.
"If anyone wants to put (pressure) on a Canadian woman, they can put it on me," the North Vancouver native said. "I'm strong enough to handle it."
Ohs said she understands the public is pining for somebody from Canada to finish strongly in the women's singles category at an international meet. While the men have soared in the past decade, the women have wilted.
If Ohs ever does perform her Sabrina soundtrack freeskate routine cleanly, she will probably earn big marks, at least for presentation.
The Sandra Bezic-choreographed routine is quite beautiful.
Suguri, 17, popped and doubled a couple of planned triples to earn her ticket into second. But she again captivated the 4,200-strong crowd, even with her technical mistakes.
Suguri, who spends a couple of weeks each year training in Toronto with choreographer Lori Nichol of Keswick, had competed in very few international meets, so a podium finish here was a bonus for the pair.
ALL HEART
"Lori said the jumps are not so important. The heart is more important. So I skated with my heart," Suguri said, brandishing a stuffed rabbit good-luck charm.
Liashenko, whose best international performance before yesterday was a victory at the 1997 Nebelhorn Trophy, was clearly the dominate technical skater of the group, landing five clean triples to Case to Imagination by Yanni. At 22, Liashenko has been kicking around the international circuit for years but considers herself a late bloomer.
Skating last, Slutskaya, 19, nailed four clean triples to go along with her wonderful spins and spirals, but failed to move up from the short. The defending world championship silver medallist brushed aside suggestions that she is fatigued after skating in this summer's Goodwill Games and a number of early season pro-ams this fall.
PAIRS SUCCESS: The Quebec-based pairs team of Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, who have been together for a few short months, finished a surprising third overall last night in their first major competition.
Winning the pairs event was the duo from China, Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao, followed by Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov of Russia. Canada's No.1 team, Kristy Sargeant and Kris Wirtz, who finished second at Skate America last weekend, did not skate well in the freeskate and remained in fourth. Marie-Claude Savard-Gagnon and Luc Bradet were fifth.