Jeff Buttle appears ready to challenge for another world medal.

In his first competition of the figure skating season after recovering from a spinal stress fracture, Buttle broke his own Canadian record for points in winning a third straight national title Saturday night in Halifax.

Jeff Buttle won a third straight gold medal at the Canadian figure skating championships Saturday.
(Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press)

Chris Mabee finished second, Emanuel Sandhu was third and Shawn Sawyer was fourth.

Buttle won 2005 world silver and 2006 Olympic bronze before things started to go bad. He slipped to sixth at the 2006 world meet and the injury, which kept him off ice for three months, erased him from the autumn Grand Prix schedule. He came through with flying colours Saturday.

"The back feels good," he said. "I'm definitely happy with the way it went.

"It wasn't perfect, and I think conditioning played a role in that. I was happy with how strong I stayed even though I was a little bit tired."

Buttle amassed 232.83 points. His victory margin was a whopping 23.52 points and his showing suggests the podium in Tokyo in March might be within reach.

Buttle, 24, who lives in Toronto, and Mabee, 21, who is from Tillsonburg, Ont., are friends who share ice in training at the Mariposa School of Skating in Barrie, Ont.

Buttle landed seven triples, under-rotated another and still has no quad, but the quality of his footwork and spins remains superior to anything else seen in Canada.

Mabee, skating last, landed five triples cleanly and made numerous technical errors, and the judges put him fourth in the long program. The expression of disappointment on his face when he stopped skating indicated he thought he'd blown his big chance.

"I really, truly, honestly thought a medal was in question after that performance," he said.

He was ecstatic when the overall results were flashed on the video screens in the Metro Centre.

"Apparently it was enough," he said. "I'm just going to take it and run with it. I'm completely thrilled."

An outstanding short program Thursday that put Mabee second to Buttle paid off when his total points count hit 209.31. Mabee was fourth overall last year.

"I'm really happy for him," said Buttle. "He's been capable of this for the last couple of years."

Sandhu, 26, who is from Richmond Hill, Ont., and trains in Burnaby, B.C., had been first or second every year since 1998. He won the Canadian title in 2001, 2003 and 2004 and was runner-up to Buttle the last two years.

Sandhu landed a quad and five triples and was scored second to Buttle in the free skating, but wound up third overall with 207.49.

Canada has three men's singles berths for the world championships in Tokyo in March, and Sandhu was too happy to be among the top three and get the trip to gripe about slipping a notch.

"The short program didn't help me," he said. "That's something I want to work on.

"I came here for the title and I know that's what cost me the title. I'm very proud of what I did this week. I'm going to hold my head up high."

Bronze won't be so impressive beside all his gold and silver.

"It hurts a bit," he said. "I was hungry to get my title back, to get another gold medal. I had put in the work and felt confident I could do it. I was practising like a champion all week. I competed like a champion today. But I didn't compete like a champion (Friday) and that's what took me out of the title position."